two years after coming to power Through a coup d’état, Myanmar’s military is struggling to maintain a grip on power in a country that has been wracked by multiple insurgencies. on February 1 second anniversary of the coup Thousands joined the opposition’s call for a “silent strike” by closing shops and staying at home after Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government was toppled. The junta’s decision to extend the state of emergency – which would also mean that the August elections the generals had announced seeking political legitimacy – would be further delayed – points to a weakening control of the regime. This is certainly not the scenario General Min Aung Hlaing projected when he seized power, citing fraud in the 2020 general election in which Ms Suu Kyi’s party won. The Tatmadaw (army) jailed the entire government and most lawmakers from the ruling party, including Ms. Suu Kyi, cracked down on democracy protests and began ruling the country directly — old tactics that allowed generals to rule through fear. have helped. But unlike in the past when the military faced democratic civilian resistance to its brutal rule, Myanmar plunged into an armed civil war following the February coup. Whatever the military did to take control made matters worse.
Now the junta is facing several crises in the form of a humanitarian disaster. The remnants of the old government have formed an alternative administration, the Government of National Unity. Several cells of the People’s Defense Force (PDF), the armed wing of the NUT, have been ambushed in the otherwise peaceful Buddhist heartland. In border areas, ethnic minority militias fighting the army have joined forces with the PDF’s urban guerrillas. The junta’s response has been indiscriminate bombing. Since the coup, approximately 3,000 civilians have been killed, 40,000 homes destroyed and approximately 1.5 million people displaced. According to the United Nations, some 17.6 million people, roughly a third of Myanmar’s population, will need humanitarian assistance. The public is neither interested nor capable of solving these problems. And the war it is waging against its own people isn’t even helping the generals – a report by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, an independent group of international experts, says only 17% of the country is The junta has stable control. This is an unprecedented scenario. Myanmar urgently needs meaningful dialogue between the junta and the opposition to restore democracy and begin dialogue with the ethnic insurgents. Regional and international players, especially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India should put pressure on the generals to initiate dialogue with the opposition.