Public hospitals are deserted. Government offices left dark. And the trains don't leave the stations.
Despite risks to their lives and livelihoods, many Myanmar civil servants are refusing to work for the junta, as a growing civil disobedience movement seeks to thwart the generals by paralysing the bureaucracy.
"The military needs to prove that they can manage the country well as a government. But if we… the civil servants don't work, their plan to take power will fail," Thida, a public university lecturer who asked to use a pseudonym, told AFP Monday as cities were brought to a standstill by the largest strike yet.
In the three weeks since the coup, Thida has refused to teach her online classes. She joined the nationwide walkouts kicked off by medical workers, many of whom are now in hiding to evade arrest.
From the capital to seaside ports, work stoppages in the private sector have hollowed out offices and factories and forced many bank branches shut.
But it is the civil servants' swelling ranks within the resistance that has the junta particularly rattled.
Without them, it is unable to collect taxes, send out electricity bills, test the population for Covid-19 or simply keep the country running.
The spectre of a financial crisis — already brewing because of the pandemic downturn and a decline in foreign investment — looms large.
– Cracks starting to show –
It remains unclear how many of the roughly one million public sector workers are participating.
One crowdsourced survey found members of all 24 government ministries are now involved, while the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar has estimated three-quarters of the civil servants are on strike.
Their absence is beginning to bite.
Nearly one-third of the nation's hospitals are no longer functioning, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing said this week.
Decrying medical professionals' failure to fulfil their duties, he hinted that working doctors and teachers would soon receive cash rewards, according to remarks reported by state media Tuesday.
One doctor told AFP that staff shortages meant his hospital has had to turn away new patients. Medical "cover teams" have formed to provide emergency treatment to protesters under fire from rubber bullets and live ammunition.
Paper pushing in government departments has all but halted, according to local media reports, and around the country clerks, drivers and administrators have been dismissed over their absence.
"The military didn't anticipate that a large part of the civil service would walk out and leave them without a state apparatus," said an analyst who asked to remain anonymous as the junta has detained more than 700 of its critics.
"The impact of the movement doesn't necessarily depend on all of the bureaucracy participating, but on key parts paralysing the military's ability to collect revenue and distribute it across the state machinery."
The extent of this incapacitation could become clearer on Friday, when Myanmar's State Administration Council — as the coup leaders have dubbed themselves — confronts payday for the entire public sector.
The Myanmar Economic Bank (MEB), which distributes government salaries and pensions, has been hobbled by walkouts, but state media said it was a "baseless rumour" that compensation would not be forthcoming.
– Pressure campaign –
In a sign of the generals' growing uneasiness, official media outlets have printed near-daily summonses for civil servants to return or face legal action, while overnight arrests have targeted civil disobedience movement participants.
Hotlines allow members of the public to report anyone encouraging such action.
"All civil servants from ministries who are participating in the civil disobedience movement are getting pressure," the MEB staffer said.
Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, urged government workers to continue their strike, saying on Facebook that it was the most important factor in the bid to bring down the regime.
But the strategy comes at personal cost.
Thida, the university lecture, is not expecting to collect a salary for the foreseeable future.
"I have saved some income and I will use that," she said. "I understand we need to make some sacrifices to fight the military junta."
Groups have sprung up to assist public employees with food and housing, while members of the ousted civilian government have pledged to compensate lost wages should they reclaim power, fuelling the hopes of workers like Thida.
"I am not worried at all about losing my job as I believe that democracy will be restored."
Clashes in Yangon as Myanmar nears a month of military rule
Yangon (AFP) Feb 25, 2021 –
Junta supporters wielding knives and slingshots clashed with anti-coup residents in Myanmar on Thursday, the first such showdown between opposing forces as the nation nears a month of military rule.
The country has been gripped by a torrent of anger, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets nationwide to call for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a return to democracy.
Some demonstrations have seen a steady increase in force from authorities — at least five people have been killed since the February 1 coup, while one police officer died in a protest, according to the military.
But on Thursday junta supporters carrying pro-military banners marched through Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon to boos from residents.
Authorities granted them access to Sule Pagoda, a local landmark at a key junction that in recent days was barricaded to prevent anti-coup protesters from amassing.
By noon, clashes broke out near Yangon Central station's railway compound, with military supporters carrying pipes, knives and slingshots turning against booing residents, witnesses said.
They fought back, detaining a number of people until police appeared to remove the alleged attackers.
"They have the right to protest but they should not have used weapons — none of the pro-democracy demonstrators use it," Zaw Oo told AFP, bruised on a rib after he was held down by a group of assailants.
"They are the bullies."
Anti-coup demonstrations continued without incident across the city — students at Yangon University waved the signature red flags of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party while medical workers weaved through key junctions.
"What we want is just to see this illegitimate government collapse," said a pharmacist.
The so-called "White Coats Revolution" is part of a nationwide civil disobedience movement that has shut down key sectors across Myanmar — including hospitals, schools, and banks — in revolt at the junta.
– Facebook 'unfriends' military –
Disparate strands of Myanmar society have united in protest at the coup, which ended a 10-year experiment with democracy as Suu Kyi was detained in a dawn raid.
Protestors have been creative in showing dissent, with anti-coup tattoos and violinists performing revolutionary songs at demonstrations.
On Thursday protesters in Mandalay, Yangon and even remote Magway applied thanaka — a traditional tree bark paste used as sunscreen — on their cheeks in the design of a three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance.
The military has weathered rounds of international condemnation, justifying its power grab by alleging widespread fraud in November elections, which Suu Kyi's party had swept.
The latest rebuke came Thursday from Facebook, which banned all remaining accounts linked to Myanmar's military, citing the junta's use of deadly force against anti-coup protesters.
Facebook, along with Twitter and Instagram, is blocked in Myanmar as part of the junta's expanding chokehold on communications, although banned sites can still be accessed using VPNs.
The World Bank also confirmed it had told the regime all lending would be cut off from February 1 onwards "as a result of recent developments".
– 'From one wife to another' –
The generals have also seen sanctions imposed on them from Western countries, but Myanmar's regional neighbours have taken a different tack.
On Wednesday, junta-appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin flew to Thailand to meet with his Thai and Indonesian counterparts, in which an "inclusive democratic transition process" was reiterated by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.
He also had a sit-down with Thai premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha, according to photos published by state-run media Thursday — the first known face-to-face meeting between a senior junta member and a foreign leader.
More than 720 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
They include Australian economist Sean Turnell, an advisor to Suu Kyi — whose spouse wrote to the wife of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to plead for her husband's release.
"I am writing this personal note to you, Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, from one wife to another wife," Ha Vu wrote in the letter seen by AFP.
"I plead you to speak to your husband to let my husband return home to my family in Australia."
