Wai Yan Hpone

The last week of August 2002 was an unusually rainy week. Even after 20 years, I remember that because I spent that week in what was the most hostile, violent and stressful place in my life. Up to now, I can revisit the fear I felt— fear of losing a future, of never seeing my beloved ones again.  Photo: Burma Campaign UK I was a third-year engineering student at that time. The final exam was drawing near, and that one evening of late August, I was studying while Mom and others were busy preparing for her 50th birthday treat the next morning.  At about 11 pm, three men in plainclothes came, searched my study room, and took me away. “National Bureau of Intelligence,” they said to my family, without giving their names and ranks or showing their IDs. “We have a few questions for him.”  “We’ll send him back soon,” they told my family, “Do not make any complaint to any entity.” But I understood that in Burma, a country under military rule for decades, a person taken away at mid...

ON 1 February 2021, the dreams of many people in Burma (Myanmar) were shattered overnight. Since then, I, along with everyone else in my country of over 55 million people, have been living in darkness.  The situation one year since remains dire – one of shrinking basic freedoms, a banking and financial crisis, mounting civil war in the midst of an unthinkable human rights disaster. For someone living in what is already one of the world’s most impoverished countries, facing a military coup during a global pandemic is akin to experiencing an 8-magnitude earthquake in the middle of a category-five cyclone.  Whether out in the streets or at home, one can die from a stray bullet. Soldiers shoot wildly every time they face a hit-and-run attack by urban underground fighters. Before going out, we remove all sensitive content from our mobile phones, including the VPNs needed to open apps like Facebook. Refusal to cooperate with soldiers at checkpoints can lead to severe consequences, i...

While the anti-coup movement is ostensibly about who rules – the military or the people – embedded in it are four tendencies that, with the world’s help, will radically remake Myanmar society for the better. Myanmar is in the throes of a profound political crisis, but the solution must extend beyond the question of who’s in charge of government. The resistance to the Tatmadaw’s takeover has been spearheaded by the youth. Members of so-called Generation Z have learned from their elders in the 1988 pro-democracy movement, but this “Spring Revolution” is not like their parents’ failed revolution. The battle is lopsided – the military has more guns and more money than the people right now – but, with action from the international community, it is entirely winnable. The prize will not only be democratic government, but a far more just, inclusive and united society, thanks to four progressive tendencies embedded in the youth-led movement. Genuine democracy The first of these tendencies is a ...

Before February 1, 2021, if someone had asked me whether the military would stage a coup, I would have said no. I would have just thought it was another empty threat. Min Aung Hlaing had even said just a day before that there were no plans to abolish the 2008 Constitution. But when the coup actually happened, I wasn’t surprised either. We already knew they could do anything. If you read between the lines, you will notice that the only thing they ruled out was abolishing the Constitution—not that they had guaranteed they wouldn’t grab power. And under the 2008 Constitution, wasn’t it impossible to stage a coup without scrapping it? In reality, they managed to do it in just a matter of days.   Once the coup happened, people erupted. They were devastated. They saw it as democracy being stolen through sheer force. But let’s take a moment to really think—had we actually achieved democracy? Was the 2016–2020 period truly democratic rule? We often analyze things through comparison. C...

I once wondered if I truly loved you. For so long, my love had no distinct form— a mist without shape. Then I learned to follow my breath, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. I watched my mind, its flickering nature, dancing like fireflies. With time, love transformed— a larva breaking free, unfolding into a butterfly that soared with kindness, compassion, and light. So, my dear, stay if you will, I will welcome you. Go if you must, I will not grieve. I have let go without letting love fade. For true love, I have found, blooms like a waterlily under the moon’s quiet glow, rooted deep within me. Take it, hold it, breathe in its scent. It costs nothing, yet no one can buy it. All you must do is cherish it— until it withers away.