General Aung San was assassinated in 1947, but his legacy lived on in the military, and the Tatmadaw continued to enjoy strong public support in the years to come as the institution that liberated the nation from colonial oppression. General Aung San, the architect of Myanmar’s independence and the father of detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, founded the Burma National Army with help from Japan in the early 1940s. The military has been the most powerful institution in Myanmar (formerly called Burma, until the military government changed the country’s name in 1989) since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.

So what is behind the Tatmadaw’s enduring control over Myanmar’s political system? A state ‘born as a military occupation’

It is used to weathering international criticism – most recently over the atrocities it committed against the Rohingya in 2017 – and believes it can rule the country as it pleases. The military, which views itself as the guardian of national unity, however, is not expected to heed these calls any time soon. World leaders and international institutions swiftly condemned Monday’s coup, demanding that Myanmar’s military immediately free the political detainees and honour the results of the election. The move marked the end of Myanmar’s short-lived experience with democracy which began in 2011, when the Tatmadaw, which had been in power since 1962, implemented parliamentary elections and other reforms. The military tried to justify its coup by alleging widespread voter fraud in the November election and claiming that it has a constitutional mandate to take over in times of emergency.Ī separate statement on the military’s Facebook page said that the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known in Burmese, would hold “a free and fair general election” at the end of the year and that it would “perform real multi-party democracy … with complete balance and fairness.” Later on Monday, military-owned Myawaddy TV announced that the armed forces had taken control of the country’s political institutions and that First Vice President U Myint Swe, now serving as interim president, had transferred full authority – executive, legislative, and judiciary – to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing for one year. The military also targeted members of the 88 Generation – a pro-democracy movement that suffered years of persecution after leading nationwide student protests in 1988 that were brutally crushed by the ruling military. In the early hours of February 1, Myanmar’s security forces detained a number of senior elected political leaders, chief ministers, and activists in the capital, Naypyidaw, and across the country.Īmong those arrested were State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a sweeping victory in national elections on November 8.

Myanmar military