COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
October 10, 2019
Hunter Marston is a doctoral candidate at Australian National University.
Myanmar author Thant Myint-U speaks during the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in Jaipur, India on January 23, 2012.
Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images
In the run-up to Myanmar’s elections next year, there is little positive news to report about a country that seemed like a democratic success story less than five years ago. On Aung San Suu Kyi’s watch, over the past four years the country has seen a
regression in press freedom,
expanded usage of anti-defamation laws and a general crackdown on speech, and
massive rights abuses in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Although over one million Rohingya have already fled Rakhine, and chaos is engulfing the state again, as the military battles the Buddhist, ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army;
the fighting is spreading, as army units reportedly have been attacking civilians as well. Fighting has ramped up in other ethnic minority areas as well, in the north and northeast, and Suu Kyi’s government also has made little headway
towards serious economic reform either. Her government has shown little ability to develop or implement economic policy,
tourists are scared off by the country’s deteriorating international image, inbound
investment is falling, and Suu Kyi
reportedly remains focused on the shaky peace process with ethnic rebels, not paying enough attention to the country’s dire economic needs. (To be fair, in recent months the National League for Democracy (NLD) has appeared to take up some reformist ideas,
calling for changes to Myanmar’s constitution that would dilute the power of the military and potentially foster democratic progress.)
