A voice for democracy in Myanmar speaks out.
By Dan Martin Senior staff editor |
Thousands of people have been killed or arrested and more than one million displaced in Myanmar, which is in a state of turmoil after the powerful military deposed the elected government in a February 2021 coup. |
Few in Myanmar can count the grim personal costs like Nilar Thein, who brings the on-the-ground impact to life in a visceral guest essay written from her perspective as a democracy campaigner, wife and mother. |
Nilar Thein and her husband, Ko Jimmy — also one of Myanmar's most prominent political activists — spent much of their lives as prisoners of conscience for daring to stand up to the country's generals. Ko Jimmy paid the ultimate price in July when he was executed along with three other activists after a closed-door trial that rights groups have denounced as a sham. |
Although they could not have foreseen so tragic and brutal an outcome, the couple knew well the dangers of their work. Nilar Thein writes that 15 years ago, while she was pregnant with their daughter, Ko Jimmy "would lean down to my swollen belly, reciting Buddhist mantras of love and saying sorry" to the unborn child because they knew their occupations would deprive her of "a normal childhood." |
They were right: The girl, nicknamed Whitey, who has been separated from her parents for extended periods for her own safety, is once again apart from her fugitive mother and, at 15, is coming of age at a bleak moment in her country's history. |
The junta's repression made it a challenge even to bring this essay to light. Nilar Thein, who has been in hiding since the coup, is frequently on the move and maintains contact only with a small circle of trusted associates to avoid discovery and arrest. |
We're grateful to Richard Roewer, a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and doctoral candidate at Oxford University, and Han Htoo Khant Paing, an Oxford-educated independent researcher of social media and democratic institutions, for their invaluable assistance communicating with Nilar Thein and translating her essay. |
As Nilar Thein writes, the world has offered little more than rhetorical support for those in Myanmar who continue to risk life and limb resisting the coup. Perhaps brave voices like hers will help turn the tide. |
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