A pointless reduction in the jail sentences for Myanmar’s democratically elected leaders is unlikely to quell the fires of opposition now burning across the country.
Myanmar’s military junta is losing some control over the country, but its execution of four high-profile leaders and prisoners sends a warning to Myanmar citizens and the rest of the world.
Despite having a woman leader, women are largely excluded from key positions of influence and leadership in Myanmar — a situation that helped the country’s military succeed in its recent coup.
It is difficult to see how the military will benefit from another coup, since it already enjoyed immense political and economic influence under the previous power-sharing agreement.
The constitutional change needed to further democratise Myanmar is impossible without the military’s consent, so achieving major political transformation through the election alone seems unlikely.
In a country with 135 ethnic minorities, democratic elections have little meaning if the stateless, persecuted Rohingya people continue to be ethnically cleansed.
We recently undertook extensive fieldwork in Myanmar to find out what could help resolve the underlying issues that drive the conflict between the Muslim Rohingya and the majority Buddhist Rakhine.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has won Myanmar’s elections in a landslide, but must lead the transition to democratic rule carrying the hopes of tens of millions of voters who expect life to be transformed.
Myanmar is holding elections, but like the many other authoritarian regimes that do so, it isn’t for democratic reasons and regime change remains highly unlikely.