What A Day - Two Months Of Protest In Myanmar

Episode Date: April 9, 2021

It's been over two months since the military first seized control of Myanmar. The coup was met with a massive protest movement in the streets, in workplaces, and on the internet. As a response, the military has become increasingly violent in its crackdown, killing over 500 people and jailing thousands more.We spoke to Aye Min Thant, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has been reporting on the coup since February about the country's past, present, and future. And in headlines: An executive order on "ghost guns," relief money for undocumented essential workers in New York state, and conflict at Mrs. Sri Lanka pageant.Show Notes:Journalist Aye Min Thant – https://twitter.com/the_ayeminthantFor a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

it's friday april 9th i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what the day the podcast they play at the white house when they need joe biden's dog to calm down yeah and based on news reports they're playing at 24 7 you know this is their jock jams they love it. On today's show, we give you an inside look at the military coup in Myanmar and then some headlines. As a reminder, that coup began on February 1st. On that day, the parliament was set to hold its first session since the fall elections, where the National League for Democracy, or NLD, won a majority of seats. But the military refused to accept the results and detained leaders of the party in addition to other officials, including the NLD's president Aung San Suu Kyi. From there, the military swiftly began to take control of

infrastructure, the media, and also suspended phone access and flights. Then later the same month, what had been largely peaceful protests turned deadly when two unarmed protesters were killed by security forces, including a 16-year-old boy. There was also a protest in the form of a general strike on February 22nd, but with each passing day, the military has become more violent towards civilians. The military has now killed over 550 people and detained or tortured many thousands more, according to one human rights group. Among those dead, more than 40 children. And basic information has been hard

to come by for the people in Myanmar. Under the military's control, journalists have been arrested, non-state-owned newspapers have stopped publishing, and internet outages are frequent. But despite all that, Ayman Thant has been able to report. Thant was there from the very beginning, giving an eyewitness account of what they were seeing on the streets. They are a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and they had to flee the country two weeks ago, but have been meticulously covering the events. We spoke to them this week about Myanmar's past, present, and future. Here is that conversation. Eamon Thant Eamon, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.

We really, really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. We really, really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for having me. So first off, I just want to ask, you know, how are you doing? Because, you know, it's been an incredibly intense and scary time from everything that we're seeing online about it and the news reports that we are getting. You know, how are you feeling? I think every hour is a little bit different. You know, the coup, the dynamics of it changes day by day. And, you know, there are some days where, you know, 140 people get killed. And there's some days where you count yourself lucky that it's just one or two. And those are unfortunately now the good days. Wow. So, you know, I think there's a lot of grief and collective mourning that's happening, as well as, you know, a fair bit of anger. And sometimes also, I think a lot of times also quite a lot of joy.

You know, the first night when they started using like sound grenades in Yangon, you know, you heard all these like very scary, loud booms going off all over the city. And then out of the darkness, you hear someone yell, Happy New Year's. And there's people refusing to be cowed and just really saying, you know, no matter what's happening, we're going to live our lives and we're going to be happy and there's going to be a future. Absolutely. I mean, we're incredibly happy that you're in a safe place and you're even able to talk to us, but can you tell us a little bit more about the past couple of months? What did the day-to-day look like under the coup while you were still in Myanmar? I think when you're outside the country, it's, it can seem like it's just chaos and violence all the time everywhere, but the violence can get really localized in certain areas. So in Yangon, the main commercial city, the districts that are

being focused on are where the majority of low-wage factory workers are working, where, you know, they're heavily unionized, they're very organized, and they've been part of the leading force of the civil disobedience movement against the coup. Because, you know, they're poorer, they're probably less connected, and sort of violence against the poor is kind of just normalized, right, in a lot of ways, where wealthier neighborhoods are not targeted the same way. You know, there's some neighborhoods where people are getting manicures and just going out for brunch. And there are other townships where in this very same city,

there's essentially not a war because it's not two groups of combatants, but, you know, just essentially massacres happening. Yeah, and tens of thousands of people have been participating in what's being called the Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM. Can you talk a little bit more about the different ways that people are taking part? Yeah, I think there's been quite a lot of international focus on the street protests, which, you know, obviously visually it's very striking. And some of the sort of main strategic goals of the civil disobedience movement are to try to deny the military regime legitimacy, funding and cooperation. So in terms of legitimacy, there is a huge push towards the international community to not

associate with the regime, to not speak to them, to not in any way acknowledge them as the government of Myanmar. And then the move to starve the regime, essentially, of funding. There's been push for sanctions. There's been push for companies to not pay taxes as long as that money is going towards the military machine. And then there's a movement of civil servants who are choosing not to go to work, who are essentially risking not just their salaries, but also their homes. The government provides housing for most civil servants who choose to take it. These are all people who have all of their information in a government database where they can just come and essentially arrest you. picky about who they arrest. They were looking for one National League for Democracy member, the sort of party that won the most votes in the election. And because he wasn't home, they took his two-year-old child. Wow. So you've mentioned the military violence, which is really striking online. The videos that we've seen are horrible. The pictures are terrifying.

