On Friday, Yangon residents boycotted Myanmar Plaza, the city's most popular shopping centre, after its security team forcibly dispersed an anti-regime protest by young people inside the mall.

On the ground floor of the Vietnamese-owned mall, Myanmar's first foreign shopping complex, a group of young people, including a lady, staged a flash mob protest on Thursday afternoon.
They urged people not to utilise military-run bus services as part of their continuous opposition to the junta that seized power in a coup on February 1 and has since started harsh crackdowns on pro-democracy protestors.

 

The demonstrators were brutally assaulted by Myanmar Plaza security personnel, who kicked and punched them before capturing them.
The demonstrators were eventually released.

However, many shoppers captured the incident on their phones, and the images went viral on Facebook, causing widespread public outrage at the mall security staff's handling of the activists.
People began to advocate for a mall boycott shortly after that.

Myanmar Plaza issued a statement late last night, apologising for their "site personnel's unprofessional behaviour" during the incident.

 

"We totally understand and recognise the impacted people's feelings."
The young kids involved were quietly led away, according to the statement.

However, a majority of the mall's stores - almost four dozen in total, including big brands like Adidas and Sony – announced on Thursday night that they would close their doors on Friday in response to growing demands for a boycott.

The normally bustling commercial complex seemed strangely deserted late on Friday morning.
Two-thirds of the shops in the mall were shuttered, with their roller shutter doors still open.
The majority of the lights in the mall were turned out, and the food court, which houses some of Yangon's most popular eateries, was completely empty.
The only individuals in the complex were mall employees and others who had come to see what was going on in the aftermath of the boycott call.
There were no shoppers in sight.

 

One of the young people who organised Thursday's rally, Ko Evan, told The Irrawaddy that no one, particularly young people like him, wanted to live under the military government that conducted the coup.

"That is why we held the demonstration in Myanmar Plaza, a crowded location where we could urge people not to take junta-linked bus services," Ko Evan explained.

One of the veteran leaders of the '88 Student Generation, U Min Ko Naing, told The Irrawaddy that he admired the young protestors' boldness and resolve because their demonstration had had a significant influence.

 

"This is a fight that everybody in the city can become involved in."
It has the ability to lift people's moods.
"It's powerful enough to instil dread in those who ignore the regime's revolution," he remarked.

After months of COVID-19 limitations kept shoppers away, Friday's boycott marks a major setback for Myanmar Plaza.
It also falls during the Christmas season, which is often one of the busiest and most profitable times for the mall.

Some taxi and delivery firms have stated that they will not deliver to Myanmar Plaza or any of the complex's offices.

A number of civilian opposition groups have also threatened to react against Myanmar Plaza, advising people not to go there since it could be assaulted.

No wonder Thailand wasn't invited to the democracy summit.

 

Thailand seems a little to close to these thugs running Burma.