Myanmar. 54 million people, 135 distinct ethnic groups and more than 26 years of military rule. It is a nation which gained freedom in 1948 after more than a century of imperial rule. It is a nation which was hit hard by the covid-19 outbreak that paralysed its already declining economy. It is a nation whose history has been stained with martial law in 1962, 1989 and 2015. However, in 2020, when the world was being ravaged by disease, a small beacon of light shone in south east Asia. In the 2020 elections, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory, bringing Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy icon and activist to power. We all thought that it was time for change, for progress, for development. But this victory was short lived. On February 1st 2021, the military seized control, it declared a year-long state emergency, arrested Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and plunged the entire nation back into a sea of dictatorship, censorship and violence.
I want you to imagine Myanmar during the 2020 elections. Imagine that after years of censorship and oppression your voice gets to be heard. Imagine that after years of accepting whatever incompetent military leader the army endorsed you get to finally choose the person to lead your country. Imagine democracy getting to reign on a nation that has been in the shackles of military rule for decades. That was what thousands of Burmese people felt as they cast their votes and saw the victory of Aung San Suu Kyi on their television screens.
However, the hope was temporary. On February 1st 2021, the military detained leaders of the NLD and other civilian officials, including Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, cabinet ministers, the chief ministers of several regions, opposition politicians, writers and activists. The military was quick to seize control of the country’s infrastructure, suspending most television broadcasts and canceling domestic and international flights. Telephone and internet access was suspended in major cities. The stock market and commercial banks were closed.
It had happened again. The military was back in charge. The people were forgotten. Oppression and violence emerged.
Hope for democratic progress does seem to be out of the question now. However, we must also come to question how much meaningful change would have even take place under Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership. Ms. Suu Kyi was once seen as a beacon of human rights; she was a principled activist who gave up her freedom to challenge the ruthless army generals who ruled Myanmar for decades. She was seen as a democracy icon and a legend. She was a woman who spent nearly fifteen years under house arrest for her protests. She was a woman who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while still being in solitary confinement by the military. She was a woman who taught her people to rise up, organizing rallies and travelling around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections, knowing what such protest would mean for her own safety.
However, after Ms. Suu Kyi’s victory in the 2015 elections, where she was the state councilor of Myanmar, her leadership was stained by the treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority that the United Nations described as a, “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” At least 6700 Rohingya, including 730 children under the age were killed in the month after August 2017 when the army led a deadly crackdown. Ms. Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and maintains the stance that the army was targeting militants and not innocent Muslims. The Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh said they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs burned their villages and attacked and killed civilians. The government, which puts the number of dead at 400, claims that "clearance operations" against the militants ended on 5 September, but correspondents at BBC confirmed that they have continued after this date. At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in the northern Rakhine state after August 2017. Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.
Therefore, we have to come to question how much progress could have even been made under Ms. Suu Kyi. Was there any hope for her new government when her leadership allowed ethnic cleansing, genocide and the displacement of an entire ethnic group, completely negating the principles of democracy, freedom and equality that she campaigned? It’s no question that the coup will move the country backwards, but under Ms. Suu Kyi would the country have even been able to move forward?
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