Smiling, friendly locals, breathtaking scenery and a country with an incredible heart – my picture of Myanmar after my visit in 2016 couldn’t be farther from what I’ve been reading on the news recently. Protests, violence and suppression of civilians is a far cry from the beautiful country that remains at the top of the list of favourite places I’ve travelled so far.
When I met Thandar in Bagan, she was a lady starting off her dream of creating a tourism company – a social entrepreneur who wanted to showcase the best of Bagan. She took us for an amazing cooking lesson, which included a trip to the local market with the head lady of a local tribe, took us on a tour of a lovely little village in rural Bagan, and put us in the capable hands of a group of ladies who taught us to cook some tasty local dishes. They were some of the friendliest women I’ve ever met – and although they couldn’t all speak English I had never felt more welcomed. And one of them gifted me a ladle they’d fashioned out of coconuts because I was admiring it so much… I still have it.
So, after seeing the harrowing and heartbreaking images on Thandar’s Instagram I reached out to her to ask her how she was doing and what was going on, and if there was any way I could help. We decided a post on my blog would be a good start – and although it doesn’t have huge readership, if it pushes the message for support out to a few more people who didn’t know anything before, it’s still done something.
When the NLD won the election (November 2020) it felt like our dreams had finally come true. It’s actually not their first victory, it’s their second landslide win. Seeing the red flags waving in the streets and everywhere throughout Burma*, and hearing the shrieks of excitement from people who were proud and full of emotions about the win - I think it’s what the people of Burma deserve.
By the time I woke up on the 1st Feb, I heard the terrible news and I felt like it was a living nightmare that you don’t even want to dream about! Not just for me, but for the rest of the people in Burma when our State Counsellor and President were detained by the Military, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, and a state of emergency was declared. At the time, internet throughout the whole country was cut off except WiFi. Then the protesting started on the 3rd February.
Well, it’s been 53 days already so it’s quite awful living like this for so long. We feel like we’re not safe anymore, and even in the daytime there are a lot of armed soldiers and police groups everywhere trying to arrest people – often for no reason. According to recent statements declared by the Military some townships like Hlaing Thar Yar, Shwe Yi Thar, North Dagon, Sourth Dagon & Dagon Seikkan are now under Military administration after news that the two factories in Hlaing Thar Yar were burnt by civilians, which there seems to be no evidence of. In fact, we found some photos that the factories were burnt on purpose by those uniformed soldiers so that they could take control of those townships.
I think that CDM and the Red Ribbon Movement (RRM) were started on 6th of Feb and were encouraged by experienced senior citizens locally and globally, which means Burmese people who live abroad also helped with the ideas. Since then, more movements have arisen, however we've all realized that CDM is the key tool to crackdown the Military machines. What I am trying to say is the RRM also condemns the Military, but it doesn't do anything to physically crackdown on their rule. CDM’s aim is to get us (the people) and staff from government organisations to stop working, which means the machine can’t run anymore and it disrupts everyday life. This is known as the Silence Strike.
Before the Military coup started, we, the supporters of the NLD government, were satisfied with our lives and we had everything that human beings require in order to live. Life wasn’t amazing, but we could see the efforts being made by the elected government to improve our situation. One thing I distinctly remember is 26% of our debt to China being paid off in the presidency of the NLD administration, which is really impressive. There were so many ideas of ways to improve life for Burmese people that the Military regime completely lacks. Right now there is no internet in my village, it’s been over 10 days that the military shut down mobile internet across the country. Some people are able to use Sim2Fly (a Thai sim card) but it’s very expensive for us. It costs $30 per sim and phone bill.
We will just keep fighting until we win back our democracy.
If you emphasize right now, I would say to release the State Counsellor, Mr President and the rest of the detainees. The Military regime has been brutal and inhumane the entire time it's been ruling, and we want that to end. Plus, we want our democracy to be upheld, and that’s what we have been fighting for – our right for a democracy.
Yes, but the Covid virus is a fight on our immune system, and fighting for our right for democracy feels like a fight for our souls. The need and passion to help release our leaders and heroes is so strong that I feel like not even the Coronavirus could infect our bodies! That is how strongly we feel. Did you ever read about when Mahatma Gandhi fought for independence and against injustice? His kidneys weren’t functioning properly (along with many other ailments he had during his lifetime) but he had such strong faith in himself and his fight that he kept going. That will be us, if needed.
The number of protests are getting less in the region as the Military are patrolling the town. Of course, protests have gotten violent and there’s been shootings, beatings and threatening. Two days ago (23rd March) they arrested some civilians during the night.
Opportunities like this, to spread our message to the world really helps. We need so much global support – the regime, the fight for democracy, the genocide of innocent civilians… this is all an emergency on a huge scale and we need the world to hear us.
If people can visit the Democracy for Myanmar website, they’ll find templates and suggestions for contacting their elected officials to really help get the global support that we so desperately need. You’ll also find a bit more information on what is happening right now on the streets.
In the western world we have the luxury of taking things for granted such as democracy and the accessibility of the internet, so it's hard to imagine how it must feel when you have those things taken away. It's easy to forget, or turn a blind eye to something when it's happening far away from you, but it's hearing stories like these that really brings the focus back to what's important - and how lucky we really are. If this is the first you're hearing about this, or you didn't quite realise the extent of what the people in Myanmar are going through, I pulled together a list of news articles below for some further reading.
*After ‘88 Burma (as it was formerly named by the British) was renamed to Myanmar.
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