Before the Feb. 1 coup, General Min Aung Hlaing, the 64-year-old commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Defense Forces, was already the most powerful man in the country.
Today, he holds all the powers of the executive, legislature and judiciary. His priority now is to prevent civilian forces from regaining power, although he has promised to hold “multiparty elections” next year. The coup of Min Aung Hlaing, who has expanded his power, immediately put Aung San Suu Kyi, who still has a high level of popular support, under house arrest.
General Min Aung Hlaing had prided himself on achieving Myanmar’s democratic transition in 2011. But today, after his February 1 coup, he is also the gravedigger of Burma’s democracy.
Min Aung Hlaing has been the head of Myanmar’s National Defense Force for a decade. It was under his leadership that Burma’s “democratic transition” process began, with the first democratic and free elections in 2015 in a land that had been colonized by the British for half a century. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (LND), then won the election, giving the world an image of a democratically elected government just as the Nobel Peace Prize winner “Lady of Yangon” became Myanmar’s main leader.
General Min Aung Hlaing, who had previously been perceived as quiet and reserved, became a popular and visible public figure at that very moment. He also opened a Facebook account and has millions of followers.
Min Aung Hlaing studied law at Rangoon University from 1972 to 1974, and in 1974, he was admitted to the Military Academy for the third Time, and slowly climbed the ranks of his military career, one step at a time. After forty years of hard work, he finally saw the light and came out on top! Lemahieu Lemahieu, an expert in the Burma department of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute in Australia, explains, “He is the embodiment of the Burmese generalship paradigm, that is, he protected the country’s unity and sovereignty by fighting against the guerrillas in northern Burma.”
The army is the main pillar of Burma, with at least 500,000 people in it, and they have always seen themselves as the group most qualified to lead the country. General Min Aung Hlaing, however, has sadly stood out since 2017 through the bloody crackdown against the minority Rohingya Muslims. One million of the Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh. That’s when the army leader closed his Facebook account. From then on, Min Aung Hlaing, who centralized power in one hand, was abandoned by the Western countries. In 2019, Min Aung Hlaing was directly targeted by the United States for his role in the “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya. He has been named as a target of U.S. sanctions. As a result, he was banned from entering U.S. territory, and the U.S. Treasury Department froze any property he may have in the United States and prohibited Americans from conducting any transactions with him.
The general does not appear to be concerned about these international condemnations at this time, plus his powerful historical ally, China, is holding back from criticizing him. From now on, his first priority may be to do what he can to prevent the return of civilian forces to power, even with the promise of “multiparty elections” next year. In particular, he has put his strongest opponent, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest and strict surveillance; she is still well supported by the Burmese public.
Recent Comments