The History of Myanmar’s Governance Since 1962 That Led to the Military Coup on 1 Feb

The events of 1 February 2021 in Myanmar have taken the world by storm. In the wee hours of the morning, Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were detained in a raid carried out by the military.

It has been less than a day since the Myanmar military seized control over the country in a military coup and declared a year-long state of emergency, citing “election fraud” and contesting the results of the 2020 Myanmar general election, where the NLD won by a landslide with 83% of the total available seats, cementing Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s position as the de-facto leader of Myanmar.

While the world watches the unfolding events with bated breath, protesters have taken to the streets in a show of public support for the NLD, and world leaders—including newly-appointed US President Joe Biden—have stepped forward to condemn the military’s actions.

The events of yesterday do not stand alone; they are part of Myanmar’s long struggle for democracy, which has been embroiled in a political stalemate since the 1960s.

Here is a breakdown of Myanmar’s governance from 1962 onwards, and how it has led up to yesterday’s defining moment in its political history.

1962–1970s: The Rise of the Military

Myanmar—then named Burma—achieved independence on 4 January 1948, with U Nu as its Prime Minister. The former British colony became a democratic nation based on the parliamentary system.

Yet, Burma would not remain a democracy for long.

Less than two decades later, Burma saw the toppling of its democratic regime, and fell under military rule.

On 2 March 1962, General Ne Win, former Prime Minister in a caretaker government that was established in 1958, carried out a coup d’etat.  He arrested U Nu and several other cabinet ministers, justifying the coup as a means to prevent the country from disintegrating.

Sounds familiar, eh?

Ne Win abolished the federal system and established a socialist military government. His endeavour to make Burma a one-party, truly socialist state saw the creation of the military-backed Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), which became the sole political party in Burma.

The repressive military dictatorship followed an ideology called “The Burmese Way to Socialism”, which was marked by a period of nationalisation, isolation, and totalitarianism.

1980s: Rampaging Riots and Martial Law

By the late 1980s, Ne Win’s isolationist and socialist economic policies had caused Burma to become one of the poorest countries in the world. Government corruption and mismanagement forced economic activity into underground black markets, and the country was beginning to experience food shortages despite it once being a major exporter of rice.

While the BSPP period saw an escalation of communist and ethnic insurgencies throughout the eastern and northern regions, widespread anti-government riots broke out in late 1987 in the major cities, killing thousands.

This was followed by even larger student-led riots in 1988, particularly the 8888 Uprising on 8 August 1988.  While the 1960s–1970s saw sporadic riots as well, the sheer intensity of the 1988 riots made it seem as though the country was “on the verge of revolution”.

On 18 September 1988, following the 8888 Uprising, General Saw Maung led the Burmese Armed Forces to seize control of the government. The military began harsh crackdowns on the 8888 demonstrations, killing thousands of unarmed protestors.

They then formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), with Saw Maung as both its chairman and Burmese Prime Minister. The totalitarian government was deposed and replaced by a military junta.

In 1989, SLORC declared martial law in the country and arrested thousands of people, including advocates of democracy and human rights. It also renamed the country from Burma to Myanmar and its capital from Rangoon to Yangon.

In July 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the NLD and daughter of Aung San, modern-day Myanmar’s Father of the Nation, was placed under house arrest as she was involved in the 8888 Uprising.

1990s: Myanmar in the International Spotlight

In May 1990, a general election was held, the first multi-party election in 30 years. Significant parties that contested were the government’s National Unity Party (NUP) which was the successor to the BSPP, and the opposition party NLD.

The NLD emerged victorious with a landslide victory, winning about four-fifths of the seats. However, the results were ignored by the military, who continued to keep the NLD’s leaders, Aung Sang Suu Kyi and Tin U, under house arrest; another leader, Sein Win, remained exiled in the west.

Yes, I know: it still sounds very familiar.

The military regime in Myanmar came into the global spotlight, and received international condemnation. In particular, there was intense and extensive focus on the bloody military crackdown on the riots in 1988, and on its response to the results of the 1990 election.

This attention continued to persist when Aung Sang Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her commitment to peaceful change in Myanmar.

In April 1992, Saw Maung was replaced as Prime Minister, Defence Minister, and Chairman of SLORC by General Than Shwe. What followed was the release of several political prisoners in an attempt to better Myanmar’s international image.

In 1995, Aung Sang Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after six years. In 1997, the military overhauled its organisational structure, and renamed SLORC to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Nearing the end of the 20th century, Myanmar sought to increase its strategic and economic influence in Asia after decades of isolationism. It was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, which implicitly sought to both improve the political and economic climates in Myanmar, as well as contain Chinese influence.

Myanmar continued to receive global criticism. In 1997, the US invoked economic sanctions against Myanmar and limited contact between each other, calling upon the latter to heed the results of the 1990 election. The EU followed by restricting trade and interaction with the SPDC, and the UN persisted with its denunciation of human rights abuse and forced labour practices in Myanmar.

