A conscription propaganda campaign – complete with posters, fliers, pep talks and threats – is unlikely to convince young people to serve in the military because so many of them are fleeing, or plan to flee, Myanmar to avoid mandatory military service.
“The most important thing right now is to leave the country,” said a 24-year-old employee of a private company in Yangon. “I don’t mind doing any job abroad. Two of my former colleagues recently arrived in Thailand,” he added.
He’s paying no attention to the message conveyed by the teams of junta officials who have been trying to drum up support for military service since the middle of the month. They fanned out to towns in nine regions and states following a backlash to the Feb. 10 announcement that the regime had activated the conscription law.
Officials from Information Ministry and General Administration Department – along with police, firefighters, and ward administrators – have been trying to present a more attractive view of military service since Feb. 17. They have shared their pro-military service view in nearly 40 towns in nine regions and states, including Naypyitaw, the nerve center of the regime.
They have handed out fliers and shared posters about mandatory military service in public places.
They also underscored the punishment for evading conscription, told people not to trust fake news and rumors, and said that civilians must share in the responsibility to defend the state.
At the recent talks in Yangon’s Mingalartaungnyunt Township, junta officials also denied that young people had been abducted for forced labor in the military and conscription.
The regime has also formed conscription bodies at the national and local levels.
More than 13 million people – 6 million men and 7 million women – will be eligible for conscription, and 5,000 people will be conscripted in the first batch after the Thingyan holidays in April.
The pro-conscription propaganda campaign has so far been executed in nearly 40 towns in Yangon, Bago, Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay regions, and Mon, Karen and Shan states as well as Naypyitaw. The regime plans to hold more talks about conscription in five districts of Bago Region this week. It has so far organized 15 such talks in Magwe Region – the highest number among all regions and states.
The regime’s military is facing severe manpower shortages after three years of war with ethnic armed organizations and resistance forces.
Meanwhile, the civilian National Unity Government has declared that national and local conscription bodies are terrorist organizations, and also warned of legal action against those who cooperate with the regime in the conscription process.
The junta also activated a Reserve Forces Law earlier this month, allowing it to send veterans back to the front line. Under the law, all former military personnel must serve in the reserve forces for five years starting from the day they resigned or retired.
Recently, it urged students to join the University Training Corps, which acts as a reserve for the military’s depleted ranks.
All men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 are legally obligated to serve in the military under the newly enforced conscription law. The age range rises to between 18 and 45 for males with specialist expertise, such as doctors and engineers, and to 18 to 35 for females with specialist expertise.
The duration of military service is up to two years, but those who are called up as technicians are required to serve for up to three years. Military service can also be extended to up to five years during a state of emergency, such as the current one.
Evading conscription is punishable by three to five years in prison. Pretending to be sick or disabled to evade conscription is punishable by five years in prison.
The law dates back to 1959 when the country’s first dictator, General Ne Win, introduced it as the head of an interim government before staging the first coup in Myanmar in 1962. Then-dictator Than Shwe amended the law in 2010. It was, however, never enforced before Min Aung Hlaing activated it this month.
