On Monday (February 1, 2021), Myanmar’s army declared a one-year state of emergency and selected a general as acting president of the country, after apprehending a civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other government officials.
The military move came after Myanmar’s influential military prompted concern about a coup last week after threatening to “take action” over an alleged scam in a November election won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
Who rules in Myanmar?
A 75-year-old, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Suu Kyi came to power after a 2015 landslide polls win that followed decades of house seize in a fight for democracy that turned her into an international figure.
Her international status was spoiled in 2017 after hundreds of thousands of people in the country migrated due to army operations and went into a refuge from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, but Suu Kyi remains incredibly popular at home.
The military – as the schemer of Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution and fledgling democracy – sees itself as the custodian of national unity and the Constitution. It has enshrined a stable role for itself in the political system.
Known as the Tatmadaw, it gets an unelected quota of 25% of parliamentary seats and it controls the defense, interior and borders ministries, ensuring a central stake in politics. The persecution of Muslims in Rohingya was voiced around the world. In 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi was also accused of failing to protect Rohingya Muslims as head of state.
Military allegations
The military said that the voter lists which were used during the general polls held on the 8th of November were found to have huge discrepancy and the Election Commission failed to resolve the issue. Though the autonomy of the nation must derive from the people, there was awful deception in the voter list during the polls which run contrary to ensuring a stable democracy, the military alleged.
It further said a refusal to settle the issue of voter list scam and a failure to take action and follow a request to delay lower-house and upper-house parliament sessions is not in harmony with Article 417 of the 2018 constitution that refers to ‘acts or efforts to take over the sovereignty of the Union by unfair forcible means’ and could lead to a collapse of national solidarity.
After took the control of the country, the military said it would hold “free and transparent general polls” after the one-year emergency period is over.
How other parties, EC react to the election?
Ms. Suu Kyi has not commented on her party’s poll triumph nor on the military’s complaints, but the National League for Democracy (NLD) said the army’s claims and allegations were baseless and any election defects would not have changed the result.
Of the more than 95 parties that take part in the election, at least 17 have complained of mostly minor irregularities and all, except the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), are smaller parties. Election observers at the national and international have said the voting process was ended without major irregularities.
On Thursday, the election commission also clarified that there were no irregularities and errors on a scale that could mean fraud or the election being discredited.
The country’s Constitution
The country’s Constitution says the Army chief can take the control only in excessive circumstances that could cause “the disintegration of the union, the collapse of national solidarity and loss of self-governing powers”, although only during a state of emergency, which can merely be declared by the head of the civilian government.
Interestingly, the Army chief, Min Aung Hlaing, caused maneuver last week when he told military personnel a Constitution was a “mother law for all laws” and if not abided by, it should be invalidated. He referred to previous examples when that had happened in Myanmar several times.
Why military coups happen in the democratic system?
To prevent military interference in civilian governments in any county, including Pakistan and Myanmar it is imperative for all political forces to realize that the beauty of democracy lies in an electoral process and rule that is permitted to evolve unimpeded.
Allow the people to select their representatives, and permit them to complete their terms. It is also necessary that genuine electoral reform is truly required, so that the process is seen to be fair transparent, and allegations of electoral scams are reduced to a minimum to stop the military coups.
This can most excellent be done within parliament, through harmony on electoral reforms and an independent and powerful full election commission accepted by all political pundits.
Political parties themselves require practicing democracy and promoting democratic models and norms within their levels, rather than indulging in dynastic politics, or siding with unelected quarters for insignificant gains.
Finally, a little bit of transparency, accountability, and responsibility in democratic control can go a long way in stabilizing any country and defending against the possibility of entirety loss of democratic control followed by military invasions.
