Myanmar’s Recent Coup

Daniel Schiffman ‘23

On Feb. 1, the military in Myanmar, led by Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, seized control of the democratic government in a coup d’etat. 
In November, Myanmar, also known as Burma, conducted a general election in which leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won in a landslide victory. 

The armed forces were calling for a rerun of the election claiming there was major fraud across voting. Myanmar’s election commission held that there was no evidence to support these false election claims. 
The coup took place as a session of Parliament was set to open, and democratic leaders like Suu Kyi have been detained. Suu Kyi herself is currently under house arrest.
Power is now in the hands of Aung Hlaing, who has long been a political force in Myanmar. He and his military party have said that they will form a “true and disciplined democracy” and will hold a “free and fair” general election after their declared one-year state of emergency is over.
For the people of Myanmar, while living under a military state is not unfamiliar it is still dangerous and alarming. During this coup, ordinary people of Myanmar are affected in their daily lives. Communication lines are being blocked, banks are closed, and armed personnel patrol the streets.
“It’s scary,” junior Hannah Stoch said on the silencing of the people of Myanmar. “Part of what is great about the 21st century is the ability for communication and the fact that they cannot share their unfortunate experiences with the outside world is unsettling.” 
Sophomore Boaz Fox agreed and denounced the leaders of the coup.
“The Myanmar military is too afraid of the will of their people. They want to seize power, and public opinion must be against them,” Fox said.
In response to the jeopardizing of their democracy and their say in it, Burmese people have taken to the streets, participating in the largest protest, since 2007 when issues with another military regime were rampant.
Internationally, the military takeover has received strong opposition, especially from democratic nations. President Joe Biden has worked against the coup, sanctioning the leaders who directed it.
“The military must relinquish the power it seized and demonstrate respect for the will of the people of Burma as expressed in their November 8th election,” Biden said.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the coup a “serious blow to democratic reforms.” The overall international consensus is that the threat to democracy in Burma is a threat to democracy everywhere.
Fox said, “anti-democratic movements should be stopped because the will of the people is what should decide the fate of a country. Other democratic countries have a responsibility to defend those ideals.” 
Stoch also backed democratic leaders, saying, “the government was taken over, citizens are in danger, and once that happens other powers need to step in.” 
The use of force to oppose a fairly won election in Myanmar is in some ways reminiscent of the attacks on the United States Capitol Building on Jan. 6. In both cases, a democratic election was accused of fraud by the party that lost the election. 
Fox said, “both times people wanted to dispute the will of the people, and both times those who claimed election fraud were afraid of losing their power.”
Like the Burmese military, former President Donald Trump’s claims were backed by little to no evidence of election fraud, and none that would have been consequential in the results of the election. However, despite the similarities, the two events do differ in many ways. 
“This Myanmar coup is led by military leaders, not the common man or woman. There is a difference,” Stoch said. “Here, there are a select few leaders taking over a government, not any of the people standing up against their own government”.
The differences between the two coups reflect the differences between the two nations. In the United States, there is a well-established democracy with a system of checks and balances to ensure that anti-democratic movements, even ones supported by its leaders and executed by their followers, do not result in the serious endangerment of the democratic government as a whole. In Myanmar, one witnesses what can come of similar anti-democratic claims when they are supported by a military party, in the frame of a weaker, newly formed democracy.