While the situation was supposed to return to normal on February 1 with the long-awaited end of the lockdown, the coup d'état was a very violent shock - especially for young people who were beginning to see their country democratize and develop even more after the electoral success of November 2020.
What is the situation today?
In this letter we try to give you some news and if you want a concrete way to support them.
A shock that mobilizes young people of generation Z
Almost 3 weeks ago, early in the morning of Monday, February 1, the Burmese army arrested the leaders of the ruling party (National League for Democracy, NLD), including President U Win Myint and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (Mother Suu for the Burmese). The army then announced a state of emergency and brought a democratic process that was stabilizing to a halt. The military has continued to harden its tone since its coup and has since expanded its repressive arsenal. More than 450 people – politicians, doctors, activists, students, strikers – have been detained. Nevertheless, young Burmese, especially “Generation Z” are on the front line against the junta.
Too young to have experienced the previous military regimes and the bloody repressions of 1988 and 2007, they grew up in the heady atmosphere of the democratic process that began just ten years ago, after the ruling junta “self-dissolved” in 2011, ending forty-nine years of dictatorship. The February 1 coup is the image of the great step backwards that this military takeover symbolizes. The young people of “Gen Z” are not ready to digest or accept it.
Popular resistance has taken many forms, some harder to silence than others: the banging of pots and pans in many parts of Myanmar at 8 o'clock every night, reminiscent of a Buddhist tradition to drive out demons. The Civil Disobedience Movement is growing. Civil servants, doctors and a large part of the population have stopped working. The country is at a standstill. Calls for civil disobedience have continued in Burma despite the junta's tightening of repression.
"We have no choice, it is our responsibility to continue the fight against the army that stole our democracy!" said M., from YounSone "If we cannot communicate through the internet, we have created networks in order to continue the fight."
But this fight is difficult and creates divisions and dramas within their families in a society that still devotes great respect, if not total obedience, to its ancestors. It is a difficult heartbreak to live through for many. "I feel all alone in my fight," says J. and is cut off from the rest of her family who are entrenched in places protected by the military.
What drives them?
The unique profile of these unarmed "insurgents" who constitute the spearhead of an unprecedented movement, the incarnation of the population's global rejection of a hated army, can be summed up in three words: determination, courage and fear.
Determination
Everyone says it, repeats it and chants it in a kind of stubborn mantra: "We will not give in, if we fail now, it's over: today's struggle is the guarantor of our future. We protest today for a better tomorrow."
Courage
As one young woman asserts, somewhat bravado, "If necessary, I am ready to die." When we remember that the 1988 demonstrations left 3,000 dead, this declaration may not be an empty promise.
Fear
Everyone acknowledges it: "We fear violent repression, we know that the army can shoot. Frankly, I realize that tomorrow I might be dead." They feel less alone than the mythologized heroes of the "Generation 88": and this is where we can help and support. "Thirty-three years ago, our predecessors were fighting in a Burma almost cut off from the world. The atrocities of the soldiers could not be immediately reported, there was no Internet or mobile phones. The students had limited knowledge of the outside world. Today, thanks to our movement, I am connected to people from all over Asia, but also from Europe and the rest of the world. This gives us strength even if we feel isolated. Their expressions of affection, their interest and their support count and keep us going."
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