What is currently happening in Myanmar?
A military coup took place. I heard the news from looking up stuff online, and then I started having some friends send me some posts that they started seeing too. The military had cut off all the phone lines and everything else for several hours. The people in the country had no idea what had just taken place until the Wi-Fi came back, and then they started hearing the news, so some people were able to escape. The military detained many political leaders, especially from the NLD, the National League of Democracy. There were many reasons that this happened, but one of them was an election in November.
In this election, the NLD won by a landslide of 80%, so it was called election fraud and used as an excuse for detaining all the NLD official leaders on February 1. This would be the day that the seats were going to change, so the leaders would start going to the capital city and assuming their positions. There are so many reasons why this happened, and you can read more about that online through credible sources. I think they were going to rewrite the Constitution.
Politicians also like to say that when you turn 65, that's when you have to retire. The general, who is the head of all of this stuff that's happening right now, is turning 65. So that's also another reason; perhaps he wouldn’t be able to hold power anymore. And to add to all of this, when the previous party rewrote the constitution, 25% of the seats had to come from the military no matter what. Every time there was a new law or something they were going to pass, they had to pass a certain percentage which I believe was over 75%. So they make this constitutional change where even though technically they say, “Oh, it's a democracy now,” it's technically not, because every time they vote on something, 25% of the vote is always from the military. This arrangement means nothing can pass. The military still holds so much power. They decided to take over the whole country because they probably felt like they would lose their position and the power that they've held for so, so many years. Hence, history is kind of repeating itself.
What was the catalyst that caused you to use your platform for activism about this crisis?
This has happened multiple times, but one of the biggest times was in 1980. When my parents were in college, the entire country shut down for at least one year, and colleges were all closed as well. I heard about it in stories, so for me, it was in the past; it was in my parent’s time and I thought we were probably never going to go back there, and we were trying to rebuild the country again because it had gone downhill from there. Especially when I went back home in 2019, after being here in the States for about seven years without going back, I could see how much change had taken place. I saw so much growth in the young people, especially in Gen Z's, who were given opportunities for education and given opportunities to travel overseas and explore more options than just teaching or farming. When I heard about the coup it made me think: “I'm here, and even if I have American citizenship or not, that's still my home country, and I still have so many family members there and young people like me who would lose their opportunity to be where they want to be and branch out.” So that's one reason I guess that I didn't even know that I had this passionate love for the country. It just kind of shook me to the core. I sometimes close my door and just sob for hours because it’s just hard to take it in.
And on top of that, most of my family members are still in Burma. This made me think: “What are some things that I can do from here?” And I would feel guilty. I'm not saying that every Burmese person or young person from Burma living here has to do something; it's their choice. But for me, I would feel guilty to just sit in my own house to eat the same food to go out and work and get the same money, without actually doing something with the rest of the country, including my family who is suffering.
How can AAPI and Non-AAPI students (or people in general) be allies at this time?
There's a lot of ways. There are many petitions that organizations are creating; there’s been a couple of organizations formed by Gen-Zers and formed by other generations as well here in America to encourage more action towards opposing the coup. Many petitions can be signed; there are letters that have been created, and they've made systems where you can just send a text and send a message directly to your governor, to your senators; everything.
There are petitions where you can sign letters to the United Nations, and there are fundraising events. There are people doing CDM (civil disobedience movements) by quitting their jobs and just protesting out in the streets. The government can't get the money, and they don't have a way to get the country going either, so the people protesting know that it has been very effective. Because of that, shootings started happening because of peaceful protests. So because there’s CDM, there are lots of people that don't have jobs and that don't have food to eat anymore. I'm doing what I can in that aspect, and some people have created fundraisers to support those who don't have food to eat daily. Medical-wise, you know, there are hundreds and hundreds of people that are hurt every single day. Some paramedics and volunteers are out in the streets all the time, so the supplies will not last that much, and there are funds that are created to support those areas.
What I'm doing is I've created the stickers to not only fundraise but to raise awareness. It's only been a little less than a month since I've started it, but I'm actually in the process right now of sending over $1,000 just from making stickers. I'm so, so happy about it and, as I said, it hasn't even been over a month yet. Knowing that people will support you when you're doing something that you’re passionate about and that supports a good cause is encouraging.
Another reason that I think this project is important is it brings awareness. If you drive around and you see a bumper sticker or you see a sticker on someone's water bottle, then it creates an opportunity for people to have conversations, which is so crucial at this time. My immediate friends know about what’s happening because of the posts I share. However, outside of that, there are still people that will be like: “Oh, my circle of friends had no idea this is happening or to the extent that it's happening,” because the Western media or even the media in general won't be able to cover everything th