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“Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for illegally importing communications equipment… The move followed a military coup on Monday and the detention of Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and other civilian politicians. The takeover cut short Myanmar’s long transition to democracy and drew condemnation from the United States and other Western countries.” Reuters
Both sides condemn the coup:
“The world’s governments should make clear to the junta that its actions are illegitimate and doomed to fail. Civilians detained this week, including Suu Kyi, should be freed and the elected parliament allowed to convene. The U.S. has sounded the right notes so far. It should coordinate with allies in Europe and Asia to aim sanctions at junta leaders and military-linked enterprises. Myanmar’s typically circumspect neighbors should underscore that they’ll deplore any violent crackdown on protesters. China might see an opportunity to gain influence at the expense of the U.S., but it should recognize that anger, instability and economic stagnation in Myanmar don’t serve its long-term interests.”
Editorial Board, Bloomberg
“Myanmar may seem far away and of little consequence to America. But it has been a symbol of the continuing global competition between democracy and authoritarianism, and remains a geopolitically important nation. The coup and current crisis cannot be ignored by the United States, even if Washington’s options for influencing what happens in Naypyidaw remain limited. At a minimum, it demands a clear and unified front by America, Europe, and Asia’s democracies, with a willingness to isolate the new regime, provide aid for any refugees, and confront those nations that abet Myanmar’s descent into illiberalism.”
Michael Auslin, National Review
Other opinions below.
“The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, is no shining beacon of tolerance and freedom. They have oppressed the Muslim minority Rohingyas to the point that the International Criminal Court has brought a charge of genocide against her government. She denies the Royingya’s have been targeted and has even defended the military’s brutality…
“There is little doubt that the military has violently cracked down on the million and a half Rohingyas in Myanmar. Estimates range from 7,000 to 20,000 Rohingyas murdered by the military and the police with nearly a million fleeing the country to Bangladesh. But Suu Kyi remains enormously popular in Myanmar with the majority Buddist population. That doesn’t make the genocide right, but removing her is not up to any nation, and certainly not the military junta that now controls the country.”
Rick Moran, PJ Media
Many argue that “The West has used market access as a carrot to urge Burma’s military rulers to cede power to Ms. Suu Kyi. Yet the extent that a power transition actually occurred was exaggerated. A return to economically isolating the country of 54 million on China’s southern border could hurt the Burmese people and play into Beijing’s hands…
“The top U.S. priority in Asia is limiting Beijing’s ability to control independent states like Burma, which is strategically situated in the Indo-Pacific. China is holding back from condemning the coup, likely in hopes of making diplomatic inroads with a military government… Burma poses difficult dilemmas on democracy and human rights. Yet U.S. ability to engage will be reduced if Burma falls further into China’s orbit. The American response to the coup must take into account the strategic landscape in Asia. That will require realistic diplomacy, not only moral denunciation.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Others, however, argue that “The argument that we cannot be too tough on Burma because that will give room for the Chinese to consolidate its relationship with the military leadership is complete nonsense. Beijing’s relationship with Burma already far outstrips Washington’s. This same logic vis-à-vis competition with China is what led the U.S. to normalizing relations in the first place. It did not work. The U.S. should now look to re-impose sanctions lifted or waived over the last decade. We lifted faster and more broadly than reforms on the ground in Burma justified. The ‘coup’ bears out this judgment.”
James Jay Carafano, Fox News
Others still posit that “As unfortunate as the subversion of Myanmar's fleeting democracy is, the Biden administration's options for rectifying it are quite limited. The coup in Naypyitaw is an apt example of how even the most powerful country on the planet can often find itself powerless when it comes to the internal politics of other states… Visa bans and asset freezes via the Global Magnitsky Act are at the top of the list, but many of Myanmar's generals—including Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's commander in chief—are already subjected to those penalties for their inhumane crackdown on the Rohingya population…
“Economic sanctions, too, are hardly a magic bullet… The junta spent decades under Washington's boot, learning to maintain their own power and wealth while Myanmar's population sunk to the depths of depression and poverty. Going back to those times wouldn't be a shock to the generals, but rather a return to the status-quo ante… even the United States doesn't have all the answers—nor should it pretend it can dictate Myanmar's politics.”
Daniel R. DePetris, Newsweek
“First, the US should work multilaterally to build support for advancing a global arms embargo and the referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. If the US can build wide support for these actions, it will be much more difficult politically for China or Russia to veto these proposals at the UN Security Council…
“Second, the US should also immediately sanction Myanmar Economic Corporation and Myanmar Economic Holdings, the two massive military controlled conglomerates that usually through international joint ventures own and run well over 100 companies that work in construction, manufacturing, telecommunications, insurance, banking, gem extraction and tourism sectors…
“And third, the international community should redirect funds that were being spent on helping the government with political and economic reforms to provide support for nongovernmental organizations that can offer humanitarian assistance across the border to the estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons who have fled the human rights abuses of the military as well as to the some 1 million Myanmar refugees in neighboring countries.”
Jared Genser, CNN
“[Aung San Suu Kyi] destroyed her reputation in the West by defending the military’s genocidal campaign against the Rohingya minority in 2017. But animosity between her and military leaders remained high, in part because of her efforts to change the constitution to eliminate the generals’ privileged status. Aung San Suu Kyi’s failings do not mean that Myanmar’s limited democracy is not worth saving; on the contrary, success by the armed forces in reestablishing a full dictatorship would be a disaster for the cause of freedom in Southeast Asia and a boon for China…
“Mr. Biden and his national security team have pledged to reestablish U.S. leadership on vital multilateral issues. This is an opportunity to show they can deliver.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“But some advocates warned that too much international pressure on Myanmar, especially if linked to the Rohingya, might create the unintended consequence of angering the Myanmarese military and provoking a backlash — one they might take out on the Rohingya. ‘I’m just echoing the voices of the Rohingya that I know and I’ve spoken to do, who fear they are going to be number one, front and center, of the Burma military showing its power,’ [Mabrur Ahmed, founder and director of a UK-based human rights group] said.”
Jen Kirby, Vox
“The idolization of Suu Kyi is a textbook example of the dangers of reducing global political figures, who have their own interests and agendas, into one-dimensional heroes or villains… In 2016, when the anti-Rohingya campaign began, it appeared that the Obama administration’s backing for Suu Kyi’s government, after having played a key role in getting her released, made the U.S. reluctant to criticize it too strongly…
“Myanmar was seen as one of the few unambiguous human rights wins for Obama, whose notable foreign policy wins, from the Iran nuclear deal to the normalization of relations with Cuba, generally involved finding areas of mutual interest with authoritarian regimes rather than transforming them. As [Samantha] Power recalls, Myanmar was viewed as a ‘rare bright spot’ of democratic progress… the coup feels like the end of whatever lofty hopes American policymakers had left about their ability to cajole or induce autocratic countries to become full-fledged democracies.”
Joshua Keating, Slate
