A CDM worker's story of protest and survival
Donations can sometimes seem like an anonymous act of kindness, and sometimes you may be left wondering where your funds went and what benefit they brought in the people you are trying to help. That is why discussions like the following are so very important. Your donation went to supporting staff from a particular department in a certain region (which we cannot disclose here for safety), and the deputy officer of this department tells her story. She talks about why she joined CDM, the difficulties and challenges she has faced, her commitment to the movement, and how your donation is the one thing allowing her and her colleagues to continue their non-engagement. Thank you! And please do consider giving a donation so that we can continue to support brave workers like her.
(1) What is your name? Please introduce us.
My name is xxxx, and my position is Deputy Officer. I am working for xxxx Department. We have two sections in our department, government office working for ministers and administration office.
(2) When did you start the CDM and why?
The coup was on 1st Feb. We didn’t go to the office on that day. On the second day, they forced us to attend the office. Then we attended the office on 2nd and 3rd Feb and then on 4th, people started gathering to do boycott. The official big protest was started on 8th. After 8th, it was risky to go to the office wearing our uniforms and so they asked us not to wear our uniforms. I couldn't understand… why we couldn’t wear our uniforms, as we are civil servants and I am always proud of my work! I felt very disappointed I couldn’t wear the uniforms to the office. The Retired chief police was appointed to the Regional Military council as our boss. He called the meetings and explained to us. I felt very disappointed when I prepared welcoming activities for these military council officials as part of my duty. I could not work for them! They planned to kill the protestors in the meetings and I was very sad and disappointed. They asked the junior staffs but they would assign me later and I could not work for them. So on 10th, I submitted the absence form. Then I took the leave starting from 11th. Then in the office, they started to notice that I was going to boycott and not to come the office. The juniors contacted me to start joining the CDM movement. I was not the leader and so I explained to them this was only a personal choice and because I did not want to serve the SAC. On 11th, we publicly announced that we would stand for the movement and we took a group picture of our CDM team and posted on Facebook and announced our CDM involvement.
(3) Number of CDM staffs
On the first day, there were 60 CDM staffs. But later, due to oppression and arrests, 20 staff members went back to their offices as their family was threatened. Now we have 39 people left in the group. There are also another 5 people who later joined the CDM. In the district level, there are 2 people joined and finally, we have 45 people in xxxx Region. More people are joining. Mostly we took leave in the beginning and then we announced CDM later.
(4) What is the impact of CDM civil servants on SAC administration?
My session is xxxx. We have only 10 employees and we left 6 people. So out of 10, 6 are CDMs. Only 3 people left in the office! The entire session was almost stopped due to our absence. I am the officer in charge and the rest are juniors and so they could not perform their any of their work effectively. So the entire session was stopped. Then SAC just made an entirely new team because nothing was getting done. Other administrative functions also stopped as well. When we had more protests and they raided us more, the staff were afraid to go to the office.
Our department is difficult to replace. I have 10 years experience in the field. I know only this field. I asked the government to rotate me to other departments during my working years because I would like to get other departments and experiences not only the xxx session. But the staffs who have expertise in xxxx subject is very rare. We had to work on 3 years financial plan, 5 years financial plan and we had to take huge responsibility. Other departments staffs do not want to join the xxxx department because of such high responsibility! That is why I stayed in the xxxx department for 10 years. Now the session was almost stopped. The SAC could not run anymore and they had to reform with two staffs after we left.
(5) Our program is CDM support to our CDM heroes from local and International friends and do you want to say any thing you get assistance from them?
We started CDM on 11th Feb and we got dismissed from our jobs at the end of February. We did not receive any salary since February. We agreed we did not want to get salaries from SAC! We also posted on Facebook that we did not take SAC salaries! We would only take salaries from the People’s Government. The first month was still ok for me. We did not get salary in February and March. We got support from your donors in April and the juniors staff were very happy to receive the assistance. We heard that SAC started to arrest the CDM staffs. So we did not dare to stay even at our homes anymore. Because of the high number of staff members who joined, the media also highlighted about our protest, and so it got kind of famous. I could not dare to sleep at my house anymore and so I went to the village. When your donors gave us assistance, it was very helpful to us because we went to villages and we needed financial assistance to do this.
CDM is powerful because of the assistance we received from donors. Though we were very afraid, we got support from the public and communities, even from international donors who I have never met. I don't know them, they don’t know me. I do not even know how to thank them for helping my family to survive and for keeping our nation’s dream of freedom alive. We are very happy, and I can’t express in words this act of kindness from strangers so that our nation and people do not have to live in darkness. Donors are very important to help the CDM staffs as most of our families rely on our salaries and we do not have other income right now. When our income stopped, our families were very challenged to even survive. We don’t need much and I’m willing to live under any difficult situation so that we can have freedom in our country. But we can only survive because you have remembered us. To those people I have never met, and maybe I never will, thank you. I do not know what else I can say to you.