One thing is music and social change, a tour to the five corners of Myanmar. “Voice of the Youth,” includes five things. One of the Side Effect songs about the democratic government was released on a compilation album called “Voice of the Youth.” It is a record that was made by an organization called Turning Tables Myanmar, which I work for right now. Have you been able to write music about the changes? Is everybody walking around with pink pinkies? It seems like it will go away in a few weeks. To prove that I had already voted I had to dip my pinky finger in a pink ink box. Then I put my vote in for the other house, and then the other house – three times for all three houses.Īnd then finally when you’re done voting, you had to give the receipt to one of the guys in the office. And then we went to a booth to place the stamp on the voting card. We waited in the line – they provided a card or receipt before that so we could vote in the election. I was there very early, so only a half an hour. How long did you have to wait in the queue to vote? This kind of thing could happen if we are not lucky, which is why we have to be very careful of this moment. Yes, we have had bad experiences before back in 1990 when the NLD won and the military government didn’t hand over power to the winner. You don’t want to get your hopes up too high because you’ve been disappointed before? We’re still being very careful at this moment. They’re not sure if the handover will be peaceful. There were people celebrating there, but the rest of the towns and the rest of the country have been very quiet. All the people have voted, but they cannot show their happiness – apart from outside of the NLD office. It’s all very crazy and we are very careful at the moment, because it’s going to take three months before they hand over. There are still places that they are waiting for the. But the accomplishment is not finished until they announce the winners. According to the news, I’m sure the NLD has already won. On Monday the results were coming out, and they’re still coming out. We were all very excited, very moved that we did the voting, and that we supported the NLD change. I went in and voted and I was happy, but we didn’t want to have so much excitement about it, you know?īut at the end of the day, I went to join the crowd right in front of NLD’s head office, and there were a lot of people gathering and very excited about the elections even though the were not going to come out that night. But at the, there were very long queues waiting to vote. The streets were quiet and everybody was quiet. To be honest, I was not that excited in the morning when I woke up. It was the first time that I had the experience of voting. On Tuesday, Darko C spoke from his home in Yangon about the changes occurring in his country, his hope for the future and a new collection of Myanmar protest music released last week.Ĭan you describe your experiences over the last few days? SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter > At the center of the movement for change is the National League for Democracy, or NLD, a political party whose leader is the Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi. For democratic activists, the goal was to vanquish years of military rule by a wealthy class that controls most avenues of power. On Sunday, the country held the first open elections in 25 years. The Yangon-based rock group, which in 2014 made history by being the first Myanmar act to perform at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, forges ahead despite seemingly insurmountable odds. That's the daily reality for Myanmar musician Darko C and his band Side Effect. The Internet is spotty, the music scene virtually nonexistent and every original song must still be approved for release by a government-affiliated censorship board. To be an artist in the isolated Southeast Asian country is to face nearly impossible barriers. American musicians have it tough, but try making it work in Myanmar.
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