or people’s administrative organizations.45 The message sent to the security forces was that Yat-mi-yat-pha—community elders or influential respected persons46—were now in charge of local governance and that they refused military domination in the community sphere. On 21 February, the CRPH—leading from behind— encouraged the public to form Pa-a-pha as part of the interim public administration programme.47 It formalized the organizational purposes and means for resisting the coup through an interim arrangement of community-led administration. It declared procedures for selecting Pa-a-pha members; units were to include at least eleven people drawn from members of the parliament, the CDM, civil servants, protesters and groups of elders. The CRPH also outlined duties and responsibilities as follows: (1) To assist and protect public security, the rule of law and workers participating in the CDM. (2) To communicate with the CRPH’s information and public affairs section. (3) To contact station police to ensure the rule of law and, in the absence of police cooperation, to ask assistance from local people taking part in the maintenance of public safety and of security in their respective communities. (4) To contact the CRPH when trying to solve difficulties encountered in the CDM movement. 45 Pa-a-pha in Burmese means ျပည္သူ႔အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးအဖြဲ႕ (ပအဖ). Yat-mi-yat-pha have social and political roots in both Bamar and non-Bamar communities. Outside the formal administrative structure, their traditional role is to advise, assist and lead a community and its numbers in times of social and religious affairs crises. They are also largely involved in community development—road building, well construction, and the like. But they can also become active in political mobilization. 46 Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw “ ၾကားကာလျပည္သူ႔အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးအစီအစဥ္” [Interim Public Administration Programme], 21 February 2021, https://www.facebook.com/crph.official.mm/photos/pcb.119 129856879661/119129443546369 (accessed 21 February 2021). 47 28 21-J07648 01 Trends_2021-7.indd 28 28/4/21 9:34 AM