It was perhaps inevitable that when Myanmar’s military abruptly took over the country two months back, detaining its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders, the peaceful protests against the move that ensued would soon turn violent. According to sources, around 400 people have so far died in clashes with military forces, with incidents of soldiers firing directly into crowds. It is ironic that on one hand the country’s commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing said that the military would ‘protect the people and strive for democracy’, while on the other his men are shooting unarmed people dead in the streets. Pakistan has so far remained restricted in its response, not outrightly condemning the coup. It is unfortunate that on the deadliest day of violence that occurred on Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day with a death toll of over 100, Pakistan was among other countries like India, China and Russia that sent representatives to attend the event who rubbed shoulders with the generals responsible for the massacre.
Myanmar, which remained under military rule from 1962 to 2011, had finally gained a government led by a popular, democratically elected civilian, albeit with significant military involvement still present. Nevertheless, the trajectory was correct, moving towards a better functioning democracy. However, a sense of insecurity soon set in when Suu Kyi’s NLD emerged victorious in the country’s first openly contested election in 25 years, held in 2015. That nationwide protests erupted at such a scale within a relatively short period of time since the coup reveals how the people of Myanmar support civilian-led democracy. This is not to say that the civilian setup does not have problems of its own, ranging from bad governance to corruption, but those are not good enough excuses for the military to do away with a system that gives citizens the right to choose its leader. The US has already placed sanctions on the country that will hurt it more economically. In the absence of any checks on its unbridled power the military has started engaging soft targets, such as Karen State, an area controlled by an armed ethnic group that had signed a ceasefire agreement in 2015, dropping bombs causing three deaths and making villagers take refuge in a jungle. The human and economic cost of a military taking over its own country by force rather than keeping to the barracks where it belongs, is a real and heavy one. One hopes Myanmar finds a way out of this tyranny. Sadly, it does not seem that will happen anytime soon.
