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Make the government lack legitimacy and recognition; prevent it from working by organizing strikes; and cut off its funding sources. That is the strategy that emerges from a mass movement in Myanmar aimed at overthrowing the new military dictatorship.
As protesters defying the February 1 coup, brave beatings, arrests, water cannons and even live ammunition, activists hope that a “no recognition, no participation” approach can sustain the pressure even if the demonstrations are crushed with violence.
“The immediate goal is to take power away from the army by preventing all its governance mechanisms from working,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, who, like many activists, is now in hiding to avoid arrest.
“It will disable the military’s ability to rule.”
Myanmar’s 10-year fragile experiment in democracy was turned off in early February when soldiers arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other top officials in morning raids when military chief Min Aung Hlaing took power.
A civil disobedience movement began almost immediately and accumulated the support of broad sectors of society. Trains have stopped, hospitals have closed and ministries in the capital Naypyidaw are believed to be struggling amid massive strikes.
Many thousands, including nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, farmers, railway personnel, civil servants, factory workers and even some police officers, have gone on strike or deserted in an attempt to paralyze the new military government.
Disrupt the military business empire
In a statement posted on a military Facebook page on Thursday, Min Aung Hlaing said “unscrupulous” people were inciting public officials to leave work.
“Those who are out of their functions are asked to return to their functions immediately in the interests of the country and the people,” he said.
The attacks are also disrupting parts of the army’s vast business empire. A copper mine in the northern Sagaing region, jointly owned by the army and a Chinese company, ceased operations after more than 2,000 workers left.
And hundreds of engineers and other personnel working for Mytel, a telecommunications operator partly owned by the military, have stopped working.
Activists hope that a ‘no recognition, no participation’ approach can keep the pressure on the military even if demonstrations are violently repressed [Reuters/Stringer]
Calls for a boycott of products made by military-owned companies have also gained momentum. Local business owners have destroyed cartons of cigarettes produced by the Virginia Tobacco Company, which is partly owned by Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, a military conglomerate.
Lim Kaling, a major Singaporean shareholder in the company, announced that it would divest its investments this week after facing pressure from activists at Justice For Myanmar and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Japanese brewer Kirin has said it will pull out of a joint venture with a military-owned brewery.
New connectivity
The movement’s tactics go beyond what a similar uprising did in 2007, when there were widespread street protests similar to those seen in recent days, but there were no coordinated efforts to hamper the military government with industrial action.
One difference today compared to 2007 is that many people in the previously isolated country own smartphones and are online, allowing calls for civil disobedience to spread rapidly after the coup, even amid sporadic shutdowns of Internet.
Another is that, after the union ban was lifted in 2011, Myanmar has a young but tenacious workers’ rights movement with years of experience organizing strikes.
About 5,000 workers in Hlaing Tharyar, an industrial zone in the main city of Yangon, have joined the general strike, a union organizer who requested anonymity told Al Jazeera.
“I cannot say how long we will be on strike, but it will be until the abolition of the dictatorship,” he said.
Workers’ rights groups, joined by student activists, were among the first to protest in the streets on February 6, prompting others who had been reluctant to march due to a military record of shooting at protesters. .
Public officials risk jobs
The unions took the initiative because they had no other choice, the organizer said.
“Even under the democratically elected government, we didn’t have our rights, so under a dictatorship, we don’t have a chance.”
Myanmar officials, who have spent the past five years working for the only credibly elected government that most people in the country have ever known, are also risking their livelihoods and freedom to avoid a return to the days dark.
Than Toe Aung, permanent undersecretary of the Ministry of Construction, announced that he would join the strike on Monday.
“I call on my colleagues to follow his example to help overthrow the dictatorship,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook.
From officials to health workers and laborers, protesters in Myanmar have defied military threats and arrests as they march to call for an end to the coup. [Than Lwin Times/Reuters]
Staff from the investment, transport, energy and social welfare ministries, among others, have also pledged not to return to work until the Aung San Suu Kyi government is returned to power.
Myanmar’s ambassador to the United States, Maung Maung Latt, said last week that he is seeking asylum in the United States to protest the coup and urged other diplomats to follow suit.
On Thursday, staff at the Myanmar Economic Bank, which disburses government salaries, also joined the strike.
Threat of desertions
But perhaps most worrying for the generals is the threat of desertions from the military-controlled police force.
During a demonstration in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, a police lieutenant named Khun Aung Ko Ko broke ranks to join the protesters.
“I am aware that they will put me in jail with a long prison term if our fight for democracy is not successful,” he wrote in a statement delivered at the subsequent demonstration.
“My sacrifice for the people and members of the police, to fight for democracy and the downfall of dictator Min Aung Hlaing, will be worth it.”
Some Myanmar police officers across the country have also reportedly joined protests against the military regime. [File: Stringer/AFP]
Another officer joined the protesters in the coastal city of Myeik, while dramatic footage from Magwe in central Myanmar showed three riot officers leaving their ranks to defend the protesters from the water cannons with their shields.
Then on Wednesday, 49 uniformed officers from the police department in Loikaw, the capital of the eastern state of Kayah, joined a march there with a banner reading: “No to the military dictatorship.”
Officers are now in hiding and the remaining members of the department are seeking to arrest them, The Kantarawaddy Times reported.
Thinzar Shunlei Yi said he believed that not only police officers, but also rank and file soldiers want to join the movement.
“I hope this is possible,” he said. “In recent years, several soldiers have contacted me asking for help because their rights have been violated. They have been intimidated, they have been harassed, they have been tortured. It’s brutal in the military. “
In Myawaddy, a Burmese border town, thousands of people show up daily to demonstrate against Myanmar’s military coup. The protesters have called for the abolition of the Constitution and democracy. #What HappensInMyanmar #Listen to Myyanmar’s Voice #Myanmarcoup pic.twitter.com/EPvpGqaYRL
– Linn Let Arkar (@ArkarLet) February 12, 2021
Military repression
One of the protesters’ key demands has been that the military return power to Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party. But many activists, especially those from ethnic minority groups who feel betrayed by the party, are pushing for more radical demands.
“Some people are demanding that the military accept the outcome of the 2020 elections and restore democracy,” said Maung Saungkha, a prominent free speech activist, referring to a Nov. 8 poll that the NLD won overwhelmingly. .
“If we accept the 2020 elections, then we will still be under the 2008 military constitution, and with that constitution, coups will happen again and again,” he added.
“So we need to negotiate with the protesters on the strategy and a set of common demands.”
The repression of the military government has already begun. Dozens of protesters have been arrested and a young woman is alive after police shot her in the head on Tuesday.
The military government is also making plans to impose a so-called “cybersecurity law” that would mean three-year prison sentences for speaking against the government online.
Activists said the movement’s best hope for survival is solidarity.
“For this revolution to be successful, everyone must participate,” said the union organizer.
“Workers, students, even soldiers and police. Everyone.”
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