[Interview] Myanmar youth in Seoul shares outlook on ongoing struggle for democracy

\"Our generation got a taste of democracy,\" Kaing shared. \"We can't go on living like this.\"

Kaing (pseudonym), a young person from Myanmar, holds up the three-finger salute.

Kaing (a pseudonym adopted for this article) is a twentysomething from Myanmar who arrived in Korea in September. She’s a member of what Koreans call the MZ Generation (a combination of Millennials and Generation Z), referring to digital natives born in the 1990s and 2000s.

Kaing was an impressionable teenager when Myanmar held its general election in November 2015. That makes her part of the first generation there to get a taste of democracy, however brief. Members of Kaing’s generation are quite different both in mentality and lifestyle from those who lived through the unsuccessful 8888 Uprising in 1988. That was the same year that South Korean protesters forced their own military junta to allow democratic elections.

How are young people in Myanmar coping with the coup? Are they still resisting? The Hankyoreh sat down with Kaing on October 25 to hear her story. We’ve refrained from providing details that could be used to identify her.

Kaing underlined the antipathy that youth in Myanmar feel about the military coup in early February. “The consensus about rejecting the military regime is more firmly established [among us] than in any other generation,” she said in halting Korean.

“The thing is that our generation got a taste of democracy. We can’t go on living like this,” Kaing told the Hankyoreh.

But the fact is that few avenues of resistance are available to ordinary young people given the military’s tyranny. The military’s brutal crackdown — which included shooting down protesters — has quashed the large-scale demonstrations held in the early phase of the coup. But Kaing stressed that young people are still fighting by maintaining a campaign of civil disobedience.

To be sure, some have also taken up arms in an attempt to directly overthrow the junta. “Some young people have joined the People’s Defense Force. They’re determined to resist the junta through force. Those of us who are less courageous or don’t have the physical capacity for that send money to support them,” Kaing said.

Given its lack of military equipment and experience, the People’s Defense Force is turning to the ethnic militias that have been fighting for decades for independence from the majority Bamar people. The two sides are joining forces against their common enemy — the junta.

Fires rage in the town of Thantlang, Myanmar, on Oct. 29, following shelling by the military. (AFP/Yonhap News)

Just because many Burmese haven’t personally joined the struggle doesn’t mean they’ve capitulated to the junta’s rule. Doctors, teachers, public servants and office workers are still on strike, half a year after the coup.

“Some young people save up a few thousand kyat each month and send it to the striking teachers,” Kaing said. A thousand kyat is worth about half a US dollar.

The junta metes out stern punishments to such sponsors, when it can find them.

Kaing notes that the people of Myanmar asked the international community — including the UN, the US and Europe — for intervention or other forms of help in the weeks following the coup, but their attitude now is different.

“Early on, lots of young people flocked to embassies of various countries and asked for help, but nothing happened. We were disappointed, but we’ve learned that nobody can stand in for us in this fight.”

The experience of the past nine months has taught the people of Myanmar that the most important thing is their own determination to recover democracy.

Members of Myanmar’s younger generations believe that, in the end, the people of Myanmar will be victorious.

“Some people who lived through the 8888 Uprising say we lost then and we’ll lose again. But things are different now. We can contact people on the internet, and the world is watching, you know?”

Since the coup, Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has been tracking the number of citizens who have been killed or detained and publishing that information online, while Myanmar’s online media have provided real-time coverage of the fighting by the People’s Defense Force.

“Just wait and see — when the time comes, we’re going to rise back up, just as you did in Korea. We may not be able to get rid of the junta right now, but you’ll see us get back our democratic government within two years’ time.”

Kaing smiled while giving a three-finger salute, which symbolizes the Myanmar people’s commitment to resistance.

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]