D.S.A (Defense Services Academy) is the sole military academy in the country and is often dubbed as the Sandhurst of Burma.
Legal ownership of people was abolished in all countries over the course of the last two centuries. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights strongly prohibits slavery in any different forms and is penalized markedly.
In this article, we will be analyzing about the D.S.A, a notorious military academy which was once highly acknowledged by the public as a peerless institution but for a few others, it was purgatory.
A Brief history
The Defense Services Academy (DSA) is the only military academy in Southeast Asia that offers both military sciences and a university degree. The DSA was established in Fort Ba Htoo in southern Shan State in 1954, and was moved to its current home, a former British hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin (formerly, Maymyo) in June 1957. The initial focus was to train a new generation of highly educated and well-rounded officers for Myanmar’s armed forces who are “capable” of leading the nation.
Newly recruited cadets must undergo a vigorous three-year programme that is based on British and American military traditions as well as home-grown practices. Unlike in American and British systems, which maintain separate military academies for different branches of armed forces, the DSA trains for all three branches of Myanmar military (army, navy and air force). Its cadets select the branch to enter upon their graduation, subject to fulfilling further health and training requirements. The minimum contract of the military service for the regular cadet officers upon graduation is 10 years but there’s a lot more to it which is kept secret to the outside world.
An Academy where bully thrives
The academy practices what we call “guardian brotherhood”, a system where senior cadet officers are assigned to mentor junior cadet officers, overseeing day-to-day training, discipline and welfare of the juniors in general to develop a sense of community, comradeship, faith and trust, chain of command and looking after one another. This particular practice seems to be utilitarian but there is a much darker side to it.
It is a key factor for (Absent without Leaves) AWOLs.
Senior cadets “bully” and “threaten” juniors without any justifications. Numerous cadets face overwhelming number of ill-treatments on a daily basis. They were tasked to carry out several types of chores assigned by their seniors without any questioning. Any mistakes were met with several severe physical punishments. One notorious example would be the death of an 18 years old cadet in 2016. He was punished physically after he failed to obey orders from his seniors resulting in his death. The accused was tried at a military court but the results were never disclosed. There are still piles of cases that have yet to be resolved, with many more counting the days until justice is served.
I don’t think it’s reasonable. We’re just farmers. Farmers sent their kids to school and when they pass their matriculation, we sent them to the academy as it’s their wish…...His mom, she feels like dying. My heart aches too. I don’t know what to do anymore. This shouldn’t have happened — Father of the victim
Sexist and Homophobic Society
The academy itself is not very open towards people of different sexual orientations either. Recruiting cadets must undergo a handful of merciless trainings that proves they are a capable straight male. Any cadets who slightly shows a physical or a mental behaviour that is different from a “typical straight man” is frowned and bullied upon. There were also several instances where senior officers sleep with these young men without their consent.
Not having a quality and passion of a strong straight men is seen as a disgrace, at least in the academy where the officers look up to several Burmese monarchs whom they regard as strong, capable, intelligent and “straight’. Women like behaviour is for the weak. Men rule the world better. Men are stronger. Born a man is something to be proud of while born woman is in the dog house. These were the social stigma embedded within the academy since its formation, and sadly it still thrives to this day.
Abuse and torture within the academy played a big role upon the cadet’s graduation. Bullies go on with their life and keep on doing the same, but this time towards our ethnic locals. Bullied cadets graduate with life-long trauma with many developing Depressions and Intermittent explosive disorder. This too result in many of them venting out their anger on our local people. No less than thirty per cent (30%) of the DSA graduates are responsible for numerous crimes against humanity in the battle-fields. Up to this day, there are no measures against the crimes and the academy’s syllabus remains the same. Burma’s hope for a civilized and a standard army remains obscure.