PDF temporarily arrested 60 teachers who do not participate in CDM …

Myanmar Spring Chronicle – May 24 Scenes

MoeMaKa, May 25 2023

PDF temporarily arrested 60 teachers who do not participate in CDM in Pakokku Township & CDM policy needed to be reviewed

On May 18, the PDFs temporarily detained 3 cars carrying 60 non-CDM school teachers while they were checking the passing of vehicles on the road between Pakokku and Yesagyo in Pakokku Township. It happened on May 18, but it was not reported in the news media and the news began to emerge only on May 24 that the gold items were not confiscated during the temporary detention and inspection of teachers who did not participate in CDM.

It was also reported in the news that the 3 cars and the educational aid were confiscated.

After the military coup on February 1, 2021, the CDM movement emerged with momentum when departmental employees were organized not to go to work so that the military council’s administrative mechanism could not operate. It started with the health workers, then came the CDM staff from education, other departments, and police and later the military council troops.

The military council responded to CDM workers in various ways, such as issuing warrants for them under Article 505-A, arresting them, blacklisting them, and preventing them from leaving the country. In terms of the number of CDM workers, teachers from the education field, doctors and nurses from the health field will be the most. Since the education sector has a large number of employees, it probably has a larger number of CDMs.

The nature of purpose of the initial CDM movement and that of the CDM movement after 2 years of the formation of the National Unity Government and the armed revolution seem to have changed in different situations. Many CDM participants who are at risk of being arrested, CDM employees who actively participated in the anti-coup strikes, and those who led the movement within their departments have fled to the Thai-Myanmar border and areas controlled by ethnic armed groups. Only a few are able to settle in countries like third countries, and most of them live in ethnic armed areas and Thailand as illegal residents or as migrant workers trying to obtain identity and working randomly.

In the case of the recent rape of a 5-year-old girl, the child’s mother is a CDM education employee and a former associate professor at the university. The place where she lives is in a barrack-like building with a shared toilet with a rental fee of 1,500 baht per month. It is a great honor that hundreds of thousands of public servants participated in the CDM movement. On the other hand, it is necessary to honestly review and admit to the situation that we are unable to take responsibility for the living, employment, family living, children’s education and security of those who participated in the CDM movement until the end of 2 years.

If it is necessary to focus on the armed struggle while it is decisive for political power, activities in other fields are not mandatory. So policies need to be reviewed.

When the CDM issue has passed for more than 2 years, it is not yet clear whether doing CDM or not is still an urgent issue or whether the regionally formed PDF groups are practicing the policy they understand.

In the academic year that will start now, I think it is time to talk clearly about how much the interim education system established by NUG can be relied on by the local people, or what the attitude is about choosing education under the military council.

In the health sector, there are cases of people losing their access to health care and putting their lives at risk when they have to rely on private hospitals due to the lack of doctors in government hospitals in some remote areas, district hospitals, and township hospitals, and not enough doctors even in hospitals in the cities. It will also be necessary to prepare for whether alternative hospitals and health care arrangements can be made when people are urged not to rely on the military council’s hospitals.