Sometimes leaders need more protection, information, mobility, or resources because their responsibilities are different.


But functional privilege easily becomes status, and status easily becomes entitlement. A leader may have sacrificed more, know more, or carry greater responsibility. None of that makes them more human. Leadership creates asymmetry of responsibility, but not hierarchy of human worth.


In Myanmar, this question is also cultural. Authority is often carried not only through office, but through age, titles, seniority, sacrifice, educational status, revolutionary history, and everyday rituals of respect. The danger begins when social respect quietly turns into political deference, and when the question changes from “Is this criticism valid?” to “Who are you to question them?”


Sacrifice deserves recognition, not immunity. For sure. And competence deserves authority within its domain, not permanent superiority. Leadership should bring more scrutiny, more explanation, and more accountability.


The question, to us, is not merely whether leaders receive more. It is whether what they receive still serves the function, or has become a privilege attached to the person.

A society can remain respectful without making authority sacred.

Leaders are human. That is exactly why power must be disciplined.