Complicated histories and relations among Myanmar’s diverse ethnic communities make the goal of a federal union a daunting one. But possibilities emerge from a new governance forum set up in line with this federal future in Sagaing, the heartland of resistance by the Bamar ethnic majority – and a region that used to be free of conflicts that ethnic regions have been living with.

The country is plummeting into the gravest political, economic and humanitarian crises in its modern history. But  I see a bright future ahead, beyond the darkness.

Six months after the 1 Feb coup, hypervigilance has become a survival skils for many people in Myanmar. But they are mostly on their own in the ‘double trouble’ of COVID-19 emergency and the coup crisis.