Almost a year after the coup, this is my personal documentation of how the junta's power grab and subsequent dictatorship tore my family in two.
On 1st February of 2021, Myanmar's first democratically elected administration, the National League of Democracy (NLD), was forcibly overturned in a coup d'etat by the military, on account of unfounded claims of election fraud. Consequently, the entire nation revolted after tasting democracy for a mere 5 years and took to the streets. With civilians against soldiers armed to the teeth, the death toll eventually became too steep that the unarmed were forced to take up arms and Molotovs, and every town needed civilian night look-outs to scout for incoming police raids, to hide whatever valuables, for the soldiers were the robbers and civilians were the powerless. As of 20 December 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the confirmed death toll is currently at 1,348 and counting, with a total of 8,131 currently under detention.
The call
It was 6:00 in the morning when we received a frantic phone call from my Aunt abroad. I could not believe my ears when she shouted 'There's a coup!' through the call. The first thing that came to mind was our father. Just as my Aunt was about to continue, the call suddenly dropped. I grabbed my phone and saw there was no internet for the call to connect. My mother, sister and I looked at each other and in a second, my mother sprung up to call our father. As Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Planning, Finance and Industry, having served the country for 10 years, my father lived at the Ministers' and Deputy Ministers' compound in the capital, Nay Pyi Daw.
The blackout
We were worried out of our minds for his safety, but none of our calls were going through, despite the ongoing cell service with the lack of internet connectivity. We found out Nay Pyi Daw had gone dark under a blanketed telecom blackout and that no-one from the capital was reachable, either by cell or by the internet. This complete blackout eventually extended nationwide by 9:00 a.m.
The 3 of us gathered in the living room, in front of the TV, and stared at our laps. My father's position was 5th in the entire forcibly overturned administration, after the President, State Counsellor, Vice President and the Minister. We knew our family was not getting out of this unscathed. But there we were, in the living room, able to do absolutely nothing, 200 miles apart with the capital being rounded by hundreds of military trucks.
The connection
Cell services came back on some time during the evening, in spite of the ongoing internet blackout, and the call finally went through. My father reassured us that he was safe in the meantime. All the ministers were confined in their abodes, but the deputies were fine. He told us was he was packing, since the coup meant his dismissal and that he would be back in a few days. While we dreaded the death this coup was bound to bring, we still felt relieved that at least our family would be together.
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