Episode #397: In this episode of the Insight Myanmar Podcast, two compelling voices—Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Wongpun Amarinthewa—illuminate the stakes of Myanmar’s political crisis from the frontlines of resistance and reporting.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a prominent Burmese activist and deputy director of the Anti-Sham Election Campaign Committee, lays out a forceful case against the junta’s proposed elections. Far from representing democratic progress, she sees them as a calculated maneuver to legitimize the military’s grip on power. These elections, rooted in the discredited 2008 Constitution, are framed as part of a broader strategy to escape accountability and sustain authoritarian rule under the veneer of civilian governance. “The 2008 Constitution was also another coup,” she asserts, “[that was executed] in the name of democracy.” Her coalition, which includes civil society actors and ethnic political parties, has already moved beyond the junta’s framework, pursuing a revolutionary roadmap to draft an inclusive federal democratic constitution from the ground up. Speaking to the international community, she warns that continued reference to the 2008 Constitution risks legitimizing a system that has failed time and again to protect Myanmar’s people or bring about real change.

Wongpun Amarinthewa, a Thai journalist, brings a parallel perspective from across the border. He reflects on his reporting trips to refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, where the trauma of displacement—especially among children—left a lasting emotional mark. His work underscores the human toll of the conflict and the widespread lack of awareness among the Thai public, which is exacerbated by government restrictions, media indifference, and nationalist sentiment. Despite the obstacles, Wongpun remains committed to telling these stories, emphasizing the urgent need for deeper regional awareness and cross-border solidarity. “As a media [worker], it’s my responsibility to let the public know what’s really happening along the border of Thailand,” he says.

Episode #396: “There is no other issue in Thailand that has this long of a history of civil society engagement like Myanmar.” With these words, Thai humanitarian worker and activist, Mic Chawaratt, discusses the decades-long relationship between Thailand and Myanmar regarding displacement, refugee management, and civil society aid.

He traces Thailand’s security-driven approach to Myanmar refugees from the 1980s to today. Despite not signing the 1951 Refugee Convention, Thailand has hosted large populations displaced by conflict and political repression, though often without offering any legal recognition. He notes how the official response has been spotty, and Thai civil society, not the government, has largely shouldered the responsibility, building what Mic calls a “parallel system” of humanitarian care. After the 2021 coup, this system has been tested further by surging refugee numbers and increased repression.

He criticizes Thailand’s “proxy diplomacy,” which masks quiet support for the junta while sidelining the National Unity Government. ASEAN, too, comes under fire for its inaction. Meanwhile, new crises—such as scam centers exploiting vulnerable migrants—intersect with old ones, creating deeper humanitarian challenges.

In closing, Mic takes a bird’s eye view of the challenge, calling for a shift from emergency response to long-term infrastructure: education, healthcare, and legal protections. He also stresses the need for humanitarian organizations to listen to the refugees’ own voices and safeguard their rights while highlighting the reality of burnout and donor fatigue.

And as Thai politics shift rightward, he urges vigilance to protect civil society space and regional solidarity. “The story of Myanmar is also the story of Thailand,” he concludes. “We cannot separate them. Our futures are bound together.”

Episode #395: Laetitia van den Assum, a Dutch diplomat and former ambassador to Thailand, was one of nine members of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, a group set up in 2016 at Aung San Suu Kyi’s request and chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Its mandate was to improve conditions in one of Myanmar’s poorest and most divided regions. In this conversation, van den Assum reflects on the Commission’s work, her dealings with Annan and Min Aung Hlaing, and the enduring challenges of Rakhine.

From the outset, the military opposed the Commission because it had been established without their consent, and Min Aung Hlaing tried to push Parliament to expel the foreign members. But as van den Assum notes, “he could not stop us,” since the 25 percent of seats reserved for the military under the 2008 constitution was insufficient to block the process. Building trust among local communities was another hurdle-- the Commission had to prove that it represented everyone, not only the Rohingya.

In August 2017, the Commission released its final report, containing 88 recommendations focused on peace, development, and human rights. The very next day, ARSA launched attacks on police posts, and the military retaliated with sweeping operations that drove 750,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh. Van den Assum believes these plans were already in place, describing the scale of violence as shocking but not unexpected.

She continues to stress the report’s lessons. Citizenship remains central: without reform of the 1982 law that excluded the Rohingya and many others, genuine progress is impossible. Long-term planning also requires accurate population data, as nearly a million people were left uncounted in the 2014 census. Looking at Myanmar today, van den Assum sees fragmentation across the country and insists that peace must precede development and rights.

