In this article, Amelia Rasheed explains the recent events in Myanmar.
Photo Credit: CNN
For way too long activists have spoken out about the brutality of the Myanmar military. These activists have fought hard for very long and now with the military taking over, it feels as if their battle is losing. The unfair treatment and the lack of equality in this system is what brought people together to try and fix it. With many people gathering together, ready for equal treatment, it was still not enough and the only question was “why not?”. This unfair system should have been fixed a long time ago, but still the effort to make it better is still not working. While there are some ethnic groups/organizations outside of the activist groups, they are not noticed by Myanmar because little people are paying attention to them. Not only does this call for a bigger group of activists and others trying to fix this system but it calls for Myanmar as a whole to become united again for the same cause.
While not all see what the military is doing to Myanmar, it is enough damage to bring it back under a dictatorship rule. The military seized control on 1st February following a general election which Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide. The military gained power by detaining democratically elected leaders, Ms. Suu Kyi being under house arrest. Troops have been patrolling the streets and a night time curfew was enforced, with a one-year state of emergency declared. US President Joe Biden raised the threat of new sanctions, with the UN and UK also bringing awareness about the coup and what they are doing. While everyone in Myanmar should be protesting against the coup, others could also make a difference by just spreading the word. Not only is this a call for change, it's a call for help. Those who have been working hard and trying to help the cause feel like everything is lost. They feel like the battle for democracy is lost and is too far to reach for.
So what is the military doing about it? The new Myanmar leader, General Min Aung, who was seen little since the beginning of the coup finally came out to the public and said something. He had made no mention of the coup or the detention of the country's elected leaders, the mass demonstrations against military rule in all corners of Myanmar and from all walks of life, the storm of international condemnation and the threat of renewed sanctions but continued using phrases that supported the military. In more depth these phrases were there to prove that the military was only doing what was right for the people and they were trying to protect democracy. While General Hlain does not make any comment about the negative things that the military is doing he 100% continues to back the actions they take to keep up a united military front. The sad truth is that the only way for Myanmar’s protests to work and be noticed is if the military first notices all the wrong doing. So while there is a chance, it's a small one and the only way to help Myanmar people is to spread the word.
REFERENCES:
"Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi detained as military seizes control." BBC News, 1 Feb. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55882489. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
"Myanmar coup: What will the military do now?" BBC News, 13 Feb. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56053007. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
"Why Did It Take a Coup?" The Atlantic, 11 Feb. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/02/myanmar-military-coup-joe-biden/617997/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.