Military Overtakes Myanmar’s Civilian Government

On February 1, 2021, during the aftermath of the most recent Myanmar election in which President Suu Kyi’s party claimed 83 percent of the vote, General Min Aung Hlaing led the military in a successful coup against the civilian government. General Hlaing claimed widespread election fraud on the part of President Kyi’s political party: The National League for Democracy (NLD).

Leaders of the coup have announced that they intend to restore a “genuine discipline-flourishing multiparty democratic system,” and to hold a free and fair election, devoid of fraud, at some unspecified time in the future.

In the aftermath of the coup, food and gas prices have steadily increased as supply chains have become overburdened in the wake of increased hoarding of the kind seen during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.These shortages, combined with the political instability and international pressure facing the already poverty-stricken nation, have prompted widespread protests and rioting. The military is attempting to maintain control by shutting down cell phone towers, television broadcasting, and other means of communication.

The rule of the NLD from 2015 to the present day has been marked by many attempts to bring Myanmar into a liberal, democratic style of governance, including attempts to foster a multi-party system and legalize homosexuality.

In the wake of the ousting of the NLD-led government, foreign regimes have voiced concerns that military rule may make a permanent return to the nation after significant democratic reforms were made in 2011. Myanmar has had a military-led government for much of its independent history since 1948. 

Shortly after the overthrow on February 7, Pope Francis stated during his morning Angelus address: “I pray that those who have political responsibility show sincere willingness to serve the common good, promoting social justice and national stability.”

The bishops of Myanmar have unanimously made a similar declaration, voicing their desire for this chain of events to not bring an end to Myanmar’s democracy and calling for an end to the wave of violence which has been prevalent within parts of the capital city, as protestors clash with the military. 

“The heart-rending scenes of youth dying in the streets wound the conscience of a nation,” the bishops stated. “Let not its sacred ground be soaked in fraternal blood. The sadness of parents burying their children has to stop. Mothers’ tears are never a blessing to any nation.”

Since the bishops made these pleas, however, the violence has only escalated. Dozens of protestors and rioters have since been shot by the Myanmese military and several Chinese factories within the nation’s largest city, Yangon, have been set on fire and destroyed by rioters.

On March 8 in Myitkyina, a city in northern Myanmar, Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng, in her white habit and gray veil, pleaded with armed police officers while kneeling in the street “not to shoot and torture the chiildren, but to shoot me and kill me instead.” Myanmar is a majority-Buddhist country with 750,000 Catholics, or less than two percent of the total population, living there.

Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, published a statement of solidarity for the civilians of Myanmar. 

“Pope Francis has condemned the coup and expressed his solidarity with the people of Burma and called on its leaders to work for the common good. I echo the call by the Holy Father and the bishops of Myanmar on the need for dialogue as a way forward toward peace and reconciliation,” Bishop Malloy stated. “On behalf of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, I wrote a solidarity letter to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar and have asked U.S. government officials to carefully consider the insights the local Church can offer towards achieving a just resolution to the current crisis.” 

As the violence continues, several former legislators and government bureaucrats have gathered together to form an opposition government, looking for international recognition as the rightful government of the nation and attempting to take control from the new military government.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons