The return of the junta from Myanmar through the eyes of the locals – I grew up in constant fear and silence

“It was kind of deja vu, as if we were going back to the beginning,” a 25-year-old girl told the BBC.
Such was life under a military junta.

“I grew up in fear”

Wai Wai Nu was five years old when her father was arrested in front of her eyes.
A political activist who supported the civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi was put in a truck and taken somewhere.

About a month later he was released, but even now she remembers how she felt that day.
“I grew up in constant fear,” he said. – As a child I was always afraid. There have always been soldiers outside, and I still have the image before my eyes that my dad was taken away. I remember putting on my headphones and listening to the radio very quietly. “

Wai Wai, who belongs to the Rohingya, one of the country’s most persecuted ethnic minorities, said his father was constantly being tracked down.

When the girl was 10 years old, her family decided to move to the then capital Yangon (now Rangoon – ed. Past.).

“I saw a little more freedom in Yangon,” he said. – In Rachin State, the majority of the population was Rohingya, but Yangon was a multicultural city where many languages ​​were spoken. But many people in Yangon did not know what was happening to ethnic minorities. “
At the time, life seemed quite normal.

“We went to school and then we came back home. I remember how we had to greet the various generals at school and pay tribute to them. The entire educational system was nothing more than military propaganda. “

But at the age of 18, his father became a target again, and the entire family was planted behind bars, where he spent seven years.

His crime? That was the daughter of a political activist.

When she regained her freedom, she entered university and today works as a human rights activist. She primarily fights for equal rights for women and the Rohingya.

“Growing up, Rachin’s estate was poor, but life was tolerable, people could still run their own businesses,” he said. “It wasn’t like it is today.”

Superficial phone conversations

Phyo’s childhood experience was completely different.

Born to a wealthier family, the 25-year-old, born and raised in Rangoon, says she was largely protected from what was happening in the state.

But she, the girl, still memorized some things.

“When we talked on the phone, we always heard a background noise, like someone was watching television or talking. It was the army that heard the conversations,” he said.
“I was not afraid because when you were born in that regime, you did not know other alternatives, but our parents told us that we do not speak on the phone.”

Phyo was born in 1995, just three years after the army dictator Than Shwe came to power. She describes the year she was born as “the deepest point of military rule after the 88th Revolution.”
According to her, the school’s curriculum was very selective.

“They did not touch on sensitive subjects. If, for example, in the United States, students are taught to take a critical look at the political situation, then we have read and analyzed the Buddhist tales, he said. “Or we found out that the kings of Burma were really strong until the British destroyed everything.”

Great Britain ruled the country from 1824 to 1948.

But Phyo, under 12, was largely unaware of what was happening in his country.

“I still remember it was my 12th birthday when the Saffron Revolution started,” he said. “It was then that I realized for the first time that we were living in a dictatorship.”

The so-called Saffron Revolution was a series of street protests that originated in Myanmar in 2007. This time, thousands of the country’s monks rebelled against the military regime.

In Buddhist Myanmar, most people respect monks, but many monks were arrested and imprisoned during the protests. Media reported that security forces had killed at least three monks.
“I saw a lot of protesters near my house. There was tension and fear in the air, and you could see a lot of soldiers everywhere,” Phyo said.

When he was a teenager, there were almost no mobile phones in his country, only those who could afford them could have them.

“They raised the prices of mobile phones so that nobody could buy them. Back then, people only used landlines. But sometimes the power would go out, so you couldn’t talk to anyone, “he said.

Phyo eventually went abroad to study and there she saw how life in the West is different from daily life in Myanmar.

“I remember seeing a police officer, my friends were scared,” he said. “But it was my habit to see soldiers everywhere.”

She said that on February 1 at 6 p.m. in the morning, she was woken up by numerous messages on her smartphone.
“You wake up to find that the entire government of the country has been arrested,” he said.

“When I was younger, we were often woken up by the news that suddenly there were people in jail or that something was missing. So it was kind of déjà vu, like we went back to the beginning, like we used to be. Everything we have done, all the legitimacy we have given the government, is gone. “

Living in silence

Kyaw Than Win, 67, remembers where he was in 1988 when a military coup took place.

He lived in the city of Min Bu, in central Myanmar. He recalls that there were “shootings and violence” in other areas, but added that in Min Bu, things were relatively calm and quiet.

For most people, he said, life was normal, people just avoided talking about it.

“We are back to work. Some officials who participated in the protests were fired, demoted or relocated. Some of them have been arrested,” he told the BBC.

“But for employees like me, nothing has changed. We were just forced to live in silence out of fear.”

This life continued until the 2015 elections, the first national elections in decades. The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory, ending nearly 50 years of military rule.

“I was very happy that the country was ruled by someone like her. They did an amazing job. Public infrastructure has improved and the daily life of public officials has improved. Life was so much better, “he said.

However, it turned out that this period was short.

Kyaw Than Win said the military’s decision to carry out the February 1 coup ignored “the will of millions of people.”

According to Professor Simon Tay, director of the Singapore Institute of International Relations, the Myanmar Armed Forces still believe that only they can ensure the unity of Myanmar.

“Despite winning two elections in the National League for Democracy, they do not recognize that they must withdraw from national politics,” he told the BBC.

However, he said, “even in the military, few want to go back to a time when the country was mired in autocracy, economic sanctions and mass poverty.”

“But Myanmar’s opening up and transition is far from over, and the military will do what it thinks it should do,” he added.