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Devastated at news of #Myanmarcoup. It's been my second home for 10 yrs, and I've watched enormous progress & change. Now fearing for dear friends. What's happening?
I'm locked out due to COVID, but after checking with well-informed friends in & outside today, here's my take:
I'm locked out due to COVID, but after checking with well-informed friends in & outside today, here's my take:
What I feel we're seeing is the latest high-stakes play in a rumbling war of legacy projects between the two most powerful people in #Myanmar today: (appointed) Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and (elected) Daw #AungSanSuuKyi
The latter has a well-publicised mission to finish the job her father, General Aung San, started - to leave behind a functioning, federal, democratic country. Key to that is carefully unpicking military veto power in constitution. Which brings direct collision with the former...
Some see the coup as Senior General moving to protect his/allies political and business interests from NLD/legal interference, or simply a clumsy way of refusing to retire as he is supposed to this year. Possible. Having accidentally met the man, I feel there's something else.
Back in 2016, the Senior General made a surprise visit to India, landing right in the middle of a #documentary I was making about Burma's lost royal family. He'd flown to Ratnagiri where we were filming the final scene, a well overdue funeral for the last King of Burma, Thibaw.
He was travelling without uniform, and 'not in an official capacity', but this was a big statement from Myanmar's most powerful man. He'd come to honour the last in a line of monarchs who had ruled Myanmar for much of the last millennium, a history all soldiers are steeped in.
When I digested today's news, I couldn't help but see a man determined to follow in the footsteps of strongmen from his history and "save the country". I've long believed the ghosts of Burma's monarchy are still powerfully felt in the country today, never more so than right now.
Is this the ageing Senior General trying to cement his personal stamp on the country like his royal heroes before him, vs. The Lady who's trying to leave behind a constitutional/institutional legacy for all to benefit from?
There's certainly more pragmatic/prosaic reasons for the move today, but I'd never underestimate the power of the fragile male ego facing mortality...
Thinking of all dear friends today in country, going through terrifying times. Many journalists and activists risking arrest/life to keep info coming out regardless. If you want to get up to date and excellent analysis, just for starters please follow:
