Actors who previously had no issue filming sitcoms and movies with a production house owned by the commander in chief’s daughter, a regular in Yangon’s socialite circles, took to social media to voice support for the demonstrations. Military companies that are deeply entrenched in the country’s economy are suddenly being singled out, with calls for boycotts of military brands and of shops owned by people who have supported the junta. The coup has, however, also prompted the beginning among some of Myanmar’s people of a reevaluation of the military’s acceptance in society despite its abhorrent behavior-something that a brutal campaign against the Rohingya, for which the armed forces now stand accused of genocide, notably failed to do. The country’s new dictator, Min Aung Hlaing, said he needed to toss out the results of last year’s democratic elections-which the military’s party resoundingly lost-and grab hold of power in order to, bafflingly, ensure a “a genuine and disciplined democratic system.” In response, President Joe Biden said yesterday that the United States will enact new, targeted sanctions against military members responsible for the coup, as well as their families, and prevent the generals from accessing $1 billion in Myanmar-government funds held in the U.S. In a country that emerged from decades of ruinous military rule and isolation in only 2011, this month’s coup has sparked intense anger at the armed forces and invigorated a “Gen Z” of young, meme-fluent protesters. Why weren’t those excesses and atrocities of the still-powerful generals, including allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, not enough? Had these protesters simply not known about those abuses? she wondered.
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Yet the demonstrations Thinzar Shunlei Yi had organized-in support of journalists, against abuses towards minorities, calling for an end to Myanmar’s numerous internal conflicts-drew only modest crowds, mostly young dissidents and a smattering of reporters. In the days since the coup, hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the streets nationwide, in hard-scrabble trading cities on the Chinese border and in towns high in the hills, and even in the colossal capital, built in part to inoculate leaders from such public shows of discontent.
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For years, Thinzar Shunlei Yi’s activism against the brutality of Myanmar’s military, at best, was met with tepid enthusiasm or, at worst, set her up as a target, putting her on a collision course with the country’s most prominent voices-including Aung San Suu Kyi.īut after the military took power in a shock, predawn coup last week, detaining Suu Kyi and returning the country to a dictatorship, she has unexpectedly found herself among throngs of flag-waving demonstrators, disobeying and resisting military rule.