[Myanmar Civil Society Interview Series] ② “A Call for Renewal and Re-Leap in South Korea’s International Development Cooperation Sector in Response to the Myanmar Crisis!”

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NkeGYssD8

The "Strengthening Myanmar Civil Society Capacity" project planned the civil society interview series "Myanmar, Again," to hear from South Korean and Myanmar civil society activists who have supported Myanmar's civil disobedience movement over the past year. Oh Eui-seok, an activist from the Community Alliance for International Development Cooperation (CAIDC), analyzes that the international development cooperation sector, which had been operating with a humanitarian perspective, began to seek more fundamental and long-term solidarity measures following the 2021 Myanmar coup. He emphasizes the importance of archiving efforts, such as "Myanmar, Spring," to continuously gather relevant materials and attract public attention as the situation prolongs and becomes more complex. He also explains CAIDC's future activity plans, including the implementation of a Myanmar metaverse and the hosting of Myanmar Talks.

Interviewer Introduction

■ Oh Eui-seok_ Standing activist at the Overseas Residents Movement Alliance and Korean coordinator for Local Futures, also serving as the representative of the youth organization for international development cooperation, Public Private Gathering.

■ In charge and Edited by: Jeon Ju-hyeon_EAI Researcher

Contact: 02 2277 1683 (ext. 204) | jhjun@eai.or.kr

Video Script

4 We, we are the community alliance, an international development cooperation network that operates under the name "Community Alliance" on your computers. I am participating as a co-organizer of "Kimchi & Chips," a weekly newsletter on international affairs, and also as a community that researches and promotes solidarity activities with activists in the field of international relations, "Solidarity." We also have a junior network called "Junior," which has been active for about three years, and a community called "Build," which was formed after receiving training for over ten years at the Development Cooperation Network on how to effectively organize residents in the field of international development cooperation and has continued solidarity activities since then.

Later, as we needed external promotion and content creation, we recruited about five additional designers, and currently, we have about 20 members active both domestically and internationally. We are currently operating in four units: the archiving page, "Myanmar, Spring," which is continuously managed by the archiving team; the communication team, with which I am currently active, sending out monthly newsletters and managing Instagram; the action team, which participates in external activities and interviews and organizes events to encourage public participation and voice collective action; and finally, the policy team, which researches and studies how to voice our opinions in our field in the long term and how to fundamentally reform the system.

Regarding Myanmar, it is one of South Korea's representative priority cooperation countries. Among our members, while some have no prior connection to Myanmar, a relatively large number have experience working there, or have been on assignments. Although I haven't had an assignment in Myanmar, I traveled there quarterly for project development and operations. Many of us have connections to Myanmar, such as through participation in community organizing activities. Therefore, the coup in Myanmar was a very significant event. Another point is that, having visited Myanmar frequently, I felt that unlike other countries, Myanmar has a very strong desire for democratization. Since I visited Myanmar frequently after 2017, at that time, with the NLD in power, there was a spring of democratization in Myanmar.

It was a very hopeful and dynamic period. Myanmar also expressed a desire for shared experiences to pursue further democratization. Although we are not a generation that directly experienced democratization like South Korea, we felt a sense of solidarity with the people of Myanmar, who were pursuing the very stories we read in books and were taught daily. This shared experience of democratization seems to have led to our subsequent activities related to Myanmar. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that our activities were not so much *in* Myanmar, but rather that after the incident in Myanmar, our engagement with Myanmar intensified.

It would be more accurate to say that after the incident in Myanmar, we felt compelled to act, and as we gradually became involved, our commitment grew. The coup in Myanmar has been ongoing for nearly a year now. We are also trying to organize our activities, but as there is so much to do, and given that we are operating from a civil society background in development cooperation, there are many avenues for action.

Myanmar has a population comparable to South Korea's, numerous ethnic groups, high poverty rates in various regions, and abundant resources, but the distribution is uncertain. There is much potential for action, but progress is slow. Therefore, there have been many activities within the development cooperation field aimed at collectively addressing these issues. Consequently, many individuals with experience in Myanmar were involved, and after the coup in Myanmar, they naturally gravitated towards our activities. Thanks to this, when we issued a statement as international development cooperation activists regarding the Myanmar situation, 740 organizations joined us in signing the statement.

