As we have been reporting in the Trends Journal, since 1 February, tens of thousands of protesters in Myanmar have taken to the streets to fight for democracy after a military coup overturned recent election results and arrested the civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who reportedly won by a landslide this past November. The military, however, claimed widespread election fraud as the reason for voiding the election.
The protesters – many of them young people – face an emboldened police force backed by the military. (See our 30 March article, “MYANMAR: ANOTHER DAY, MORE BLOODSHED” and our 4 May article, “PROTESTS CONTINUE, POVERTY RISING.”)
The New York Times reported that the latest move by the junta is to use nightly news broadcasts to show the mug shots of those who’ve been charged with so-called political crimes.
The paper said the mug shots included some doctors and students, but their faces seemed swollen, like they had been beaten in custody.
The paper’s reporter, Hannah Beech, described a dire situation in the undisclosed city where she was located. She said the “night is dark” and it matches the internet blackout in most of the country. She wrote it is during the dark hours that security forces perform sweeps in homes looking for protesters.
She said, “A sense of foreboding has returned.”
It is reported there have been more than 770 people killed by security forces since the February coup. Some 3,800 citizens have been locked up in prisons, and the economy has been decimated.
The World Bank is expecting a double-digit contraction this year, and about half of the country’s population – or 25 million people – risk falling into poverty, according to the United Nations Development Program. Protesters have been trying to sabotage the economy under military rule and have not been showing up for work at banks and hospitals.
“The development gains made during a decade of Democratic transition, however imperfect it may have been, is being erased in a matter of months,” Kanni Wignaraja, the U.N. assistant secretary-general, told Reuters.
TREND FORECAST: We maintain our forecast that military rule will continue in Myanmar, and threats by the U.N., the United States, and other nations will achieve nothing in terms of bringing so-called “Democracy” to the country.
Furthermore, the stronger outside countries pressure the Myanmar government – be they in sanctions or supporting rebel movements – the greater the ruling government will strengthen its ties with its Chinese neighbor.
The military rulers also declared the National Unity Government as a terror organization and used its state-controlled media to sell the narrative, according to Al Jazeera.
On 20 April, we published the article, “MYANMAR: OPPOSITION FORMS NEW GOVERNMENT,” which reported that the “unity government” aimed to appeal to international assistance and “diplomatic recognition” as they challenged the military rule. One of the group’s founders said,
“As leaders, we will serve and honor all as brothers and sisters regardless of their race, or religion, or their community of origin or their walk of life… All will have a vitally important role to play in the great cause of liberating our nation from the scourge of this murderous military junta, and all will have equal rights as citizens of Myanmar.”
The continued internet blackouts and the military’s ability to silence critics and outside supporters will continue to take their toll on the protesters.
