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As Americans reckon with the realities of race relations and systemic hate against Asian Americans, the world at large watches as democratic backsliding in Myanmar descends into violence.
On February 1st, the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, began a coup that forced out the country’s democratic government and instated a ruling military junta. The military, claiming that the country’s election results from the past November are invalid, faces both international scrutiny and domestic outrage.
Throughout the country, protests have broken out over the return of military rule, a memory still fresh in the minds of many Myanmarese citizens. The country only began to take steps towards semi-democratization in 2010, and its progress towards democracy is eclipsed by a lengthy regime of military dominance.
Among the actions taken by the Tatmadaw are a series of arrests of government officials in Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, a pro-democracy political party that rose to power in landslide election victories in 2015. Some of the more powerful officials detained include then-President Win Myint and Aung San Suu Kyi, a state councilor serving as the country’s leader. Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence activist and military leader Aung San, previously spent over 15 years under house arrest for her pro-democracy campaigns that earned her the Nobel Peace Prize. Though she has come under fire in the past few years over her handling of the Rohingya displacement crisis in Rakhine State, her arrest is still a worrisome sign for supporters of democracy in Myanmar.
Outside politics, other targets of the military include high-profile public figures who wield considerable social influence in resistance. In the last week, over 60 celebrities, musicians, and artists were arrested, and the military has implemented various measures of quelling virtual unrest, including television broadcast suspension, WiFi blackouts, and social media bans.
The Tatmadaw has shown little mercy towards resistance. After several weeks of largely peaceful protests, crackdowns by the military amount to a death toll that has now surpassed 500 deaths. In their demonstrations, protesters have taken to various means of expression beyond conventional protests, including painting messages on Easter eggs and holding three-finger salutes reminiscent of The Hunger Games. The latter has been a symbol of protests elsewhere in the region and throughout the world, including recent protests in Hong Kong and Thailand.
The deaths in Myanmar come as a disheartening reminder of the Tatmadaw’s extensive political grasp on the country. Resistance efforts to reinstate democratic governance, however, have held out, as organizers resort to older methods of communication like radio broadcasting. Amidst the chaos, civilian resistance has also accompanied a rise in concern over state collapse and civil war, with some minority groups traditionally repressed by the Tatmadaw threatening action through armed militias. Though the Bamar ethnic group comprises the majority of Myanmar, a plethora of minority groups live in the country and many of them claim mistreatment, including the unrecognized Rohingya people who are subject to persecution by the Tatmadaw.
With the added threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, Myanmar’s stability is particularly precarious. The coup has significantly reversed efforts at combating the spread of the virus: testing has plummeted, and vaccinations, which had begun merely days before the coup, have stopped completely.
As the people of Myanmar grapple with a growing political crisis that further upends their lives, the international community is considering possible actions in response, though some experts estimate that the efforts so far are not intense enough. Regardless, it seems that the people of Myanmar are willing to engage in the long struggle to put their country back on the path to democratization.