New Internationalist - 11.2019 - 12.2019

Activism in Myanmar

I

His colleague Aung Khant agrees. The
military is ‘thin-skinned’, ‘bigoted’ and
‘intolerant’, he says, but ‘the NLD-dom-
inated parliament does not try to amend
or repeal draconian laws which are prob-
lematic to free speech’. Instead it has
added to them and aggressively deployed
them against its critics.
Along with increasing Article 66(d)
prosecutions, the NLD has frequently
banned political protests unless they
are pro-government or pro-military.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Maung Saung-

kha are both currently awaiting trial,

charged with organizing an unauthor-

ized peace march last year. Journalists,

too, have been heavily targeted.

No public support

Cheery Zahau, a human rights activ-

ist from Myanmar’s remote Chin state,

believes it has become easier for the

government to criminalize activists.

When Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Maung

Saungkha were arrested ‘there was not

much pressure from the public on the

government,’ she says, ‘because people

viewed that activists make too much

noise’.

Zahau says people frequently attack

activists on social media. ‘The small

number of remaining activists aren’t just

dealing with the government and secu-

rity forces, they are also dealing with

their own peers – the ones who used to

be their comrades and friends.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 61

The poet Maung

Saungkha spent six

months in a prison

for posting a poem

on Facebook about

having a tattoo of the

president on his penis