And, you know, this is happening to protesters and regular civilians. So how has this affected the outlook or the general approach of the resistance movement? There's definitely a significant portion of protesters and anti-coup activists who believe that, you know, either self-defense or active engagement is the way forward. You know, Myanmar has one of the world's longest running civil wars. They're 70 years deep into wars in certain areas of the country. And so there are these many groups of small armies and militias around the country that for now, we mostly see them accompanying protesters in the regions that they're active in, in order to ensure that these protesters don't get shot. And that's in part why we see more shootings in places like Yangon, where these armed groups are not active.

But as more and more engagement happens, it's becoming more and more likely that we will see more violence at a sort of much more dispersed violence throughout the country from multiple angles. Yeah. And we had talked about this earlier, but, you know, you had to flee the country. What was the point that made you think that it was best to get out? And what have things been like for journalists as of late? I decided to get out when I thought that sort of my privileges as a U.S. passport holder would essentially provide no more protection. You know, being a foreign national in Myanmar, you have quite a lot of privileges. And I mean, I look Burmese. And so there's like visually less production. Like if I was a blonde white lady, you know, maybe less likely to get accidentally shot.

But I decided when they began to target journalists specifically and began to arrest foreign journalists that I would be leaving there. Essentially, the week I made that decision. Another Burmese American journalist had actually gotten arrested and, you know, I'm too soft for jail. And what else? It's what I always say. Couldn't be me. I decided to leave before it was too late for me to leave.

Yeah. But the situation for journalism is fairly bleak um although there i think there's also hope um in that myanmar people are very creative and they you know they've lived under dictatorship for a very long time and have found ways to be subversive and so even with all of these internet shutdowns and cutting mobile data, news is still getting out. And there's also been a few, essentially, newsletters that are starting up now. Now, the newspapers have essentially stopped printing

if they're not military run. But there are these sort of like one to two page pamphlets that people are just passing out in the streets and just going really low tech in the face of these sort of more high tech suppression efforts. Yeah. How do you feel about how, you know, Western or international coverage has been about the unrest? You know, what are these outlets getting right? What are they getting wrong? You know, what's your, what's your sense of it? I think there's been a little bit too much focus on the street protests, like, especially with television news. Like, you know, it's like street protests are sexy. They look good on camera. Yeah, exactly. There's lots of people there.

You can get a lot of angles. Yeah. And is attention grabbing um but you know that's not the street protests are not where this movement is going to succeed or fail you know this is a fight for legitimacy right in within the country but also on the international stage and i really wish there was more conversation about that and sort of what is happening there and a deeper exploration of the actors at play in Myanmar. I think when we talk about Myanmar coverage, there's just so much focus on how is the U.S. reacting, China, but I think in a moment where we're seeing like a people-led revolution and people people led movements all throughout the world, including in the U.S., it's really frustrating that a lot of sort of mass media is really focused on like who are like what are the like the leaders doing? They're like the people who are not sort of living with the daily consequences. This is kind of a big picture question, but, you know, what outcomes and changes are you hoping to see after, you know, hopefully this coup ends and hopefully soon?

You know, like what do you really want to see included in a post-coup constitution? Myanmar needs a reset, essentially. I think a lot of the problems we're seeing in one is the official secrets act which is a law from the colonial era uh where essentially possessing information that could potentially be harmful to the state is a crime um which you know the leader of a nation would have that information. Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. If they don't have it, who does? But yeah, like essentially a reimagining of Myanmar that includes people and centers people based on civic and community engagement and participation as the main way in which we decide who belongs to a country. A constitution where the rights and heritage of ethnic minorities and religious minorities are respected.

And so, yeah, I would want to see a constitution that redistributes power more to individuals and communities and really grapples with Myanmar's diversity and includes protections for that in a just way. Yeah, I hope for that, too. We hope for it as well. Well, thank you so much again for taking the time to speak with us today. Really just unbelievable conversation. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me and for covering the story. That was Eamon Thant, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who's been covering the coup in Myanmar since day one. We'll link to their Twitter account so you can continue to follow the story through their own reporting. And that's the latest for now. It's Friday, WOD Squad, and for today's Timp Check, we're talking about a brand new type of document forgery.

Hundreds of people on places like Etsy and Facebook are now selling fake CDC vaccination cards. These are the cards you get after your shot, and the idea is to sell to anti-vaxxers who want to do things like get free Krispy Kreme or fly on a plane, but don't want to actually protect themselves or the people around them. 45 state attorneys general got together last week to demand that Twitter, Shopify, and eBay block the sale of fake cards. If you see them being sold, keep your finger on the block and report button. Giddy, what is your take on this? This is a disaster. I mean, in all kinds of ways. of all if you are a person that didn't want some sort of formalized vaccine passport to happen this is the exact kind of thing that would make that happen because if people are going to try

to figure out who is and is not vaccinated to keep people safe in various settings and you have a fake one that you're presenting, buddy, you've earned yourself an annoying phone app. You've earned yourself some other thing that is going to ask for more information. And second, why would you pay for a thing that is free? The vaccine is free. Right. Exactly. The vaccine is free. It helps you. But I guess you'll have this piece of paper that ultimately probably won't. And is, you know, I don't know how expensive they are, but I can't imagine spending more than 50 cents on a piece of paper. Like, I don't really understand.

