A Tragic Story Of A Headless State (Lives & Hopes In Myanmar 2021 Coup)
It is May 2021. It has been more than 100 days since military forcefully took over our democratically elected government in Myanmar. This story is not one that will describe our lives in details but this story is a story that will hopefully convey our citizens’ feelings and what we are going through to the world and the heads of our state, both legal and illegal. So let me continue with our story.
It is morning and people seems to be doing what they normally do in a normal pre-coup morning, albeit with less cars and people on the street. Then you see a line of people which seems to exceed an entire street, lining up. Let’s have a guess on what they are doing! They are withdrawing money in banks and ATMs en-masse, each equipped with 7–10 ATM cards. This sight is common across as people starts to lose confidence in banks and stability of Kyat, which is the currency of Myanmar. It didn’t help when banks decided to limit the amount that a person can withdraw within a day to 300,000 kyat which is roughly equivalent to USD $176. With the free-falling value of Myanmar Kyat, USD$176 value for MMK 300k will become history pretty soon. With a lot of people currently out of job and education system on standstill, the situation is making us lose hope pretty quickly. With military Vehicles and police equipped with Rifles essentially prancing around doing spot checks and extortion, we are essentially living in fear. I do not want to get into the scalping of the bank tokens and how this deadlock is destroying the country as this will make this wayy too long. The main point is that people are afraid and hopeless. I am afraid and hopeless.
Now, let’s jump to night time because those long lines at ATMs and banks literally takes the whole day and most people ends up waiting up to half a day or a full day just to take out a small amount of money. At night is when you see the real difference, you can see everyone clearing out of the streets back into the safety of their homes due to on-going martial law and curfew imposed upon the entire country. Imagine bars closing at 6:30 PM or 7 PM! At 8 PM, the pots and pan protest where people bang their pots in protest of the Junta, can be seen and heard from multiple streets across the country. This shows that we still have hope but this hope is honestly quickly disappearing. Let me get into the reasons why. The opinion below is mine and mine alone so please be noted that my countrymen might think otherwise.
Before I explain why our hope is quickly disappearing, let me explain where our hope is coming from. Our hope/persistence is mainly and literally fueled by our hate towards the Junta but the hatred doesn’t amount to anything if no one acts on it so we put our hopes on people and organization that will hopefully end the reign of Junta. This hope comes from a few different places at different timeline so let me break down the timeline and also why some of the hope placed were retarded as fuck.
Early Coup Time
A lot of people were staking their hopes on UN and US/Western countries at that time which I found absolutely ridiculous even at the beginning. However, it is an undeniable fact that our citizens put a lot of hope on those organization. I am not going to say that the hopes were misplaced and I am not going to blame the citizens for staking their hopes on them. Heck, even I had some minuscule hope that they will do something aside from releasing statements after statements and having meetings. To anyone who understands a modicum of how UN works, it was clear as day that no help will come, not in the form that people wish for anyway. The heads who have currently formed the NUG should have obviously known that no help is coming. US, on the other hand, has not even had a single hearing on Myanmar issues and expecting US to send troops without US media barely covering Myanmar issue during that time was retarded. Again, the heads should have known that. As time passes, people started to realize this fact and our hopes crashed for the first time alongside a brutal crackdown that killed hundreds of people.
Mid Coup Time (Not Sure if it is going to be mid coup but basically 2 months Into the Coup)
NUG (National Unity Government) was formed. People shifted their hopes into NUG which was honestly great. People found something to believe in again and for the first time, saw some progress within this hopeless nightmare. At this time, a lot of people are already starting to find difficulty with their financial situation and hope could not have come at a better time. What people wanted was a figure to believe in and to be guided by that figure and to people, NUG was it. Then this prick tweeted.
An already fragile newly formed government which was taped together in a rare sense of unity was thrown into question just because of this. We have not gotten the country back and this prick was essentially wagging fingers saying that the barely put together government did not include Rohingya. Let’s not talk about the prick anymore. The response of NUG was not great either. This fucking threw the whole country into confusion for a few days. This eroded the trust and hope a lot of people put towards NUG.
Current Situation
Currently, many people and businesses are hoping that everything goes back to normal, one way or other. I am just hoping that my meager savings does not turn into toilet papers. This worry is not unique to me but to many people as well. That is why they are withdrawing their money en-masse. Why has the situation deteriorated to this stage. A lot has to do with the weakness of NUG. I know that they are doing their best and etc but fuck, their best is not enough. They are older than me and honestly more knowledgeable in politics and social science. Don’t they realize that we as citizens are essentially seeking for a leader that is going to guide us during these time, especially on issues like bank-withdrawals happening across the country, the worries that people have about food shortages and currency prices. The lack of guidance is literally making the situation worse and yet all they can belt out from their Facebook page is essentially long formal letters that no one bothers to read or share. You can check out the share count and reactions count of the page and see that it numbers within thousands at best. Even with Facebook being blocked, Myanmar Facebook users are still active on Facebook and considering that, the share and reaction amounts are depressingly low for a new beacon of hope for Myanmar. Of course, I could not forget about MOIC (Ministry of International Cooperation). It was appointed to garner support from international community to take down the Junta. It is an effort that is honestly novel but fuck again, posting long minutes of international meetings on social media as an encouragement or assurance is effectively a turn off for many many people. In addition, why the fuck are you guys doing some announcement entirely in fucking English? It is hard for us to fucking understand. I am writing this in English so that NUG can finally get that they should be writing their messages to be meant for fucking normal citizens. NUG just seems out of touch with the citizens that choose and choose to place trust on. Let me tell you what I want as a citizen.
WE AS CITIZENS NEED GUIDANCE, A VOICE OF REASON AND AN HONEST ASSURANCE FROM NUG. NUG has to give that or our hope may not last. With Military fucking up at every steps to take control of the country and pushing the country toward destruction, we need NUG to give some advice and guidance that people can understand. Share action plan that we can do. Show some way we can contribute. Assure us. Sure, you may get some hate, you may stumble but fuck, it is better than an effectively silent resistance force. WE NEED YOU GUYS TO LEAD. Be a populist or whatever the fuck you want but show that you are there. Currently, we as citizens are running around doing all sort of things like headless chickens because we effectively do not have anyone that we can trust to lead.
This is the story of our headless state. Whether we win or not, the story is already tragic.
Note: Criticizing NUG doesn’t mean that I don’t hate our Chief Copulator of His Own Mother (MAL) and Junta to the core. I want NUG to be better and honestly, please use the money that we donated to hire good local PR & social media specialists. Message and advice from you guys mean a lot to us.