We received feedback that our activists have a deep understanding and concern for Myanmar. Looking at CAIDC as a whole, as we continuously monitor news and events related to Myanmar, we realized how little we knew about Myanmar. Perhaps it's because we were only aware of Myanmar's rapid ascent towards industrialization and democratization, up until just before the coup. We didn't know what the country looked like; we were merely aware of its rapid progress.

Then, as the train stopped, we realized, "Oh, there were these problems!" We were aware to some extent of the severe ethnic conflicts and the ongoing presence of rebel forces. However, the situation was far more complex. For instance, during South Korea's dictatorship, we believed that overthrowing the dictator would resolve everything. But in Myanmar's current situation, the call to overthrow the dictator is not unified, and the integration we envisioned has not materialized. This issue has deep historical roots. Not all ethnic groups could unite to overthrow the military regime at this moment. We realized this through our observations.

Then, to overcome that hurdle, how should we overthrow the military regime now? This question became crucial. In a way, it felt similar to our own experiences of crisis, which drew us closer to Myanmar. However, we realized that they face a more challenging quest than we did. Another unfortunate observation was the lack of prominent political leaders or talented young leaders besides Aung San Suu Kyi.

If she is detained, someone needs to play a central role from the outside to prevent the democratization movement in Myanmar from losing momentum. Is there a need for nurturing such political successors? If this area is weak, then we must strengthen our solidarity with the young people who will continue the democratization movement in Myanmar. This is not simply about resolving poverty, health issues, or climate change issues on the ground; we realized this is a much larger undertaking.

We also became aware of another issue: before the Myanmar coup, many South Korean media outlets reported on the Myanmar youth. We also issued statements both domestically and internationally and held many fundraising events. This helped us organize the information. We thought it would be beneficial to categorize this information for the public, such as separating news into domestic and international sections, fundraising, campaigns, and individual protests. We considered creating a page where citizens could easily access this information.

Fortunately, we have talented individuals in our community, particularly in the IT field, who were able to create this quickly. We strived to capture the flow of events without missing any significant news, so that people could understand the situation in Myanmar by visiting the archiving page. Another motivating factor was the realization that during South Korea's May 18th Democratic Uprising, the lack of documentation was a significant risk, even though the events were clearly a massacre. Despite witnessing wrongdoing, the absence of evidence posed a major challenge. Similarly, in Myanmar, every video and photo uploaded by citizens on Facebook can serve as crucial evidence later on.

Thanks to this, news of massacres and violence in Myanmar is immediately shared worldwide through platforms like Facebook. This inspired us to actively participate as citizens using these platforms. We were motivated by the activities of the Myanmar citizens. We are continuously archiving news from Myanmar, and monthly, we publish key indicators such as the number of casualties, the status of refugees, and COVID-19 vaccination rates through infographics on Instagram.

We have been consistently engaged in these activities. However, we are somewhat disappointed that the domestic media coverage, fundraising, and campaigns related to Myanmar have gradually decreased. This might lead citizens to feel that the situation in Myanmar has been resolved to some extent. Therefore, we are continuing our archiving efforts without fail. The members involved in archiving face challenges as well, as they are tasked with handling difficult roles and often confront tragic news. Our designers, in particular, have to frequently deal with images of massacres, which can be emotionally taxing. I wanted to mention this through this opportunity.

However, we are continuing these efforts because they are important and feasible. We intend to sustain our activities, particularly by maintaining the archiving page. In August, October, and November of last year, the action unit organized events called "Myanmar Talk." We invited experts and activists on Myanmar to discuss the future of Myanmar, its historical context, and how it connects to the current coup situation. We also invited Korean activists working on the ground in Myanmar to share their experiences and challenges in NGO work. Additionally, we invited former Myanmar activists to join via Zoom to reminisce about past enjoyable times and encourage continued efforts. We plan to hold similar events under the name "Myanmar Talk," where citizens can participate and share their thoughts.

Furthermore, we are symbolically creating a Myanmar metaverse. In this space, we plan to host events and allow citizens to participate online, upload materials to social media, and so on. We are forming a metaverse task force to prepare for this. Importantly, the issue in Myanmar is not solely about overthrowing the military regime; there were pre-existing problems like the Rohingya crisis, and ethnic conflicts continue to persist. Therefore, we aim to expand our activities by collaborating with ethnic minority representatives in South Korea. Personally, if I have one more ambition, it is to see a renewal and re-leap in South Korea's international development cooperation sector in response to the Myanmar crisis.

