The Rohingya community, many now refugees in Bangladesh, and the ethnic minority IDPs in
Rakhine and Chin states, trying to survive an active conflict zone, face tremendous challenges.
Following on decades of oppression and deprivation of their human rights, they must contend with
daily violence, housing insecurity, and the threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The internet
shutdowns add fuel to these fires, preventing access to reliable information about how people can
keep themselves safe and stopping them from communicating with friends and family. As one Ro
Arfat Khan put it, “Risks and sadness has become part of our life. Peace and happiness has gone
away from our life.”
It is within the power of the Myanmar government to ease the devastating impacts on the affected
population, restoring protections for their rights, by lifting the shutdown order, and the Bangladesh
government must continue to guarantee network access. As Syedul Mostafa, author of the poem
that gave this paper its title, told us, truly, “There is nothing around the world without internet for
this digital world. There are everything, where is available internet.” If the internet is not available,
these vulnerable communities’ lives and suffering will persist in a perpetual state of lockdown and
shutdown.
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