Episode #91: This Woman’s Work
“I think Tatmadaw is a place where soldiers and their families have lost their human rights,” Su Thit asserts at the start of the interview. “Because everyone is being controlled by orders from above, even though it is wrong or unfair for them.”
While criticism of Myanmar's military is not at all a unique view heard today among the Burmese citizenry— after all, the military has been intensely and almost universally hated for decades— hearing such a bold statement from someone like Su Thit is most decidedly not the norm. That is because her husband is Htet Myat, one of the several hundred thousand soldiers employed by the Tatmadaw, and who was training in Pyin Oo Lwin just before the coup was launched.
From the moment the military tried to seize power, the couple knew what they had to do. “My husband and I wanted to be on the right side of history. We wanted to be on the people’s side, and stand for justice!”
Su Thit’s years as a military wife was a mixed bag. Her husband provided a steady salary, and she was on good terms with his colleagues. Less appealing was the hierarchy among military wives, as those married to lower-ranking soldiers were expected to perform menial tasks for those whose spouses were from higher ranks. “I don’t know who makes these rules, but it is there as part of the institutional culture. That is why we must change and reform the entire institution,” she says.
The couple had also enjoyed beginning their adult lives in a transitioning democracy. “I felt that our country would be a place where everyone can participate equally for the development of the nation,” she notes. In such a society, the military would enjoy its own rightful place in the nation, and so at the time, she and her husband did not need to choose sides between the Tatmadaw and the country’s evolving democratic reforms. But that all changed the moment the coup was launched, when the military changed from defending the nation to pouring all its formidable might into killing innocent civilians. “My husband felt helpless when he couldn’t help the civilians, but he also could not be on the side of the same people who are acting like terrorists.”
For that reason, Su Thit and Htet Myat were committed early on to joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). But the tricky part was figuring out how. As Su Thit notes wryly, “Joining the CDM movement is not as easy as packing a bag to go to the beach.” For safety reasons, she is not able to go into any further detail as to how they were ultimately able to defect and join the resistance, but they had to endure great risk and discomfort to get to safety. And their life now is a departure from everything they knew before: without any belongings, having lost many friends, and unable to see family. Their present living conditions are also more than challenging, as Su Thit notes that on some days she doesn't even have enough water.
And yet, they are not just focused on trying to get by, they are actively doing everything they can to encourage more soldiers and their families to leave their posts. Su Thit set up an organization called “Spouses of People’s Soldiers,” which has two aims. The first is to support military wives in encouraging their husbands to defect. “A wife plays a very important role in the family of a Myanmar household. A wife is a counsellor to the husband, and plays an important part in making big decisions,” she explains. In her experience, most wives are more likely to want to defect than their soldier husbands, but their main consideration is safety, along with concern regarding their long-term prospects once they leave the only livelihood that most have ever known as adults.
The second goal of Su Thit’s mission is to provide opportunities for those who have decided to defect, as they begin to build a new life. She has connected with various volunteers who provide a range of vocational and educational training opportunities not only for the former soldiers, but also other members of their families. Their material needs also need to be provided for, and Su Thit has been able to receive enough donations support 50 families!
At this point, Su Thit’s organization is run and supported almost entirely by Burmese in-country, and she admits to being slightly perplexed by the lack of support she has received from foreigners, especially those who have long lived and worked in Myanmar, many of whom she had counted as friends. Several close acquaintances with whom she was in daily contact before the coup left after the military takeover, leaving Su Thit feeling increasing isolated. This is another important reason that our platform is so committed to bringing her story to listeners around the world. Our listeners can support Su Thit in her good work, by providing a donation that will allow her to reach out to more military wives, and encourage their desertion from the military.
“Our revolution is close to victory,” Su Thit assures us, “but in order to ensure that it is won with the least bloodshed, we must support the defections movement. That is why I would like to ask everyone listening and everyone who can help to help us. You can help us win this revolution.”
In the words of this brave woman, “The military can have all the guns in the world, but if there are no soldiers left to use them, we win.”