When the lights go out in Myanmar
The anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) has called on public sector employees, including at the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE), to down tools in protest against the coup, a rally cry that has seized up much of the bureaucracy.
The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), an emerging parallel government comprised of military-ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmakers, on March 18 said it exempted households from paying monthly electricity bills and paused the collection of fees for non-household usage, an audacious bid to hit the junta in the coffers.
Those rebel yells are resonating. Local media reports estimate that anywhere between 50-75% of the ministry’s workers are on strike, including nearly all junior-level staff at the nation’s two main power dispatch centers in Yangon and the capital Naypyidaw.
Unexplained nationwide blackouts on March 5 and March 31 appeared to show the CDM and CRPH’s campaign is hitting the junta’s ability to control and maintain the power grid, though electricity shortages are certainly not new to Myanmar.
“The power system is bound to suffer from further disruptions in the near future. A lot of MOEE staff support the CDM,” said a former advisor to the ministry who requested anonymity. “But the ministry is now moving to fire CDM employees. This could affect the ministry’s ability to operate the grid.”
https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/when-the-lights-go-out-in-myanmar/
Shutting down the power grid is an interesting revolutionary tactic.
