The regime’s departmental staff, military personnel, and members of fire brigade have followed the astrologer’s advice by doing cleaning at monasteries and decorating stupas with limewash paint in various regions and states, the sources close to the Nay Pyi Taw community told Than Lwin Times.

On January 25, the military council secretly instructed subordinates to simultaneously paint the pagodas and stupas and do mass cleaning at Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Yangon and pagodas at Nay Pyi Taw, as well as monasteries and stupas in various regions and states.

According to the instructions of the military council, the departmental staff did mass cleaning at the pagodas and decorated stupas with limewash paint in every state and region, according to a junta-controlled publication dated January 26.

The military council’s propaganda newspaper stated that staff and soldiers cleared the bushes and painted the stupas in pagodas and monasteries in Mandalay, Magway, Sagaing, Bago, and Tanintharyi Regions, including Kachin, Kayah, Chin, Shan and Rakhine States.

CDM Air Force Sergeant Zeya said that this kind of action in the whole country at the same time is the following of the astrologer’s advice by the military council, and he had experienced such an incident during his service.

Sergeant Zeya criticized that the military council uses religion to gain the public’s trust in the same way former military dictators have done throughout the ages, as well as to retain power during their time.

The military council reported that the relevant regional and state chief ministers, commanders, and officials from respective states and regions visited mass cleaning sites and coordinated the necessary actions.