The author is a Kayin journalist who recevied support from The Kite Tales to write these diaries.
When he turned 18, Salai* (not his real name), having passed his matriculation exam, found himself at a crossroads. In his home state, Chin, job opportunities were scarce, and he grappled with the question of how to make a living.
With his parents unable to support his university education, he enrolled in a police training school in Bago Region, where tuition fees were not required. In May 2018, he was assigned as a police private to a township police station in Rakhine, which borders Chin State.
"There were no jobs in our township, and to get other civil service positions, you had to bribe officials. Since I didn't have money for bribes, I had to choose the more readily available police job," he told me.
It was while Police Private Salai was striving for a promotion that the Myanmar military staged a coup on February 1, 2021.
There were no anti-dictatorship protests where he was stationed, so at the beginning, it was easy to largely ignore the coup. The separatist Arakan Army had encouraged its many supporters in Rakhine State to keep their distance from the broader pro-democracy movement, preferring to follow their own path to autonomy.
But then Salai started hearing that his childhood friends back in Chin State were joining various pro-democracy armed groups fighting the military junta. That prompted Salai to really look at what was happening in his country.
In December 2021, nearly a year after the coup, he joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM), the mass strike of civil servants.
Driven by a desire to contribute more to the revolution against the military dictatorship, he joined a Chin armed group based in Magway Region.
"I served in the force for over a year. People from all walks of life arrived, so we had to be cautious with each other. Living conditions were difficult," he said.
Due to health issues caused by the harsh weather in the jungles and mountains, Salai sought a change of scenery. In February 2023, he traveled to rebel territory near the Thai-Myanmar border to attend a journalism training programme, planning to help document the war.
"I connected with a journalism instructor and took a two-month journalism course in a liberated area. After the training, I was unable to return to my original unit due to the intensity of the fighting at the time."
For a while, Salai was stuck in limbo at the Thai-Myanmar border, and ended up staying in a safe house in Mae Sot, Thailand. A couple of months later, he moved to Malaysia, where his relatives lived, crossing the border illegally.
Currently, Salai is living undocumented in Malaysia, where he continues working as a journalist, reporting on news related to Myanmar from afar.
"I'm living here illegally, I'm a CDM staff member, and I'm working as a journalist, so I'm afraid of being arrested and deported back to Myanmar," he told me.
The artwork is by JC who is receiving support from The Kite Tales to produce illustrations.
