Let's understand What's going on in Myanmar?
Thousands of locals are crowding the streets, masses are protesting against the military, the nation's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Noble Peace Prize winner has been arrested for having walkies talkies and all started with this.
The first of February on Monday, a fitness instructor accidently captured the background video in which the military vehicles are on their way to arrest political leaders and take control of the government. The military officials announced a one year 'state of emergency'.
All the power would be handed over to military general Min Aung Hlaing. The soldiers were took to the streets, internet services were disconnect in large part of the country, social media platforms were also blocked in some places, curfew were imposed and gathering of more than five people were banned.
Why is all of this happening?
The military says that the country's elections held in last year November were rigged and that were the pure sign of "terrible fraud", even though they have not been able to provide a single credible evidence. Many aren't buying it and say that this is just a power grab by the military thorough military intervention.
Inside the state there have been widespread protests and many locals have found some creatives ways to get their message as possible across. The people with banging pots and pans, singing in the streets and bodybuilders taking their shirts off have been seen.
The reasoning behind all this stuff is some of the political arrests, Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been accused of illegally importing communications equipment into the country because six walkies talkies were found at her home. Well, if you think that sounds like a strange reason to arrest the leader of your country, you think right.
There's little doubt that the whole game plan is to try and silence Aung San Suu Kyi to prevent her having a political future in the country and to stop her having any influence of future elections.
Political History of Myanmar:
So, to get a better understanding of what is actually going on, or its a needy requirement to know a bit about Myanmar's complicated history with democracy and with that fact this is not the first time that the military has seized the power.
Myanmar- or as it was back then, Burma - spent more than 120 years under British rule. In the years after World War II, the country finally got its independence as the Union of Burma.
But, there was unrest and fighting between the many different ethnic and cultural groups that make up the country. In 1962, the military staged a coup scrapped Burma's constitution and created a military junta. What followed was a one party state headed by the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP). It wasn't until 1988 that the BSPP had its power truly challenged by a nationwide protest movement. Started by students, the movement spread to hundreds of thousands of protesters, and Aung San Kyi emerged as a leading voice. She is the daughter of Aung San, which renowned as the father of the nation and a key player in the push for independence from British rule.
However, within a few months, the protest were brutally crushed, Thousands of people were killed and the the military once again took the power. Aung San Suu Kyi was later placed under house arrest, where she remained for 15 years. During that time, though, she still did her best continue to push the change with her political party the National League for democracy, eventually earning a Noble Peace Prize in 1991. It wasn't until the late 2000's that the military announced it was going to start moving towards a more democratic system of government.
However, the 2010 election was surrounded by fraud. The election was actually boycotted by Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD. Surprisingly, the military was replaced by a pro-military party called the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
They were in charge between 2011 and 2015. During that time, the military still effectively controlled the country. Later, in 2015 Myanmar actually held its first free and transparent elections, and the NLD won in by overwhelming victory. Another hurdle comes, the constitution actually blocked Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president because she has kids who are citizens of another country. So she had to settle for the title of State Counsellor, but was still recognized by pretty much everyone as Myanmar's actual leader.
However, even with such a big share of the vote, the NLD still had to deal with the military having a lot of political power. The military only agreed upon to share power just because the new constitution guaranteed that they'd keep control over lots of key areas. Plus, they would also be guaranteed 25% of the seats in Parliament, no matter what.
The military has basically used their control of the parliament to block reform and maintaining their presence in the state. For years now, Aung San has been talking about removing the military from parliament and taking away their power.
Winning by such a huge margin in the election put her and the NLD closer to that goal that ever before. The military was not happy with the outcome of the election. the initial hope of the commander in chief was that the military back political party would get up to a third of seats, and if so, he would potentially become president.
Over the past 10 years, he's been in charge of the military that reportedly killed thousands of innocent Rohingya people and burned around 200 of their villages to the ground, resulted, thousands of masses fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, without the military political power and still the leader of the country protecting him, he would be open for serous consequences.
Its important to highlight the recent military crackdown that actually happened in 2017, while Aung San was in power, she faced a lot of international criticism for not standing up to the inhuman military treatment of the Rohingya people, although she is still famous within Myanmar.
What is next?
As the situation is getting worse with time, security forces have opened fire on citizens, armoured vehicles majorly operate in major cities, Aung San Suu has also been charged with another crime. Police are unable to do anything despite involve protestors. As long as military retained their activities it would take a long time.
We'll just have to wait to see what happens next how long Myanmar takes to democracy back on track....
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