The regime in Naypyidaw has ordered heightened surveillance and a crackdown on public commemorations ahead of Myanmar’s 79th Martyrs’ Day on July 19.

According to sources within the regime’s General Administration Department (GAD) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, officials have been instructed to tightly monitor public spaces and online activity to prevent any anti-regime demonstrations or flash mob protests.

The date holds immense historical weight in Myanmar, marking the July 19, 1947 assassination of independence hero General Aung San—the father of jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi—alongside seven other pre-independence cabinet members and a security guard.

A crackdown on commemorations

For decades, the public holiday has been a focal point for national mourning and, increasingly, pro-democracy sentiment. In response, the regime is deploying an array of tactics to suppress any public displays of reverence:

• Undercover Operations: “Soldiers, police and administration officials will be deployed at public spaces and road junctions in plainclothes,” an official inside Yangon Region’s Mingalardon Township regime administration told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
• Digital Monitoring: The source confirmed that authorities will also be actively monitoring social media comments and posts for dissenting viewpoints or calls to protest.
• Targeting Traditions: In a micro-level crackdown on tradition, ward administrators have been instructed to specifically monitor households that distribute boiled peas and flatbread to passersby. This simple meal was reportedly a favorite of General Aung San and is traditionally shared on Martyrs’ Day as a tribute to his humble lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi remains held incommunicado by the regime in Naypyidaw. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been barred from her traditional practice of paying tribute to her father at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon every July 19 since the military coup on February 1, 2021.

The broader campaign of erasure

Activists argue the surveillance on Martyrs’ Day is part of a much broader, systematic campaign orchestrated by regime leader Min Aung Hlaing to entirely erase General Aung San’s legacy and dismantle symbols of the pro-democracy movement.

As the regime continues its aggressive campaign to rewrite the nation’s history, the heavy surveillance ahead of Martyrs’ Day underscores its fear of the enduring power of General Aung San’s image.