Myanmar people vs the junta: Generation Z leads the charge with inspiration from protesters in Hong Kong, Thailand

They might not remember life under junta rule, but the youngsters’ enthusiasm and invention have drawn support from older compatriots and international attention

Their eye-catching civil disobedience movement against the generals who took power in the February 1 coup has also taken pointers from demonstrations around the region

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A demonstrator takes part in a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 22. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30am, 23 Feb 2021Updated: 10:57am, 23 Feb 2021

From protest placards poking fun at army chief Min Aung Hlaing to emblazoning pro-democracy slogans on roads and part of a riverbed – at a scale meant to be large enough to appear in satellite photos – Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement against the generals who took power in a February 1 coup is composed of eye-catching measures that swiftly went viral on social media, as well as inspiration from demonstrators in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The movement is largely being led by youngsters in the Southeast Asian country, a group born between 1997 and 2010 with little to no memories of the trauma of life under a military dictatorship before Myanmar’s turn towards democracy about a decade ago.

Now aged between 11 and 24, and comprising approximately a quarter of the country’s 57 million population, Myanmar’s Generation Z is providing the enthusiasm and invention to keep the movement going.

“Generation Z is very creative,” said Sandar Khaing, a 25-year-old dentist who has joined the daily street protests in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, for more than two weeks. “We [millennials] just follow the plan they make.”

Millennials and Generation X respectively grew up with Than Shwe and Ne Win as commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military, with the birth-year boundary between the two demographic cohorts drawn roughly in 1980.

On Monday, as opponents of the coup called for a general strike in their bid to stage the biggest rally yet in response to the brutal crackdown in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, over the weekend, prominent youth activist Maung Saungkha, 28 took to Facebook to articulate his defiance.

“Those who don’t dare to go out, stay home. I will go out in any way I can,” he wrote. “I will be expecting Generation Z. Let’s meet, partners.”

Protesters write a pro-democracy on a Yangon street on February 21. Photo: Reuters