Calling for pragmatic international support, she warns that Myanmar cannot rely on foreign aid indefinitely and must become more self-sufficient. Yet her appreciation for the resistance effort is unwavering: “My admiration knows no bounds for those continuing to fight for their self-determination. They don’t see a way back. There’s only a way forward.”

Episode #394: Sandar, an ethnographer and documentary photographer, dedicated her life to understanding Myanmar’s diverse cultures. Before the coup, she conducted extensive research in ethnic territories, particularly in Kachin, documenting their struggles and traditions. However, when the military seized power, her ability to continue fieldwork was shattered. Facing restrictions and violence, she joined mass protests in Yangon, capturing the resistance movement as it first emerged onto the scene. As the military began to target anyone so much as holding a camera, she realized the dangers of remaining in the city, and sought another way to contribute.

Sandar decided to relocate to Karenni, one of the first states to systematically resist the coup. There, she witnessed the destruction caused by military offensives and joined displaced medical workers, documenting their efforts. Later, she immersed herself in a Karenni military training camp for three months, observing how ordinary individuals transformed into resistance fighters. Her time there fundamentally changed her understanding of Myanmar’s ethnic struggles, shifting her from an external observer to an active participant.

Living in the jungle, she adapted to harsh conditions, learning survival skills and embedding herself in Karenni society. Recognizing the lack of education for displaced youth, she established an alternative school, later expanding it into a social studies diploma program. Despite repeated attacks forcing relocation, she remained committed to education as a form of resistance.

Through her documentary work, Sandar highlights the resilience of Karenni civilians, and in so doing, challenges top-down peace efforts that ignore lived realities. She emphasizes that genuine solidarity comes from direct engagement. For her, the revolution is not just about fighting the military but reshaping Myanmar’s social fabric, because real change must come from the ground up.

Episode #393: “It’s now time to be more principled and say that, ‘We would like to support democracy.’” With this statement, Audun Aagre, former head of the Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC), distills three decades of Norway’s involvement in Myanmar into a call for credibility and purpose.

Aagre’s own engagement with Myanmar began in the early 1990s, when Burmese exiles in Norway trained as journalists with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). Witnessing their dedication inspired him to travel to the Thai–Myanmar border, and later help form a Burma support group back home. He was eventually tapped to lead the Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC), an advocacy group supporting Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD’s opposition to the military. Under Aagre’s leadership, NBC was broadened to include building political party capacity and working with civil society across ethnic lines.

While Norway’s policy was pro-democracy early on, it shifted during the Thein Sein era. Norwegian diplomats began to argue the generals had seen the light and were more popular than Aung San Suu Kyi— a view Aagre dismissed as fantasy. Norway launched the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI), which emphasized short-term “peace dividends” like development projects, but failed to address structural issues of federalism and military control, and seemed to back the military’s approach. The trust his country had built with democratic forces in Myanmar for decades all but collapsed. The Rohingya crisis then revealed the futility of believing cooperation with the military could ever be compatible with human rights.

Meanwhile, business entanglements further eroded Norway’s credibility. Telenor, once a symbol of empowerment as cheap SIM cards and internet spread across Myanmar, soon collided with the junta’s demands for surveillance data. Forced into compliance, it eventually sold its operations—only to see sensitive information handed straight to military-linked companies. Energy ventures like SN Power’s dam project and Statoil’s offshore contracts followed the same pattern, funneling resources into conflict zones and, ultimately, into the generals’ coffers.

For Aagre, the lesson is clear: Norway must stand firmly for democracy, not realpolitik. Otherwise, compromise and “trickle-down” strategies only undermine the very struggles they aim to support. The warning resonates now, as democracies everywhere face pressure from rising authoritarianism and strategic disinformation. “If the military was able to turn Norway, then you can turn any country in the world. The symbolism of turning Norway was very high.”

Episode #392: Landmines and explosive remnants of war are taking a devastating toll on civilians, as armed groups on many sides continue to use the deadly and indiscriminate weapons. Mine Free Myanmar, a country-focused campaign of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, runs an annual art contest documenting survivors’ stories and the ever-present threat experienced by communities.