This aligns with the background of our organization's formation. While we talk about poverty eradication and the sustainability of global neighbors in Myanmar, where is our commitment to humanitarian crises when they arise? Where has our talk of sustainability gone? The international cooperation sector seems to have lost its way.

Given that we have extensive networks and experience working on the ground, we can serve as crucial conduits for conveying information to the South Korean public. However, this is not happening effectively, which is regrettable. Perhaps because it is perceived as a political issue, or because there is a risk of our field staff facing repercussions from the authorities for speaking out against the Myanmar situation under the name of an NGO, we are hesitant to voice our opinions. While these concerns are understandable, the lack of a strong voice from the South Korean international development cooperation sector in response to such humanitarian crises is disappointing. I believe that within our capabilities, our organization can create an opportunity for the international development cooperation sector to unite in times of humanitarian crisis. This is a personal aspiration of mine. This will enable those working in development cooperation to be recognized not just as field workers, but as active contributors.

In 2020, a community within our organization, "Solidarity," conducted a study on the challenges faced by activists in South Korea's civil society sector in international development cooperation in 2030. The study investigated why they chose this field, the conditions under which they work, their aspirations, and their future goals. One particularly impressive question was: "Why did you choose the field of international development cooperation?"

The most common answer was to bring about social change. However, the crucial question is, what kind of social change? They want to achieve this change within the framework of development cooperation, using its tools. But there are limitations. While the field of development cooperation has undoubtedly achieved meaningful results, it often focuses on service delivery and sustainable local development. When faced with issues like human rights violations or situations requiring immediate intervention, the progress made in local development can be undermined. This was evident in Myanmar and other contexts. Therefore, we should not limit our activities to fields where development conditions are already established. We must also raise our voices in areas where these conditions are not met, especially when the reasons for this lack of development are political. Compared to international NGOs like Amnesty International, South Korean civil society organizations in international development cooperation, and even government agencies, are not adequately prepared to address these issues.

The most direct way to help is by opening our wallets. While sending supplies is beneficial, shipping costs can be high. Sending dollars allows for the immediate purchase of necessary items on the ground. Currently, Myanmar is facing shortages of essential goods, and the exchange rate has doubled since the coup, making it difficult for locals to purchase items. Therefore, sending goods purchased externally is the most effective method. This requires cash. Thus, opening our wallets, even with a modest contribution, is the quickest way to help. What else can be done? There are various activities, such as campaigns, petitions, and educational initiatives. Raising awareness is also important. However, a more long-term and fundamental approach is to vote for politicians who understand and are sensitive to international issues and possess sound judgment. Ultimately, many issues must be resolved within the political sphere. For example, when the Myanmar crisis erupted, some corporations faced significant criticism.

Are they truly fulfilling their responsibilities? We don't expect them to be perfect, but we hope they refrain from actions that could be misconstrued. However, the power to enforce this lies in the political and civic spheres. Civil society must consistently voice its concerns. It is essential to elect politicians who can voice these concerns in the political arena and wield actual authority. Therefore, not only in local elections but also in the upcoming presidential election, we urge you to vote for politicians who are sensitive to these structural issues.

I personally experienced a hopeful Myanmar after 2015, so the current period of darkness feels qualitatively different and hard to believe. However, I also hold onto the hope that this issue will be resolved. I encourage our colleagues and citizens in Myanmar to draw upon their historical experiences of resisting military regimes and foreign powers like Britain, and to continue to respond with courage and resilience.

The Myanmar I saw was one with hope after 2015, so while it's hard to believe and I feel a sense of despair that a dark era has suddenly arrived again, I also hold onto the hope that this problem will be resolved. Therefore, I hope our colleagues and citizens in Myanmar will continue to bravely confront this issue, drawing on their experiences of persistently resisting the military, the government, and foreign powers like Britain throughout history.

Furthermore, even if the current civil disobedience movement does not achieve immediate success, I hope the reason for its failure is not ethnic conflict or internal division. If that is not the case, then even if we lose this battle, we can win the next one. Therefore, I hope that during this period, ethnic conflicts can be somewhat reconciled or at least temporarily set aside so that we can address the immediate problem together. After that, we can hopefully resolve the remaining issues in a positive and optimistic manner. This is my personal wish.