Interviews with Zin Mar Aung

In our society there is no proper civil society. Most of the civil society in Burma is just only charity-based organizations, not actually need-based organization. They do not step into the rights-based organization. That is what I would like to change, you know? If the civil society would like to support democratic changes, they need be – just only need-based organizations are not enough. So we try to change the idea of the existing civil society to move from need-based to right-based civil society organization.

Actually, we base our organization inside the American Center. [A library at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon] At that time, outside the American center, we do not do our activities freely. So that’s why our activists are based at the American Center. Actually, the biggest support is moral support, and also, financial [support] is still difficult to accept and not just because of our organization’s capacity or because of the banking system or something like that, but because of the government policy. The government does not accept the foreign monies [going to] the civil society and the activists.

They always try to follow up you know, if someone’s or some organization accepting foreign support. They are always ready to blame and, you know, these organizations and these people politically, you know, are trying to disgrace this person and organization. I believe that it helped a lot, because, you know, now the current President Thein Sein government seriously be searching for, you know, the way to lift the [international] sanctions. [Thein Sein is a former military officer who has been President of Burma since 2011.

From 2007 to 2011, he was the Prime Minister of Burma.] What is really needed is to lift the sanctions, and the sanction is really effective to the military and government and that really supports our democratic movement. Now a lot of new civil society organizations are emerging. And they try to get the opportunity during the transition period they’re trying to step forward from needs-based to rights-based, so education, regarding education, women’s organizations and also the peace, regarding the organizations that are working for the peace process, and especially education and women’s organizations are still emerging. That is a good thing.

Zin Mar Aung is a Burmese civil society and political activist and a former prisoner of conscience. She was born in 1976 in Rangoon.

While a university student in the 1990s, Zin Mar Aung became active in the opposition to Burma’s military government. In 1998, she was arrested at a peaceful protest rally for reading a poem and statement calling on the military government to respect the results of elections. She was detained and convicted before a military tribunal, which did not permit her to be represented by an attorney. Zin Mar Aung was sentenced to 28 years in prison. She spent 11 years as a political prisoner, nearly nine years of which was in solitary confinement. In 2009, she was suddenly released from captivity and she resumed her civil society activities.

Zin Mar Aung has founded a number of civil society groups dealing with democratic development, women’s empowerment, ethnic tolerance, and providing assistance to former prisoners of conscience. The Rainfall group encourages greater women’s participation in public life and the Yangon School of Political Science educates young Burmese about politics and democracy.

In 2012, she was recognized by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a recipient of the annual “International Women of Courage” award.