Myanmar’s Coup was coming anyway

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 Myanmar’s Coup was coming anyway

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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With Washington and much of the world preoccupied, the generals have calculated they can get away with it.

1. Myanmar's tumult: Events in Myanmar have unfolded like a chronicle of a coup foretold. The army warned about it, hinting that a coup might happen. The foreign embassies duly protested, and the United Nations too cautioned against a coup. But on 01-02-2021, as the new parliament was about to meet, troops were seen at strategic locations in the capital, Naypyidaw, and the country’s largest city, Yangon.
2. You are under arrest: Leading parliamentarians including state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and others were detained. In an official statement, the military declared a one-year, nationwide state of emergency and confirmed that power had been handed to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
3. Tatmadaw: Over past few months, foreign authorities had warned against a coup. The Tatmadaw, as the Burmese military is known, issued a self-righteous rebuttal reeking with injured innocence, reprimanding the foreign diplomats for speaking without sufficient knowledge. But the diplomats’ fears turned out to be justified. The military and the demonstrators were opposing the convening of the new parliament, which they claimed was not representative. Much like supporters of Donald Trump, they insisted that the November 2020 election was fraudulent!
4. November elections: The results were unambiguous, and the NLD took 138 of the 224 seats in Amyotha Hluttaw, the House of Nationalities, and 258 of 440 seats in Pyithu Hluttaw, the House of Representatives. The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won only seven and 26 seats, respectively, in the two chambers: altogether seven fewer seats than its 2015 total. 
5. Military's sour grapes: The durability of the NLD’s popularity is remarkable. In 1990, it easily triumphed in the first truly representative election the military allowed, in which the party won 392 of the 492 seats in parliament. It was an outcome the generals immediately annulled, detaining lawmakers and placing Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for years! The logjam was broken only in 2012, when Myanmar held by-elections in which the NLD fielded candidates. 
6. Double edged sword: Aung San Suu Kyi was an outstanding champion of Myanmar’s democracy during those years and won a raft of international honors, but she was careful to keep the army by her side. She became a global democracy icon, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, was celebrated in a song by the band U2, and became the subject of a Luc Besson film. But she disappointed many with her initial equivocation about—and refusal to condemn—the atrocities the army committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority.
7. To hell with Rohingyas: Even as the NLD consolidated power, she looked the other way as civil liberties were eroded, journalists were arrested, and a conflict in Rakhine state escalated. She defended the military at the International Court of Justice when Gambia brought a case accusing Myanmar of genocide. By essentially becoming the face of the Myanmar military, she destroyed what remained of her credibility in the international community. 
8. Military wanted power: It was known that Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s new leader as of today, had been coveting the presidency following the end of his tenure as commander-in-chief this year, when he turns 65 in July 2021. To have gained the presidency legitimately, he would have needed the support of a majority in parliament. Hence, the coup!

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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