A communications blackout, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi without word, wild rumours fed by a paucity of information.
All recalled the darkest days of a succession of military juntas that ruled Myanmar during half a century of ruinous isolation – driving many people to mass protests in fear that such times could return.
That included a Generation Z who grew up with somewhat greater freedom and prosperity in what nonetheless remains one of Southeast Asia’s poorest and most restrictive countries.
“We don’t want a dictatorship for the next generation or for us,” said Thaw Zin, a 21-year-old among the sea of people massed in the shadow of Sule Pagoda in the center of the commercial capital of Yangon on Sunday.
Some carried posters that read: “You fucked with the wrong generation”.
Shaking with emotion, Thaw Zin said, “If we don’t stand this time for our country, our people, there is no one. Evil will fall on us. We will never forgive them for the trouble they have…