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Fading Democracy

The coup in Myanmar could even prove to be a focal point in bringing back Suu Kyi’s lost adulation.

By Syed Zain Abbas Rizvi | March 2021

Fading-Democracy

New-found stability in Myanmar was shorter than expected: not even a decade of democratic rule had passed when the military could not keep its paws off. While the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi was nothing new in Myanmar, the coup symbolised the rooted military influence in the country even after the 2011 elections which advanced an elected government into power after almost half-a-century of military rule. However, the protests depicted a glimmer of resilience in the face of the so-called tyranny that ruled Myanmar for most of its history.

Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar is a Southeast Asian country lying east of the Bay of Bengal. The country is ensconced between Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand while India and China lie to its north. Ever since the independence of Burma in 1948, it has waded through a harsh history of dictatorships and draconian practices. Aung San Suu Kyi was initially a glimmer of hope; she was one of the very few activists to openly protest against Tatmadaw - the official name for the Burmese military forces.

Ever since liberation from British colonial rule in 1948, the military in Burma dominated the country. They acquired outright control in 1962 that lasted till 2010; this was a rule completely devoid of civilian representation. The military seeped into every sector of the country, dominating key areas like timber and telecommunication. Suu Kyi proved to be a deterrence to the otherwise unhindered military rule. She pushed the uprising in 1988 which eventually forced the military regime to call elections. Suu Kyi’s party, National League of Democracy (NLD), won a sweeping victory in the 1990 elections. The military rejected the outcome, imprisoning parliamentarians and others, including Aung Suu Kyi.

While Tatmadaw regained control on central Myanmar, Suu Kyi became an activist, championing people tormented by military rule. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. hailing her efforts to dismantle military power in the country. She was under house arrest for 15 years. After a decade of mass displacement of the Rohingya community in the name of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’, Tatmadaw finally handed power to a civilian government almost after 50 years and announced the release of political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.

The military, however, was anything but precipitous in crafting the state constitution. It weaved itself into the very fabric of the nascent democracy in Myanmar, whittling power gradually by gripping a quarter of the seats in both the parliament and the cabinet. While the face of the country transitioned into a blooming democracy, the military turned the wheels in the background to ensure a safe haven for its embezzlements and wealth accumulation whilst inviting foreign funds in the guise of aid and investment to support the new government. The scheme worked for a short period but faltered as NLD captured the 2015 elections, allowing Aung Suu Kyi to become the State Chancellor of Myanmar; a post equivalent to Prime Minister.

Suu Kyi began to lose admiration in spite of her victories, over the continued genocide of the Rohingya Muslims and the overly exacerbated events of raping sprees across the country.

The post was created to allow for a greater role for Aung San Suu Kyi within the Government of Myanmar. Her party won a landslide victory in the 2015 Myanmar general election; however she is constitutionally barred from becoming President of Myanmar as her late husband Michael Aris was British and her two children also held British nationality.

Fading-DemocracySuu Kyi began to lose admiration in spite of her victories, over the continued genocide of the Rohingya Muslims and the overly exacerbated events of raping sprees across the country. In 2017, she did not take notice of the army-led crackdown against the Rohingya community in the Rakhine state. The exercise led thousands to be pushed across the borders to Bangladesh and Thailand. Her global popularity plummeted when she astonishingly justified the crimes of the military in the International Court of Justice investigating the very human rights violations which she once protested against as a prime critic. Her support to the notorious stance of Tatmadaw, her disregard for the war crimes against the ethnic minorities and her being oblivious to the refugee crisis blooming as a result of the ethnic cleansing genocide, led to her decimated reputation in the global community.

The military coup was anything but unprecedented as rumours already pervaded regarding the tiff between the military and the newly-elected government of Aung Suu Kyi. Ever since the November elections declared NLD as winner by a landslide majority of 80%, the distaste of the military, especially the Tatmadaw chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, loomed in the political atmosphere. Despite the placating remarks of global diplomats, the tensions visibly surged. While some expected a delay in the tiff to unravel, primarily with regard to the havoc wreaked by the pandemic on Myanmar’s economy, the disdain led to allegations of fraud and disfranchisement which eventually transitioned into outright threats of a military takeover. This eventually happened on February 1.

The unveiling of the new cabinet revealed mostly retired or current military leaders in key diplomatic positions. The NLD leaders were once again driven into incarceration rather systematically. Aung Suu Kyi, was detained for possessing illegally imported walkie talkies, while President Win Myint was detained on charges of Covid protocol violations. A civil disobedience campaign took an apparently unique turn in the historically docile reaction to the military’s dictatorial actions. Many professionals, including doctors, refused to perform their vocational activities under the brutal rule of the military. As arrest tolls arose, so did the intensity of the protests.

The carefully executed strategy of General Hlaing was deteriorating since no democratic facade remained to conceal his grip on the political arena in Myanmar. The world stood divided on how to perceive the turn. The Biden regime sternly vocalised its defiance to the coup, stating: “The Burmese military should relinquish power they have seized and release the advocates and activists and officials they have detained”. US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan insinuated a barrage of sanctions against Myanmar. The United Nations, adopted a relatively dormant stance in order to invite the cooperation of China and Russia, the main advocates and supporters of the military in Myanmar. The coup could even prove to be a focal point in bringing back Suu Kyi’s lost adulation.

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