By Benedict Rogers
The coup in Myanmar on 1 February is a total tragedy for a country that has already suffered so much repression, violence, brutality and injustice. For more than seventy years since its independence, the people of Myanmar have lived under dictatorship and endured civil war. The past decade, though far from perfect and filled with storm clouds, nonetheless offered some fragile hopes of a pathway of progress towards greater democratization, freedom and peace. In the early hours of 1 February, due to the conceited ambitions of one man – the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar’s armed forces, General Min Aung Hlaing – the hopes that were raised with the dawn of a reform era a decade ago have been dashed. History is repeating itself, and the clock has been turned back more than ten years for the beautiful, brave but benighted peoples of Myanmar.
If there is any silver lining beyond this tragedy, it is that the coup has united the peoples of Myanmar as never before. It has brought together people of different ethnicities, religions and backgrounds throughout the country. The divisions of the past – along ethnic, religious or nationalistic lines – have, at least for now, been suspended. And that provides an opportunity: to build a new Myanmar that is truly democratic, with a new constitution that is genuinely federal and with a system of governance that protects human rights for everyone, is truly inclusive of everyone and that gives every person born on Myanmar soil an equal stake and equal rights in Myanmar’s future.
In a sense, the coup is a leveller. Whether you are Burman or Rohingya, Karen or Kachin, you face the same enemy now. And in one of the greatest signs of hope, Rohingyas – despite being subjected to crude racist abuse by some Burman pro-democracy activists and to genocide by the military –are marching along with everyone else in protest at this coup. Some Burman democrats’ consciences have been awakened by this in turn, and they have apologized for their past apathy or complicity with the 2017 genocide of Rohingyas and reached out in reconciliation. There is a need for much, much more of this, but it’s a welcome start.
Perhaps one of the most positive signs that out of the ashes of this tragedy might emerge a more inclusive movement for change in Myanmar is the appointment by the newly formed Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hltuttaw (CRPH) – Parliamentarians elected in last November’s election who have been unable to take their seats due to the coup – of Dr Sasa as its special envoy to the United Nations and the international community. （Editor's note: The Myanmar state television announced on 16 March that Dr Sasa has been charged with treason by junta. Yet, his current whereabouts was not known.)
Dr Sasa is ethnic Chin and Christian, a double-minority. He is also one of my closest friends from Myanmar. I have had the privilege of knowing him for over 15 years. He has become part of my family.
Sasa was born in a very remote village in the jungle in Chin State, western Myanmar, where almost everyone was illiterate. He does not know his date of birth. He often says that when he first filled out an identity document and was asked his place of birth, he wrote: “Kitchen”. He knows only that he was born at a time of a full moon and a good harvest.
It quickly became apparent to Sasa’s family and friends that he was intelligent. His name – ‘Sasa’ – means “higher and higher”. So in a village where there was little education, arrangements were made for primary schooling for him. Then the villagers dispatched him to Yangon for further studies. He returned to the village to impart his knowledge, but was so horrified by burying many of his neighbours dying of preventable and treatable diseases that he decided he wanted to study medicine. He began an epic journey of further study in India and then in Armenia – of all places – funded by his villagers selling pigs and chickens.
About 16 years ago I was on a flight back to London from Bangkok when I got talking to the man sitting next to me whose wife, it emerged in conversation, was supporting students in Myanmar. As a result of further conversations I learned of a young Chin medical student from Myanmar, studying in Armenia. Having myself travelled to Yerevan and the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, I made some connections – and ended up meeting Sasa.
Over the past 15 years Sasa has stayed in my home dozens of times, and at my parents’ home. He calls my mother “Mum”, and when my first nephew was born he told me: “Isn’t it wonderful, brother, we’re going to be uncles!”. He calls my mother’s cuisine “Second Chance Kitchen” because he knows he’s off duty and can eat as much as he wishes. His charity, ‘Health and Hope’, was first conceived in my family home.
For the past decade or more Sasa has focused on his humanitarian work, and has not been engaged with politics. He has trained hundreds of community health workers throughout Chin State, and assisted in several humanitarian emergencies in his region. It was only last summer that the National League for Democracy (NLD) began to make overtures about engaging him in political campaigns and, very reluctantly – refusing their invitations three times – he ended up running the NLD’s campaign in Chin State, securing a much better result than expected, and was lined up to be appointed for a senior ministerial position in Aung San Suu Kyi’s second administration.
When the coup happened Sasa was in Naypyidaw, but made a miraculous escape. Now his picture adorns banners and billboards across the country, and millions follow him on social media. He is being described as Myanmar’s legitimate spokesperson to the world and has been catapulted into a prominence he never sought but has courageously accepted for the good of his people.
His vision – and he is clear about this – is a break from the past. For too long the democracy movement has been fractured between supporters of the NLD and the ethnic groups. Racism, religious intolerance and identity politics have divided people. Sasa is clear that he has no time for that and is determined to help lead a movement that unites everyone who opposes military rule and believes in human rights, without exception. He wants a federal democracy, a new constitution, and equal rights for everyone of all ethnicities and religions. Both Burman democrats, ethnic rebels and Rohingya refugees can count him their friend, and that is an exciting prospect.
Of course his task – and that of the whole movement – is daunting. They face the full force of the Myanmar military, which has a past track record and a real-time charge-sheet of brutality and atrocities. And they face a world with many problems and a fair degree of apathy and appeasement. But if those around the world who have a conscience and values are willing to act, they should engage with my friend Sasa and support him and his colleagues in their efforts to pursue their David versus Goliath effort to establish – this time – a genuine federal democracy in Myanmar and a better future. In the immediate term the world must prevent a massacre – and then work with enlightened democrats like Sasa to build a genuinely multi-cultural Myanmar in which everyone is free and at peace.
Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, Senior Analyst for East Asia at the international human rights organisation CSW, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and the author of three books on Myanmar, including “Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads”.
