{"id":63778,"date":"2021-04-12T15:15:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T05:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=63778"},"modified":"2021-04-12T15:14:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T05:14:10","slug":"myanmars-youth-demand-their-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/myanmars-youth-demand-their-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar\u2019s youth demand their future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Half of Myanmar\u2019s population is under the age of 30, and many of these young people have benefited from their country\u2019s fragile, imperfect democratic transition over the past decade. They know the military\u2019s return to power could reverse hard-won gains in human development and fundamental freedoms. Their future is at stake.<\/p>\n

So are their lives. On 27 March, General Min Aung Hlaing used the occasion of Armed Forces Day to claim that the military would protect the people and promote democracy. In fact, it turned out to be the bloodiest day since the military coup on 1 February.<\/p>\n

And yet, as a father clutching his dying son poignantly noted, \u2018On this day, both lives and futures are being lost.\u2019 With their prospects vanishing before their eyes, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets across Myanmar. They are refusing to live without hope.<\/p>\n

But the country\u2019s backsliding is already being felt acutely. In addition to Covid-19, Myanmar is confronting a compounding economic crisis. The World Bank\u2019s recent regional forecast shows GDP on track to shrink by 10%<\/a> in 2021, compared to 6.8% growth in 2019 and 1.7% growth in 2020, when the country was reeling from the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the United Nations Development Programme\u2019s household vulnerability survey signalled<\/a> that poor households\u00a0are being\u00a0pushed further below the poverty line, while many vulnerable households are being dragged towards it. Even previously financially secure households are facing massive shocks from business closures and loss of employment.<\/p>\n

On the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other cities, Myanmar\u2019s citizens have come to experience these crises in the starkest of terms, with countless personal tragedies unfolding behind the data.\u00a0Young people are watching employment opportunities disappear as investment plummets. International buyers and factory owners are questioning the viability of their local operations, given the lack of worker safety and security. Unable to guarantee continued production and reliable logistics, many businesses have halted operations entirely. With these closures, even more young people will lose their jobs and meagre livelihoods.<\/p>\n

The internet is the lifeblood of this generation, but it has been restricted severely. The suppression of information, free speech and internet access threatens to push Myanmar back into isolation from the rest of the world. But this is happening at a time when a whole generation of young people have come to know what it\u2019s like to enjoy better jobs, freedom of speech, access to information and improved education.<\/p>\n

These developments shaped younger cohorts\u2019 values and aspirations, instilling them with a sense of civic consciousness. Their expectations reflect the real possibilities that they had previously seen ahead of them: the potential of a different future from the one their parents had known.<\/p>\n

History offers stark reminders of what the young are likely to face. In 1950, Myanmar\u2019s per capita income was higher than that of Malaysia or Thailand. But the following decades of \u2018closed-door\u2019 policies resulted in severe underinvestment in the economy and public goods and services, with deep and corrosive effects on human capital. Military rule turned Myanmar from one of the most promising economies in Asia into one of its worst performers.<\/p>\n

The parents and grandparents of today\u2019s young people know what it was like back then, and their bitter experience has been recounted to their children and grandchildren. Young Myanmar doesn\u2019t want the clock turned back. They will not be silenced. The 19-year-old taekwondo champion and dancer Kyal Sin (also known as Angel) was wearing an \u2018Everything will be OK\u2019 T-shirt when security forces gunned her down<\/a> in Mandalay. Thousands of young people like her continue to stand on the streets each day, full of defiant optimism as they face the military and courageously demand the country they want and deserve.<\/p>\n

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stressed<\/a>, there is only one way forward. The security forces must stop the violence, the generals must return Myanmar to the democratic path by respecting the results of last year\u2019s election (which the National League for Democracy won decisively) and all political prisoners must be freed.<\/p>\n

Only then can there be progress on reforms to deliver fair economic development and human rights\u2014including freedom of movement, the right of safe return for refugees and citizenship\u2014and on controlling the spread of the virus. Only a society that invests in its very humanity can be at peace with itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half of Myanmar\u2019s population is under the age of 30, and many of these young people have benefited from their country\u2019s fragile, imperfect democratic transition over the past decade. They know the military\u2019s return to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1337,"featured_media":63781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,791,212,2459],"class_list":["post-63778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-democracy","tag-demographics","tag-myanmar","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMyanmar\u2019s youth demand their future | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/myanmars-youth-demand-their-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Myanmar\u2019s youth demand their future | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Half of Myanmar\u2019s population is under the age of 30, and many of these young people have benefited from their country\u2019s fragile, imperfect democratic transition over the past decade. 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