A Child of 1988 Caught in Another Storm
Real Stories Not Tales is a dedicated team in and out of Myanmar that aims to bring more awareness to the reality of young people's lives since the Myanmar military staged a coup on February 1st, 2021. Stories are collecting through interviews with each protagonist, whenever they are, presently, in Myanmar. AT is a Mon activist. She was interviewed on March 27th.
“I was afraid, I was shocked, and I felt lost, but at the same time, I was asking myself: What should we, as young women, do first?”
"I never expected the military coup to happen—again. That day, a friend of mine was staying over at my rented apartment in Yangon's Sanchaung Township. At around 4.30 a.m., both of us received phone calls saying that Aung San Suu Kyi and U Win Myint had been arrested. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Really? Are you sure?! After a while, the breaking news was everywhere. I thought I was dreaming. I even considered that it might just be a joke or propaganda by the military, but calls with family and friends soon ruled that out.
After the news had been confirmed, I began to reflect on my life up until that point. Born in 1988, when the previous military coup took place, I have been denied opportunities for better education and a higher income my whole life. I thought, I won't let this happen again to my younger peers, the so-called Generation Z. I was afraid, I was shocked, and I felt lost, but at the same time, I was asking myself: What should we, as young women, do first?
Before the coup, I had been planning to work in Yangon for another two years, and then move back to my home state to start an organization focusing on the environment, land issues, and research. I had already imagined setting up a library and connecting with similar organizations both in Myanmar and abroad. However, all my plans were changed and all my dreams were lost on February 1st. I knew I had to re-prioritize, and very quickly my number one priority was to be a part of the resistance movement against the military coup. Luckily, my employer has been very understanding, and continues to support me financially even though I don't work regular hours anymore. My life plans are ruined, but we must fight, and we must win.
I spent the first few weeks of February in Yangon, but after that, I had to move back to my state for security reasons. The situation in big cities here is the same though: shootings, killings, and arrests on one hand, and strikes, protests, and the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) on the other. In villages, people are scared; the newly imposed 8 p.m.−4 a.m. curfew has made their lives difficult. Many of them work on rubber plantations and would normally leave their house in the very early hours of the morning. Soldiers also arrest villagers at random, only to ask their families for a ransom (50,000 Myanmar kyats, which is about 30 US dollars)—the same strategy was used during previous military takeovers. My parents still remember the pain and carry the trauma of those times; they tell me that participating in the movement is dangerous and that we, the people, will never win.
I have mostly been offering technical support to the movement and typically attend meetings all day, so I generally keep a low profile out in the streets. When I feel angry or upset, I stop checking the news for a while; I have even deactivated my Facebook account temporarily. What also helps me feel better is playing with children and cute animals, like puppies. Actually, it’s impossible for me to read or concentrate on anything at the moment; even my dreams at night are about the military coup. It has really disrupted my life. At the same time, I am very grateful that I’ve gotten to experience so many young people from the different nationalities of Myanmar working together. In one powerful moment, we were standing together with our different national flags, and I thought to myself: We are united. This is a federal synergy, all the different colors of our nationalities' flags, fluttering for a federal democratic union. And I'm holding my flag among them.
Many people talk about democracy in Myanmar, but what I want to tell them is to look beyond democracy. Looking at the whole picture, we are fighting for federal democracy. Please raise your voice for us: not only because of the violence committed by the military since February 1st, but for the last 70 years."