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Anti-coup protests moved decisively away from calls for the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected political leaders,
or for a return to democracy under the 2008 constitution. Instead,
it evolved towards greater inclusivity of all Myanmar peoples in
pursuit of a more robust federal democracy. A group of fifteen
elected parliamentarians, representing the ideals of Gen Z youths,
formed a shadow government called the Committee Representing
the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) on 5 February 2021. On
1 March the CRPH declared the military governing body, the
State Administrative Council (SAC), a “terrorist group”, and on
31 March, it declared the military’s 2008 constitution abolished.
Gen Z’s protests have accomplished what has been elusive to prior
generations of anti-regime movements and uprisings. They have
severed the Bamar Buddhist nationalist narrative that has gripped
state society relations and the military’s ideological control over
the political landscape, substituting for it an inclusive democratic
ideology.
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