10th May 2021
Informants are making a reappearance in Myanmar. In all the previous uprisings informants have made a major impact. They are again leading the military to people they wish to abduct/intern and this has resulted in civilians being arrested and detained. Unlike the previous insurrections, the civilians are not taking it lying down and suspected informants have begun to disappear. The bodies of some of them have started to appear in the rivers and lakes of Myanmar. This is very unlike Myanmar and signals the start of real trouble for the military.
The Junta are also aiming to get the country under control by mid-June. If resistance is still taking place by then, the military will have come up against the start of the monsoon season. If they carry on action in the ethnic conflict zones during the monsoon they will suffer high casualties due to the adverse terrain and the rain making maintenance of a supply line difficult.
The thoughts are that they are being delusional if they think the civilians will give up before then.
In an attempt to give a picture of normality to the outside world, the Junta have ordered all students to go back to university. This has been met with universal derision.
Most students across Myanmar have ignored the ruling military junta’s order to reopen colleges, universities, and government-run technical schools, with only a small percentage showing up on campuses after the reopenings, students said Friday.
One student union official leader estimated that only 10 percent of students at Yangon University in Myanmar’s commercial capital attended classes, while security concerns have been raised over a bombing near another university in Yangon on Wednesday.
“We saw a small number of students attending,” said Min Han Htet, a spokesman for the Yangon University Students’ Union. “Final year classes reopened. We saw about four or five students in a classroom. It’s hard to give a percentage, but maybe 10 percent of the total was there.”
There are 32 degree colleges with around 100,000 students in the Yangon region. Nearly all the students have decided to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) of striking professionals who demonstrate in tandem with anti-junta street protesters.
Students at many universities and colleges around the country have issued statements declaring that they will not return to school.
Police and soldiers patrolled campuses as some of the students returned.
The Dagon University Students’ Union said a small explosion shook a public bus in front of a Buddhist monastery near the university, though no other details were available.
Under Myanmar’s higher education system, each of two annual semesters usually lasts about four months or nearly 100 days, but under the junta, only 39 days are required. Military rulers also have changed the days of instruction per week from five to six.
Thant Thet Oo, a first-year master’s student in English at Yadanabon University in Mandalay, said he is not going to enrol in classes under the State Administration Council, the formal name of the military government.
“I’m not going to attend these classes,” he said, saying that he does not accept the military coup on Feb. 1 that deposed country leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected civilian-led government.
Security forces have arrested hundreds of students since the coup took place, including student union leaders and high school students, charging some of them with incitement under Section 505(a) of Myanmar’s Penal Code for taking part in anti-junta protests across the country. Some have been released while a few others have gone missing during crackdowns on demonstrations.
“Students have been arrested, imprisoned, and unjustly shot during the protests,” Thant Thet Oo said. “Out of respect for those killed and tortured, we won’t go to school until the uprising is over.”
But he also said he could not accept the changes the junta has made to the length of school sessions.
“Studying just 40 days and passing two levels a year is not acceptable,” said Thant Thet Oo, adding that 83 percent of the 60 fellow students in his class said in a poll that they would not enrol in courses.
A poll conducted by the student Union at the Monywa University of Economics in the Sagaing region showed that 90 percent 4,000l conducted by the Monywa University of Economics Students’ Union, 90 percent of the students have decided not to attend, said Khant Wai Phyo, a member of the university’s temporary governing council.
An English teacher at Mandalay University, who declined to give his name, said professors would not be able to provide full instruction under the new system.
“In no country is it possible to teach a four-month course in a single month,” he said.
Military leaders are “doing what they want to do as in authoritarian countries,” he said. “They only care about holding onto power but nothing else. Can the students going get a real education like this?”
The junta also had ordered all employees of the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education to stop participating in the CDM and return to their workplace by May 3.
About 80 percent of the teaching staff of all universities in Mandalay will continue to take part in the CDM, said the English teacher at Mandalay University.
Source Radio Free Asia May 7th, 2021.
It is becoming clearer by the day that the Tatmadaw, without the advantage of superior physical force are unable to run the country. As I keep saying the country is sliding deeper into the abyss.
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