Is the Idea of Democracy dead?

Updated: Mar 18, 2021

On the morning of February 1st, the citizens of Myanmar woke to very alarming news. The country’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the members of her party had been detained by the government’s military.

Is it Myanmar or Burma?

Myanmar is a country located in Southeast Asia and shares borders with Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, China, and India. It houses about 54 million citizens, with most of them being Burmese speakers.

During the year of 1982, the acting military rule legally changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar. Although these two words mean the same thing, Myanmar is the more formal version.

Some countries opposed the name change as a way to deny the legitimacy of the regime. The word “Myanmar” is being used more commonly now and Suu Kyi said in one of her speeches that it did not matter which name was used to identify the country.

Troubles among the Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar has gone back and forth from a military dictatorship and a civilian leadership since 1948, but the military always held more power over the country. The United States and other nations placed sanctions on the country for decades to convince generals to enact pro-democracy reforms. In 2011, the military finally gave power to the civilian leaders and was able to work alongside Suu Kyi and her party.

Even though Myanmar was able to gain back control from the military, Suu Kyi was accused of many things, one of the biggest issues being her campaign of genocide against the Rohingya Muslims. The Rohingyas are a Muslim ethnic minority group that reside in cities across Myanmar. Suu Kyi had considered them to be illegal immigrants and denied them citizenship.

A violent military crackdown in 2017 was thought to have killed thousands and forced about 800,000 Rohingya to flee to refugee camps in Bangladesh. Since then, so many have tried to escape the country, that Bangladesh has stopped letting Rohingyas enter the country. Citizens still in the country have been stripped down of their rights and have to live in fear. To this day, many are still being prosecuted for being an “illegal” citizen in the country.

Suu Kyi had denied all allegations of committing genocide in the International Court of Justice in 2019. She declined to challenge the military on this issue and even defended their actions. Activists have been protesting and keeping a tight eye on this issue hoping for justice for the Rohingyas.

Military Orders

Since the military overthrew the democratic powers, it has announced a year- long state of emergency for the country. The recent election was the main motive behind the detainment of leaders. Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) had won by a larger margin and the military had backed up the opposition claiming widespread fraud.

In order to win, Suu Kyi had promised the nation to apply more restrictions on the military, and the armed forces did not like these certain ideas. They tried taking their claims to court but had no formal evidence to back them up.

As the new session of parliament was about to open up, the coup staged by the military forced Suu Kyi and her officials under house arrest. Since these leaders have been detained, power has been given to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hilang. Hilang is a high ranking officer and has wielded major political influence, but he has been internationally condemned for his actions among ethnic minorities. Once the state of emergency is finally over, the military has allegedly said they are going to hold a “free and fair” election once more.

The day the coup had started, blackouts started occurring everywhere and people were asked not to come into work that day. All cellular towers were off, as well as the internet on mobile devices. Curfews were instated and areas of commerce became inaccessible to the public. People of all ages started to protest and walked along the streets of each city, demanding their freedom back.

No one knows when the country is going to get back to normal again; all we know is that this fight has just begun and the citizens of Myanmar know that they can let the people rule again. The military needs to demolish their dictatorship and let the people rule again