On February 27, 2021, a picture of a nun kneeling and crying on the middle of the road in front of heavily armed members of the army and police spread throughout the world on social media. The picture was posted by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the head of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, who commented, “Sister Nu Tuang is begging the police not to shoot and arrest civilians.” We know that there is currently a military coup in Myanmar and people in Myanmar are protesting against it. Why did that coup happen and why are the Myanmar police getting into line with the military revolt force? This article covers the political history of Myanmar, the laws that created the background for the coup, the current situation in Myanmar, and how other governments and societies see this situation.

Before we look into the reason the coup occurred, we need to know this country’s history and its preexisting political situations before the revolt.

Myanmar was liberated from England in 1948 after 120 years of colonial rule, but shortly after 1962, the Myanmar Army mounted a coup, and the country was soon under the military dictatorship. Yes, it means that the coup in 2021 is not the first military revolt. It is the second in Myanmar’s history. That military government maintained its power until recently. It was not until 2015 when the NLD (the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi) won by a landslide in the general election that the country had a semi-democratic system.

The reason I called their political system a ‘semi-democracy’ is because even after the general election in 2015 the power of the military wasn’t gone; it was just downsized superficially and its power was still protected by its law. In Myanmar, 25% of the seats in the National Assembly have to be allocated to the military, while the maximum number of seats that is needed to block an amendment of the constitution is also 25%. In other words, it is impossible to amend the constitution without the military’s approval. Besides, the Defense Minister, Security Minister, and Frontier Minister, which are the three main secretaries of national security, are appointed by the Supreme Commander of the Myanmar Army. The Supreme Commander is also elected by the Army. This naturally means that the police are under the command of the Army in Myanmar. To catch up with the international flow of democracy, the military seemingly stepped back, but until now the military had its power and high status assured by the laws in its country.

Then why did they stage the coup? The reason is in the general election they had in November, 2020. Since Myanmar holds its general election every five years, it was their second election since 2015 after it formed its government in its current form. Yet, there were some minor issues during the process of this election. First, most of the election was canceled in the western parts of Rakhine State, where a lot of minority groups live, due to some problems of public security. Secondly, the Rohingya tribe, which has a population of 1.6 million people who believe in Islam, was not allowed to vote for the election. Myanmar is a country of more than 135 tribes, including the main eight tribes. It has always been a big issue in Myanmar that the government doesn’t acknowledge those minor tribes. So, before this second election governments around the world expressed concerns about this matter. However, the problem was not solved in the election.

From this election, the NLD won 396 seats of the upper and lower houses in total out of 476 seats while the USDP (a party related to the military) earned 33 seats. The NLD was trying to propose a constitutional amendment to downsize the seats of the military and as it earned a complete victory in this election, the military staged the coup claiming that this election was a fraud.

On February 1st, 2021, the Myanmar army confined Aung San Suu Kyi, incumbent State Counselor of Myanmar, Win Myint, the president of Myanmar, and other leaders of the ruling party, the NLD. The military forces say that they will hold another election after one year, and turn over the reins of the government to the next new administration. However, as the people of Myanmar know that this ‘new administration’ will be involved in the military force, they are resisting this arbitrary decision and demonstrating on the streets.

Since public officials and health workers all over Myanmar carried out a civil disobedience movement on February 2nd, numerous citizens of Myanmar are joining this protest. Yet, the demonstration has developed into a bloody affair as the military and the police are firing live rounds at the demonstrators and civilians are throwing petrol bombs at the troops. The troops are breaking into the shops, assaulting citizens, abducting them, and torturing them. People are relying on Wifi devices to contact each other since the Army eliminated telephone and internet networks to prevent people from posting videos and pictures of the current situation. More than 300 people have been killed, including kids, and the number of wounded people is rapidly increasing in Myanmar.

Various countries are making statements to help Myanmar’s people and are applying economic sanctions to restrain the military. Protesters are asking for help from other countries, and they have requested for the United Nations to send its peacekeeping force. The United States froze all the assets of Myanmar and placed an embargo on exporting any items, including weapons that can be handed to the troops. However, experts say that the reason that Myanmar’s military force can just push ahead with its arbitrary action is that because it has only been five years since Myanmar opened its market, its economic dependence on other countries is strikingly low.

At the end of the general audience on March 17, Pope Francis said, “Many people, mostly young people, are losing their lives to give hope to their country. May dialogue prevail. Blood does not solve anything. The aspirations of the people of Myanmar are not stifled by violence.”

When almost all people in a country want their country to be democratic, there would be no way for the government to resist and defy their wishes. I support Myanmar’s people who are fighting for their rights and extend my sincere condolences to all the people who have sacrificed their lives in this demonstration. I hope that this cruel persecution will end as soon as possible and that the people of Myanmar will win their democracy in the nearest future.

Kim Minji  alstbvj@naver.com

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