A CDM Story: Hiding Without Food
The following speaker, who is from Magway, was supported through the donation funds you have been so generously contributing to. He has worked as a clerk at MOALI, the Department of Irrigation and Water Utilization Management. He has willingly offered to share their story and even photo (he is the second from left in the photo). What is more, he invites you to engage further with his story by asking any more questions you’d like to know about his background, current struggles, hopes, and reasons for doing CDM. Please feel free to write us with anything more you’d like to know after reading this.
“Even if my family has nothing left to eat, I will still continue CDM.”
“I joined CDM on February 10th. CDM started on the 5th or 6th but I didn’t know anything about it at first and people told me to go to office so I did. But on the 10th, around noon, I heard about CDM. As soon as I heard about it, I joined the CDM right away at noon that very day.
We have four family members in my family. I am the only person who is employed in my family – everyone else is a dependent. We don’t own much; we don’t have our own house and we live in government housing. When I joined CDM, nobody really put much pressure on us or ask us to move out of housing. So I continued CDM.
Later, they told us they wouldn’t pay salaries anymore to those participating in CDM. I just let them cut my salary then. Then, there was a month where they said they would pay us a salary, but I had already decided that because I have joined CDM, I will not back down anymore and until now, I haven’t done a single thing for them (“I have not drawn one walone or written one ka-gyi”).
When I was still living in the government housing, they came to threaten me!
At that point, I did go back to sign the attendance sheet that said I was at the office but I didn’t actually go to work… But now, I’ve had to leave my family behind and go into hiding to make sure they can’t contact me and avoid getting pressured by them. My superiors are good people and they haven’t sent me any warning letters and I don’t really know what they’ve planned now or what’s going on.
I’m hiding in a village somewhere but the problem now is that my family has no more money to buy food. I have to support my family but I also have to cover my own expenses because I am hiding at my friend’s family’s house and I have to contribute to the costs here as well so that they do not begin to resent having to house me.
I don’t have any possessions nor any savings because I am a civil servant. I’ve only worked here for eight years so I don’t have anything going for me. I am very thankful for the donations that I have received.
Some people I know in CDM have indeed returned to the office, mainly because they are afraid they will be dismissed or demoted and some because they are having a lot of financial difficulties. As for me, until now, I still haven’t gone back despite my own difficulties, and even if my family has nothing left to eat, I will still continue CDM. If they arrest me, I will go with them. But if they threaten to arrest and beat my parents, who are very old now, then I will have to reconsider what I should do.
Please let me tell you that a government office worker, particularly a low-level officer like me, barely gets anything to begin with. We do not even get paid a full 2 lakhs a month (120 - 130 USD) and we have to try our best to use that to feed the whole family. So now that we don’t get paid a salary at all, it’s been a very tough situation for us. We also borrowed some money which we now have to pay back monthly, so that also adds to our difficulties but I am repaying it as best I can every month. So the main issues are having to live apart from my family, going through great financial difficulty, and health issues – I personally have poor health and so does my mother. Before, I was able to buy some Western medicine for her but now I can only afford some local medicine, very occasionally.
Anyway, what I want to say is that until the government that we want returns to power, we will not back down. I want to encourage all my friends and acquaintances to continue CDM. I believe that one day the CDM will be successful, and we will be triumphant. I would also like to tell donors that we will try our best to endure these difficulties and remain a part of the CDM and please continue to support. It is with your support that I am able to endure through these times. Whatever happens to me, I will be part of CDM until the end. I’m sorry that I cannot disclose where I am now.
To those donors who I never met who have supported me, all I can say is, ‘thank you.’”