What's Going On In Myanmar?

 

You’re probably reading this, sitting on a couch or chair in a well-lit and warm room. Little do you know that half-way across the globe in the country of Myanmar, children barely have any shelter, families are being torn apart, and one cannot speak or walk about freely without being shot or killed. After the arrest of the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the military have taken control in what seems to be another coup. Citizens are protesting in hundreds of thousands, but their efforts are in vain – the military tyranny is back and the thought of even going out to buy groceries to feed your household is beyond a fantasy. Myanmar’s long and arduous journey to democracy appears to be over. So, what really happened?

Before we look at how this disastrous coup took place, let’s analyse the country’s history. Myanmar, or Burma as it was initially called, spent 124 years under British rule. Finally, in 1948, it was granted its independence as the Union of Burma. However, Myanmar is neighboured by several countries including China, India, Bangladesh, and Laos -it’s no surprise, therefore, that it is very culturally diverse. In fact, Myanmar has over 130 different ethnic groups! Cultural intolerance inevitably led to conflict and rebellions. Suddenly removed from colonial rule, there was no clear leader to establish rules and regulations meaning tensions only grew worse. Eventually, in 1962, the military, led by Ne Win, staged a coup - they created their own military government (called ‘Junta’) and fiercely ruled for the next 50 years, whilst trying to uplift the major Burmese ethnicity. Imagine being treated with no respect and physically tortured purely because of your race. You wouldn’t tolerate it. Likewise, neither did the citizens - in 1988, there was a nationwide protest that campaigned for the abolishment of the military government. During this time, Aung San Suu Kyi played a key role in fighting for freedom and emerged as a leader to guide the Burmese people. The protests were to no avail, as the military quite easily smothered them – they killed thousands of people and placed Suu Kyi under fifteen years of house arrest. Despite this, she continued to push for a political change, when she started the pro-democratic party called the National League for Democracy (NLD. Finally, in 2015, came what was known as Myanmar’s experiment with democracy. For the first time in fifty years, the military decided to conduct an election. It’s truly remarkable to see how the idea of democracy has been around for so long and yet, is granted to the people of Myanmar only a couple of years ago. Unsurprisingly, the NLD won in a landslide, which would make Suu Kyi the President of Myanmar. However, in 2008, whilst the military were still in control, the Junta put it in the New Constitution that anyone who has one or more children from another country would be disqualified from being the President. Since Suu Kyi’s children are from Britain, it meant she had to settle with the role of State Counsellor instead. That being the case, her power was somewhat limited – the military are guaranteed 25% of the seats in Parliament and control of defence, ministries and other key positions in the cabinet as well as extending to the country’s finance. Why does the military have so much political and financial influence? Well, we can thank the New Constitution. During her tenure, she failed to criticise the military’s controversial actions, especially regarding the treatment of the Rohingya people of the Rakhine state. This was essentially an act of genocide against the poverty-stricken, stateless Muslim community, including the burning of villages, killing children, torturing locals, and even raping women. Many families have been left bereaved, with no food or shelter simply due to religious differences. Support from the country’s leader is missing, too – the people are hopeless. This has led to about 800,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh for refuge.

In November 2020, there was another election, and the NLD party won in a landslide once again. The military were obviously not pleased. On February 1, the leader of the military, Min Aung Hlaing, ordered a coup and the arrest of Suu Kyi. The military has claimed that the recent elections were rigged and that there was ‘serious fraud’, despite not being able to produce any concrete evidence. They also say that Aung San Suu Kyi has illegally imported communications equipment as they found a stash of walkie talkies in her house. If you find this confusing, you’re not alone. The military of Myanmar is rather secretive, so we don’t know the exact reason for why the coup happened now. However, some say that this is just a power grab by the military. This makes sense as it is a fact that the Min Aung Hlaing has had the intention of becoming president for a long time. He’s nearing retirement and potentially wants to take control while he can. What’s more, Aung San Suu Kyi has wanted to reduce the amount of political power the military has, perhaps to prevent another coup. This may have caused the military to feel scared as the NLD’s success puts them a step closer to fulfilling Suu Kyi’s intentions. In a supposed act of desperation, the military have staged the coup. As mentioned previously, the military is not the most overt about the decisions it makes and the reasoning – these are only hypotheses.

So, how has this affected the people of Myanmar? They have been stripped of perhaps the most basic human rights: the military are killing innocent protesters brutally and a curfew has been imposed. One cannot step outside without fearing for their own safety or even life. The military claim that they will only be in power for the next year, but this is most likely a fabrication of the truth. In a country so diverse and home to numerous ethnic groups, intolerance and unrest was common. Yet with sudden independence, the country was in no position to manage these, let alone run the country efficiently. This, in conjunction with a power-thirsty and corrupt military who thought they were the only ones capable of running the country, made matters worse. Their Communist approach, inspired by Ne Win, seems to have turned into a dictatorship.

All in all, the situation in Myanmar is quite complex. Power, greediness, and ethnic intolerance seem to be only few of the underlying causes of the country’s constant political rivalry. By the time you’ve finished reading this, at least a few more people in Myanmar that are fighting for basic rights must have been killed. With the country’s leader and beacon of hope now under house arrest again, the military Junta has returned. The protests are getting larger and larger, but the military don't seem to be backing down anytime soon. In this stalemate of a desperate claw for retainment of power, the painful battle for freedom continues…