Myanmar Junta’s desperate democratic facade fools no one

Ever since Myanmar wrested its independence from Britain in 1948, it has seen a continuous tussle between democratic forces and the military junta to secure political and administrative power. In 1962, the military, under General Ne Win, overthrew the civilian government and installed an authoritarian regime. But to assuage growing democratic sentiments amongst the people, the junta was coerced into holding multi-party elections in 1990, which was won by Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party.

The junta refused to let go power, annulled the election, arrested opposition party members and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest, in which she remained for two decades. But international sanctions and popular internal protests induced Myanmar's military again to take steps to usher in civilian rule in 2007.

Suu Kyi's NLD again won overwhelmingly in the 2015 and 2020 elections, which induced the military to once more intervene politically, and seize power in another coup d'etat, But, on this occasion, it has apparently bitten off more than it could chew, with the common people putting up fierce resistance, both peacefully and through organized military counter-action and effectively pushing back the military from control of a large chunk of the nation.

This was seen when the junta held a nationwide census last year, but could conduct it in only 145 out of Myanmar's 330 townships, reflecting its current lack of control over swathes of the country. Its increasing reverses, combined with the pressures imposed on it by the international community in various ways including economic sanctions, has coerced the junta to take recourse again to diversionary tactics - it has declared an end to the prevailing state of emergency and transferred power to a civilian-led interim government ahead of a planned 'election', with the junta chief remaining the acting President.

However, the world remains skeptical about the pretensions of the junta, and its desire to foster a return to 'democracy', considering that neither Suu Kyi's NLD nor any of the political parties which had existed prior to the coup would be allowed to participate in the coming elections! Nor has the lifting of the emergency indicated any real change to the status quo, with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing holding on to all major levers of power as acting President while retaining his position as chief of the armed forces.

The election announcement has rightly been dismissed as a ruse to entrench the Generals' power and would be dominated by proxies of the military. Such a blatant move to perpetuate a brutal regime by rebranding it as a democratic entity is unlikely to fool anyone and the world would, therefore, do well to maintain its pressures on the junta.