Dear friends, I would like to ask if you can remember back to one year ago today? I know that in the last 9 months so much has changed and every life in Myanmar has been turned on its head. With the coup and covid attacking our senses every day in every way, I can barely remember so far back. One year? I might try to remember a decade ago. In one year, we have suffered a decade’s worth of fear, stress and pain. 

Today marks the memory of an auspicious occasion. Or what truly should have been an auspicious occasion. One year ago today, we, as a nation, proudly held up our fingers with that violet mark. One year ago today, we, as a nation, celebrated a freedom that most of the world had decades before us. One year ago today, we, as a nation, voted and elected a government to represent us. As all people know, even the tatmadaw, though they deny it publicly even as they admit it privately, the election was largely free and fair. The people who were to join the parliament were the ones the majority of the country wanted to elect.

Remember how we celebrated with such force on that day? Whether the representative you wanted won or lost, deep down you celebrated. Myanmar had been a dictatorship for five decades. Everyone who voted that day was born without the right to vote, without the right to choose their own destiny. But on that day, we had that right and for that, and that alone, all of Myanmar celebrated.

It was a mere three months later this right was ripped from us by a vile terrorist military with a vicious coup and a claim of fraud that even Min Aung Hlaing cannot bring himself to actually believe. It was a lie with no adherents but with weapons and violence to enforce the lie. The suffering the preceding generations went through for the right to vote was ripped away and burned. The perpetrators are hoping to never return it. They hope to keep us all as slaves, as chattel for them to drain until dry and then toss away without care. Our lives and our desires have no meaning for them. 

Our freedom of destiny must be returned to us! We cannot wait and pile on the suffering. We must continue to unite as a country, to rise up to greater heights, to fight this battle against tyranny! We must work together, no matter your ethnicity, your gender, your orientation, your culture, your people or your beliefs, we are all Myanmar, we are all one. All must be accepted and respected. 

So on this day, keep Myanmar as One in your thoughts. Continue every valiant effort that you are doing. Every resistance no matter the size is needed. In the end we will win, we must win, and there is no other choice. One year ago today, we voted and our voices must be respected!

Sincerely,

H.E. Dr. Sasa
Union Minister of Ministry of International Cooperation
Spoke Person of Nation Unity Government
Former Special Envoy to United Nations