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From Afar, Myanmar Migrants Lament Military Takeover, Fear Economic Ruin

Vijitra Duangdee

   BANGKOK, THAILAND - For the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants
   who work in Thailand, a takeover by an army they loathe represents a
   dangerous collapse of a fragile democracy and the possible ruin of
   their route back home.
   The fear for loved ones inside Myanmar, as the country steps into a
   future led by ruthless generals, is amplified by worries that the small
   economic gains of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's administration
   will soon be erased. The military took control of the government on
   Monday.
   "We were so close to returning home because the government was trying
   to bring in investment for development and jobs," Gant Gaw, a
   43-year-old janitor in a downtown Bangkok shopping mall, told VOA. "But
   our dream just keeps fading away."
   That dream began taking shape in 2010 when the army released Aung San
   Suu Kyi from house arrest and started the clock toward the first widely
   representative elections in half a century.
   Those took place in 2015, when a landslide victory for Aung San Suu
   Kyi's party ended 50 years of economic mismanagement and self-imposed
   isolation by the junta and its allies that sank Myanmar into poverty
   and turned the nation into a pariah.
   The generals and their cronies became rich as they carved up the
   country's vast natural resources. But the economic wasteland they
   wrought forced millions of Myanmar's poorest to seek work abroad.
   The majority moved to neighboring Thailand, where they continue to
   build the skyscrapers of Bangkok, work in its restaurants and navigate
   its fishing fleets to send remittances home.
   Monday's military takeover temporarily cut communications into the
   country. But for those abroad, it also severed hopes of economic
   progress and democracy eventually settling in.
   "It makes me furious," said Aye Mar Cho, 41, a labor rights worker for
   Myanmar migrants staffing the fishing port of Mahachai, outside of
   Bangkok. "My relatives told me that people are terrified. They started
   to stock up on food. They're so remote from the world, they don't know
   any other way but to be scared."
   Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) government had
   overseen growth as Myanmar opened up to outside money, technology and
   skills, offering Myanmar migrants a glimpse of a pathway back to a
   freer, wealthier homeland.
   Now, the threat of U.S. sanctions in response to the takeover,
   prolonged instability and a return to isolation led by Gen. Min Aung
   Hlaing, risks turning back the clock.
   "We don't need the military. We're not fighting a war with anyone, but
   the Myanmar army are the ones who abuse the people," Aye Mar Cho added.

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