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MYANMAR-POLITICS-MILITARY
Myanmar ‘shadow’ parliament urges united opposition to coup
YANGON, March 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Anti-coup demonstrators pushed on with
protests Sunday as Myanmar neared its seventh week under military rule, as a
group of MPs in hiding urge them to move with “invincibility” to overcome the
nation’s “darkest moment”.
The country has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader
Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 1 putsch, triggering a mass
uprising that has seen hundreds of thousands protest daily for a return to
democracy.
The junta has repeatedly justified its power grab by alleging widespread
electoral fraud in November’s elections, which Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy party had swept in a landslide.
In response, a group of elected MPs, many of whom are in hiding, had
formed a shadow “parliament” called the Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw (CRPH) — the Burmese word for the country’s governing bloc — to
denounce the military regime.
The junta’s security forces have staged near-daily crackdowns against
demonstrators calling for a return to democracy, deploying tear gas, rubber
bullets and live rounds to quell anti-coup protests which have seen more than
70 killed.
Despite the growing death toll, protesters have continued taking to the
streets — Sunday saw sit-ins in commercial hub Yangon, marches through the
coastal city of Dawei, and civil servants hoisting Suu Kyi’s poster defiantly
at a gather in the central city of Monywa.
“May the fallen heroes who have given their lives in this spring
revolution rest in peace!” changed protesters wearing hard hats in Yangon’s
Thaketa township — which has seen bouts of violence this week between
security forces and residents.
Their daytime gatherings come a day after the acting vice president of the
CRPH called for the people to continue protesting against the military’s
“unjust dictatorship”.
“This is the darkest moment of the nation and the light before the dawn is
close,” said Mahn Win Khaing Than in a recorded video posted on the CRPH’s
Facebook page Saturday night.
“This is also a moment testing our citizens to see how far we can resist
these darkest times,” said the politician, a high-ranking NLD politician who
served as speaker of the house during Suu Kyi’s previous administration.
Along with other top Suu Kyi allies, he had been placed under house arrest
during the February 1 power grab, according to the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners monitoring group.
His address Saturday would be his first appearance in his capacity as
CRPH’s acting vice president, and he echoed the anti-coup movement’s calls
for a “federal democracy” — which would allow ethnic minority groups to have
a role in Myanmar’s governance.
“This uprising is also the chance for all of us to struggle together hand-
in-hand to establish a federal democracy union which we — all ethnic
brothers and sisters who have been suffering various kinds of oppression from
military dictatorship — have long desired,” he said.
“The federal democracy union… is waiting for us in the near future if we
move forward unitedly with invincibility,” Mahn Win Khaing Than said.
“We must win the uprising.”
The committee has issued several statements since its formation, but the
protest movement on the ground appears largely leaderless — with daily
rallies organised by local activists.
The junta — self-anointed as the State Administration Council — had said
the CRPH’s formation is akin to “high treason”, which carries a maximum
sentence of 22 years in jail.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1520HRS