NAYPYIDAW, KOMPAS.com – Still wearing his army uniform, Shing Ling is seen posing for a three-finger salute in his social media posts.
Ling rebelled after leaving the Myanmar military to join the democracy movement.
The 30-year-old soldier posted his image on Facebook last week, as the crackdown of Myanmar security forces turned deadlier for protesters.
The content was shared again by more than a thousand Facebook users. Commentators praised his bravery, before his profile went private.
Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 1 coup, more than 180 people have been killed.
Police and soldiers deployed tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and live ammunition on an almost daily basis in a crackdown on demonstrators’ anti-coup.
“I feel very guilty and ashamed since February 1,” Shing Ling told AFP from a hideout in Yangon.
He admitted to feeling “shocked” about Suu Kyi’s detention. Violence in Yangon’s North Okkalapa township in early March was a catalyst for him to join the national civil disobedience movement.
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“I was stationed very close to North Okkalapa, so it could be my gun that shot unarmed people,” he said.
“I can’t let that happen. That’s why I decided to join.”
On an Instagram account that is still open to the public, the ethnic Chin soldier has uploaded a photo of himself wearing a military uniform since October 2018.
In his most recent post, he shared a photo of himself paying a three finger salute after joining a nationwide boycott by civil servants who refused to work under the junta regime.
But while there are isolated reports of police and army defection, it remains rare for them to publicly announce a “change of loyalty” while still in Myanmar, fearing reprisals.
For soldiers, the penalty for desertion is the death penalty, according to military law.
Nearly 200 police officers and their families have fled the country since the coup.
They are part of a growing stream of military defectors crossing into the northeastern state of Mizoram, according to Indian security officials.
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I expected the worst
Shing Ling is an orphan from Chin state in western Myanmar. He says he joined a military academy as a teenager to be part of an organization that feels like family.
“We are like brothers and we are friendly to each other – I am happy there, at home,” he said.
But disappointment arose after the previous junta regime relaxed its grip on power in 2011. This opened Myanmar to the world and allowed for a communications and internet revolution.
The soldier said he learned about politics from Facebook, Myanmar’s most popular social media platform. Where the discussion broadens his perspective on the role of the military in society.
During the first democratically contested elections in 2015, Shing Ling chose Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
Although he later switched allegiance to an inferior party after failing to live up to his expectations.
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“My other friends in the military didn’t dare vote (for the NLD). They were afraid that if they did, their senior officers wouldn’t like it,” he told AFP.
Since announcing his defection from the military on Facebook, the young soldier cut ties with his battalion.
He changed his appearance and his mobile SIM card. Now he lives in a secret location in Yangon, the country’s sprawling commercial hub.
Even so, he said he knew the junta would eventually find him. “I expected the worst,” he added.
But the deep sadness he felt when he saw the crackdown on unarmed civilians had strengthened his resolve.
Shing Ling wants all of his former colleagues to answer the question: “If you had to choose between the military and the state, which one?”
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