This is the first part of a series of articles I am going to write about the ongoing crisis in Myanmar. While initially, I was going to just write about the ongoing coup the story of this country and its unique societal structure require a more in-depth analysis.
On February 1st of this year, a Military Coup occurred in the country of Myanmar also known as Burma. While many people might not have really heard of the country before Myanmar has been in the news the last few years for all the wrong reasons. Starting in 2016 there has been a two-phased genocide that has occurred against the Rohingya people. Before I get into this ongoing human catastrophe one has to explain how the government and society are set up/function in Myanmar.
While Myanmar was granted independence from Great Britain in 1948 from 1962 to 2011 the military was in control of the county. The struggle for democracy and free elections had been led by Aung San Suu Kyi who won a Noble Peace Prize for her efforts. These efforts though did lead to her being played on house arrest on and off for 15 years between 1989-2010. In 2011 though she was able to broker an agreement with the military for by-elections to be held and full and free elections to be held in 2015.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy party to victory in both the by-election of 2012 and the 2015 general elections where she became the State Counsellor of Myanmar (a position created for her since she was constitutionally ineligible for Presidency and akin to a Prime Minister). With her election, a sense of hope and development emerged however it was not to last.
Who are the Rohingya People??
The Rohingya people are descendants of Arabic traders who arrived centuries ago. While the country is 88-90% Buddhist the Rohingya people are Muslim and sadly this is used to marginalize them on a severe and terrible scale. It is so bad that the UN has actually declared them to be "among the world's least wanted peoples" and "one of the world's most persecuted minorities". In Myanmar, there have been laws enacted that have denied them citizenship, require them to get official permission before they travel, and possibly most concerning they can be legally subjected to forced labor during which a Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work either on military or government projects and then spend one night on sentry duty.
Sense of Hope Dashed
In 2016 disturbing events began to transpire in the provinces along the country's west coast. Supposed insurgent attacks were committed against police posts with guns and ammunition being looted. This lead to a military operation that drove these people from their lands and into other countries with Bangladesh receiving a huge influx of Rohingya people fleeing. The military did not stop at just driving the people off their lands as satellite photos have shown thousands of homes being on fire and reports of heinous crimes of murder and sexual assault coming out of the region. The region though was an information black hole and the only reports people could get came from the refugees who arrived in other countries. However not even trying to flee the country saved people as it became known that the Burmese military would fire on boats in the Ref River transportation refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
During these events and what followed Aung San Suu Kyi was heavily criticized as she remained silent and when she did address the situation denied that anything genocidal or ethnic cleansing transpired. This was easily disproven though by refugee stories and satellite imagery the Myanmar government stuck to deniability. Suu Kyi even went as far as to argue her country's case in front of the International Criminal Court which is something that is unheard of for political leaders to do.
The silence though pointed to another issue that could have been in play and given the military coup seems much more likely to have occurred. Aung San Suu Kyi might not have been silent because she wanted to or because she did not care rather the military might have been the reason why she was. This incident occurred at the very beginning of her government being in office. This was the first democraticly elected government for the country and it had a lot riding on it. The military was ever present in the background and looking at what has transpired and continues to odds are they would have pulled a coup if Suu Kyi had come down on them. Based off of how she is under house arrest at an undisclosed location now she might have felt it was the only way to maintain her safety and keep the countries civilian government in power.
