The People of Myanmar Have Rejected the Generals. ASEAN and the World Must Do so as Well

TIME

BY ALEX AUNG KHANT
APRIL 23, 2021

A poster showing de-facto leader of Myanmar's military government, General Min Aung Hlaing, is torn in half on railings outside the country's embassy, on 8th April 2021, in London, England.

Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images

Myanmar’s political turmoil started much earlier than the coup d’ état that took place on Feb. 1. For the past ten years, the military has put on a grand show of relinquishing its power, and certainly appeared to do so when Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) won elections five years ago. But all of that was merely superficial, as the military-drafted Constitution of 2008 reserved a quarter of parliamentary seats for military officers, and gave the generals control of three key ministries—Defense, Border Affairs and Home Affairs.