Min Aung Hlaing, who is leading an abject rag-tag band, is still proud of himself as a national leader with unrelenting perseverance among the ornamentation of Independence Day – more than 2,000 soldiers, including six brigadier generals, surrendered in Lauk Kai on January 4th.
On Independence Day, as a tradition of the state leaders, a ceremony was held to award honorary degrees to individuals who worked diligently for Min Aung Hlaing’s greed and foolish power. In addition to the release of more than 9,000 prisoners nationwide and a dinner commemorating Independence Day that night, some ambassadors and Min Aung Hlaing raised wine glasses to celebrate the victory.
On January 4, at 2:00 p.m., when Min Aung Hlaing was celebrating his victory, the Three Brotherhood Alliance announced that six Brigadier Generals, more than 2,100 troops, and more than 1,600 family members from the regional commands, Da-Ka-Sa Lauk Kai, were released by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang Army) and transported to their desired destination.
In addition, on January 5th, 266 military junta soldiers from Nam Tin Min Shan camp in Lauk Kai surrendered again, bringing the total number of surrenders to 2389 in two days. This has been recorded in history as the largest number of surrenders of soldiers during Operation 1027 and during the lifetime of the military rulers.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance noted that such a large surrender was “a preface of the New Year to the last days of fascist leader Min Aung Hlaing.”
The alliance continued, “Today, on January 5, 2024, thousands of troops, including the entire Da-Ka-Sa Regional Military Headquarters (Lauk Kai) and all the surrounding battalion camps—”all living things,” surrendered.” The whole of Kokang (Lauk Kai) has become “a military junta-free zone.” This scene is the pre-days of the end of the military dictatorship in the history of the so-called “Myanma Tatmadaw,” the military junta, they said.
Min Aung Hlaing and a handful of generals may be enjoying the Independence Day dinner and concert program as if they did not care about the surrender ceremony of thousands of troops, but inside the military junta, wave after wave of surrendering, again and again, has been pushed from demoralization to an uncontrollable situation.
Lauk Kai has fallen completely under the MNDAA, but the subsequent results for the military junta are not over yet. In the first, a shell fired from Lauk Kai landed in China on January 3rd, injuring at least five Chinese citizens. The Government of China strongly objected to it and said that it would respond as necessary to protect the lives and property of Chinese citizens.
Another issue for the military junta is the issue of the online scam leaders who escaped amid the Lauk Kai battles. Ten people – as the ringleaders of the Lauk Kai Online Scam business whom the government of China issued an arrest warrant on December 10th, including Bai Suocheng – the former leader of Kokang and the MP of USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party) are missing.
The SAC spokesperson says that they (leaders of online fraud gangs) are hiding in the ethnic armed or’ganizations’ territories with money, but the Government of China will not believe it. The government of China would have been hysterical about the disappearance of the leaders of the online scam gangs, who defrauded the Chinese people of a large amount of money and destroyed many lives. That is why the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister and his team may arrive in Nay Pyi Taw on January 5 with a stern face.
How will Min Aung Hlaing continue to move forward? The military junta, which has been retreating in chaos since the 1027 operation, seems to be not too far from reaching the cliff due to many wrong decisions. Many incidents have already proved that he cannot be the state leader just by foolhardiness.