Phyo Min Thein, Yangon’s new chief minister and a former political prisoner, is urging students to avoid protesting and to think of other ways to demand change.
“Young people from the next generation don’t need to sacrifice like this anymore,” he said on July 25, as quoted in the Voice. “We don’t need to guide them to go to prison again as we have already sacrificed.”
Phyo Min Thein was speaking with the Minister of Education and teachers and students at Yangon University.
So what should students do?
He invited them to just come to his office and submit complaints if there are problems, and said that anyone who wants education reform should participate in efforts that are lawful.
Since colonial times, students have been at the forefront of protests for change in the country. Last year more than 100 were arrested and charged for demonstrating against stalled reforms at the university level.
They were released in an amnesty in April after Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy officially came to power.
