FREE MYANMAR’S YEAR END REVIEW 2021

In brief, it was sobering as well as encouraging. After nearly a year, the Myanmar people’s uprising hasn’t come to a victorious end yet. But, there also are many indicators pointing to the military junta’s loss of grip on the country and its demise is not too far. Nonetheless Free Myanmar (FM) is not here to predict when the final downfall is but rather to analytically report our activities from the past eleven months, perform a self-assessment and formulate how it can be better at supporting the Myanmar Spring Revolution in the coming year.

FM’s ultimate aim remains unchanged: to demolish military dictatorship and to introduce a true federal democratic union of Myanmar. FM believes that the best grand strategy in expediting the downfall of the military junta is a multipronged approach coming from both domestic and international fronts. In the political arena, international diplomatic pressure and condemnation against the military regime should be amplified while the rightful legitimacy and recognition of the National Unity Government (NUG) should be promoted. In the economic front, international sanctions against the junta and its business entities should be expanded to their maximum so as to cut foreign currency flow. Last but not least, the courageous uprising of Myanmar citizens inside the country, may it be in the form of protests or civil disobedience or armed resistance, has to be supported to its fullest. All of those tactics complement one another and hence should move in unison.

With that in mind, FM adapted its tactics and activities as needed. FM created three task forces namely advocacy, research and media. When FM was born, very soon after the coup, Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hlutaw (CRPH) and NUG were not in existence yet. The approach then of FM was to engage the different western governments directly through its own connections and furnish secret data on Myanmar military’s financial empire while advocating for strong economic sanctions. FM had many fruitful engagements with officials from US treasury and the State Department in that regard. Eventually when CRPH and NUG were formed, FM also brought in representatives from those organizations as indicated to the meetings. FM’s in-house research department did a lot of data mining and analysis on Myanmar military’s financial web. But eventually FM came to a realization that no matter how robust the data on Military’s dependency of certain revenue such as oil and gas exists, in the absence of a political will, such sanctions were not likely to happen. Political activism and lobbying geared towards law makers and current US administration is woefully warranted.

As the year went on, with developments such as the creation of NUG, ongoing strikes by Myanmar protesters that were brutally suppressed by the military leading to the birth of local defense forces and affliction of COVID-19 in Myanmar, FM revised and laid out three strategic objectives in the Spring of 2021. The first was to stop money flow to the military regimen through advocacy and engagement of the right stake holders for decisive and targeted sanctions. The second was to support NUG in achieving international collaboration and recognition. The third was to engage in humanitarian support for Myanmar people. We also brought in an experienced Washington DC based advisor who not only has many connections in the Capitol Hill but also is very conversant with Myanmar affairs as he worked with Burmese activists off and on for the past twenty-five years.

In the advocacy arena, FM worked individually as well as in collaboration with many like minded activist groups depending on circumstances and objectives. Some activist groups are much better than FM in rallying grassroot movements in many different parts of the country whereas FM tries to engage the administration directly through its own channels. Yet we all carry the same message and complement one another. We were unified in pushing for the Burma Act to be passed since the passage of the act would bring about harsher sanctions on the junta and concrete humanitarian support towards Burma automatically. As for NUG recognition, FM gave assistance and advice upon request. If requested, FM tried to link NUG representatives with Washington connections as much as possible. A member of FM was also in the advisory committee helping U Kyaw Moe Tun retain his seat as the permanent representative of Myanmar in the United Nations. FM was also involved in helping NUG launch the “Victorious Spring Lottery” which was designed to help out the CDM workers inside the country. In the humanitarian aid arena, FM spearheaded a unified voice of close to 30 overseas Myanmar professional organizations calling upon UN and western governments to provide more assistance to COVID ravaged Myanmar at that time. In addition, FM coordinated with the WHO office in Myanmar in providing capacity building workshops and seminars for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID crisis. FM rallied up doctors of Myanmar origin in the USA to help volunteer in a medical education committee that ran PEER (Practice Focused Medical Education for Myanmar), the on-line training program for Myanmar Healthcare Workers.

Moving forward, FM realizes that there still is a lot to be done. We should not let up our efforts in advocating for Myanmar through meaningful actions by our lawmakers and the administration leading to tangible results. Rhetoric and empty promises are not enough. Likewise, we have to promptly call out the bad actors who want to get in bed with Myanmar military junta, may it be Russia or Cambodia. To be impactful, we Myanmar activists should come out in a unified voice. We should collaborate rather than repeat the same projects as others. In addition, it will be good if expatriate activist groups consult and try to align their objectives with NUG. With this in mind, FM has been reaching out to other activist groups and NUG ministry of foreign affairs to have a unified meeting in the same Zoom room at least every few months if not weeks. FM solemnly pledges that it will never give up until the military junta is toppled. FM thanks all supporters and would like to request their ongoing support.