The Worst Sinners Against Democracy in Myanmar

By Naing Khit 12 August 2022

In relation to elections in Myanmar, there have been three principal sinners.  

Sure, they have been sinners. As a result of they banished elections, they rigged elections, they usually annulled the outcomes of elections. As a consequence of their actions, the nation misplaced its parliamentary democracy; the folks misplaced their proper to vote; elected governments disappeared; elected parliaments vanished; and the observe of democracy was systematically eradicated.

Given the gross nature of their violations, we commit their names to the historic report because the chief sinners in opposition to the electoral course of in Myanmar.

The strains above have been from an article I wrote simply two weeks earlier than our nation’s election was held in Nov. 8, 2020, hoping that Myanmar can be free from extra sinners, and never should endure additional crimes in opposition to democracy.

Simply three months later, all of us have been doomed to witness a brand new sinner who, on Feb. 1, 2021, destroyed the outcomes of one more election, disregarding thousands and thousands of individuals’s votes, overthrowing an elected authorities and terminating a parliament.

Thus, the earlier checklist of sinners gained’t be full with out the brand new sinner, coup maker Min Aung Hlaing, who stole the votes the folks solid within the latest election. He should be included right here within the checklist of the chief sinners. He’s the final however maybe the worst sinner in our historical past.

The unique sinner in opposition to elections and democracy

The folks of Myanmar loved the best to vote for greater than a decade after the nation restored its independence in 1948. Three elections have been held to pick governments in 1951-52, 1956 and 1960. All have been free and honest. By the elections, residents of the nation have been in a position to elect the federal government or chief they most well-liked. The nation was run by elected governments and legal guidelines have been enacted by elected representatives in parliaments.

Myanmar was one of many earliest nations in Southeast Asia, maybe in Asia, to introduce democratic elections. It was a proud nation earlier than the primary sinner destroyed it.

Common Ne Win was the unique destroyer of elections and the electoral system within the nation. March 2, 1962 was doomsday for Myanmar’s elections and all of the fruits that elections are anticipated to bear—elected authorities, elected parliaments and the entire system of parliamentary democracy.

Shortly after the stroke of midnight on the morning of March 2, Gen. Ne Win despatched his troops and tanks into Yangon with orders to grab all vital authorities buildings, together with the presidential residence and the parliamentary constructing, and the homes of all cupboard members of the elected authorities.

Earlier than daybreak, Gen. Ne Win’s mission was achieved. President Mahn Win Maung (an ethnic Karen), the elected Prime Minister U Nu and his 11 cupboard members have been arrested and despatched to detention facilities. The one two ministers who escaped arrest have been touring on the time.

Gen. Ne Win’s verbal order to arrest officers prolonged to many elected members of parliament. Greater than two rating lawmakers have been arrested in Yangon, together with all ethnic Shan MPs, one in every of whom was Sao Shwe Thaike, who had served because the nation’s first president after independence. In November, eight months after his arrest, he died mysteriously in jail. Many individuals consider he was killed.

The president, prime minister and all of the arrested cupboard members have been imprisoned for a number of years. The final claimed the coup was a final resort because the nation was on the point of a civil conflict between the central authorities and ethnic armed teams. But when such was the case, he ought to have engaged in dialogue with the elected authorities relatively than staging a takeover.

Within the many years that adopted Gen. Ne Win’s doomsday, Myanmar held no elections, fashioned no elected governments, convened no parliaments. The dictator uprooted and abolished the parliamentary democracy that had been put in place 14 years earlier. Together with democracy, the nation’s open market economic system additionally got here to an finish, as an period of nationalization was ushered in.

Gen. Ne Win launched an authoritarian one-party system managed by the Burma Socialist Programme Get together (BSPP) and dominated the nation for the subsequent 26 years with out holding any actual elections. The one voting that came about was in bogus polls through which folks have been compelled to solid ballots for his single social gathering.

He was the unique sinner in opposition to elections and democracy in Myanmar.

We can not ignore the final’s deputies and followers, who, as pillars of his authoritarian system, joined him in his sins. Ne Win, nonetheless, was the chief sinner, and it was his legacy of authoritarianism that endured for thus lengthy.

As a consequence of his sinful actions over the course of 26 years, dictator Gen. Ne Win confronted a political storm, often known as the ’88 rebellion. The nationwide pro-democracy motion compelled him to step down on July 23, 1988, after promising to carry a multiparty, democratic election.

The unique sinner had lastly fallen into shame.

Successors sin extra harshly

Within the wake of the ’88 rebellion, new rulers got here to energy, promising elections.

