MILITARY COUP IN MYANMAR FACES COUNTRYWIDE OPPOSITION

KARISA YUASA

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Myanmar in protest following the military coup d’etat on Feb. 1, according to Al Jazeera.

The military party detained democratically elected President Win Myint and the National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi the morning of what was supposed to be the first week of the parliamentary session. Citizens woke up to an announcement that power was now in the hands of Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing.

“Waking up to learn your world has been completely turned upside down overnight was not a new feeling, but a feeling that I thought that we had moved on from, and one that I never thought we’d be forced to feel again,” said a Myanmar resident who wished to remain unnamed, according to BBC.

The military ruler instituted a state of emergency set to last for one year. The country is also under a strict nightly curfew from 8 p.m.–6 a.m.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party—which is backed by the military—has claimed the NLD’s landslide November election was fraudulent and called on authorities to hold an “election that is free, fair, unbiased and free from unfair campaigning.”

Despite national and international groups legitimizing the election results and presenting no proof of the contrary, tensions continued to rise as the opposition called for reelection.

Thousands of people took to the streets across the country for anti-coup demonstrations.

“As part of Generation Z, we are first-time voters. This is our first time to protest as well,” said one student who declined to give her name, according to AP News. “They negated our votes, and this is totally unfair. We do not want that. We hope they release our leaders and implement a real democracy.”

Although protests have remained mostly peaceful, accusations of excessive force by police have been common.

“As many feared, the Myanmar authorities are responding to growing peaceful protests with unnecessary and excessive use of force,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research Emerlynne Gil. “At such an extremely volatile time, authorities must respect and ensure the right to peaceful protests, and not prohibit, restrict, block, disperse or disrupt peaceful protests without compelling justification.”

Amnesty International investigated a claim on Feb. 9 of security forces using lethal weapons against protesters at the capital of Nay Pyi Taw.

“The social media materials we have verified show that police recklessly targeted protesters, with no respect for their lives or safety whatsoever,” said Sam Dubberley, head of the crisis evidence lab at Amnesty International. “Their abhorrent use of lethal force against protesters is unlawful, and must be independently, thoroughly and promptly investigated.”

The coup leaders are accused of causing internet blackouts in an attempt to quell protests and stop the spread of information. Notably, NetBlocks, which tracks Internet disruptions, reported an information blackout that lasted for 8 hours on Feb. 14.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, ANTI-COUP PROTESTERS TRY TO PREVENT A POLICE VEHICLE FROM MOVING. COURTESY OF AP PHOTO

as of Feb. 15 a total of 426 people have been arrested and detained in relation to the military coup. While only three of the arrests have been sentenced, 391 are still in custody.

“Myanmar’s new military junta should immediately and unconditionally release all detainees, rescind the state of emergency, and recognize the duly elected parliament,” said Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams. “The global community should finally act in a coordinated and sustained way to defend the Myanmar people’s fundamental freedoms and right to choose their leaders, and impose targeted sanctions and other measures to reverse military abuses.”

This is not the first time the Myanmar government has been under military rule.

From 1962 until 2011, Myanmar was under strict military rule. The country’s name was even changed by military leaders from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. Some countries refused to use the name Myanmar to deny the legitimacy of the military rule.

“This is a fight for our future, the future of our country,” youth activist Esther Ze Naw said at a protest in the main city of Yangon, according to Reuters.“We don’t want to live under a military dictatorship. We want to establish a real federal union where all citizens, all ethnicities are treated equally.”

Many countries have outwardly shown their support for the prodemocracy protesters.

“We support the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy, freedom, peace, and prosperity. The world is watching,” stated a joint statement from multiple ambassadors to Myanmar.

PSU AND FUMC PARTNER TO OPEN STUDENT SHELTER

PORTLAND STATE CAMPUS. SOFIE BRANDT/PSU VANGUARD

PSU AND FUMC PARTNER TO OPEN STUDENT SHELTER

IN RESPONSE TO RISING HOUSING INSECURITY IN THE PANDEMIC, PSU LANDING OFFERS SHELTER

KAT LEON

According to research compiled by the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) at Portland State, out of the 166 students surveyed, 64.5% experienced housing insecurity, 20.5% experienced houselessness and 55.4% experienced food insecurity, since March 2020.

