It started with a few candles illuminating Yangon balconies at about 6pm and ended with a crescendo of clashing pots and pans – a rejection of the military coup so thunderous that the sound may well have reached Naypyidaw.
In Myanmar, iron hitting iron is meant to drive away evil. It was heard in the pro-democracy uprisings of 1988 and the Saffron Revolution of 2007. As part of a growing movement of civil disobedience, it has been adopted again.
In the early hours of Monday, Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD). Troops detained politicians including Aung San Suu Kyi, who reportedly remains under house arrest along with President Win Myint in Naypyidaw, and the Tatmadaw handed “legislative judicial and executive powers” to Min Aung Hlaing.
Since then, Facebook users have changed their profiles to portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD red, teachers and students have called for the release of the political prisoners, and doctors have refused to work tomorrow under the military junta.
But today’s peaceful clatter of utensils was the biggest show of solidarity yet – 10 minutes of beeping cars, cyclists ringing their bells and cheers echoing down streets. Historically the Myanmar military has been able to disperse protests with violence, but this demonstration was done in the safety of the people’s homes.
The demonstration comes hours after the launch of the Facebook page “Civil Disobedience Movement 2021,” which has already attracted more than 130,000 followers.
Myanmar Mix recorded the pots-and-pans protest while travelling through the heart of downtown, flanked between walls of sound. Check the video below.