But, you know, these these vultures saw a market for it and decided that, you know, it was their time. And also, you can't insulate yourself for the pandemic. What is step two after you purchase one of these and then go to one of the places where you'd be faking to get in? You get sick because you're not vaccinated? What is step two? I don't understand. You played yourself. Yeah, right. It doesn't make any sense at all.

And I think that for me, the biggest thing is if you truly don't want to get the vaccine you should own that like i am owning very loudly that i got the vaccine i'm happy to have it but like if you're a person who's like i don't want the vaccine why lie why lie i think you just have to own your choices and it's really cowardly to opt out of just like getting something that honestly isn't even that big of a freaking deal right right it's. It's just, it's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed. And I think like, yeah, it's only going to make the record keeping much more intense

because like, yeah, thanks a lot. You've introduced this new variable, people who are bored on Etsy and want to make a few bucks. But just like that, we've checked our temps. Stay safe. And by that, I mean, just get the vaccine. Like, I don't know why we're out here doing everything but doing that. Just get the vaccine if you can. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. built using parts and instructions bought online, meaning the buyer doesn't need to have a background check and the gun won't have a serial number. Another rule targets stabilizing braces, which can transform pistols into more dangerous short-barreled rifles. This device was used by the gunman in the Boulder, Colorado shooting just last month. And lastly, President Biden announced that the Justice Department would publish red flag legislation for states to model their own rules after. Red flag laws allow officers or family members to petition to take a person's firearms away if they are at risk to themselves or others. Biden admitted that much more needs to be done and pressed Congress to take more aggressive action. Yeah, Joe Manchin, step aside. New York State will start offering relief payments

to undocumented immigrants who lost their jobs during the pandemic. The state legislature approved a new budget, including a $2.1 billion excluded workers fund, which will provide one-time payments of up to $15,000 per person. An estimated 300,000 people in the state will finally get the relief they've been needing. Undocumented workers across the country were not eligible for essential federal aid, such as stimulus checks or unemployment benefits during the pandemic. And many of them came out to protest for relief in the weeks leading up to the budget deadlines, with some even participating in a three-week-long hunger strike that ended this week. The Pandemic Relief Fund is one of the largest of its kind to date, even beating out a similar program passed in California last year,

which only offered a one-time $500 payment. There is hope that one of Trump's first acts of presidential earth destruction can be undone. As Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is visiting Bears Ears National Monument in Utah this week. So Trump shrank the monument by 85% in 2017, despite its great historical and religious significance to the Navajo and four other tribes. Navajo Nation has asked Haaland to help restore the monument to its original boundaries or expand it beyond them. Utah's Republican governor and other state leaders don't want that, saying they'd rather manage land locally. No D.C. elite is going to tell them that they have to respect native cultures in their own backyard.

To get a sense of how the hands-off approach is going, guides say that the 1,000-year-old cliff dwellings in Bears Ears are frequently vandalized, while fossils and pottery fragments are looted. If you're doing that, you are a monster in my book. Secretary Holland is expected to recommend that the monument be restored to the 1.35 million acres that Obama designated in 2016. It's kind of weird that the Republican governor is so upset about it, even though Donald Trump was not local when he made that choice. So yeah, I think you all don't mind DC meddling. Quick update in international pageant news. There was a major controversy during the televised Mrs. Sri Lanka competition this weekend, where a former winner and current Mrs. World took the crown off her successor's head and allegedly caused injuries. This happened during the televised award ceremony. Mrs. World winner Caroline Jury came on stage and announced that the 2021 Mrs. Sri Lanka winner Pushpika De Silva was ineligible for the prize because she had been divorced.

That rule does actually exist because every beauty pageant has its own bad quirks. But De Silva later clarified that she hadn't violated it. She and her husband were separated but still married. Thank God. That wasn't communicated in the heat of the moment, and the crown was briefly given to the runner-up. Following the Moonlight vs. La La Land moment on stage,

Mrs. World was arrested yesterday and later released on bail. This all could have been avoided if Sandra Bullock had been there undercover. Where is Miss Congeniality? We've been asking. I mean, Mrs. Congeniality is who they really needed. And those are the headlines.

One more thing before we go. Remind your elected officials that they work for you with our new line of Hold Elected Officials Accountable merch. As always, a portion of every order

in the Crooked store goes to support vote writers. Shop now at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And protect bears' ears. The real ones and the name of the park. You know, bears who have ears need to be protected just as much.

Yeah. If there are any bears that are listening with their ears. Thank you. Music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.