Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, along with President Win Myint and dozens of other leading figures in the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in pre-dawn attacks on Monday. Hours later, the military declared that power had been handed over to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing in response to unfounded allegations of electoral fraud. The state of emergency was declared for one year.
While the dramatic downfall of the Suu Kyi government has attracted international attention, the continued disruptions to Internet access and communications mean that many in Myanmar may still be unsure of what is happening.
Facebook, by far the largest online platform in the country, confirmed to CNN that its services were “currently interrupted for some people” on Thursday morning, as independent monitors recorded widespread filtering from Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms, even how basic internet access was coming back in some areas.
Limited access to news and the internet can affect people’s ability to obtain information or organize any response through social media. At some point on Monday, the only operational TV channel was the Myawaddy TV network owned by the Myanmar military. As of Wednesday, some channels, such as DVB TV, were still down.
Speaking on Wednesday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington was “troubled” by reports of an arrest warrant issued for Suu Kyi.
“We ask the military to immediately release … all detained civilian and political leaders, journalists and human rights activists in detention and restore the democratically elected government to power,” said Price, adding that President Joe Biden considered the military’s actions a “direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law”.
Military in control
For more than 50 years, Myanmar – also known as Burma – was ruled by successive isolationist military regimes that plunged the country into poverty and brutally stifled dissent. Thousands of critics, activists, journalists, academics and artists were routinely arrested and tortured during this period.
Suu Kyi gained international prominence during his decades-long struggle against the military regime. When his party, the NLD, won a landslide victory in the 2015 elections and formed the first civilian government, many pro-democracy supporters hoped this would mark a break with the military regime of the past and offer hope that Myanmar would continue the reform.
It was widely reported that the NLD won another decisive victory in the November 2020 general election, giving it another five years in power and dashing the hopes of some military figures that an opposition party they supported could take power democratically.
The sudden takeover of power came when the new parliament was about to open and after months of growing friction between the civilian government and the powerful military, known as Tatmadaw, over alleged electoral irregularities. The country’s electoral commission has repeatedly denied mass electoral fraud.
Hundreds of NLD lawmakers were detained in the capital Naypyitaw on Monday, where they traveled to take their seats. Since then, the junta has removed 24 government ministers and deputies and appointed 11 of its own allies as substitutes who will take up their positions in a new administration.
Analysts suggested the coup had more to do with the military’s attempt to reaffirm its power and the personal ambition of Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing, who was due to resign this year, than with serious allegations of electoral fraud.
“Facing compulsory retirement in a few months, with no path to a civilian leadership role, and amid global calls for him to face criminal charges in The Hague, he was cornered,” Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer who previously served as a good professional lawyer for Suu Kyi, he wrote to CNN this week.
Protests and strikes
So far, resistance to the coup has been relatively limited, in part due to communication difficulties and long memories of previous brutal repressions by the military, while ruling the country with an iron fist for so long.
Doctors have pledged to go on strike despite the coronavirus pandemic that still plagues Myanmar, and there have been scattered requests for protests and stoppages online, some on behalf of the NLD.
Medical assistants at Yangon General Hospital released a statement promising their participation in the “civil disobedience movement”, saying they would not work under a military-led government and called for Suu Kyi’s release.
The video showed medical workers in Yangon outside the hospital on Wednesday, dressed in their uniforms and protective gear, while wearing red ribbons.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Information warned the media and the public on Tuesday not to spread rumors on social media or incite unrest, urging people to cooperate with the government after Monday’s coup.
“Some media outlets and the public are spreading rumors on social media, conducting meetings to incite turmoil and making statements that can cause disquiet,” the statement said. “We would like to urge the public not to perform these acts and we would like to notify the public to cooperate with the government under existing laws.”
The fear of the military can be a powerful preventive against combined action.
“When the military was in charge, political prisoners like me were arrested, sent to prison for decades, (placed) in solitary confinement and tortured. We are concerned that, if this state of emergency is not reversed, similar things will happen again,” said Bo Kyi, co-founder of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, and himself a former detainee.
“There is a fear that the military may continue to pursue officials, activists and repress ordinary people. But we hope that Burma can return to its democratic path.”