Myanmar Coup
There is a coup in Myanmar, a real one not just rhetoric, as the military moved to prevent parliament from starting.
So it’s official. The armed forces in Myanmar have confirmed that they have carried out a coup d’etat, their first against a civilian government since 1962, and in apparent violation of the constitution which the military promised to honour as recently as last Saturday.
The grievances which have been driving tension between the military and the government are well enough known. The military-backed party, the USDP, performed poorly in last November’s general election, whereas the NLD did even better than in 2015.
The timing of this coup is also easily explained. This week 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.
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.
Famously stubborn, she 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.
For the moment the military’s action appears reckless, and puts Myanmar on a perilous path.
“Massive voting irregularities”. HmmReport
Somewhere in Palm Beach, a fat old man is burning with envy.Report
So is FlynnReport
That’s how it’s done.Report
I think we have to take the idea that this is a one-year state of emergency with a heavy grain of salt. The Myanmar military only handed over power to civilians reluctantly after decades of pressure and did so reluctantly. This is not the first time, they suffered poorly at the ballot box and refuse to abide by the results. I read yesterday that they drafted the Constitution to ensure they get at least 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and make it impossible for Aung San Suu Kyi, to be prime minister. The role of State Councilor needed to be created for her.Report
“What do they plan to do in the year they have given themselves to run the country?”
Get up early in the morning, work hard every day (lots of meetings and calls), and give themselves another year to run the country.Report
I know she’s a darling of the West but I’m not sure how much anger we’re supposed to muster over this. Hasn’t she been running interference for ethnically cleansing Myanmar of its Muslim minority?Report
Here’s what we should say
1. The civilian government of Myanmar is not morally legitimate (at least not insofar as they are responsible for and complicit in the Rohingya genoicde). It follows that a coup against them would not have been ipso facto wrong.
2. The apparent significant civilian participation in this genocide suggests that Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity is in part grounded in her allowing it to go on. The democratic popularity of her government should not count against the case for overthrowing it.
3. That said, the military would have carried out the coup regardless of the civilian government’s complicity in the genocide. This is apparent from their own complicity in said genocide and from their stated reasons for the coup: voter fraud anyone? While the coup was not wrong per se, the junta demonstrated a clear lack of virtue. They acted for clearly bad reasons and motives. They are thus deserving of condemnation and opprobrium.Report