Songs of Fire and Silence

This is the final installment of a three-part series of interviews Insight Myanmar Podcast conducted with participants of a 2-day seminar titled “Fostering Sustainable Peace and Security: Thailand and ASEAN’s Path towards Border Stability and Democracy,” held on March 22-25 in Bangkok, Thailand, and hosted by the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). The seminar was framed by the following sentiment, taken from the APHR website: “In a time where the crisis in Myanmar has escalated on multiple fronts, including mass displacement, destructive environmental impacts of militarization, human trafficking orchestrated through scam centers, the inhumane treatment of political prisoners including women and children and the deadly decline in humanitarian assistance—the seminar shed light on the devastating human cost of the crisis.”

In this episode, we bring you discussions with Thinzar Shuntei Yi, a leading Burmese activist, and Wongpun Amarinthewa, editor at the Thai media platform The 101 World.

Speaking first, Thinzar Shuntei Yi lays out her opposition to the military junta’s planned elections in Myanmar. As deputy director of the anti-sham election coalition within the Strategy Initiative Forum, she leads a diverse alliance of political parties, civil society actors, women’s groups, and strike committees that is unified in its rejection of the junta’s political theater.  She frames the proposed elections not as steps toward democracy, but as the junta’s strategy to legitimize their coup internationally, consolidate control under the guise of democratic process and escape accountability.  She is concerned that the international community, if not vigilant, could fall into the trap of endorsing a “new” election staged by the same military power, simply because it resembles formal democracy. 

Allowing the military to proceed with a staged election, she warns, could fragment the opposition, discredit the revolution, and allow the junta to rebrand itself as a civilian administration without truly relinquishing power; accepting the elections as valid, she insists, would effectively rubber stamp the junta and its coup.

Responding to SAC allegations that delaying elections is due to opposition violence, Thinzar explains that this narrative unfairly shifts blame onto pro-democracy forces. She points out how it blatantly ignores the junta’s own brutal tactics, including arrests, torture, and targeted airstrikes.

Looking deeper into the issue, Thinzar connects the proposed elections to the military’s 2008 Constitution, which, while it has a democratic façade, has served mainly as a tool of repression. “The 2008 Constitution was also another coup,” she asserts, “[that was executed] in the name of democracy.” Her message is clear: any international actor that still accepts either the 2008 Constitution as a reference point for the legitimacy of the proposed elections is complicit in perpetuating authoritarian structures.

Thinzar’s coalition backs a revolutionary roadmap that envisions a new, inclusive, federal democratic system for Myanmar. Having already rejected the 2008 Constitution, they are now developing a new one from the ground up—one rooted in dialogue between ethnic groups and communities historically excluded from national political processes.

Thinzar’s advocacy is aimed at the international community—especially those countries who she describes as being on the fence about the proposed legitimacy of both the upcoming elections as well as the basis for the 2008 Constitution. “We have ten years’ experience, and it didn’t work!” she exclaims. “It didn’t lead us to federal democracy.”

Toward the end of the discussion, Thinzar shifts from advocacy to personal reflection, sharing how she is now working to mentor the next generation of activists. As someone once mentored herself, she now sees it as her role to create space for youths who don’t yet have an established platform. “We have to always bring on the new generation, new faces,” she says. She also insists that political renewal must start from within. “If the revolution takes place in you first, then the revolution outside will be successful.”

The second guest is Wongpun Amarinthewa. He has emerged as one of the few Thai journalists actively reporting on the human impact of the Myanmar crisis from along the Thai-Myanmar border, focusing particularly on the plight of displaced people fleeing military violence into Thailand. He approaches this subject with a sense of duty, but also with a deeply personal response.

Wongpun, who studied Southeast Asian studies in Singapore, began reporting on Myanmar shortly after the 2021 coup. Though he had some academic familiarity with the country, the experience of visiting refugee camps and no-man’s-land zones along the border marked his first direct exposure to war and displacement. “I never heard those kind of sounds before,” he says, recalling the bombings he experienced. But he was just as shaken by the fact that the refugees seemed used to it, and he wondered what their lives must have been like to get to that point.

His trips to Mae Sot and other border areas were often made possible through partnerships with NGOs that helped him navigate bureaucratic and logistical barriers. Thai authorities regularly blocked access to official camps, citing COVID restrictions, and access to unofficial sites came with risk and uncertainty. Wongpun credits NGO partners with keeping him safe and making the reporting possible, noting that without them, it would have been very risky.

What struck Wongpun most deeply, though, was seeing the children in the camps—many of whom had known nothing but conflict and displacement. “They have never done anything,” he says. “They need to go to study! They need to play with their friends. But for them, they need to flee from the violence.” This caused him to reflect on his own peaceful  childhood in Bangkok, and the unfair contrast between their experiences.

Wongpun’s reporting has been shaped not just by emotional impact, but also by a sense of civic responsibility. He believes Thai people have very limited awareness of the Myanmar crisis or the presence of refugees in their own country, largely due to lack of media access, public interest, and political will. “As a media [worker], it’s my responsibility to let the public know what’s really happening along the border of Thailand.”

He identifies three main obstacles to Thai media coverage: government restrictions on access; a lack of journalistic knowledge about Myanmar; and market/financial pressures in his industry that discourage investment in complex or foreign stories. In addition, many reporters lack connections to sources in Myanmar and have not been trained to cover issues across the border.

Beyond the media landscape, Wongpun highlights nationalist sentiments in Thai society that foster indifference or even hostility toward refugees. This attitude often results in blaming refugees or treating them as economic threats rather than victims of violence. Wongpun warns that such ignorance has tangible consequences. It reinforces stereotypes, reduces empathy, and limits political pressure on Thai authorities to offer humane policies. Without public understanding, refugee issues are framed narrowly—through security fears or economic burden—rather than through compassion or regional responsibility. “They think the Myanmar situation has nothing to do with us. But it’s just happening like nearby the border, and even within the border of Thailand.”

Despite these challenges, Wongpun remains committed to expanding his own knowledge and improving his reporting. He closely follows Myanmar news, reads academic texts, and seeks to understand the country’s complex political and ethnic landscape—far beyond what he learned in school. “The situation in Myanmar is a lot more complex than what I learned in the classroom… I need to seek a lot of knowledge about Myanmar.”