Grim 100-day milestone for Myanmar generals

THIS week, Myanmar’s generals marked 100 days of self-declared junta rule.

But even though the military ousted the country’s democratically elected leaders in a coup more than three months ago, the generals do not have full control of the country. And given the scale of the movement against them, it is not clear they ever will.

Reports from inside Myanmar paint a picture of persistent resistance and a struggling military government. On the hundred-day benchmark on Tuesday, “demonstrators took part in marches, motorcycle convoys and flash protests to evade security forces, some making three-finger gestures of defiance,” Reuters reported, adding that hundreds of people were on the streets of Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, carrying a banner that called for “complete removal of the enemy”. The Associated Press reported that, in a marker of failed authoritarianism, the trains weren’t running on time.

“State railway workers were among the earliest organised opponents of the February takeover, and they went on strike,” AP wrote, noting that disobedience was also found in the civil service, banking sector, health-care system, universities, schools and more. “Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretence of control.”

This resistance to the coup, while undoubtedly brave, comes at a terrible price. Though outside reporting in the country is limited, monitoring groups estimate that 785 people have been killed by the junta and more than 3 800 arrested, charged or sentenced. On social media, images of ongoing protests under hashtags such as #Whatshappeninginmyanmar are mixed with photographs of dead or missing loved ones. More pain seems likely to come. Security forces said on Wednesday that they had arrested 39 people suspected of being behind explosions and arson attacks, Reuters reported, citing junta-aligned media.

Meanwhile, a group called the Tamu People’s Defence Force, operating in the town of Tamu in the north-western Sagaing region, said it had killed 15 security personnel on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The coup on February 1 in Myanmar sparked an immediate wave of global condemnation. Though the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s democratic leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, had been deeply tarnished by her handling of the Rohingya crisis, the her arrest seemed to mark a return to the dark days of international isolation.

But as the early days of the coup turned to weeks, and now to months, that wave of outrage has drifted into resignation.

In a story for the Atlantic late last month, Timothy Mclaughlin wrote that within the Myanmar protest movement there was a “sense of intense anger, betrayal, and despair at the UN, and the international community more broadly, for doing too little to help the country”.

Mclaughlin pointed to a protest sign widely shared on social media with the stark message: “Just ‘700’ people killed in ‘70’ days. Take your time UN. We still got ‘millions’ left.”

There are bright spots for Myanmar’s democratic movement. Myanmar’s protesters have resisted the divisions of the past. And so far, minority groups have been able to unify under the face of military pressure, with some apologising for remaining silent during the persecution of the Rohingya in 2017.