Following the February 1, 2021 coup d’état in Myanmar that overthrew the nation’s democratically elected authorities, a shadow parliament and authorities had been established. After eight months of sustained civil disobedience, in September 2021, the Nationwide Unity Authorities (NUG) declared a defensive struggle, an armed revolt in opposition to the junta. By Might 2022, the NUG claimed to manage 15 % of the nation, whereas affiliated ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) managed roughly 30-35 %.

However struggle isn’t low-cost, particularly with none state sponsors.

Whereas a number of key EAOs, together with the Kachin Independence Group and the Karen Nationwide Union, supplied some preliminary coaching, a restricted quantity of arms, and help, the NUG’s army marketing campaign in opposition to the federal government has been self-funded. Whereas the NUG authorities has acquired restricted quantities of overseas help for humanitarian wants and has made appeals for worldwide help for the fundamental governance of the areas it does management, it has acquired no exterior funding for armed operations. The NUG and its 250 affiliated Folks’s Protection Forces (PDFs) have used an array of funding mechanisms to assist their shadow authorities operations in addition to their armed revolt.

So how has the NUG funded itself? 

Briefly, the NUG and its parliament, the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament), have relied on a variety of very intelligent and complex signifies that benefit from their overwhelming legitimacy among the many public and their technical prowess. They’ve made funding a patriotic endeavor, and all of the whereas have eschewed the ever present manufacturing and commerce of illicit narcotics, the standard supply of funding for insurgencies in Myanmar, even at a time when medicine are flooding in a foreign country in file quantities. The NUG has taken benefit of latest applied sciences and put in place a few of the most progressive monetary programs in Southeast Asia. 

However the backside line is that the NUG is attempting to boost income as if they’re the correct state they declare to be. They’ve used fundraising as an necessary means to create a bond between the folks and the NUG, whereas on the identical time, delegitimizing the State Administrative Council (SAC), because the junta is thought.