Tara is a PSU graduate in mechanical engineering who was interviewed by the HRAC about her experience as a houseless student. “I would talk to you about interning at NASA and winning first place in the engineering research expo,” she said. “But I would never tell you that I owned a used Subaru and I lived in a tent.”

As a new response to this problem, PSU has partnered with First United Methodist Church (FUMC) to create the PSU Landing at FUMC, a shelter for PSU students facing houselessness or extreme housing insecurity. While PSU refers students to the FUMC shelter, the Landing itself is solely run and operated by FUMC.

According to the Dean of Student Life, Mike Walsh, the idea for the Landing came from a Senior Capstone led by the instructor Amie Riley. In advocating for houseless students, this Capstone strives to “work to change narratives, implement creative actions, and advocate for effective housing policies.”

The Senior Capstone’s research on houselessness and housing insecurity brought the issue to the attention of First United Methodist Church, according to Walsh. The HRAC’s statistics at PSU and data from the Hope Center on houselessness on college campuses across the country, alongside the Senior Capstone, led FUMC to recognize the student need.

“Working with professors in PSU’s Office of Academic Innovation, my colleagues and I frequently hear stories about students’ basic needs not being met, including housing insecurity, and the stress and strain it adds to students’ already complicated lives,” said Landing Director Scott Robison. “Knowing the student need and being aware of the space available in the church, I submitted a proposal to FUMC around the idea of supporting housing insecure PSU students and it was accepted.”

Since FUMC had experience operating shelters before, they decided to use that knowledge to create the Landing shelter for houseless PSU students, to address the housing insecurity on campus that existed both before and after COVID-19. According to Walsh, the Landing is not yet open for students because they have had delays, mostly due to COVID-19 and organizing volunteers. However, Walsh says, “We hope to [open] in this month.”

When the Landing does open, they will provide up to eight PSU students “space for sleeping, two meals every day, storage, showers, laundry, internet and computer access.” Lunch and dinner are provided to students in the program through PSU Eats, where they can get two meals a day at the Victors Dining Hall in the Ondine building on campus.

While eight students might seem like a small number of students compared to the need, FUMC has limited space due social distancing and COVID-19 safety.

“We know there is greater demand than eight students…we are actively trying to find a way to serve homeless students,” Walsh said.

However, space is the largest factor when trying to do something on campus. According to Walsh, resident halls are usually full, and setting aside rooms would be a financial burden on the school. Even when floating the idea of using the gymnasium or an empty classroom, Walsh discussed that the times those spaces are needed for classes or other activities would not conveniently work with the times that those spaces could be used by the Landing.

Despite the troubles of having a temporary shelter on campus, Walsh still hopes PSU will be able to either partner with other organizations or find a way to make it work on campus, to expand the program and better fulfill the needs of the houseless and housing insecure in the PSU community.

“This issue is not just going to go away,” Walsh said.

To access the Landing services, students need to contact Walsh’s office at Student Life and make an appointment. First, as Walsh put it, the student has to be “a PSU student in a degree-seeking program.” Second, the student has to be houseless or significantly housing insecure. Walsh defined “significantly housing insecure” as “living in a car, prolonged couch surfing [or facing] imminent eviction.” For students who are applying for the Landing program, it is first-come, first-served.

“FUMC is a reconciling congregation and open to all races, abilities, ages, classes, gender identities and sexual orientations,” Robison said. “There is no religious programming of any kind associated with The Landing.”

Since the Landing has not opened, there is not anyone who has officially been accepted at the Landing, but Walsh says his office has an unofficial waitlist that they will use to contact students in need when the Landing officially opens.

“We are pretty much ready to roll and get students in there as soon as it opens,” Walsh said.