The military junta ruling Myanmar is staging what it calls a general election. The first of three rounds was last weekend. In reality, this is an election of generals.
Nothing about this exercise can be considered free or fair. The junta controls less than a third of the country, with the rest under the sway of armed ethnic groups. Various other “People’s Defense Forces,” made up of students and activists, have been waging their own resistance war since the military seized power in 2021.
The country’s most popular political party, the National League for Democracy, which won a landslide in the last real election in 2020, has been disbanded. Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, languishes in prison, isolated and in ill health. Other opposition parties have been banned and independent media inside the country has been silenced, with journalists imprisoned or exiled.
The voting Sunday took place in only 102 of the country’s 330 townships. Turnout was predictably light. There will be no voting in 65 townships because of ongoing fighting. The rest will cast ballots later this month.
Those subsequent rounds won’t even be needed since the result is a foregone conclusion. The junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, showed up to vote in civilian attire, but he is expected to retain his military rank and also take the title of president after the results are announced. The military’s new campaign slogan boils down to: if you can’t beat them, jail them.
Meanwhile, the civil war continues. Amid the voting, the military carried out airstrikes and artillery barragesacross Myanmar. Since the coup, the civil war has killed untold thousands and left 3.5 million displaced. Nearly half the population of about 50 million needs humanitarian assistance. The economy is in free fall, with growth contracting around 9 percent and inflation running above 25 percent.
The danger now is that countries tired of this seemingly intractable conflict will be tempted to use this charade of an election to give recognition to the junta in hopes of hastening an end to the suffering.
Washington is hinting it might play along. The Trump administration has served noticethat as of January 26, the day after the third round of voting, it is revoking the “Temporary Protected Status,” or TPS, that allows around 4,000 Myanmar migrants to stay. The Department of Homeland Security cited “improvements in Burma’s governance and stability,” including the junta’s announcement “that free and fair elections will take place.”
For five years, Myanmar’s civil war has stymied searches for a resolution. It’s logical to want to find a way out, to stop needless bloodshed, but recognizing an illegitimate military takeover that stages a sham election is not the way.
The U.S. was instrumental in ushering in Myanmar’s decade-long transition to democracy, from 2010 to 2020, and helping the country has long enjoyed bipartisan support. Giving up now would be a betrayal of that effort, of Myanmar’s people and America’s principles. Other aspiring democrats would take note, corroding American power around the world.
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