Veteran activist calls for civil disobedience in wake of coup

One of the leaders of Myanmar’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising has released a statement calling on the public not to recognize the military council that seized power on Monday or participate in its newly appointed government.

Min Ko Naing, who spent most of his youth in prison for his resistance to previous military regimes, issued the call in a handwritten statement released on Tuesday.

“We can no longer be the slaves of military dictators, content with the pennies they spare us,” the 58-year-old former student leader wrote. “May we all live as human beings with our fundamental rights!”

The military seized power early Monday morning, just hours before the Lower House was set to convene and certify the results of last year’s November 8 election, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.

The NLD’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and President Win Myint were among dozens of lawmakers who were arrested in pre-dawn raids that also targeted dissidents and monks who took part in the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

Suu Kyi and Win Myint are both currently facing charges that could land them in prison for up to three years.

Soon after removing Win Myint as president, the military appointed its handpicked vice president, former general Myint Swe, to replace him.

As acting president, Myint Swe declared a one-year state of emergency and transferred power to the commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who now leads the newly formed State Administrative Council.

In a broadcast on the military-run Myawaddy television station, the new regime announced that general elections would be held a year from now, with power being handed over to the winning party.

The military claimed it had found over 10 million irregularities in voter lists used during last year’s election, which it said could have resulted in vote-rigging.

Eight of the 11 members of the new ruling council, which was formed on Tuesday, are from the military.

The three remaining members are Phado Man Nyein Maung, a former leading figure in the Karen National Union, and Thein Nyunt and Khin Maung Swe, former members of the NLD who split from the party to form the National Democratic Force in 2010.

Min Ko Naing’s call to reject the new council’s authority comes amid a growing civil disobedience movement by public servants and medical workers, who have vowed to stop working on Wednesday to protest the coup.