Military Coup In Myanmar : Explained

 What Exactly has Happened?

• In the early hours of 1^st February 2021, Myanmar’s military made the announcement that it had taken control of the country, a decade after agreeing to hand power to a civilian government.
• State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in a series of raids.
• Troops are patrolling over the streets of capital and a night-time curfew is in force, with a one-year state of emergency declared and Aung San Suu Kyi and other government leaders have been detained.
• The military has assigned Vice President Myint Swe, a former military officer, as head of the government for one year.
• US President Joe Biden raised the threat of new sanctions, with the UN and UK also condemning the coup.
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the army’s move a “serious blow to democratic reforms”, as the Security Council prepared for an emergency meeting.

Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

• Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, is the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, Gen Aung San who was assassinated just before the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948.
• She is a human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former State Counsellor of Myanmar.
• In 1960, she went to India with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who had been appointed Myanmar’s ambassador in Delhi.
• Four years later, she went to Oxford University in the UK, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. There she met her future husband Michael Aris, who was a historian.
• When she arrived back in Yangon in 1988, to look after her critically ill mother, Myanmar was in the midst of major political upheaval.
• After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled in the UK to raise her two children, Alexander and Kim, but Myanmar was never far from her thoughts.
• Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India’s Mahatma Gandhi, she organised rallies and travelled in Myanmar, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.
• Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010. Her personal struggle to bring democracy to then military-ruled Myanmar (also known as Burma) – made her an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.
• After the 15 years of under house arrest, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi transformed from a national figure into a global icon of democracy, winning the Nobel Peace Prize and a host of other accolades.
• Suu Kyi brought democracy in Myanmar with her Non-Violence Movement. She is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar and a famous prisoner.
• In 1990, she won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize. Then in 1993, she won the Jawaharlal Nehru peace prize.
• In 2015, she led her National League for Democracy (NLD) to victory in Myanmar’s first openly contested election in 25 years.
• Aung San Suu Kyi wanted to become the Prime Minister and the President of Myanmar but was not able to due to Myanmar Laws, as she has children who are foreign nationals.
• Instead, she became the State Counsellor of Myanmar, a job that is considered even higher than being President in Myanmar and is widely seen as de facto leader.

Myanmar arrangement of government

• The announcement on military-owned Myawaddy TV said that the Article 417 of the country’s constitution permits the military to take over in times of emergency. The announcer said the coronavirus crisis and the government’s failure to postpone November elections were reasons for the emergency.
• The military wrote Myanmar’s constitution in 2008. The document gives the military the most power in the country and places limits on democratic, civilian rule.
• The group Human Rights Watch has described Article 417 as little more than an excuse for the military to seize all power.
• The constitution also provides important Cabinet ministries and 25 percent of the seats in Parliament to the military. This limits the power of a civilian government and rules out changing the constitution without military support.

Why She is Under House Arrest?

• Some experts said they were uncertain why the military would change or destabilize their standing. Others, however, noted the upcoming retirement of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who has been leader of the armed forces since 2011.
• In November elections, Suu Kyi’s party captured 396 out of 476 seats in the combined lower and upper houses of Parliament. The state Union Election Commission has confirmed that result.
• The military, known as the Tatmadaw, charged that there was massive voting fraud in the election, though it has failed to provide proof.
• The military alleged discrepancies such as duplicated names on voting lists in scores of districts and was unhappy with the election commission’s response to its complaints. The election commission rejected the claims, stating there was no evidence to support them.
• The timing of this coup is also easily explained. In first week of February, 2021, the first session of parliament since the election was due to start, which would have enshrined the election result by approving the next government. That will no longer happen.
• The move came after Myanmar’s powerful military triggered worry about a coup last week after threatening to “take action” over alleged fraud in a November election won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
• Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing stated that the Constitution could be revoked if the laws were not being properly enforced.

What now?

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the army’s move a “serious blow to democratic reforms”, as the security council prepared for an emergency meeting.
• The UN demanded the release of what it said were at least 45 people who had been detained.
• Governments and international organizations condemned the takeover, saying it sets back the limited democratic reforms Myanmar has made.
• Indeed, experts appear unsure of exactly why the military acted now, as there seems little to gain.
• Even though the current system is tremendously beneficial for the army: it has complete command autonomy, sizeable international investment in its commercial interests and political cover from civilians for war crimes.
• But famously stubborn, Ms. Suu Kyi is unlikely to co-operate with a gun held to her head. Her ally, President Win Myint, is the only person authorised under the constitution to enact a state of emergency. He has been detained with her.
• But the military’s longer game plan is hard to fathom. What do they plan to do in the year they have given themselves to run the country? There will be public anger over a coup so soon after an election in which 70% of voters defied the Covid-19 pandemic to vote so overwhelmingly for Aung San Suu Kyi.
• For the moment, the military’s action appears reckless, and puts Myanmar on a perilous path.