On February 1st, 2021, the military of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw, staged a government coup d’état. The takeover began when democratically elected members of Myanmar’s ruling political party, the National League for Democracy, were deposed by the Tatmadaw. The coup was a sudden move even though Myanmar’s military had hinted at “taking over” last week after furthering allegations of fraud in last November’s election. Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD) won the 2020 election. Yet, Myanmar faces another political deadlock that threatens the country’s democratic transition. “Talks between the military and the government started a few days ago — as tensions on the ground rose and rumours of a military coup grew — but failed to make any real progress,” according to both government and military sources.
Previously, Myanmar’s political system had been on the verge of failure. Myanmar has been rocked by increased insecurity and uncertainty as the military and the civilian government locked gates over the country’s political future. Over the past few months, the political turmoil in Myanmar has increased into violence due to disputes over the integrity of its national elections. There is no doubt the electoral process was significantly flawed, as local and international monitors agreed the election was poorly run. Nonetheless, they believe the outcome of the election was legitimate despite the challenges. Election legitimacy has been a consistent problem within the state as far back as 2010. In 2020, the military alleged that they had evidence of over 10 million cases of voter irregularities and fraud in November’s polls, and is demanding the election commission release the electoral roll for cross-checking.
The recent coup has put into context the greater questions of political democracy within the sectors in Myanmar. Democracy in Myanmar has been a long-term issue, though has never truly been resolved. In April 2016, it seemed as if the political establishment had won the battle and a renaissance would come to Myanmar. After a decades-long constitutional process, the country finally resembled a democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi took office at the head of the civilian government. Many citizens had looked forward to a brighter future, especially those hit hardest by excesses of the Juntas, the military-led government. However, as early as October 2016, the largely autonomous military of Myanmar initiated stricter discriminatory policies against the Rohingya, in response to several insurgent attacks against federal security agencies in the western state of Rakhine. The following year, in August 2017, the military started clearance operations of the Rohingya people. By January 2018, some 700,000 Rohingya (out of a total of 1 million), had fled to Bangladesh, in response to a sustained campaign of extrajudicial murders, tortures, systematic rapes, and the burning down of villages, crops, and livestock by the federal security agencies.
After the decades of shared pain and anguish at the hand of the Juntas, all oppressed groups in Myanmar began to support Daw Suu or Mother Suu, a champion of human rights in Myanmar. Solidarity between the oppressed people of Myanmar seemed natural and offered hope for a post-Junta future. Over the past decade, Myanmar has struggled to sustain a Democratic government and this most recent coup proves that Democracy in the nation is much at stake.
