Today I would like to extend my best wishes to our people for the upcoming Thingyan and Myanmar’s New Year.

It is a tragedy that for the second year in a row we are unable to celebrate Thingyan and the Burmese new year. Since the military coup, our people have been suffering and facing a great many challenges and difficulties. In Myanmar tradition, Thingyan is a time to wash away the sins and evil of the last year and to usher in the new year with good deeds and blessings. This Thingyan the military hopes to wash away our determination and spirit with our blood. It is a blood-stained Thingyan and the people of Myanmar refuse to participate in the military’s travesty of a festival. A staged mockery of our cherished traditions in service of a false image of a country at peace and under control. But we have shown the world that we do not surrender easily and we have shown our courage and resilience towards the regime. Myanmar will not know peace until the military are defeated and democracy is restored. We cannot be controlled.

I believe that our people truly deserve freedom and democracy. The day will yet come when we can purify our nation of the military’s evil and wash away their darkness with the purest water. But that day is not today. Although we cannot celebrate, we must take time to consider the few blessings we have. We are pushing the military back more and more each day. It is a slow battle but we are winning. May this new year bring our country the freedom, true democracy and all the rights that we have lost at the hands of the junta.

Sincerely,

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