The successors to Gen. Ne Win’s regime, Common Noticed Maung, Lieutenant Common Than Shwe and Brigadier Common Khin Nyunt, staged a coup following the rebellion and put in their very own regime, the State Legislation and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

Publicly, the brand new generals mentioned their principal obligation can be to carry elections as an interim authorities and handy over energy to the profitable social gathering. The junta introduced that multiparty elections have been to be held on Might 27, 1990.

Gen Noticed Maung, the top of the SLORC, repeatedly promised in speeches that the navy authorities was simply an interim administration that will maintain the election and hand over energy to the profitable social gathering earlier than returning to the barracks the place they belonged. He additionally mentioned that drafting a structure was not their obligation.

Brig-Gen Khin Nyunt, the highly effective secretary-1 of the junta, mentioned in a gathering with international navy attaches 4 days after the junta staged its coup on Sept. 18, 1988 that elections can be held as quickly as regulation and order had been restored, after which the navy would hand over state energy to the profitable social gathering.

The brand new generals stored their guarantees. The election was held on Might 27, 1990, 30 years after the nation had final gone to the polls in 1960. A complete of 93 events contested the election.

And the elections have been significantly freer and fairer than anticipated. The Nationwide League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi gained a landslide victory, claiming 392 seats—over 90 % of the 492 seats on supply.

It was at this level {that a} sample established by Gen. Ne Win was repeated.

Previous to the election, the SLORC was satisfied that the Nationwide Unity Get together (NUP), a reincarnation of Gen. Ne Win’s BSPP, would achieve a big variety of seats within the election. However the NUP gained a paltry 10 seats.

Embarrassed by the end result, the ruling generals appeared lower than passionate about handing over energy to the profitable social gathering, although Snr-Gen Noticed Maung reportedly meant to maintain the promise. It’s believed this led to his later elimination as junta chief.

A couple of months after the election, the junta had nonetheless proven no indicators of handing over energy, although the NLD urged the junta to let it enter parliament and kind a authorities because the profitable social gathering. The junta’s response was to crack down on the profitable social gathering and its elected members.

Following the election, Main Common Khin Nyunt’s Army Intelligence arrested over 200 elected members of the NLD together with leaders of ethnic events that contested the elections and stood with the NLD. A whole lot of social gathering leaders and elected members got prolonged jail phrases.

Breaking their phrase, Maj-Gen Khin Nyunt mentioned the profitable social gathering was not elected to convene parliament or to take energy instantly. Really, the junta led by Senior Common Than Shwe and Gen Khin Nyunt by no means honored the election’s end result—ever.

The brand new sinners—Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Gen. Khin Nyunt—have been harsher than their predecessor Gen. Ne Win. They arrested a whole bunch of elected members of parliament and political social gathering leaders. Blatantly refusing to honor the election end result, they continued to rule the nation with out legitimacy for the subsequent 20 years. As within the interval after Gen. Ne Win’s coup, there have been no elections, no parliaments and no elected governments from 1990 to 2010. Throughout that point, most of the lawmakers elected in 1990 handed away. It was as if the election end result had merely evaporated.

The story doesn’t finish there, although.

The junta led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe held one other election in 2010, partly as a approach of “formally” annulling the results of the 1990 election. (By that point, Khin Nyunt was now not a participant, having been purged in 2004.). The bigger motivation was to facilitate Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s “exit technique”: the senior normal had rigorously plotted for himself a path to a cushty retirement after 2010. So long as his underlings have been in energy, he can be secure. To “legitimize” his successors, he handed them a pro-military Structure that he had drafted, orchestrated an election, and compelled a few of his subordinates to swap their uniforms for enterprise fits and run in it.

The election of 2010 was completely completely different from the one in 1990. Many dismissed it as neither free nor honest, and missing inclusiveness. The principle events, together with the NLD, boycotted the election, saying it was undemocratic. Election observers mentioned advance voting throughout the nation was rigged.

The end result turned out because the previous senior normal anticipated—the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Improvement Get together gained a landslide victory. That’s what Snr-Gen Than Shwe (along with Gen. Khin Nyunt) deliberate to attain after the 1990 election. His handpicked man, Common Thein Sein, grew to become the president and dominated the nation for the subsequent 5 years. Right here once more, Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s deputy generals helped to commit this electoral sin, however he was the sinner-in-chief, as he had masterminded all of it.

‘Reformists’ are sinners too

Below President Thein Sein’s authorities, the by-election of 2012 and the final election of 2015 have been acknowledged as free and honest. For this benefit— although he grew to become president although a controversial election—he at first appeared to not be a principal sinner in opposition to elections.

Nevertheless, Thein Sein turned out to be among the many principal supporters of the final coup staged by Min Aung Hlaing in 2021. Some ministers from his cupboard (2011-2016) joined the brand new junta’s cupboard and his shut aides similar to ex-admiral and former minister of the president’s workplace Soe Thane and ex-chairman of the election fee and ex-general Tin Aye publicly supported the coup too.