Two thoughts entered my head as soon as I saw that Myanmar, my home country, had been hit by an earthquake: “Is everyone OK?”, followed by, “We just can’t catch a break”.
My loved ones thankfully turned out to be badly shaken but physically OK. There were material losses but nothing compared with what so many others are going through.
The quake on 28 March was both powerful and shallow, a combination that tends to unleash devastation. But it is crucial not to attribute solely to the quake the terrible and heartbreaking images and stories trickling out of Myanmar, of people using bare hands to rescue trapped survivors and desperate pleas for medical assistance for the injured.
What is turning this natural disaster into a full-blown humanitarian crisis is the actions of the military junta which seized power in February 2021.
In the span of four years, I saw my country descend from a promising, if flawed, democracy into one struggling with a “profound polycrisis”. Even before the quake hit, half the population was living below the poverty line, the currency has lost 70% of its value, and more than one in three people need assistance, according to the United Nations. Our healthcare infrastructure is in tatters while the rates of infectious diseases have soared.
The army, meanwhile, was busy terrorising its own citizens: bombing communities, burning villages and cutting off communications.
So many of the areas most affected by the quake, located in the Buddhist heartland of Sagaing and Mandalay where my family used to go on regular pilgrimages, were already highly vulnerable after four years of intense clashes and coming under the junta’s regular bombardment. In fact nearly half of Myanmar’s displaced population of 3.5 million are in quake-hit areas, which were the military’s former prime recruiting grounds but now are a resistance stronghold.
These communities have been further hollowed out as young people fled to avoid the conscription law and the junta forced civil society groups and private hospitals to close. These groups would normally be the first responders in natural disasters.
Communication and electricity blackouts have also made it difficult to establish the full scale of the damage in some areas. Without internet access, local journalists have to rely on patchy mobile phone coverage.
I’m glad the military made a rare appeal for international help, unlike in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 or more recently in 2023 with Cyclone Mocha. But I have serious doubts about its willingness and ability to provide aid effectively and impartially, given its history of blocking aid, and since some of the hardest hit areas are not under its control.
I believe aid should not be conditional or political but I’m also not naive. The junta is likely to take advantage of this latest tragedy to portray itself as Myanmar’s legitimate government, seek to reinforce the myth it is the only institution that can hold the country together, and get broader support for its upcoming elections.
It has already shown a desire to have its cake and eat it: international aid without the scrutiny from international journalists, citing travel and accommodation challenges. Having spent years of my early career chasing disasters around South-East Asia, I know these things don’t deter journalists.
The junta is illegitimate. Whenever given the chance, Myanmar people have repeatedly shown they do not want military rule. I’m glad there is finally some international attention on Myanmar and I hope it is accompanied by substance, given the UN’s assistance plans for Myanmar have been consistently woefully underfunded. Worse, a significant portion of the funds came from the United States, much of which is now gone after the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID.
Here’s my plea to the international community: Please push the junta to reverse its flimsy excuse for not allowing foreign journalists into the country, to honour the ceasefire it has finally announced days after pro-democracy groups committed to do so, to stop airstrikes of the kind it launched hours after the quake, and to allow unfettered access for aid and aid workers.
Please do not rely on the junta alone to deliver aid. Please work with a variety of actors, including local groups with access to some of the most disconnected areas. Volunteers on the grounds are already worried about diseases spreading if the dead bodies are not removed soon because April showers usually accompany our new year, which starts next Sunday.
Much has been made of the Myanmar people’s resilience in the face of never-ending misfortune, but I have come to resent the term. We are resilient because we have had to be, because no one else has come to our aid.
We should not have to endure this alone. Myanmar needs tangible, sustained support from the international community before this disaster claims even more lives.
