What is the Milk Tea Alliance?
Youth-led protests have swept across numerous South-east Asian countries in recent years to protest oppressive governments and push for democracy and human rights. Most prominently, Hong Kongers have made noise that has been heard across the world in their struggle against the most powerful dictatorship with some of the largest anti-government demonstrations the world has ever seen. Additionally, Thailand has grabbed headlines in 2019 and 2020 for its mass pro-democracy protests. More recently, protesters in their hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of Myanmar to oppose the military coup that happened at the end of January. Protesters in these different countries have found solidarity with each other and their causes. More commonly known as the "Milk Tea Alliance".
The “Milk Tea Alliance” started online as an internet meme in response to the increased presence of Chinese nationalist commentators on social media. It has since evolved into a dynamic cross-national protest movement pushing for democracy. Milk-tea is seen as a symbol of anti-China solidarity by southeast Asians because, in many of these countries, tea is historically consumed with milk, whilst in China it is not.
Hong Kong and Taiwan
What started it all were the youth-led movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2014, known as the Sunflower Movement and the Umbrella Movement, respectively (you can read more about Hong Kong here).
To learn more about the Sunflower Protests, check out Vice New's explainer video below:
Both pro-democracy movements oppose Chinese interference in their territories and expose the struggles of young people fighting an external oppressive entity. Something that, shortly, would resonate with other youngsters across South East Asia.
Myanmar
The nation-state has barely experienced the real taste of democracy due to its history of long military rule. After gaining independence from the British Empire in 1948, Armed forces rule the country until 2011, when a new government created a return to civilian rule (BBC 2021).
After years of failing to bring democracy to the table, the country seemed to be going from strength to strength when pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi won the democratic elections (BBC 2021).
Despite being a beacon of hope, the country spiralled into controversy in the following years due to its human rights abuses to the Rohingya Community, creating over 800,000 refugees. Moreover, the armed forces have passed laws over the years to limit the power of the elected president. Aung San Suu Kyi was re-elected in 2020 with nearly 90% of the votes. Nonetheless, several political leaders, including Aung San, have been imprisioned by the military. The leader of the Armed forces was nearly 65 years old, the mandatory age for ressignation by the constitutions, thus he did not want to let go of power perpetually.
In response, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Myanmar in one of the largest demonstrations ever seen against the country's military coup. Protesters' demanded an end to the military's rule and for Ms San Suu Kyi to be released. (BBC, 2021). The military responded on state-run TV stating;
“Protesters were now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life."
And the military threats came true. Protesters have suffered the loss of life as the military response has become increasingly violent. The last weekend of February served the deadliest day of protests so far, with 18 protesters killed at the hands of the police. They also used tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades on the protesters (Sky 2021).
We strongly condemn the excessive violence against the protesters.
Despite the violence and threats, the protesters are resilient and have continued to protest and demand a return to democratic rule.
"We don't want the junta, we want democracy. We want to create our own future."
One protester, Htet Htet Hlaing, told the Reuters news agency in Yangon. And another told AFP,
"We came out today to join in the protest, to fight until we win. We are worried about the crackdown, but we will move forward. We are so angry."
International politicians and organisations have condemned the action of the military.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said in his annual address to the UN Human Rights Council;
"I call on the Myanmar military to stop the repression immediately. Release the prisoners. End the violence. Respect human rights, and the will of the people expressed in recent elections," he said, before insisting that "coups have no place in our modern world".
Thailand
Like Myanmar, Thailand has had a difficult history of military rule. In 2014, the military seized power in a coup led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who has been prime minister ever since (Sky 2020).
In 2016, military rule was tightened again when an unfair referendum was held on the constitution. Rules on defaming, insulting or threatening the king or queen were tightened, with anybody found guilty to be jailed for 3-15 years (HRW 2016).
In 2019, Thailand held its first general election since the coup and General Prayut was appointed prime minister. Many critics alleged the election was rigged in his favour (Sky 2020).
