Myanmar’s government-in-hiding calls for ‘revolution’ against military

A man uses a slingshot during the security force crack down on anti-coup protesters in Mandalay

Credit: Reuters/Reuters

The civilian leader of Myanmar’s government-in-hiding has urged citizens to come together to win a “revolution” against the military that seized power in a coup, as protests continued on Sunday. 

“This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close,” said Mahn Win Khaing Than in a video posted on the shadow government’s website and Facebook on Saturday.

He is on the run along with most senior officials from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party. The military has detained Suu Kyi and other members of her elected government following the Feb. 1 coup. 

“We will never give up to an unjust military, but we will carve our future together with our united power. Our mission must be accomplished,” said Mahn Win Khaing Than in his first public address since he went into hiding.  

On Sunday, security forces continued a violent crackdown on protests, and at least two people were shot dead in the country’s largest city of Yangon. 

As of Saturday, more than 80 people had been killed in the protests, and more than 2,100 arrested, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group. 

Many thousands of people have taken to the streets daily in the South-East Asian nation to protest the coup and demand the military step down. A civil disobedience movement has expanded into a general strike that has halted many sectors of the economy.

Mahn Win Khaing Than, who was speaker of the house during Suu Kyi’s previous administration, has been named acting vice-president by representatives of Myanmar’s ousted lawmakers, the Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH).

They want to create a federal democracy and have been meeting with representatives of some of Myanmar’s ethnic armed organisations, which control parts of the country.   

 “This revolution is the chance for us to put our efforts together”, said Mahn Win Khaing Than.

The CRPH – which the junta has declared illegal – would also “attempt to legislate” to give citizens the right to defend themselves against the military crackdown, he said. 

At the end of his video message, he flashed a three-fingered salute, which comes from the Hunger Games books and films and has been adopted as a symbol of resistance by protesters. 

Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute think tank in Yangon, said that while the civilian leader’s statement was “rather vague”, he was calling on people to “oppose the regime”.

“I don’t think really that Mahn Win Khaing Than is definitely talking about armed opposition, he wouldn’t go so far as that,” he said. “But one thing is clear – he’s calling upon all people to oppose the dictatorship by any means whatsoever.

“‘We don’t have to say we support the NLD or the CRPH, but … we have to bring down the dictatorship’ – that’s what he’s connoting.”