NAYPYIDAW: Ethnic Rakhine activists led a protest against the Internet ban for the last six months in the northern Rakhine State in Yangon.
About 50 protesters gathered at the Mahabandoola Park on Christmas Eve demanding the government lift the ban, according to The Myanmar Times.
Arakan National Party and Mrauk-U Lower House member of parliament (MP) U Oo Hla Saw said the government was violating basic human rights by cutting off the Internet.
Hla Saw said from any point of view, the Internet blackout by the government was a great loss, economically and socially.
Four telecom operators in the Rakhine and Chin states were ordered to suspend Internet services in nine townships on June 21.
Transport and Communications Ministry permanent secretary U Soe Thein said “the ban was to maintain the stability and law and order in these areas”, as there had been clashes between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine rebel group.
Services were eventually restored in five townships, but the townships of Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Kyauk Daw and Minbya remain cut off.
“Everybody knows that Burma (Myanmar) is in a democratic transition, but we (still) cannot fully enjoy democratic rights. In Rakhine, there is communal violence, military conflict and now, we have no Internet access. This is unjust,” Hla Saw said.
Aid agencies and rights groups have warned that cutting off Internet access would endanger the safety of local communities and worsen humanitarian crisis in the country.
The shutdown also makes it difficult for communities to access digital payment systems, cutting off their abilities to send and receive remittances and money transfers.
Another ANP lawmaker, Rathedaung MP Daw Khin Saw Wai, had submitted an emergency proposal to Parliament to restore the Internet services in July, but was rejected by the speaker.
Protester Ma Aye Thinzar Moe, an ethnic Kaman, said it was challenging to rely on short message services to share and exchange information.
“It is difficult for both the young and the old. It also feels as if a blackout on news information is imposed on us.”
Another protester, youth activist Ma Thinzar Shunlei Yi, said the suspension was “a clear alarm” to both consumers and investors in Myanmar’s digital economy because it shows that access in the country “can be taken away anytime by giving different excuses”.
“Businesses, civil society and the media all have a responsibility to push the government to lift the Internet ban and ensure this will not happen again.”
In a statement on the protest, Maung Saungkha, a director of rights group Athan, warned that the electoral authorities would find it difficult to conduct any polls in areas without Internet services.
Myanmar is due to hold parliamentary elections in late 2020.