MYANMAR MILITARY COUPS DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT
Channel: A Singaporean
Date: 2021-02-03

MYANMAR MILITARY COUPS DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT

The Coup

The Myanmar military declared an emergency on 1 February 2021, and used it as a reason to coup the democratically elected government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

The NLD soundly defeated the military's party in a landslide during the second general election held in November 2020. The military had been falsely claiming since then that massive electoral fraud (which could not be detected by any independent observers) had led to their crushing defeat at the polls.

The military promises to restore free and fair elections when the emergency ends in a year's time.

The Myanmar Military

The Myanmar military had originally seized power in 1962, 14 years after Myanmar gained its independence, when it performed an autocoup while serving as a caretaker government due to turmoil in the previous ruling party.

Only in 1990 did the military agree to hold elections, but when the NLD also won in a landslide then, the military refused to accept the results and held onto power.

Later on in 2010, the military agreed to release Suu Kyi, who had been up till then under house arrest for 15 years, and held elections once more. Suu Kyi then assumed the position of state counsellor in 2016 after the NLD won overwhelmingly in the first general election in 2015.

Even then, the military existed as an entity independent from and was not subservient to the civilian NLD government, meaning that Suu Kyi had no power over them. Furthermore, the military created a constitution which reserved 25% of all parliamentary seats for itself, ensuring that Suu Kyi would be almost powerless to draft bills without tacit military approval.

The military has also been infamous for its alleged abuses committed against the people of Myanmar. The military was accused of utilising "scorched earth" tactics, such as destroying entire villages suspected of harbouring separatists, using child soldiers, and using civilians as slaves and to clear minefields. The military is also supposedly responsible for performing ethnic cleansing and rape of minority groups within Myanmar, the most recent and well-known being the genocide of the Rohingya.

As such, many people in Myanmar, especially NLD supporters, are fearful that with no civilian oversight or input, the military will act with complete impunity and greater disregard towards its own citizens.

Aung San Suu Kyi and the International Community

Further complicating matters is the fact that Suu Kyi, despite having until recently held a position of power as state counsellor, not only refused to condemn the Rohingya genocide committed by the military, but had actually actively tried to defend the military and its actions.

This led to Suu Kyi losing international respect and support, that had originally been given to her due to her initial resistance against the brutal rule of the Myanmar military and championing of democracy.

It is likely that the military took advantage of her shrinking international clout to depose her with fewer global repercussions.

The NLD

The NLD and Suu Kyi still enjoy tremendous domestic popular support.

Supporters of the NLD vowed to perform acts of civil disobedience, such as refusing to go to work, to show their opposition to military rule. Medical staff nationwide have promised to boycott work starting today.

Very few are however willing to participate in protests, as they suspected that such events would likely turn violent, hurt the NLD's public image and give the military excuses to crackdown on them.

It is also unknown how the mass vaccination programme will continue, as Suu Kyi was previously in charge of distributing 1.5 million vaccines gifted by India, but her position is now vacant.