‘We Need More [International Support] in Kachin State’: Ah Ze, General Secretary of AKYU — PART 2

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This interview is the first one in Burma Link’s “Youth Voices” series that we will be publishing until further notice. The series is meant to give more in depth understanding into the situation, concerns, and feelings of Burma’s ethnic youth and the work that ethnic youth organisations are conducting.

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Working with the AKYU: “I am also a young person, so I have the responsibility to stand for my people, my Kachin people.”

Right now, my position is General Secretary in All Kachin Youth Union (AKYU). I joined AKYU in 2013 after I attended the Student and Youth Congress of Burma (SYCB) one-year program in Mae Sot; the leadership and management program. After I came back, I

[started] working at my organization. Right now, I have worked for almost four years.

I am working [at AKYU] right now because my spirit is that I love the youth and [so] I have to stand for the youth and my organization must stand for the youth. I love my organization and [according to] my spirit, I have to do something for youth. I have been standing for them until now, for almost four years. In AKYU, we have to provide all training and activities by ourselves. If I want to teach English, I am just a volunteer, [I get] no pay.  We don’t get any pay. So, my parents always ask me, “Why are you working for this organization? Why are you doing this now?” Even though they say like that, I don’t care because I have to stand for my young people. I am also a young person, so I have the responsibility to stand for my people, my Kachin people. I really want peace in Burma, between the ethnic nationalities and the government. I want [Burma] to be a federal democracy country. We have to be involved with all of the people in Burma to get this achieved, to achieve a federal country. This is my dream.

Goal and Achievement of AKYU: “We stand for the youth, so the youth are able to get involved with the federal and peace process in Burma.”

The goal of our organization is based on the youth — as we stand for the youth, the youth can become involved in the federal and peace process in Burma. We also support and provide programs that they are interested in. Overall, that is our goal and we stand for the youth. We give capacity-building to the youth, helping the youth to become involved in politics. So, our goal is supporting all of the youth who are interested in this topic [politics] and to help involving the youth with politics. Any youths, who are interested in joining the organization are welcome to join AKYU.

As an achievement in 2017, we had held the youth peace dialogue in Waingmaw and Myikyina Townships, Kachin State. We held Organization Development (OD) and reformed our organization. We also had Learning English Program for children aged 8 to 14 years old. In this program, we taught almost 200 children by giving them free training. Not only for the Kachin people who are comprised of six different main ethnic sub-groups, but [we also held] the program for the Burmese [Burmans] and Muslims. Besides this, we also gave human rights training, gender-based violence training, and peace and federalism training to youth. I think a lot of Kachin people have to improve their English skills and their political [knowledge], so we have to teach them.

After joining AKYU, I think around 30 percent of the youth can go to the schools [they choose] and they are able join a lot of different organizations. Youth who joined [AKYU] also have the chance to attend training at other organizations before coming back to their hometowns in Kachin State. For example, youth from AKYU can join other organizations like the SYCB, Kachin National Organization (KNO), and the humanitarian institutes in Kachin State. After they come back from these organizations, they can volunteer at AKYU. Over time [many] AKYU members and senior members have come back to volunteer at AKYU after joining other organizations. For example, now I can provide training to my young people in AKYU, like teaching English, human rights, gender [issues] and peace [and] violence training. I share [skills] to youth after I have joined trainings provided by the SYCB.

After they have gone to further studies in overseas schools, [some youth] didn’t come back Burma, while some chose to work in Yangon, Mandalay and other cities for different organizations. As AKYU is meant to support the youth, we don’t restrict the youth to come back to work for our organization and they can go anywhere or any organizations which they are interested to work with. Since they have [taken part in] capacity-building, they are capable of working anywhere. We give capacity training for youth, so they have the choice to work anywhere. Also, if they [youth] want to attend [training in] other countries, or if they intend to volunteer for 1 or 2 months at [other organizations], we support them and provide recommendation letters for them.

Challenges the AKYU Faces: “We have a lot of youth members, but we depend on volunteers to provide training programs.”

