He's Fighting the Myanmar Military Coup, This Is How
Myanmar's streets have been filled with pro-democracy protesters following the military coup on February 1st. On this episode, a pro-democracy activist and organizer, Mo Lwin, gives us a rare look into how hundreds of thousands of people are organizing in the face of an increasingly violent military. With democracies around the world facing an uphill battle, the crisis in Myanmar is one we all have a stake in.
Episode Transcript
Anita Kirti (00:00):
After some creative workarounds of the telecommunication restrictions by the Myanmar Military, I am pleased to say that, on this episode, I'll be talking to a pro-democracy activist, Mo Lwin, from Yangon, Myanmar. He is currently organizing protests against the military coup. Through this conversation, you'll get to hear, and feel, what it's like to be on the ground right now for one of the most critical fights for democracy. I recommend that you check out the last episode about the military coup in Myanmar before you listen to this one. Other than that, let's get to it. This is The World We Inherit, and I'm your host, Anita Kirti.
Mo Lwin (00:39):
Hello, Anita, can you hear me?
Anita Kirti (00:46):
Yes, I can hear you. I think it's just the...
Mo Lwin (00:48):
Good. Actually, there was a problem with the internet connection. Currently, I'm using a Thai SIM, because all the Myanmar cells are not working.
Anita Kirti (00:59):
Well, thank you for calling me back on this [crosstalk 00:01:03]. After the military took control of the government on February the 1st, civil disobedience protests have started. The military has responded to those protests with nighttime arrests, beatings, social media bans, and telecommunication outages. Yet, activists have persisted, and continued, to organize and peacefully protest against the military coup. Mo Lwin is a lecturer, and social enterprise consultant, who became one of those brave activists in the past few weeks.
Anita Kirti (01:33):
So, I want to set the scene for everyone. On the day of February 1st, after you get your internet back, what was the reaction of the people around you and your community?
Mo Lwin (01:44):
Mostly silent, physically, but there was lots of information spreading out on the internet. So, as I mentioned to you, me and my people are very patient. We don't like to protest for every reason. It's not a [inaudible 00:02:02]. First, I'll [inaudible 00:02:03], we didn't start the protest. However, we were trying to organize. We start thinking that these protests should be happening. So, starting from 2nd of February, we start making protests. The protest was bit by bit. Not totally overnight, but it was bit by bit. Now, we are actually going through a CDM, which is Civil Disobedience Movement. What Civil Disobedience Movement means is, we are encouraging government servants, public servants, to come out from the service. Not to stop this government, to resign from jobs. Even without any resignation letter.
Anita Kirti (02:46):
So, if they all defect, a lot of government [crosstalk 00:02:49]...
Mo Lwin (02:50):
The major idea is, what will the government do if they have only 15, 20 people in their head body, and none of their fingers are working. These movement [inaudible 00:03:02]. However, in Naypyidaw, because where I'm staying is currently in a different city. Naypyidaw, which is the capital city. So, they start using what they can to demobilize the people. The worst part is, I have noticed that in the water, they even put acid into it. As soon as anybody who gets the water in their eyes, or...
Anita Kirti (03:23):
Wow.
Mo Lwin (03:23):
... on their hands. They start bleeding. Some people couldn't open their eyes for hours. We are not still sure whether those people went blind, or it just affected their eyes for a couple of hours. We are still not sure yet, but these things are actually happening in Yangon.
Anita Kirti (03:42):
You said there was a slow start to the start of the protest. Was that fear of the military, or did it take some time to encourage people to come out?
Mo Lwin (03:52):
It's both, because we have history that the military government, they don't care about the people at all. We have a history of a military government shooting people when they protest. In 1980, the military actually shoot at the people, and millions of people had to sacrifice in the name of democracy, and then we couldn't gain that democracy for another 25 years.
Anita Kirti (04:16):
How many people are coming out in your area? As an estimate.
Mo Lwin (04:21):
Today, we expected it was around about 1.5 million people participated in Yangon alone.
Anita Kirti (04:29):
Is the media covering this? Does the media have the freedom to cover what's happening?
Mo Lwin (04:34):
All the media have been occupied by the military. So, whatever the national TV's are showing is the message from the military government. Thanks to Facebook and independent news channels. They are actually covering lots of news from Burma. We have BBC, and a channel like DVB, Democratic Voice of Burma. Those types of independent news channels try to be fair. They try to share the actual news.