Years of resentment towards the government accumulated and boiled over when in February 2020, the courts banned their most vocal opposition party, the ‘Future Forward Party.’ Thousands took to the streets of Bangkok in February, but then the Covid-19 pandemic restricted gatherings, halting the protests. When the lockdown was lifted in July, protesters returnedto protest on the streets. This time, students had a list of demands and protests spread to other towns and cities in Thailand. And by August, thousands of young people had orchestrated the largestanti-government demonstration Thailand had seen since 2014. The movement is growing and mobilising worldwide, with protests in London and New York and news of the protests reaching every inch of the globe.
However, the Prime Minister responded in November threatening to apply the full force of the law against demonstrations. Since then, at least 55 people have been charged with insulting the monarchy, according to the Thai legal watchdog iLaw (DW 2020). The most shocking was the sentence of 43 years to a Thai woman for criticising the royal family (BBC 2021).
James Buchanan, a researcher on Thai history and politics, believes overly enforcing lese majeste laws could backfire for Thai authorities.
"The regime is clearly trying to send a strong signal that the dissent towards the monarchy we saw in 2020 has gone far enough and will no longer be tolerated.”
Famous Hong Kong activists, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law tweeted in solidarity.
Many young Thai people had supported Hong Kong and Taiwan in their fight against Chinese intrusion, and seen similarities in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s cause and their own cause against authoritarianism.
Better explained in the video below by activists Joshua Wong from Hong Kong and Akkarasorn Opilan from Thailand;
Wasana Wongsurawat, an expert on China at Bangkok’s Chulaongkorn University stated that;
“Anti-Beijing sentiment has become a part of Thais’ fight against authoritarianism.”
Yet 2021 saw a continuation of resistance to the Thai government, with similar scenes and tensions igniting in Myanmar, and such, the milk tea alliance continued to grow.
Protests in February turned violent when heavy-handed police responded with rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas.
The fight for Thai freedoms continues.
Final Thoughts
The most encouraging thing to witness throughout Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Myanmar is the sheer strength and courage in the young people standing up to oppressive governments.
The discouraging findings are that the police and politicians all are not afraid to abuse their power, with extreme force by police and restrictive legal action by politicians. It is not okay to use tear gas on peaceful protesters, it is not okay to ban freedom of speech, it is not okay to remove political opposition from running from office. It is a broken and abusive system, where young protesters in Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Myanmar fear threat and violence, that the Western world could not even imagine. It is so incredible to see Hong Kongers stand up for Thailand, and Thai stand up for Myanmar and vice versa, for their struggles to be shared, to help each other and achieve demands together.
Since it is crucial that the West highlights these stories and holds accountable abusive authoritative governments, we have raised a question - is the UN an effective entity to protect democracy? All those dictatorial regimes are member states of the UN but do not abide by democratic principles. Will we witness more examples of governements exercising human rights violations against their citizens and the UN not properly reacting?
We stand with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Myanmar as the protests continue.
References
BBC News (2021) Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55902070>
BBC News (2021) Thai woman jailed for record 43 years for criticising monarchy. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55723470>
Council on Foreign Relations (2021) What Forces Are Fueling Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis?. [online] Available at: <https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis>
DW (2021) Where is Thailand's protest movement heading? | DW | 27.01.2021. [online] DW.COM. Available at: <https://www.dw.com/en/where-is-thailands-protest-movement-heading/a-56363139>
Human Rights Watch (2021) Thailand: New Charter Enshrines Military Rule. [online] Available at: <https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/10/thailand-new-charter-enshrines-military-rule>
Sky News (2021) Myanmar: 18 protesters killed after police open fire during latest unrest. [online] Available at: <https://news.sky.com/story/myanmar-violence-erupts-as-police-open-fire-killing-four-pro-democracy-protesters-and-wounding-several-others-12231518>
Sky News (2021) Thailand protests: Why are Thai people protesting and what is the significance?. [online] Available at: <https://news.sky.com/story/thailand-protests-why-are-thai-people-protesting-and-what-is-the-significance-12121701>
Time (2021) How the Milk Tea Alliance Is Uniting Pro-Democracy Activists. [online] Available at: <https://time.com/5904114/milk-tea-alliance/>
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