On 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military ended its decade-long pretence of accepting democratic values by launching a coup against the country’s most popular political party — the National League for Democracy (NLD).
On Monday morning, the country seized full control over the government after arresting top members of the NLD including the party's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The military then proceeded to announce on its television station that it will remain in power for the following 12 months. Though it is unclear what will happen at the end of that time period, many believe the military will stay in governance beyond a mere year.
It appears as though the Burmese citizens aren’t completely panicked, thanks to the country’s two previous coups in 1962 and 1988. Regardless, the people still have to contend with the discomforting scenes of patrolled streets and constant disappearances of eminent NLD leaders.
On Monday, Suu Kyi took to Facebook by asserting: “I urge people not to accept the coup by the military, and resist it resoundingly,” to which NLD President U Win Htein maintained that his supporters must “oppose the coup as much as [they] can in a nonviolent way.” Protests have already begun and experts worry that the uproar against the military authority may escalate unprecedentedly.
Since the 1950s, Myanmar has constantly seesawed between democracy and autocracy, and its current autocratic governance has been globally disapproved. For instance, the US has placed numerous sanctions on Myanmar for decades in hopes of mitigating the strict military ruling. However, in 1985, a pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi gained much support and paved the way for Myanmar’s democratic new normal.
As Suu Kyi’s party was on the rise, she was put under house arrest in 1989. Nonetheless, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her undying efforts to protect democracy and to underscore the importance of nonviolence.
However, Suu Kyi was released in 2010 under a set of conditions: 25% of seats in Parliament were spared for the military under any circumstance and most of all, Suu Kyi could never be president.
Despite these limitations, in 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party won 77% of the Parliament’s votes. It was a momentous event as it was Myanmar’s first fair election in 25 years. Further, Suu Kyi was made “state counsellor,” a role created just for her that allowed her to govern via an allied president.
Though it seems as though the two parties are full of complete resentment for one another, Suu Kyi’s leadership was rather helpful, in many aspects, towards the military. One of the most well-known cases is Suu Kyi’s defence of the military’s 2017 genocide and gang rape and arson campaign which targetted Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority (*This event consisted of countless casualties and forced homelessness of over a million Rohingya).
Suu Kyi’s effort to protect the military’s unjust actions resulted in a severely damaged global reputation. This is such that many of her adulated international awards — including the Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award — were rescinded; Amnesty’s Secretary General, Kumi Naidoo, displayed the council’s disappointment by stating that they were “profoundly dismayed that [she] no longer represented a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defence of human rights.”
Nevertheless, this did not mean Suu Kyi had not made amendments that damaged the military generals. For instance, her March 2020 amendments made on Myanmar’s Constitution largely stripped the military of its authorities. This reduction of power occurred in forms such as a decrease in the number of military seats in Parliament.
So why did the military launch the coup? The answer seems quite vague, yet, now we can guess.
In November of 2020, the NLD was victorious once again by a landslide and it appears that the military felt threatened by this taking over of power; they immediately claimed the elections to be fraudulent. They desperately demanded for a new board of military-supervised election, filed hundreds of complaints against local election agencies, and took to the Myanmar Supreme Court.
In addition, a military spokesperson asserted that they may have to “take action” if their accusations weren’t taken seriously. He further stated that the “path to democracy” will be “obstructed” unless the problem is resolved according to the law.
The following week, the new, military-supervised Parliament held its first meeting and certified the fraudulency of the electoral results.
Then on Monday, the coup was launched.
Military bad :(