No fake election can disguise the violence and repression in Myanmar
Thantlang, a once-bustling town that has a sign above its gateway proclaiming that inhabitants are “not rich, but happy,” lies in ruin after a recent onslaught of military raids, arson attacks and airstrikes.
The outlook for Myanmar is grim, but this cannot be the end of the story. The army has sought to crush opposition with a wave of brutality, including aerial bombardments, widespread rapes and killings, and wholesale burning of villages. More than 3,100 people have been killed and more than a million displaced by the fighting. Throughout the country, a popular resistance has fought back.
Amid a grisly civil war, the leader of the military government has decided to appropriate to himself the symbols of democracy. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced an election to create a civilian government this year, but no date has been set.
On Jan. 26, a new and highly restrictive law was put into effect that required existing political parties to clear a high bar in order to register anew. The dominant National League for Democracy announced that it would not participate in the “illegal” elections, leading to its dissolution, along with 39 other parties.
“Considering it won 79 per cent and 82 per cent of the elected seats in the last two general elections, the NLD’s participation is a fundamental requirement for credible polls in Myanmar,” the International Crisis Group wrote in a recent report. The general clearly wants an election without the NLD. If it does happen, the election will be a state-managed farce.
Although officially dissolved, the NLD remains defiant and has vowed to fight on, though 80 of its senior members of parliament and party figures remain imprisoned. They include its leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 33 years in a sham trial.
The U.S. Treasury has imposed sanctions on Myanmar — the latest set targeting two people and six corporate entities that make up part of the military’s jet fuel supply chain, and noting the increasing use of airstrikes against civilians. One in September in the village of Let Yet Kone in central Myanmar hit a school, and another in October in the northern state of Kachin killed dozens attending a concert.
Unfortunately, regional diplomacy has all but failed to restrain the junta. Facing sanctions from the United States and other nations, it has turned to China and Russia for support. The violence and misery are ever more savage. The people of Myanmar are paying a terrible price. But democracy as an ideal cannot be murdered, nor can the people’s hopes for it be extinguished by force.