It is unfortunate that our disgraced former president Myanmar literally could not be found on a map. For if he had known for the past few days where it was or what had taken place there, then think of the torture he would have suffered to find out that a coup had just taken place successfully on the basis of the unfounded allegation of widespread voter fraud in the election of November last year.
He would no doubt be jealous of knowing that the army in a place he could not start spelling, the capital of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw, did what he hoped we would do for him and the will of the people turned around, the rightful winners under house arrest, shut down the media and put their chosen leader in power.
While the leader in the case of Myanmar is now General Min Aung Hlaing, the public statement read on behalf of the new leaders would undoubtedly have left the instigator of America’s failed coup. It is claimed that there was a big difference between the voter lists used during the November election, and that the authorities responsible for resolving such issues could not succeed. That the elections, which had to be postponed due to COVID, were plagued by ‘terrible fraud’ that caused unrest throughout the country and that they would therefore be forced – on behalf of democracy, note, to declare a state of emergency. The conclusion was that “the authority of the law, the government and the jurisdiction of the country is transferred to the commander-in-chief.”
What a sad moment it would have been for him when he read those words – or someone had read the words to him – and thought how close he had come to living that anti-democratic dream of his. The coup leaders would also have aroused his envy because they had to arrest their sincere predecessor of the Nobel Peace Prize, while it remained only a threat to him to sing at mass gatherings of red-hat jahoes.
Of course, our failed uprising in his narcissism certainly sees the events of the week in Myanmar in terms of his own life and his shattered dream of the dictatorship that was possible, and not in terms of the deep setback it represents for the people there. In his profound simplicity, he would not be able to fully comprehend the underlying complications of this coup – although the true victors of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were deprived of their rightful role and their supporters stole their votes, the deposed self was not the clear champions of democracy we had hoped they would be when they first won the 2015 election. Since then, they have overseen, enabled and tried to excuse the ongoing genocide against Myanmar’s mostly Muslim-Rohingya minority.
These complications present challenges for anyone who has to deal with the reality of the coup. When Suu Kyi took power after 15 years in detention, President Barack Obama was quick to embrace her as a hero. His administration lifted sanctions while overseeing democratic reforms. Many in the foreign policy team of the new president, Joe Biden, at the time participated in the reform of American policy and developed great hopes for the strategically located Southeast Asian country. I know from conversations with several of them that they feel whip authority and are to some extent betrayed by Suu Kyi’s position on the Rohingya.
That said, Biden and his secretary of state responded quickly and clearly to the news of the coup. On Monday afternoon, Biden condemned the coup as an ‘attack on the country’s transition to democracy’. When he declared that the US would stand up for democracy, he claimed that his government would immediately investigate whether the coup justified the reinstatement of sanctions against the new regime. The previous day, within hours of Naypyitaw’s news, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken had called on coup leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and the will of the people of Burma. to respect ‘.
The clarity and speed of the response from the Biden administration – which arranged the meeting with Congress late Monday afternoon – was welcome. The promotion and defense of democracy was one of the clearest themes expressed by the new government’s foreign policy team. Similar strong statements with promises of fines have already been made regarding the Russian attempts to destroy protests following the arrest of Alexei Navalny and regarding the abuse of the Chinese regime in Hong Kong.
While the previous government has responded to cases like this, they have often done so slowly, and in the case of some abusers of democracy, such as Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un, without teeth and sometimes even erroneously. In the case of others, such as in China, Saudi Arabia or the Philippines, their message was also mixed. And imagine how difficult it would be for the government if they were still in power to condemn military leaders in Myanmar. What would they say? “We condemn your coup which was exactly the same as we tried for exactly the same reasons.”
Nevertheless, for Biden, Blinken and their team, the challenge now will be to come up with a policy that works to restore democracy without at the same time restoring leaders who will continue to persecute the Rohingya. Because unilateral sanctions are so ineffective, they will also have to find a way to cultivate meaningful international pressure, including by neighbors in the region who have been risk-averse in the past and delay the Chinese on these matters. China, which has major interests in Myanmar, has so far adopted a neutral stance on recent events.
But the Chinese warned the military in Myanmar against such steps when China’s foreign minister met with them last month. In recent years, they seem to be more comfortable with the Suu Kyi government than that of the military leadership for mercury. Chinese pressure would be the key to a turnaround, just as it poses a threat to Kim in North Korea. This is where international diplomacy becomes even more difficult, especially given the new government’s multiple issues with Beijing.
Nevertheless, the new government has made a commitment to undertake the kind of diplomatic blocking and tackling of old schools associated with the international coalition, and the issue in Myanmar, such as those related to the defense of democracy in Russia and elsewhere, will be a first test of whether they can not only restore America’s status, but also work to develop new, better-functioning forms of international cooperation.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the new foreign policy team has already begun ‘intensive consultations at various levels’ with international partners and allies. Biden called on the international community to come together on this issue. And so begins the work on one of the first international crises that this not even two-week-old government is facing.
But even in the first hour of the response, the Biden team was a welcome contrast to its predecessors in responding quickly, defending democracy, accepting diplomacy, knowing where Myanmar is on a map and, of course, not participating recently. assume exactly the kind of coup we are now rightly condemning.