We face a lot of challenges because we don’t have enough funds and we do not have enough volunteers. There is not enough financial support, and because we are a youth empowerment organization, so we do every activity and provide training by ourselves. We only have very few donors, some small grants. We have a lot of youth members, but we depend on volunteers to provide training programs. AKYU is based on volunteers to give training and to teach some of the programs. For some of the youth, we cannot motivate them to come back and help our organization as volunteers. Despite having received a lot of capacity-building, they don’t want to work for the youth in our organization because our organization doesn’t have funds [to pay them]. Some are not interested [in working without funding or pay]. That is why we must contribute a lot of time to recruit volunteers.

Some of the seniors members who joined AKYU in the past have supported us. Our organization started in 1995, right now it has been established for almost 23 years, so we have a lot of senior members. The senior members who worked overseas and other countries before can [provide] what we need, and we also share what [knowledge and resources] we have from them. The senior members can become involved in AKYU activities. For example, if a senior member is interested in teaching, then he/she can come to help at AKYU, and youth can attend the class [provided by senior members].

Some of the donors are very interested in supporting us, so we tried to apply for funding from the donors, but we didn’t get anything from them at the end. That is because in 2014 AKYU transferred back to its base and settled in Burma when it was still under the military government, so we did not have a well-established organization at that time. Our senior members were also doing their own jobs, so they did not have enough time to help our organization. That is why there have been a little bit of gaps for AKYU since 2014. I was also a student at that time; we [AKYU executive team and members] could not do all of the things with our [limited] capacity. However, our organization has been reformed since 2014, it is a reformed organization now.

To get international support [funding], we [AKYU] have to write proposals — that’s why we need to build our capacity. If we don’t receive any capacity-building, we cannot write proposals to get [international support]. For me, I can only write in Burmese language, I cannot write in English language very well. But right now, as some of the AKYU seniors are working in the international community, we [AKYU] can connect and establish relations with them. I hope that we will be able to get funding for new programs. These are the challenges we face.

Youth, Politics and Peace Process: “Most of the youth and students are not interested [in politics] because their parents control them.”

Some of the youth are interested in politics but most of the youth and students are not interested because their parents control them. Parents in Burma like to control [their children], they don’t want their children to connect with politics and they tell their children, “You shouldn’t be interested in politics.” Parents in Burma always say like that. Sometimes, I am also a little bit confused because my brother also says, “You are not Aung San Suu Kyi. You mustn’t be interested in politics, let’s go back, go back home to cook and take care of our parents.” He said like that. I don’t care. I don’t care what they say and I stand for the youth.

Some [youth] just think about how to get money. They are not interested in education and they use drugs. They just think about money, they go to Hpakan and dig the jade to find money. They do a lot of work, but the money they get is only a little bit. The company only gives very little money to the workers because the company and the government work jointly.

A 12-month investigation by the Global Witness, published in the report “Jade: Myanmar’s Big State Secret” revealed that jade is worth far more than previously thought – up to USD 31 billion in 2014 alone – equivalent to nearly half of the country’s GDP. The trade is controlled by the military elites, drug lords and crony companies that reap vast profits while local people suffer terrible abuses and see their natural inheritance ripped out. 

On the other hand, some of them [youth] are interested in the peace process — they are involved in it actively. Last December, when I went to do a peace talk, they were involved in it very actively. I have connections and information about the peace talks, so I told the youth that [our] activities would involve discussions about peace. After they heard that, they became interested and involved [in the session]. They also volunteered in our organization. But, there are only a few youth interested [in politics] in Kachin State, we have to organize [ourselves] to involve more youth.

Message to International Community: “We need more [international support] in Kachin State.”

I am really happy when the international community is involved with the human rights [issue in Burma]. In 2014, we founded the United National Day Youth Forum (UNYF), we wrote a proposal to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) who gave [the funds for us] to support the peace process in Burma. [With the funding], we could do that [the forum] in all areas in Burma, including Kachin State. I think the international community is supporting the peace process in Burma, but not much. It is not enough. We need more [international support] in Kachin State.

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Burma Link interviewed Ah Ze in English in July, 2018. The interview has been edited for clarity and flow.

READ PART 1 FOCUSING ON CURRENT ISSUES AND THE SITUATION ON THE GROUND.