A medical specialist in Yangon tells The Kite Tales of the agonising decision to leave their patients to join the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and their struggle to treat them in secret.  

Hopes? My hope is we win this time. And I believe we can win, as long as we believe we can and we all do it together.

I took part in the CDM because I do not want to work under an unjust coup government. At the beginning, I wondered if what I was doing was right. As a doctor I really regret leaving my patients behind. But my resolve strengthened later because of the coup government’s awful conduct. 

As long as the youth are protesting on the streets, I will continue to take part in the CDM. I’m ready to quit if they are going to fire me. The doctors under me started taking part in CDM from Feb 3rd but I tried my best to stay as long as I could to ensure the remaining patients were looked after and that they would receive care. When I saw the patients crying because of the changes -- the non-emergency cases who were there for low blood pressure or coughing who didn’t want to go back home, or people who needed further treatment but were transferred to other doctors -- I felt so undecided. But the more I saw of the latest situation, the more I realised I cannot accept this injustice. But “Unity is strength” and that is why we senior doctors made a decision to join the CDM. 

I opened a small clinic of my own as a charity service to support the patients who now can’t go to hospitals to get help. A lot of my doctor friends agreed to volunteer to serve, taking turns at the clinics. Unfortunately, we announced our clinic publicly to patients at the hospitals, not thinking of any danger. We were not open for long before we got calls to ask whether we were a CDM clinic or not. Now out of fear for everyone involved, we have had to close it for a while to avoid getting noticed and arrested.

Currently I’m just staying at home, since they are chasing all CDM people through the pro-junta network and putting pressure through township administrators and my charity clinic has become unsafe. The situation is worse outside of Yangon where some doctors have been detained. In Yangon, they haven’t done this because the community here is large and strong. But we heard they are speaking to hospital bosses and putting up notices in the hospitals giving a deadline to return. 

Since I left the hospital, I have given some of my patients my personal phone line to contact. Based on their needs and the support we can provide, I’m directing them to the private hospitals and clinics that provide them treatment for free. I’m even getting calls for things that are not my area of specialty, but I can still connect them with doctors who can help them. 

To some extent yes, I am scared that I might get arrested even though I’m not that prominent. The worry stays always at the back of my mind every day.

Artwork thanks to Art for Freedom Myanmar https://www.artforfreedommm.com/