Myanmar Buddhist Association Signals Possible Break with Military Junta

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio
March 18, 2021

The opposition of the country’s main Buddhist authority would undermine the military government’s already shaky legitimacy.

Myanmar’s influential Buddhist monks’ association has urged the country’s military junta to end violence against protesters, accusing an “armed minority” of responsibility for the killing of unarmed civilians protesting the February 1 coup.

According to a report in the local news outlet Myanmar now, the 47-member State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a government-appointed body of Buddhist abbots, decided Tuesday to suspend its activities, calling for an immediate end to the junta’s violent attacks on anti-coup protesters

Down but not out

Bangkok Post
NEWSPAPER SECTION: NEWS
WRITER: ANUCHA CHAROENPO
PUBLISHED : 1 MAR 2021

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since Feb 1 but her whereabouts are still unknown. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) par­ty, and tarnished de­mo­cracy heroine of that country, hit the headlines on Feb 1 when she was arrested and deposed by the Myanmar military, aka Tatmadaw, in its coup.

Ms Suu Kyi along with other members of her party was accused of taking part in the Nov 2020 general election "fraud". Myanmar police have pressed several charges against her following the coup led by armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing, including breaching import and export laws, and possession of unlawful communication devices.

Don't isolate Myanmar

Bangkok Post
NEWSPAPER SECTION: ASIA FOCUS
WRITER: BRAHMA CHELLANEY
PUBLISHED : 1 MAR 2021

Directly or indirectly, the military has always called the shots in Myanmar. And now that it has removed the decade-old façade of gradual democratisation by detaining civilian leaders and seizing power, Western calls to punish the country with sanctions and international isolation are growing louder. Heeding them would be a mistake.

The retreat of the "Myanmar spring" means all the countries of continental Southeast Asia -- Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar -- are under authoritarian rule, like their giant northern neighbour, China.