The army has seized power and detained political leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as President Win Myint.
A military coup has taken place in neighbouring Myanmar. The army has seized power and detained political leaders including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as President Win Myint. In an announcement made over the military-controlled television channel, the army placed the country under a year-long emergency. Power has been handed over to military commander Min Aung Hlaing. The announcement was made early Monday morning.
The military has once again taken centre stage in Myanmar and doing what it does best: trample on democracy when it does not suit the men in uniform. The army has refused to accept the election verdict. The National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi had won 83 per cent of the seats in last November’s parliamentary elections. The military has challenged the people’s verdict in the Supreme Court. The state of emergency was declared as the military refused to acknowledge the will of the people and have called the elections as fraudulent.
Today’s military action followed the landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD. Myanmar has a long history of military rule. In fact, army control was lifted only in 2011. In 2010, as talk of a transition to democracy began, the army released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, freed other political prisoners and called for fresh elections in 2015. Suu Kyi who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her heroic fight for democracy was under detention for 15-years from 1989 to 2010.
What comes as a surprise is a military coup, which is almost archaic in this day and age. Despite the veneer of democracy, the military called the shots in Myanmar even after the NLD win in the 2015 elections. 25 per cent of the seats in the Parliament were at that time reserved for the military and army backed party. It is not clear whether that equation could have changed after last year’s elections. And even after 2015 democratic polls, Aung San Suu Kyi was barred from heading the government on the grounds that she had been married to a foreigner. But the NLD found a way to circumvent that. Though she was the State Counsellor she and not the president was the de facto head of government.
Myanmar is likely to come under sanctions as the world has already reacted in horror to the news from Myanmar. In 2011 the transition to democracy was made mainly due to the economic hardships the nation faced following sanctions by the US and Western democracies. The new Biden government, a votary of promoting democratic principles across the world, will not take kindly to the military coup. International sanctions are likely to follow. Biden’s newly appointed secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed grave “concern” and asked for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other political leaders now under detention.
India's reaction to happenings across its eastern border was much more nuanced. “We have noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern. India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely,” the MEA said in a statement. New Delhi has excellent relations with both the military junta as well as the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Unlike the Western democracies that criticised Myanmar for its treatment of Rohingya refugees, India kept mum.
Decades earlier, at the time of the pro-democracy uprising in Myanmar, when the NLD leader was placed under house arrest and thousands of her followers were thrown into prison, New Delhi vociferously supported the pro-democracy movement. But by 1992, the then Congress prime minister Narasimha Rao changed New Delhi’s policy. Realising that the vacuum left by India’s withdrawal from Myanmar was being filled by China, the government began to engage with the military rulers. Delhi could not afford to have China spread its wings in India’s vicinity at a time when the adjoining north-eastern region was infested by various insurgent groups. These outfits often operated along the India-Myanmar border. Since then, New Delhi has kept its lines open to the military junta. Today India’s ties with Myanmar are fine, and New Delhi will continue to be cautious while speaking for democracy. As a former Indian foreign secretary once remarked, that shouting from the rooftops on democracy and human rights was fine, when a country does not share a 1, 468 kilometre long border with Myanmar. So, India will be much more circumspect in dealing with the military leaders as it does not have the luxury of distance to bolster its stand. India also knows that China is an important player in Myanmar. Keeping all this in mind and for strategic considerations India will remain cautious and adopt a wait and watch policy till the situation becomes clearer.