In November last year, Burma1 held its second democratic election since the military coup d’etat in 1962[2]. Unfortunately history repeated itself on the 1st of February as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Min Aung Hlaing initiated a new coup d’etat, claiming that the elections were “fraudulent” and arresting the long time democracy activist and State Counselor (equivalent to a Prime Minister) Aung San Suu Kyi as well as President President Win Myint along with other ministers and their deputies, who were due to be sworn in the next day.[3]
Pirate Party Australia reached out to democracy activist John* from Yamethin in the Mandalay region, who told us “The military has performed coup d’etat in our country and detained the state counselor. Protesters and people who are participating civil disobedience are now in serious threats of being violently destroyed. We welcome your support and want to request you to help support our funds if we found one.”
Regarding Aung San Suu Kyi, they had this to say: “She’d approved of [the Rohingyan genocide] and we are enraged by it. She stayed silent to what awful things military did to the ethnic and religious minorities. People are on her side and we (me and other leftists) critiqued her. But we simply don’t see any reason our revolution will succeed if she were not to participate. So we are in solidarity with both her supporters and people who don’t support her because our common enemy for now is the military.”
John* recommends anyone interested in supporting the democracy in Burma should follow the University of Yangon Student’s Union on Facebook[4]. Anyone wishing to contact them directly is invited to reach out to Pirate Party Australia.
1. The Pirate Party received advice from John* that local democracy activists prefer “Burma” over Myanmar as a symbol of their resistance to the military junta, who instituted the name change to “Myanmar” in 1989.
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/myanmar-election-explainer-idINKBN27P1CR
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55901774
[4] https://www.facebook.com/UYstudentsunion/
[*] Name anonymised.