Unexpectedly, after the military coup in Myanmar, the public’s reaction was quite commendable. Myanmar People’s unexpected responsibilities began with the Spring Revolution.
When they didn’t want to return to the darkness, they defied the coup military. On February 1, 2021, after the SAC announced a coup d’état in Myanmar, the people of Myanmar went on a peaceful protest.
People went up to the street and expressed their desires in peace. However, the coup SAC did not take the desires of Myanmar people seriously and began to crack down on terrorism with the idea that they would be scared away.
This fact made me think about that, ‘did they underestimate Myanmar people?’, and the desires of the Myanmar people who hated the dictator continued to flow until now. The Myanmar people knew very well that it was impossible to revolutionize the dictators by peaceful protest alone.
After that, the people of Myanmar continued to oppose violence and the coup after a situation where they were not allowed to express their desires on the streets. Along with the slogans of CDM, “Don’t go to offices and struggle free from it,” and some have decided to take up arms and start a revolution.
In this way, people from all walks of life opposed to the military council began to aim for the overthrow of the dictator. Now, after more than a year and a half, we are about to reach the 2-year mark.
When the spring revolution came a year ago, the revolutionary people under the title of CDM faced all kinds of difficulties, and we can see some people who continue to fight in spite of this situation.
Some of them went back under the terrorist SAC when they faced various crises while joining CDM. Reasons that the country’s economic crisis and difficulties have come under the dictator’s administration have also come out.
This situation, a most unusual and unpredictable situation was born with the Spring Revolution. These are some of the people who are under the SAC but are rebelling against the SAC. They don’t join CDM, but get benefits under the SAC and help the revolution. They are called “watermelons” as local gossip. It means the state of being green on the outside and red on the inside, and some have different interpretations.
When the NUG Union Minister (U) Lwin Ko Latt announced that those who do not join CDM will be prosecuted under terrorism law and arrest warrants will be issued. The criticism was quite harsh. Some revolutionary activists disagreed with this statement and pointed it out. “Non-violent civil disobedience is done according to the will and rights of the individual,” poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau said. A Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica research paper states that the movement for reform of individualistic assumptions about government is fundamental to better government, communities, and organizations.
In this paper, Henry David Thoreau’s claims, expresses the fact the public has a responsibility to participate against unjust societies and policies and individualistic values for those who believe in democracy.
There were many examples of civil disobedience without violence in the world. Apart from Gandhi, a non-violent revolutionist, Gene Sharp’s ideologies were also popular. Dr Gene-Sharp’s non-violent methods of replacing violence and war are still useful today.
As mentioned above, the non-CDM people who were in a corner for civil disobedience also came in this spring revolution, which made it quite difficult for the terrorist SAC to separate “real enemies and real friends”.
The spring revolution started with the title of peaceful protest in the early days, then revolutionary transformations such as CDM and armed struggle took place, and now a new form of non-violent civil disobedience has emerged. They have no obvious cooperation, no self-violence, and no protest. But they also don’t like the coup. It’s a form of disobedience from the inside.
In the midst of this situation, a recent incident has become the biggest shock for the Coup SAC. This is the incident in which retired General Ohn Thwin and his son-in-law were killed in a shooting attack on September 24. In this incident, there have been many reviews that it was caused by inside intimate information.
Myat Noe Thura