The Role of Trauma
Of all the conversations I’ve had since the coup broke in Myanmar, the discussion with Kyawt Thiri Nyunt was something special. This is because we looked squarely at the role that trauma was playing within the current protest movement, acknowledging how this key component was largely missing from the study of most outside analysts. And it is very, very hard to come to any real understanding about this current moment when you are undervaluing how trauma is animating the nonviolent protesters. I hope our talk helps to bring this subject into the wider public discussion. For now, take a look at the following excerpt, but I highly encourage you to take time to listen to the full talk. (And, please note that the artwork attached to this post is from Kyawt herself, and she describes its meaning in detail at another point in our conversation)
“What they don’t understand, truly, is the trauma.”
Kyawt: People have not been working for a month, because we're just coming out of COVID, and a lot of businesses were shut down. And it's heartbreaking to see a lot of moms are now going to have to give birth in the middle of this. And I saw some woman sharing, ‘Take a birth control, or have a Plan B with you when you go out to protest. Because if the soldiers catches you, they are going to rape you, so you don't have any unplanned pregnancies.’ Just the fact that woman has to talk about that, it just riles up so much anger in me for how evil and just inhumane these soldiers are.
Interviewer: And yet they're still going out. Despite all that, they're still going out because there is no alternative! And I think one doesn’t understand that, unless you know this trauma. Unless this trauma is talked about, and people who care about the situation listen to this trauma, and they start to understand the depth and the pain of this, and that there is no going back! This is not a question of a more open or more closed society. This is a question between some decent way of life forward and absolute darkness, the likes of which people who are from free societies can't begin to understand.
Kyawt: Yeah, absolutely. That's something I've been trying to talk about to my friends and family here. Everyone has been really supportive. But this is why our conversation right now is very important for people to hear. What they don't understand, truly, is the trauma. Because sometimes, you know, people are saying, ‘Can’t you just stay home? What about COVID? Aren't there more like tactical ways? Or more smarter ways to approach this?’ And yeah, there are a lot of people taking that approach of being trying to be smart, trying to be resourceful, and trying to be very calculated. But you also have to understand that for a lot of people, if they don't do it now, it's never! Almost everybody I know, even my mom says, ‘I don't care if I die, if I have to go to prison. That's all better than just having to live under the dictatorship.’
Interviewer: When people are talking about different tactics, it might be coming with good intentions, but that's coming from a privileged mind state. It's coming from a privileged situation where you think that there are other opportunities… where you think that there is another way to go about it.