"AN INTRODUCTION TO MYANMAR’S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT: On 8 November 2020, Myanmar held a third round of national elections since the start of an extended reform process instigated by the 2008 Constitution and national elections in 2010 and 2015. This reform process was premised on the country transitioning away from military dictatorship and civil war and towards peace and federalism. During the November 2020 elections, the military-backed political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), lost decisively to the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Subsequently, the USDP and the military started to make false claims of widespread electoral fraud. Both domestic and international election monitors had deemed the poll fair and credible. Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a coup d’état on 1 February 2021, removing the elected NLD government led by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. The Tatmadaw’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing took power, forming a dictatorial body of the “State Administration Council” (SAC), composed largely of generals. The Tatmadaw also announced a “one-year-long state of emergency” and that multi-party elections would be held at the end of this year. This period was subsequently extended by SAC in July. The generals announced, unsurprisingly, that elections would not be held within one year of the coup but instead would not be held until at least August 2023. Despite their own unconstitutional actions in the form of a coup, the Tatmadaw cynically contends that the 2008 Constitution is still sacrosanct. Opposition to the Tatmadaw’s unconstitutional and coercive action was quick and nation-wide. Peaceful protests spread across the entire country demanding the release of all political prisoners and the return of the elected government. The Tatmadaw’s claims of electoral fraud were met with widespread contempt from the Myanmar people because of the military’s distinctly toxic history of launching coups and denying or corrupting elections. As peaceful protests were expanding across the country in early February, a novel movement also began to emerge. This movement intended to demonstrate both moral and ethical repulsion at the actions of the coup leaders but also to begin applying peaceful pressure on the military regime to relinquish power. The first incident of what would quickly grow into a national movement occurred on 2nd February. Medical doctors and other healthcare workers at the Mandalay General Hospital, all civil servants, posted social media statements that they would not work for an illegal military regime. As Naypyidaw surgeon Zwe Min Aung recounted to the Voice of America, “At the time, we really disagreed [with] this [the military coup], and we created [a] small group in Mandalay hospital and other hospitals, too. We distributed the statement on February 2 from Facebook and the nationwide CDM began.”2 Though CDM began as an online campaign but has expanded into a wider prodemocracy movement as civil servants from across the ministries started to boycott the military regime. As the movement gained momentum, ever wider parts of Myanmar society joined to make their opposition to the junta known.....MYANMAR’S PEOPLE REJECT MILITARY DICTATORSHIP: Myanmar is not a failed state. Its condition is not that of chronic state weakness caused by civil war, corruption, or entrenched dictatorship. Rather, it is a country where the public, as well as both the private and public sectors, reject the military coup staged on 1 February 2021. In this sense, Myanmar is a country where the near entirety of the population - including civil servants and the private sector – is staging a general strike to peacefully protest the illegal seizure of power by the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw. This effort is the CDM, a non-violent endeavour of an entire population to resist brutal dictatorship. By early-2021, the public had experienced nearly a decade of civilian leadership, economic growth and more generally reform and positive change. This was particularly so after the fully free elections in 2015 that brought the NLD political party, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to power. The prospects of returning to decades of impoverishment and dictatorial violence through Tatmadaw rule was revolting to the tens of millions of Myanmar citizens who sought to show their unwillingness to accept the coup through peaceful demonstrations in countless villages, towns, and cities across the country. CDM is composed of three major groups from the Myanmar people: the general public, private sector businesses and associations, and civil service personnel. CDM by Myanmar’s Public Since the 1 February coup, countless protests have taken place daily across the entire country to show solidarity for CDM and to demonstrate an absolute rejection of the junta. Over February and March, hundreds-of-thousands of normal Myanmar citizens gathered across the country’s cities, towns, and villages to demonstrate their anger and demand a future of federal democracy. These early mass demonstrations served to unite the various societies within Myanmar. The revulsion of the junta is near universal. For instance, Myanmar’s national football team refused to play under military dictatorship, while hundreds of monks led a prayer session supporting CDM and protestors. Numerous professional associations have regularly demonstrated on the streets wearing their respective attires (doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, and lawyers). Women have been prominent in the protests and LGBTs groups have also joined protests. The mass protests were not limited to one ethnic group or a particular area of the country. They were across the entire country, spanning religious, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. What united all the millions of people peacefully protesting was a shared desire for a better future defined by a path of democratization, peace, and economic development. The traumas of decades of brutal dictatorship, civil war and crushing impoverishment under the military are too painful to accept returning to. As such, some of the most common placards held high delivered the key messages - “Respect Our Votes” and “Say No to Coup.” Some young women joined early protests playfully wearing wedding gowns and holding placards with messages such as “we don’t accept military coup.” Myanmar’s people just want a normal life for themselves and their families. They know the military will never provide that. Given its toxic history, Myanmar’s military predictably resorted to mass violence against peaceful protesters as they have done so many times over the decades since independence in 1948. Large protests were no longer possible by the end of March after the military started regularly using war weaponry automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenades, and machine guns to disperse peaceful protest rallies. Despite this violence by an organization claiming to protect the people, viz. a national army, Myanmar’s people have continued to protest across the country using novel methods - such as so-called ‘flash mobs’ - to avoid opportunities by the junta to kill. Such is their determination and despite the risk of death, Myanmar’s people can still be seen from the smallest villages to the largest cities demonstrating their desire for a return to democracy and a better future..."