"Silence is the best answer for fools"
What better way to counter the naked violent aggression of the Tatmadaw… than by simply ghosting them? That is exactly what the Burmese people did on February 1, the one-year anniversary of the military coup. In cities and countryside, in central and ethnic regions, the majority of people simply refused to leave their homes. Markets closed, services stopped, buses didn’t run, and offices shut down, all in protest to the military’s actions. As the rest of the world continues its silence, and as the Burmese realize how isolated they have become, the strength and resilience to simply “not show up”, and to organize this message of solidarity across tens of millions of people, is truly remarkable and will surely go down in the annals of history as to how a people continue insisting upon their rights and dignity in the face of overwhelming inhumanity. Following is a story from one person describing how the day progressed for him and his community. (Video credit to Latt Thone Chaung)
“Yesterday, there was an encounter between local defense forces and the evil military. Young heroes attacked a police station in the late afternoon after a silent strike. Shots were exchanged. For about thirty minutes, troops went around town shooting into the air. They stopped and checked everyone who left their houses after the strike, and blocked all the market streets that provide access to their station, including the main thoroughfare in front of my house. As my house is close to the station, my family always needs to be careful; we can always hear the police and troop movements from our upstairs windows, but do not dare to look out.
And the strike was very successful: I saw how brave and creative our people can be! Soldiers and police had gone around a few days before the strike, taking videos of all the shops and stalls, and announcing that anyone who participated in the strike by not opening their store or stall would be severely punished Then on the morning of the scheduled strike, troops fired into the air as a threatening reminder to vendors to open their shops and stalls.
And the vendors obeyed...just in a very creative way! While they indeed “opened” as required, they had asked their customers not to come and buy anything that day. One creative example was a banana vendor who was forced to open near the police station: she opened her stall with three bunches of bananas on display, and went back home. So no one sat at shop counters or behind their carts, and no one was in the streets, even on the main road in front of my house. It is said, “Silence is the best answer for fools.”
The military was scared of the complete silence that day. They realized they were no longer able to intimidate our people! As my grandpa said, “Armed soldiers are afraid of ‘armless’ people.” If the lower ranks of soldiers and policemen have a brain to think logically, they would leave their posts or turn their weapons on their power-crazed leaders.
And crazily and funny, after the commotion around the police station, the evils were checking some huge trucks on the highway which came from other towns altogether, even though the police were attacked from different sides of their station. So what could the drivers know?
I continue to hear inspiring stories of our people’s resistance. Yet there also continues to be sad news, too, such as people in the villages northeast of my town, who had to flee from soldiers setting their homes on fire and attacking from them from fighter jets from the air.”