"Tatmadaw and the People in Eternal Unity": roadside billboard, Myanmar (photographed 2008)

A bilingual red roadside billboard in Burmese and English reads 'Tatmadaw and the people in eternal unity. Anyone attempting to divide them is our enemy.' The tell is the fusion of the armed forces with 'the people' in one body, so that criticism of the army or a split between them is classed as hostility, and the label 'our enemy' attached to whoever attempts it.

Date: April 9, 2008
Period: Contemporary
Made by: Military government of Myanmar (State Peace and Development Council); issuer not named on the sign
Region: Southeast Asia
Country: Myanmar
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: State
Regime: State Peace and Development Council
Leader: Than Shwe
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Mobilize or secure compliance
Theme: Security and surveillance
Techniques: Identity fusion Name-calling
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Wikimedia Commons (from Flickr, user juls78), retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: CC BY-SA 2.0 (Flickr user juls78; Commons file page states the licence, Flickr review done)
juls78 (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Text on the object

Original (English and Burmese) · read from the image, not independently checked

[Burmese script line, not reliably read]
TATMADAW AND THE PEOPLE IN ETERNAL UNITY
ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO DIVIDE THEM IS OUR ENEMY

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

The English lines are the board's own rendering and need no translation. The Burmese line above them is presumed to carry the same message but was not read.

Burmese line is marked unread rather than guessed; a fluent reader should supply it.