Anger and anxiety in Yangon: 'I don't want the coup'
Many people in Yangon knew when they awoke that something was wrong. Rumours of an impending coup had been circulating for days. Now mobile internet services were no longer working and phone lines were down. Some television stations had been taken off air.
By 8.30am it was official: the military had taken power. A decade after Myanmar began its fraught journey towards democracy, it was once again under direct army rule.
“My mum shook me awake with the news that Aung San Suu Kyi had been detained. I was shocked and didn’t know how to respond,” said a 25-yearold woman. She, like many, rushed out to buy groceries, and on the way home she cried. “I feel so angry and so anxious,” she said.
Queues formed at shops as people stocked up on rice, oil and instant noodles. People flocked to ATMs but were unable to withdraw cash because communication cuts meant machines were out of service. Some pharmacies ran out of supplies.
An NGO worker based in Yangon said the streets were calm but there was a “looming fear and cautiousness in the air”.
Last week when the military, which had accused Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy of electoral fraud, said it would not rule out a coup, many in Yangon hung red NLD flags to signal their support for the ruling party. By Monday the flags had disappeared.
“I don’t think people know how to react. Accept, hide or protest? Myanmar has a messy and bloody history with protests,” the NGO worker said.
The NLD won a landslide victory in November’s elections, when large numbers turned out to vote despite the risks posed by the pandemic. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party won only 33 seats.
There was deep anger that the military had taken away Myanmar’s hope of democracy. “It’s extremely upsetting, I don’t want the coup,” a 64-year-old man in Hlaing township told AFP. “I have seen many transitions in this country and I was looking forward to a better future.”
A 29-year-old sales assistant said: “I
am just so disappointed about everything that has happened.”
As prominent activists and politicians rushed to a change locations to avoid arrest, a parade of trucks carrying supporters of the military drove through Yangon’s main roads, waving the country’s flag and blaring the national anthem.
A small group gathered to celebrate the army’s new powers near the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in downtown Yangon, where they danced to songs with the lyrics “We have bravely shown Myanmar’s blood”.
At another pro-military protest near Sule pagoda, local and foreign reporters were beaten up, according to videos posted on Facebook.
Aside from police, there were few uniformed officers out in Yangon, though military trucks and soldiers were deployed outside City Hall.
Lamin Oo, a Yangon film-maker, said he was shocked but not surprised by the military’s actions. “I take my chance to vote very seriously because this can happen in this country,” he told AFP. His neighbourhood in Yankin Township was trying to stay calm, he added. “I think we need to be prepared for the worst.”