Myanmar's Fake Democracy History and 2021 Coup D'etat

        A coup broke out in our neighboring country Myanmar on monday morning. The army has taken over the country's supreme leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, including Myanmar president U Win Myint. The army has declared a state of emergency for a year. Due to this, the power of Myanmar has reached the commander-in-chief Min Ang Hlaing. Now, to overcome the opposition of the coup, Myanmar army has deployed forces across the country.

           From 1962 to 2011, there has been a military dictatorship in Myanmar. In 2010, general elections were held in Myanmar and in 2011 a 'civil government' was formed in Myanmar, in which the country's representatives were handed over to the elected representatives of the people.  Even after the formation of a civilian government, the real power always remained with the army.  So Monday's incident is a real form of political crisis.

 Fake Democracy and Dictatorship

            The struggles of General Aung San, who fought against military rule for nearly two decades, have resulted in the restoration of democracy in Myanmar. This victory has marked the beginning of the end of military rule that has been going on for almost five decades. Myanmar has stepped out of the clutches of military rule and made historical steps towards restoration of democracy. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party, has been here for nearly five decades following a landslide victory in the recent third election in Myanmar. This massive victory will not only give Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party a chance to oust the military rulers from power, but also their own party's stakes on the presidency. Now the dictators have seized power in advance.

               Myanmar had to bear the brunt of military dictatorship from 1962 to 1862 after being under British rule from 1842 to 1948.  During the military rule, a long civil war broke out in Myanmar. During this period incidents of human rights abuses reached its peak. The rise of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the 90s raised hopes of a restoration of democracy there. In 1988, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi formed a party called NLD, She's NLD won a landslide victory in the elections in 1990, but the military rulers refused to accept these results, regained power and put Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. The military regime that occupied Myanmar in 1988 is known as Military Government.  Also known as SPDC (State Peace and Development Council).  She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for the fight for human rights and democracy. In 2010, the dictators regime finally released Daw Aung San Suu Kyi after heavy international pressures after being detained for 15 years. In 2011, moving towards the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, the former army general, U Thein Sein was appointed president and formed a semi-civilian government. However, most of the posts in this government were handled by the army people. In 2012 parliamentary by-elections Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party won 43 out of 45 seats. Subsequently, NLD of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won an overwhelming majority in election held in 2020  and paved the way for the end of the six-decade long military rule in Myanmar.

            After the end of long-standing military rule in Myanmar, the same is expected in some other countries of the world. But for now, the battle between the Myanmar people and the dictator is the answer to that hope. Libya, Thailand and Iraq which were under Saddam Hussein till a few years ago can be named in these. Since 1969 in Libya, since 2006 in Thailand, from 1979 to 2003 in Iraq, and since the formation of Pakistan in 1947, democracy has never lived there for a long time and most of the time there has been the occupation of military dictators. During the military rule in Myanmar, the country's economy was paralyzed. The same situation has happened in all the countries of the world including Pakistan where military rule has been in force for a long time. In all these countries, problems such as violation of civil rights, atrocities on minorities, decline in economic development, increase in poverty, illiteracy and unemployment under military rule have been reported. Therefore, if Myanmar, which is currently in power, can no longer revolt against the dictators, it is likely to face serious concerns in the future.   

 

 Writers: Ayushi Mona, Htetwana

 Photo Credit: PRI.org
                             The Independent
                             Foreign Policy

Systematic Revolution

        As a passage from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's  Freedom from Fear book,  Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might be right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man ... "

          I wasn't even born in 1991 when this book was published. But the shaping of the dictatorship system has been in place in Myanmar for decades before we were born. Similarly, everyone who has been opposed to dictatorship in Myanmar, including Aung San Suu Kyi has experienced this nature. As Green Anarchism author Murray predicted, " In the post-communication era, the massacre of postmen was the first routine of a dictatorial commander, and in the age of technology, blocking information and restricting the flow of the truth will become the first routine of any dictatorship." That exactly with our February 1. Therefore, the current situation, the only concern is Myanmar people.
 

          The party has been critical of the NLD, but only Aung San Suu Kyi is a woman who has gone through a much worse long period. So there's less to worry about. Because when we review the history of dictatorships around the world, it is not a coup to keep the people, just keep the people to coup. Here, the fear of the people can become a weapon of dictatorship. This can be seen by distinguishing between the coups of neighboring Thailand and the coup of Hussein in Iraq. Yesterday and today, some friendly writers and friends from India talked about their worries, encourage our country and asked. I was talked just a little that all I knew because I am not from the political science and political activist field. I respect that they're writing articles in the youth fields and distributing them on their blogs and websites for Myanmar people. But no matter how much they help, Japan, Europe, United States and the UN would be involved, mainly the people of Myanmar. So, I think only the wise revolution can help at this moment. In this decade, in Myanmar, we all already knew that there're more bad things happening than the good things in religion, racial and political issues because of chaos. This has been already calculated in the other side. That's why since three days before February 1, we would have seen the group of people on the streets of Yangon with anarchy. Once again, it is time to start a fire between the fuel tanks that are ready.

          At this time, I think the strength and courage of the people is to show wisdom and systematic unity. Like in George Orwell's 1984 book, " We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me." Article of the constitution 417, which refers to the current coup, is also an article in the Constitution without the will of the people. However, this law hasn't yet been amended and can still be considered as national law. Another point is that as in Myanmar, even in most counterfeit democracy countries, coups control the two main branches of government by the people and the people. The idea is that in Myanmar, a government that is supported by the majority of the people can be maintained, but nothing can be done without the protection of the more important people. There may be some people who've repeatedly fallen from the cradle on Facebook, saying, "Coup, what else can you do?" But the coup needs to crack down on both government management and people power. The power of people cann't be controlled even if the lower-level staff and minority figures in the department of public works show opposition to the working-class population. Every dictator knows about that in every coup of every country. That's why they go step by step in dictatorship. As Hussein and Gaddafi did.

          In any dictatorship, neither the dictators nor the slaves of dictators is the core of any coup. The people are the main characters. According to current reports, the election will be held within a year. In the previous election involved people who disabilities, people who voted without fear of Covid, even people who are receiving medical treatment, people working in foreign countries and young people who voted for the country only yesterday at the age of 18. How can these people be guaranteed to vote again in the next election? Another is that coups are a contempt of the power of people, so there's almost nothing to believe under this system. If so, that may be crocodile tears.

          Therefore, the real revolution of the people is based on our values ​​for the country and ‌a wise desire to change and oppose in each case. In Freedom from Fear, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, " It was a psychological war and a revolution against the dictatorship". The idea is that once they get into the shape of a step-by-step dictatorship, people often lose and float into their designs. So, at the moment, I think the most effective way is for the people to be the main ones and to show that they are against any design that is going to be shaped. This is more effective than throwing stones at an armed man on the street. Otherwise, Myanmar will still be on the brink of a coup. Like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi quote, " It isn't easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man... ". At the same time, it must be a force by wisdom. In conclusion,


" Democracy isn't just a system of government, but a system of social and ideological integration based on respect for the individual."
 

 

Writer: Htetwana  ( 🇲🇲 )

Base: Daily Herald
           The New York Times

Htetwana is an author from Myanmar. He is the bestselling  author of MANDRA Award...
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