2000s: New Century, Old Conflicts

The political stalemate between SPDC and NLD saw no end. In late 2000, the SPDC conducted secret talks with Aung Sang Suu Kyi, and released about 200 political prisoners presumably as a result of these negotiations.

Despite this potential for democratic advancement and increased participation in the global community at the beginning of the 21st century, Myanmar faced backlash once more when it detained Aung Sang Suu Kyi again in 2003. This led to harsher US and EU sanctions. The military’s violent response to a demonstration by the monastic community in 2007 also resulted in widespread criticism.

Disaster struck on 3 and 4 May when Cyclone Nargis hit the low-lying Irrawaddy delta in south-central Myanmar, causing an estimated 134,000 deaths. The government’s failure to provide quick relief aid and unwillingness to accept foreign aid yet again caused international disapproval, since it resulted in more deaths due to diseases.

In March 2010, a new set of election reform laws was enacted in preparation for the parliamentary elections. With laws that specifically targeted Aung Sang Suu Kyi and voided the results of the 1990 election, the NLD chose to abstain from the election.

The government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) claimed an expected victory in the November 2010 election, the first election in over 20 years.

However, many other political parties alleged electoral fraud, with most international observers sans China agreeing that the election was a sham and a mere tool for the military junta to assert its power.

2010s: Time for Change?

Yet, it seemed as though not all was lost. In March 2011, Thein Sein was sworn in as President of a new, nominally civilian government. The military junta retired to the wings, and the new civilian government carried out several political and social reforms for the rest of the year, showing greater openness to public opinion.

Accompanying these domestic reforms were greater attempts by the government to break out of their self-imposed isolation and into the international community. High-level officials visited Myanmar in 2011, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The government’s efforts at diversification and attracting foreign investments allowed Myanmar to experience several years of strong economic growth.

Most significantly, government-imposed restrictions on Aung Sang Suu Kyi were further relaxed, and the NLD was allowed to contest in the 2012 by-election.

The NLD clinched an overwhelming win, gaining 43 out of the contested 45 seats in total.

Following this was an announcement by the US and EU that they would start lifting the sanctions that had been in place since the 1990s in an offer to improve relations.

And no, this time, no one opposed to the victory and everyone had then lived happily ever after.

The parliamentary election in 2015 gave the NLD yet another major victory. The election was the first one to be freely contested, and was deemed to be relatively fair.

The NLD hence could form a new government in 2016, though the military still held control in the police force, army, etc. Aung San Suu Kyi was made Foreign Minister, a minister in the President’s Office, and State Counselor, while Htin Kyaw became President.

Aung San Suu Kyi used her newly-gained power to prioritise the ending of insurgencies across the country by some 20 different ethnic groups. The new government continued to pursue economic reforms that had already been put into place by the old government.

Yet, while Myanmar looked poised to begin a new chapter in its political history, it could not fully rid itself of criticism.

Because after hailing Aung San Suu Kyi for years, her legendary kind of came to an end.

2016–2018: The Rohingya Crisis

The resurgence of the Rohingyas, the Muslim population of the Rakhine state in Myanmar, proved to be one of the new government’s biggest problem.

The Myanmar government refused to recognise the Rohingyas as a people, and have denied them citizenship in a predominantly Buddhist country. The Rohingya people faced brutality and violence by the Myanmar police and military, which caused concerns that the former were facing human rights abuse.

In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas began an exodus to neighbouring Bangladesh to seek refuge, fleeing harsh crackdowns by the Myanmar government.

The UN issued a report in August 2018 accusing the Myanmar’s military leaders of carrying out war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity against the Rohingyas. In January 2020, the UN’s top court ordered Myanmar to take the necessary measures to protect the Rohingyas from genocide.

However, the Myanmar army has reiterated that it was only targeting Rohingya militants and not civilians, while Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide. This drew large international condemnation and the government’s weak response also received criticism.

Specifically, disapproval has been levelled at Aung San Suu Kyi, whose lukewarm response to the Rohingyas and failure to rein in the military is a stark contrast to her image of a human rights and pro-democracy activist.

Her once unblemished international reputation has been tarnished, though she continues to remain popular in her home country.

2021: What’s Happening Now?

The world was shocked at the events that occurred on 1 February 2021. It seems as though the fight for democracy in Myanmar will never end, or it will never happen without more years of struggling against the ruling military junta.

But after reading this, you’d know that history seems to be repeating itself, and what has been dubbed as the Myanmar Emergency has yet to fully play out, and all eyes will be on Myanmar for the next few days.

To read more about the situation in Myanmar, click here. For a complete timeline of key events in Myanmar, click here.

Featured Image: 360b / Shutterstock.com