Pictured above: Protests in Hpa-An, Kayin State, Myanmar. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons
By Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
In an effort to fight alleged voter fraud in the country’s general elections, the Myanmar military has staged a coup, detaining their ruler Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party, the National League for Democracy. On Monday, Feb. 1, the military, officially known as the Tatmadaw, declared a yearlong state of emergency. The country’s power is now in the hands of army official Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The Tatmadaw justified their seizure of power as a necessary response to the allegedly fraudulent results of the country’s November elections. The election resulted in a landslide victory for the NLD, which effectively won against the army-backed party, the USDP [Union Solidarity and Development Party]. The military coup occurred on Monday, the same day that the election results would have been constitutionally endorsed in a new session of Parliament, as reported by The New York Times.
Lifen Htet ’24, a Burmese student, said of the coup, “If the NLD was to become the new government with a landslide victory, the military would have no power, and Min Aung Hlaing would have to retire — he would have no power at all.”
Myanmar, formerly Burma, has been under the control of the military ever since its independence from Great Britain in 1948. According to Burmese historian Thant Myint-U, “The modern state of Burma was born as a military occupation,” Al-Jazeera reported. The country was a quasi-democracy until a coup in 1962 when Ne Win became the new, self-appointed military ruler. Ne Win instated a form of a socialist dictatorship in the country that lasted until 1988.
This dictatorship resulted in student-led protests against the Ne Win government which, according to NPR, developed into a nationwide uprising. In response to the dissent, the Burmese military imposed martial law on the country. Nway Mon Mon Eaint, Htet’s high school friend from Burma, explained, “There were a lot of riots everywhere — finally the military had to take over. They said it was temporary, but [the regime] has lasted 30 years.”
In 2015, Suu Kyi was elected in what is considered Myanmar’s first openly contested election, according to BBC News. However, the popularity of Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy for free elections and democratic reform in 1991, has been overshadowed by her defense of the military-led genocide against the Rohingya people of Myanmar.
“A lot of people, right before the election, were not in favor of the NLD party and especially with … Suu Kyi because of her defense of the Rohingya crisis,” Eaint explained. “However, when it comes down to the election, we had to choose the lesser evil. The only choices we had were the [Union Solidarity and Development Party] or the NLD.”
In response to the overwhelming majority with which the NLD won the election, the military not only declared a state of emergency but also detained Suu Kyi under charges of possession of illegally obtained walkie-talkies, according to The Guardian.
Htet said in response to Suu Kyi’s arrest, “It’s terrifying because this one person was taken away, and the entire country collapsed. It just shows how the country was never democratic in the first place. The entire country just collapsed, and we are afraid that we may have to live under dictatorship again.”
As part of the coup on Feb. 1, Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, was blocked off, with barricades across roads entering and exiting the city. Government buildings were also placed under military supervision, according to The Associated Press. The country entered an internet and mobile service blackout. “They shut down Facebook, Instagram [and] WhatsApp two days ago. They said it’s temporary, but we never know,” Htet said. “We’ll be cut off from the world like [we were] 30 years ago. They can do anything they want in this country because they hold so much power.”
The Tatmadaw has promised free and fair elections in a year’s time, at the end of the state of emergency. Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke Ali Aslam expressed misgivings about these promises. “I don’t know whether the military will hold themselves to the promise of open elections in a year’s time,” he said. “They might find another reason to delay between now and then. Certainly, the delay gives them [time] to extract more concessions from candidates who stand a chance to win in those elections.”
The people of Myanmar have been protesting the Tatmadaw’s actions in Yangon, with tens of thousands of citizens demonstrating against Suu Kyi’s detainment and the military coup. Along with marches and public demonstrations, doctors and teachers in the country have gone on strike, and people have been banging pots and pans in dissent from their homes at night. Al-Jazeera reported that the protesters could face disastrous consequences from the military, which has responded strongly to acts of dissent in the past.
“They didn’t take the country. They took the hopes and dreams of the whole generation,” Eant said. “We’ve been exposed to how there is no limit for us and our dreams. And now, they’ve taken over again, and there’s no hope at all.”
Despite this, Eaint is still looking ahead with some positivity. “They messed with the wrong generation,” they said.