Anita Kirti (05:04):
As you said before, there is a history of brutal crackdown on pro-democracy movements. Is there a fear of something like that happening, or do you think that international pressure that's coming from now, the United States, and other countries, is enough to keep that from happening?
Mo Lwin (05:23):
In 1988, when this protest happened, those generations are like... Let's say generation Y. So, baby boomers, generation Y, generation X. However, today, generation Z are taking their place, and generation Z, since they are 10 years old, they have tested, "What is democracy?" From 2010, the democracy transition was initiated. In 2015 to 2020, there were more opportunities. These youth were actually brought up with less fear. When these youth start protesting, they protest with a very different manner. At our time, in 1988, we protest with motivating slogans, but these youths don't use slogans. They use these meme's. They use funny statements.
Anita Kirti (06:20):
Yeah.
Mo Lwin (06:20):
They use technology very widely, and because of the help of generation Z, the movement actually worked faster, lets say.
Anita Kirti (06:29):
Are they able to circumvent the internet shutdown, to organize these protests, in a way that older people are unable to?
Mo Lwin (06:38):
Yeah. When the internet was shut down, on Saturday and Sunday, on Saturday, we expected 10,000. On Sunday, it reached to 100,000. So it was 10 times on Sunday. Sunday movement, we encouraged public servants to leave their job. Aside from one military, the whole military staff just resigned.
Anita Kirti (07:00):
They're able to get this number of people out, because they are connecting through social media.
Mo Lwin (07:04):
Yeah. They are connecting through social media.
Anita Kirti (07:10):
Right now, are you part of the organizing of protests?
Mo Lwin (07:13):
There was one leading protestor. He gives an example. He said, "The head of the train has been captured, but the military didn't know that all the bodies have their own machines." So, every youth is the organizer here. Every youth is trying to make movement. For example, I'm not organized. Whatever I got, 20, 30 people, we are trying to organize things. I'm trying to participate to do three groups. And every group has 30 people, 40 people... We try to organize as much as we can. We try to share information. We try to encourage people not to just stay at home, but to go out and make voice. For a few days, we were outside of the UN office, where we tried to make voice as much as we can do.
Anita Kirti (08:01):
The movement that's happening right now, is it for pro-democracy, or is it also combined with support for Suu Kyi?
Mo Lwin (08:09):
It's totally not support for the Suu Kyi. You won't believe that I didn't vote for our San Suu Kyi party. I'm not actually doing any party movement. I'm actually being part of the hands-free movement. Citizenship movement. I'm so happy even the person that I voted is doing the same movement as I'm doing. So, [inaudible 00:08:31], I know the against party. They are not even military, but they start joining with military. These things are happening, as well. Some of the party, even though they are not part of military, they are not part of NLD, which is our [inaudible 00:08:44] body. When these things are happening, they are standing far under the name of democracy.
Anita Kirti (08:50):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mo Lwin (08:53):
They are a different type of people.
Anita Kirti (08:54):
Thank you for clarifying that. I think that's really important for people to know. Thank you so much for being on this episode. It's been really great talking to you.
Mo Lwin (09:03):
Thank you very much.
Anita and Mo (09:04):
Bye. [crosstalk 00:09:05]
Anita Kirti (09:09):
What's most compelling about this conversation was that Mo, himself, is normally not a political operative, but is now actively organizing against a military coup. I think that speaks to the level of mobilization that's happening in Myanmar right now, which is phenomenal. Each of those thousands of people, that are protesting, are putting themselves in a life-threatening situation, but they're choosing to do so anyway.
Anita Kirti (09:36):
As you heard Mo say, considering the numbers of people who are going out into the streets, and the increasing level of violence the military is using, this situation is really volatile, and will continue to be the center of international conversation. Not to mention, a kind of measure of the health of democracy right now. People like Mo are putting themselves at even greater risk of military retaliation, because they're choosing to speak out on forums like this, about the military coup, which makes it all the more important that stories, like his, are amplified and heard.
Anita Kirti (10:11):
For Americans, awareness translates to pressure on our elected officials to do something about the crisis in Myanmar. That being said, if you would like to be a part of educating the people around you, you could share this episode with your family and friends. Depending on what happens in Myanmar, there may be a follow-up to this episode, so make sure you subscribe as well. Okay, that's The World We Inherit. I'm your host, Anita Kirti. Thanks for listening.