Tag Archives: Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar’s Spring Revolution: a history from below

Women factory workers took to the streets and catalysed a mass movement

By Ko Maung.  Published 12-15-2021 by openDemocracy

Protest in Myanmar against Military Coup Feb. 14,2021. Photo: MgHla (aka) Htin Linn Aye/Wilimedia Commons/CC

A year before the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, striking workers from the Tai Yi shoe factory protested in front of their workplace to demand an increase in their daily wages. To raise their spirits, the workers sang the revolutionary anthem, ‘Thway Thitsar’.

In Myanmar’s Spring Revolution, the mass movement against the 2021 coup, ‘Thway Thitsar’ could be heard all over the country. “The present is critical, brothers and sisters. We must have solidarity.” A regular feature of workers’ protests, the anthem had now become part of the revolutionary movement. I say this not to highlight the song itself, but to call attention to the history of worker organising and struggle in Myanmar – a history that laid the groundwork for the Spring Revolution. Simply put, had workers not previously organised unions inside their factories, the protests that catalysed the Spring Revolution would not have happened. The February 6 protests ignited the anger of people across the country and led to nation-wide protests in the days that followed. Continue reading

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‘Kill Me Instead’: Despite Nun’s Pleas, Military Junta Shoots Pro-Democracy Protesters in Myanmar

“We heard loud gunshots, and saw that a young kid’s head had exploded, and there was a river of blood on the street,” said Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng. “We need to value life. It made me feel so sad.”

By Kenny Stancil, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-9-2021

“I knelt down… begging them not to shoot and torture the children, but to shoot me and kill me instead,” Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng said of her attempt to dissuade police officers in Myitkyina, Myanmar from shooting people at a pro-democracy demonstration on March 8, 2021. (Photo: Twitter screengrab via Reuters)

Kneeling before a group of police officers in a northern Myanmar city on Monday, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng courageously begged the forces of the country’s new military junta to refrain from shooting pro-democracy activists—a plea that was ultimately ignored by the officers who went on to kill at least two people and injure several others as the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations against last month’s coup continues.

“I knelt down… begging them not to shoot and torture the children, but to shoot me and kill me instead,” Tawng told AFP on Tuesday after a video of the incident went viral. Continue reading

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UN Leaders Demand Myanmar Coup Regime ‘Stop the Repression’ as Military and Police Kill 18

“The international community must stand in solidarity with the protestors and all those seeking a return to democracy in Myanmar.”

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-1-2021

Rohingya youth marching in Yangon on February 28, 2021. Photo: Tun Khin/Twitter

United Nations leaders on Sunday condemned the Myanmar coup regime’s crackdown on peaceful protesters—which killed at least 18 people—in cities across the Southeast Asian nation over the weekend as demonstrators defiantly took to the streets again on Monday to demand a return to civilian rule.

In a Sunday statement, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres, said the U.N. chief “strongly condemned” the regime’s repression and “is deeply disturbed by the increase in deaths and serious injuries.” Continue reading

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Aung San Suu Kyi overlooked Myanmar’s deepest problems

Ambition drove the military’s coup. But long before that, the country’s deposed leader squandered many opportunities for real change

By Khin Zaw Win.  Published 2-12-2021 by openDemocracy

Aung San Suu Kyi ‘failed to pay attention’ to Myanmar’s ethnic groups. Photo: Comune Parma/CC

The Myanmar coup is a sad and onerous turn of events for a country with a long and unhappy experience of military rule. It is important to note that this is not an institutional crisis. What we are witnessing is a squabble among court factions for the throne.

In such power struggles, the wellbeing of the country and the people generally aren’t of concern. The military’s attitude in this regard is well known, but there would have been higher expectations of the country’s ousted party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Continue reading

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Journalist killings, arrests and assaults climb worldwide as authoritarianism spreads

Reuters reporters Wa Lone, left, and Kyaw Soe Oo after being freed from prison, in Yangon, Myanmar, May 7, 2019. Ann Wang/Pool Photo via AP

Randy Covington, University of South Carolina

Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom.

The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence and created “an intense climate of fear” worldwide. Continue reading

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As Burma Votes, Watchdogs Warn Elections Anything But Fair and Free

Rights groups raise alarm about crackdown on free speech and and widespread voter disenfranchisement

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-8-2015

Voting line- 6:45 AM. Photo: @yatespj

Voting line- 6:45 AM. Photo: @yatespj

As people across Burma (also referred to as Myanmar) vote on Sunday in a what is being touted as the country’s first free election in 25 years, watchdogs warn that the country’s military dictatorship has clamped down on free speech, purged numerous Muslims from the polls, and undermined its own claims to a truly democratic process.

Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people, a persecuted Muslim minority, were wiped from the voting lists, including many who cast ballots in the 2010 and 2012 elections. What’s more, numerous Muslim and Rohingya candidates were “disqualified on discriminatory grounds, while authorities have failed to address advocacy of hatred and incitement to discrimination and violence against Muslims,” Amnesty International warned earlier this week. Continue reading

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