Coup: A sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.
Struggle for democracy has been a well-known phenomenon in most of the South Asian countries. From India’s independence movement to Vietnam’s long bloody war in the 1960s, South Asia has seen a slow and steady rise of democratically elected governments. One of these South Asian nations who has seen a familiar fight is Myanmar.
Burma, as it was formerly known, has had a long and treacherous history of democracy that has failed due to constant military interventions and subsequent coups. Since its independence from British rule in 1948, Myanmar has been under military rule for 49 of its 72 independent years. The military first came in power in 1962 through a coup d'état. This military government thwarted any efforts made in the direction of democracy. In 1989, the military government put an opposition leader by the name of Aung Saan Suu Kyi under house arrest, and this put the military government in a very bad image in the international community. Suu Kyi was released in 1995, in an effort to curb that image. But, was again under house arrest a year later in 1996. And it wasn’t until 2010 that Suu Kyi was released.
After she came out of her detention, Suu Kyi saw a very different Myanmar. One that was yearning for democracy more than ever. So, she decided to contest the upcoming election in 2015. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the 2015 elections, and after more than 50 years Myanmar was going to have a non-military government. After managing to topple a military government and sow the seeds of democracy, Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize for her constant struggle for a better Myanmar. She attained international name recognition and was praised worldwide for her heroics in the south Asian nation.
All that changed in the midst of her first term as the Myanmar State Counsellor. While, she enjoyed tremendous love and support back home. Suu Kyi faced human rights violation charges at the International Court of Justice for atrocities committed by Myanmar’s military against minority Rohingya Muslims under her watch. This led to a steep downfall in her popularity across the world, but not in Myanmar.
In 2020, the nation was gearing up for another election. Main contenders were Aung Saan Suu Kyi and her NLD and the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). And as expected, Suu Kyi and NLD won the election in a landslide. But, USDP alleged massive voter fraud and irregularities in the elections and declared the result false. The military took notice of these allegations and asked the election commission to investigate them. The EC didn’t find any evidence of election fraud and the military vowed to protect the constitution on 30th January, 2021.
But, the horrors of the past were about to resurface. Two days later, the military, known as Tatmadaw, detained State Counsellor Aung Saan Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other government leaders, and annulled the 2020 general election results. They took over the government and declared a one-year emergency. Myanmar’s Commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing took over as the leader of Myanmar. This sudden and tragic coup by the military didn’t go down well with the Burmese citizens and the international community alike.
The citizens took to the streets of capital city Naypyitaw, to show their anger and frustration at the military’s unjust seizure of power. The protesters stormed the streets and showed the ‘three-finger salute’, symbolizing their anti-coup demonstrations. Another widely used tactic was the bashing of pots and pans. It symbolized the noisy nature of democracy and this act is meant to drive out the devil, in this case the military. The posters of ‘you fuc*ed with the wrong generations’ has been a rallying cry in these protests. In response to this innovative tactics by the protesters, the military blocked the most widely used social media platform Facebook in the country, in an effort to silence the swath of protesters and to stabilize the situation. They also threatened a violent crackdown of the protests and on 12th February the Junta fired shots at the protesters in the fourth largest city Mawlamyine. But, despite these hardships, the protests across Myanmar still persist.
Neighboring nations of India, China, Thailand, Bangladesh and others have condemned this coup d'état and have called for a dialogue between the government and the military to resolve this matter as soon as possible.
While, coups are not something new to Myanmar. The most recent attempt to subvert the will of the people by the military just goes to show how fragile and delicate the concept of democracy is.
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