On the night Myanmar’s army seized power, Dr Sasa was in the capital, Naypyitaw, expecting to take a job in Aung San Suu Kyi’s cabinet after running a successful election campaign for her party in his native Chin state.

But as troops fanned out across the city in the early hours of Feb 1, detaining Suu Kyi along with most of her government and declaring a return to junta rule, the doctor-turned-politician fled disguised as a taxi driver, not wanting, in his words, “to be captured like a rat in a box”.

Since then, Sasa, who goes by one name, has become...