Mizzima Commentary
Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who grabbed power in a coup just over three years ago, has made clear his intent to hang on to power – even though some military supporters have been calling for him to stand down over his poor performance.
As the country marked the coup anniversary at the beginning of this month, Min Aung Hlaing said the military will do “whatever it takes to return the state to stability,” in a speech carried by state broadcaster MRTV.
Doing “whatever it takes” is read by Myanmar analysts as using any brutal method to cause terror to keep the country’s population in line – even burning them alive as seen in a shocking video that surfaced online last week showing a junta militia torturing and burning to death two People’s Defence Force fighters in Magway.
The incident in Myauk Khinyan Village, located in Gangaw Township, Magway Region, is believed to have happened on 7 November 2023.
FAKE DEMOCRACY
But it is not just brutality that Min Aung Hlaing has in his arsenal of methods to hang on to his ill-gotten gains and cause chaos across the country. The junta seeks to use a corrupt form of electoral politics to maintain power.
In addition to an extension of emergency rule by six months, announced on 31 January, the junta announced the easing of rules governing political parties as it prepares for a national poll at some point in the future.
The military has said it will hold fresh elections but has repeatedly extended the state of emergency imposed when it seized power, as it battles opponents across swathes of the country.
The new electoral order halves to 50,000 the number of members parties must have in order to contest national elections, and cuts the number of townships they must operate in. At the beginning of February, some willing political parties assembled, indicating their readiness to participate under military-set rules. The notice on changes to the party rules signed by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing makes no mention of why the changes were made.
BREAKING UP THE POPULAR PARTY
Before the coup, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) swept the 2020 polls, trouncing military-aligned rivals. Last year the junta-stacked election commission announced the scrapping of the first-past-the-post system – under which the NLD won its crushing majorities. A proportional representation system would be used across the country, it said. It also introduced tough new rules political parties had to comply with and dissolved the NLD after it failed to submit an application to register.
Aung San Suu Kyi co-founded the NLD in 1988, and won a landslide victory in 1990 elections that were subsequently annulled by the then-junta. The party carried the torch for democratic aspirations in military-ruled Myanmar and later won big victories over military-backed parties in elections in 2015 and 2020. Its leadership has been decimated in the junta’s bloody crackdown on dissent, with one former lawmaker executed in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades. And party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, remains in jail, facing 27 years – effectively a life sentence.
‘DISCIPLINED DEMOCRACY’
Far too many people fell for the Myanmar military’s opening up of the country in 2010-11 that promised the people’s say in the running of their country under a system of national polls every five years. But the decade of “disciplined democracy” under the 2008 military-written constitution effectively let the genie out of the bottle for Generation X and many democracy activists who saw the potential to get the Myanmar military out of its stranglehold of power.
The 2008 Constitution was effectively a “con” – a way for the military, who feel they own the country as heirs to General Aung San’s legacy, to maintain meaningful control over the country.
Three years after the coup, Min Aung Hlaing is playing “ballot-box shenanigans” as a way to maintain power, attempt to split the opposition, and seek to lure the international community into some form of “negotiated solution” to maintain power.
One of the challenges for the Spring Revolutionaries head-to-head with the junta militarily and diplomatically is warning the United Nations, ASEAN and other members of the international community that the promise of an “election” – under military rules – will not solve the core problem facing the Golden Land.
The sad fact is the Myanmar military has turned General Aung San’s dream into a nightmare and the only solution – say the Spring Revolutionaries – is a complete dismantling of their grip on the country.