The contest, now in its third year, attracts submissions from both adults and children, opening a window on survivors’ experiences. One woman who was injured while fetching water was later abandoned by her husband because she was disabled. Last year’s prize winner from Rakhine State shows a boy playing football who runs into a mine in front of the village signboard.

From anecdotal evidence, including survivor stories collected by volunteers, there was a surge in landmine incidents following Operation 1027 launched by several EAOs in October 2023. The most recent Landmine Monitor report published in November 2024 concluded that Myanmar suffered the most recorded casualties from landmine and explosive remnants of war of any country in the world in 2023.

The campaign’s nationwide coordinator, who spoke to Insight Myanmar under the pseudonym of Webster, believes many incidents go unreported. “We just collect the impact stories of those who survived. There are many people who are being killed by the landmines in the community.”

The role of the international community, he says, is to support multilateral engagement and advocacy to make that ban a reality, although he admits that amid the immediate conflict, reductions in landmine use and more awareness by armed actors might be the best that can be hoped. In the meantime, Webster urges international partners providing victim assistance to focus not just on the immediate injuries and provision of prostheses, to encompass the reality of a person’s life after an injury and the need for vocational training and sustainable livelihoods.

“If we don’t talk about banning landmines, we have to support the survivor every decade, every generation,” Webster says. “It will never end.”

Episode #391: A key figure at Article 19 for the Asia Pacific region, Lana exposes a dilemma: the tense dynamic between an accelerating tech industry and authoritarian governments' increasing digital control. Lana's background informs her examination of how tech operations affect human rights in countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam, and China.

Authorities in oppressive Asian nations are increasingly delegating enforcement of their restrictive policies to private tech firms. In Myanmar, post-2021 coup, new legislation forces telecom and IT companies to comply with the cybersecurity law. Lana clarifies that Myanmar's military isn't just removing content directly; it's using laws to transfer censorship and surveillance responsibilities to the tech sector. This puts companies in an untenable position, forced to obey unconstitutional mandates while operating in a worsening economy, with internet shutdowns and conflict further complicating matters.

There is also the inconsistent nature of content moderation. She suggests moderation policies often reflect “public opinion in Western countries and public pressure,” rather than consistent ethics. Moreover, weak or absent data protection laws leave users vulnerable, enabling companies to collect vast amounts of information.

Despite these hurdles, Lana stresses civil society's essential role in ensuring digital rights. She advocates for a human rights-first approach, urging companies to conduct thorough impact assessments. “We want the private sector to be more transparent and responsive when things are flagged by ​​civil society, and solve those issues together without a fear of being given to their authorities,” she emphasizes.

While a universal policy is impractical, international human rights standards are important. “We should not stop and do nothing as a civil society just because it's complicated,” she stresses, placing accountability on both companies and users to ensure a safe, free online environment.

Episode #390: The exhibition Fragmentation, hosted earlier this year at Bangkok Art and Culture Center and co-organized by SEA Junction and A New Burma, presented haunting photographs of displaced teachers and students in Karenni State, capturing both devastation and resilience in the midst of war. Through a series of interviews, curators and participants reflected on the deeper meanings of these images.

Tim, the co-curator and graphic designer, explained the deliberate effort to avoid sensationalizing suffering, instead showing both the grief of loss and the ordinariness of children still learning. He recalls how the sound of school bells had come to double as an airstrike siren, a chilling metaphor for the normalization of fear.

Nicola Edwards, an education researcher, highlights how schools and health facilities have become deliberate military targets. Yet she notes that this destruction has catalyzed new, community-driven education systems, from jungle classrooms to mother-tongue curricula, where untrained but dedicated volunteers sustain children’s learning and safety.

Patrick, a frontline doctor in Karenni, describes the direct targeting of hospitals and the horrific injuries he treats daily, many of them children. Though he has survived airstrikes and seen atrocities firsthand, he emphasized solidarity among medical workers and the determination to continue serving despite trauma.

Mya Hein, a Muslim student unionist, reflects on his political awakening, the discrimination he faced, and how the revolution has brought fleeting moments of solidarity alongside lingering structural inequalities. He urged that minority rights must be central to any genuine future for Myanmar.

Finally, artist and organizer MCP spoke of the revolution’s impact on art, where creativity has become both a tool of survival and a means of political dialogue. For him, art conveys truths and emotions beyond statistics, keeping Myanmar’s suffering—and hope—visible to the world.

Together, their voices reveal a portrait of education, health, identity, and creativity as intertwined acts of resistance.