Option for Open Agenda: Myanmar's Experiment in Democracy comes to a Halt
On February 1st, Myanmar's military, the Tatmadaw, overthrew the nation's young civilian government. They acted quickly and decisively to shut down the country, temporarily shutting off telecommunications and internet access, and placing Aung San Suu Kyi and other prominent leaders under arrest. The move came shortly before the Burmese Parliament was set to begin its first session following elections in November which brought a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). In what was broadly seen as a referendum on democracy, the NLD won a resounding 83% of the available seats amid cries of fraud from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Aung San Suu Kyi is widely regarded as a national hero for her work in advocating for Burmese democracy. The daughter of independence hero Bogyote Aung San, she spent 15 years in house arrest for her role in the 8888 Uprising against the country's military dictatorship, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was released in 2010, as the Tatmadaw launched a tentative transition towards democracy. In 2016, she became Myanmar's state counsellor following what were widely regarded as the country's first truly free elections. Despite the military's utilization of a constitutional technicality to prevent her from becoming president, Aung San Suu Kyi remained the country's de facto civilian leader until the coup earlier this month. However, her reputation abroad has taken a hit in recent years after she failed to condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, by the Burmese military.
Since the coup, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the Tatmadaw, has taken political leadership of Myanmar. The general, who was due to step down this summer and retire, has declared a year-long state of emergency. Since the takeover first took place two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to call for a return to democracy. In response, the military has used both live rounds and rubber bullets, leaving one protester brain dead after they were shot in the head, and sparking fears of a more violent crackdown by the newly installed junta. Armored vehicles have been seen on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, and Naypyitaw, its capital, and reports have propagated of nighttime house raids. A number of opposition activists have also been arrested, and the military has suspended laws that previously required court orders for detentions longer than 24 hours and the searching of private property.
Any solution that seeks to ease the political situation in Myanmar will have to contend with the fragility of the most recent failed experiment in democracy. In addition to this, the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities by the Tatmadaw is of prime concern. Finally, delegates will have to contend with a powerful, entrenched military infrastructure that has never operated under the control of a civilian government, while remaining mindful of Myanmar's sovereignty.
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