Days after a military coup in Myanmar, the top general of the army virtually shut down the Internet while pro-democracy protesters took to the streets.
The largest rally against the overthrow of the government on Monday took place in Yangon City, where protesters passed police riot gear, chanting: “The military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win “, while holding banners that said” Against the military dictatorship “.
The protests came when General Min Aung Hlaing blocked access to Twitter and Instagram, and then virtually shut down the Internet on Saturday, a move to stop the spread of “fake news.”
The strong Burmese community in New York is following the protests minute by minute. For 37-year-old Thi Ha, taking control has sounded like the sound of democracy. David Khin is more optimistic, convinced that his Burmese fellow citizens, beating their pots and pans in protest, will one day regain their struggling freedoms.
But New Yorkers unequivocally agree that now is a frightening time, even for them, because their words could mean trouble for their parents at home in the country formerly known as Burma.
Min Aung Hlaing justified his takeover by claiming that the National League for Democracy, the control party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had stolen the November parliamentary elections. The US has condemned the acquisition.
“Democracy is dead. That’s 100%, “said Ha, of Brooklyn.” We have now lost our freedom in Burma. They are detaining those they want without law. ”
Ha, 37, knows bullying. He and his wife, MyatMon Thinn, fled the country two years ago, tired of being persecuted by soldiers for their pro-democracy efforts, moving NLD leaders to rallies and organizing protests.
“We are doing everything we can to achieve real democracy with NLD,” Ha told The Post. “And that’s why the military is trying to get me and my family.”
Ha and Thinn left their businesses, a car shop and a travel agency. She now works in a grocery store and she has a job in a beauty product store.
Khin, 35, is also concerned about his livelihood as he owns a marketing and public relations agency in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. Before the coronavirus pandemic, he divided his time between his childhood and Queens, where many of New York’s 6,000 Burmese citizens live.
Like Ha, Khin has been a pro-democracy activist for years, but in the United States, where he came in 2007 to go to college. He and his wife May marched in front of the Burmese embassy on the East Side of Manhattan long before Suu Kyi won his first parliamentary election in 2012 and are as committed as ever to keeping his country free.
“We want a change,” Khin told The Post. “That’s why dissent is growing. That is why civil disobedience grows. That’s why I dissent in my own way, here. “
Still, even though he and Ha are halfway around the world, they think the military could make them pay for their words by retaliating against their parents.
“They’re fine now, but they’re very upset, very worried about what might happen, the future,” Khin said. “Of course I’m worried.”
But both men grew up in families where democracy was embraced and are willing to take the risk of speaking out.
“I will do everything I can to make my country free from the coup,” Ha said.