Myanmar Spring Chronicle – June 25 Scenes

MoeMaKa,   June 26 2022

How do words and reality differ?

The war-news about the defense of Sagaing Division and Ethnic regions against the Myanmar military is overwhelming. Some local defense forces, evolved during the Spring Revolution, are celebrating one-year anniversary. One-year anniversary of the Yaw Defense Force (YDF) was celebrated online. Myanmar military making arson attacks on villages, threatening, torturing and murdering civilians, in some villages, they also kill villagers after cutting off arms and legs and the death bodies are found. Around Sagaing and Monywa areas, People Defense Forces (PDF) are getting stronger and pressuring the military supporters to escape. Now, the copper-mining project of China, Wanbao company has been targeted by local defense forces.

In urban areas, young people carry out guerrilla strikes as much as they can. The military security forces are escalating the arrests of underground activists (UG) with the help of informants. Among them, Ko Lin Htet Naing (aka) Ko James, an activist, well known Student Union’s leader and former political prisoner, was arrested by the military and police on June 18 and he was sent to the interrogation camp and this was reported in the news according to his family members. A person who recorded the violations of human rights commented that the numbers of arrested citizens in Yangon, Mandalay and other rural areas are increasing and it is still unknown where they are and whether they are alive or not.

Although the government is said to be not operating well currently, departments such as city development committees in urban, general administration, market and trading, goods and transportation, finance, are operating with civil servants they remain. This has led to a resurgence of bribery of government employees to keep those processes running smoothly. A merchant said that the corruption in the previous military regime has obviously decreased after 2015 and now all the governmental processes are smooth only with bribery under the current military regime. Corrupted employees have a liking to the current conditions.

CDM-ers, one of the mainstays of the Spring Revolution, still have to flee, abandoning their houses and properties. Some return to their homes by taking a risk because of the difficulties of earning and living and suffering of the whole family in remote areas. Many of them are arrested due to local informants called Dalans. Some have to bribe the security forces for release as the hostage is released only after giving ransom. Some are released by signing the commitment letter stating that they are not CDM-ers anymore. As they are not able to return to their home and live, CDMers have to flee to further remote places again in the end. Though there are so many occasions like that, they are living poorly with little support and this has to be recognized for their sacrifices here.

There are also ordinary people who think that in urban areas, things are turning back to normal in economics, social and educational fields. It is difficult to accept the reality as it is, that commodity prices are skyrocketing, there is no rule of law and no safety for their lives and assets. After the schools are reopened, the enrollments in private schools, international colleges and schools increases more than previously. It is estimated that businesses will rise up again by looking at the figure of reopening of schools and students attending classes. The military is trying upmost to conclude that it is back to normal by looking at the functioning classes and schools without looking at the number of unattended students and those who can’t afford to attend.

Recently, there has been a significant increase in online participations in ceremonies and fundraising events of Union Ministers and Deputy Ministers of NUG government. At every event, Union Ministers and Deputy Ministers said that the revolution would prevail soon, it is not so long for everyone to act on time and the speech about that the victory would be more successful if they get a certain amount of support from people every month. The pro-NUG news channels also reported according to their speeches. There are people talking widely about the digital currency and the payment system established by NUG itself. In some regions and some situations, although it may be true like the encouragement and proclamations of NUG Ministers, some people on the ground may be aware of the difference between words and reality in the overview of the current situation of Myanmar as a whole.