Voices from Burma: Recent Episodes
Isabella
CURRENTLY FOCUSING ON THE COUP AND INTERVIEWING ACTIVISTS AND PROTESTORS IN MYANMAR Burma (Myanmar) is an immensely diverse state with 135 officially recognized nationalities. Ethnic conflict has been a constant feature of the state’s politics since independence, and indigenous national minorities have always had complex multi-layered relationships with the central government in terms of identity and politics. Providing a platform for indigenous activists of different generations to speak about their political journeys, this is Voices from Burma. Thank you for tuning in.
For this episode, I sat down to chat with Tracy, a 19-year old English Literature student in Yangon who is a frontline protestor in Myanmar's anti-coup movements. We talked about her experiences with junta violence, interethnic alliances in activism, goals behind Generation Z's movements, and everything in between.
In honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month, I interviewed two young women who are frontline protestors based in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) currently fighting against the coup staged by the Burmese military junta. This episode features a 20-year old university student and her experiences at ground zero.
This week's episode features Saya Khin Zaw Win, the director of the Tampadipa Institute. He has been working on policy advocacy and capacity building in Myanmar since 2006. His current engagement includes communal issues, nationalism, and International Relations. He was also a prisoner of conscience in Myanmar for "seditious writings" and human rights work from 1994 - 2005. We discuss ethnic minorities in the Burmese electoral politics with a focus on the 2020 general elections.
In this first episode of Voices from Burma, I had a chat with Saya Sai Aung Win, a well-known English teacher and Shan political activist (former political prisoner under General Ne Win's regime) about his journey as an ethnic minority student politician.
The episode is recorded over Zoom - my sincere apologies for the static and background noise. I hope that you will still enjoy the wise words of Saya Sai Aung Win regardless of the sound quality of the recording.
Disclaimer: All political views are the guest speakers'. As an academic host, I try my best to not insert my personal political beliefs while providing the platform for indigenous and minority activists to share their lived experiences.