By Ko Myo/MPA
Myanmar’s middle class is disappearing and urban poverty has reached alarming levels five years after the military coup, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations has warned.
Speaking during a dialogue with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrator, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun stated that nearly half of Myanmar’s population has now fallen below the poverty line.
In a statement released on Tuesday night, the Myanmar Mission to the UN highlighted the ambassador’s concerns regarding the long-term impact of the crisis. He pointed to a massive exodus of young people fleeing the country, driven by a scarcity of jobs, stagnant wages, and specifically, the military junta’s forced conscription laws targeting young men.
This “brain drain,” he argued, poses a severe threat to Myanmar’s future development and poverty reduction prospects.
On the ground in Yangon, the economic reality mirrors the ambassador’s warnings.
“In Yangon today, the only difference between the middle class and squatters is that we aren’t living in bamboo huts,” a female company accountant from South Okkalapa Township told the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency (MPA).
“We live in apartments, but we are struggling just to avoid starvation. Every job feels unstable, and we live in constant worry about when we might be fired. If you lose your job, finding a new one is nearly impossible.”
She added that daily life has become a gauntlet of fear, with residents terrified of being snatched by military press-gangs or robbed while commuting to and from work.
Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun urged the international community not to remain on the sidelines.
With the country enduring five years of conflict following the 2021 illegal power grab, he appealed to UN member states to support the resolve of the Myanmar people and to take “effective and decisive” action to address the deepening humanitarian crisis.
