As president, Min Aung Hlaing will only prolong Myanmar’s misery

Since the military coup in 2021, Myanmar has rapidly descended into a civil war that has exacted a massive toll on its civilian population. It is no exaggeration to say that this conflict—and especially the junta’s indiscriminate use of airstrikes and heavy artillery fire—matches World War II in terms of the devastation that it has inflicted on the country. As the instigator of this disastrous war, Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the coup regime that seized power more than three years ago, deserves to be regarded as one of the cruellest and most ignorant despots alive in the world today. But that hasn’t stopped him from declaring himself to be the actual leader of the country that he has brought to the brink of destruction, and not just of the regime that he created. Not content with being chairman of his “State Administrative Council” and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, on Monday he made himself president of Myanmar, a role that until last week was filled by a former general installed by the regime. Most people in Myanmar don’t really care what Min Aung Hlaing calls himself; to them, he will always be a tinpot dictator, a little man with a maniacal craving for power. Of course, he’s not the first of his ilk in the country. He grew up under the brutal regime of General Ne Win, and later, after joining the military in 1974 at the age of 21, rose through its thoroughly corrupted ranks under the dictatorship of Sen-Gen Than Shwe, the man to whom he owes his current high station in life. While there has never been any doubt about how deeply Myanmar’s people despised both of his role models, Min Aung Hlaing appears to have seen them only as figures to be envied and emulated. When Than Shwe, after imposing a constitution on the country that ensured the military’s pre-eminence in its political affairs, allowed a transition to a sort of quasi-democracy more than a decade ago, Min Aung Hlaing grudgingly went along with it. But even then, he must have chafed at the idea of having to recognise any interests other than his own. Although Than Shwe’s 2008 constitution grants immense power to the military chief, it is not the kind of absolute power that Min Aung Hlaing has come to believe is his due. By allowing a limited role for civilians in the government, it deprives the supreme commander of the right to simply claim state assets for himself and his family, something that those who came before him did without constraint or compunction. Already diminutive, he could not stand to be further diminished by the alien notion of accountability. And so, as he reached retirement age, he threw caution—and his country’s future—to the wind, in the vain hope of fulfilling his most cherished delusions of grandeur. Now 68, he is not merely hated, but an utter failure. His regime has lost control of a vast swathe of northern Shan State bordering China, and is on the verge of losing all of Rakhine State. In the country’s rural heartland, the Bamar majority has risen up against his reign, in many cases joining forces with ethnic minorities long oppressed by Myanmar’s military. Even Mandalay, the proud centre of the country’s last independent kingdom, can no longer be considered completely secure. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/more-than-300-myanmar-army-troops-surrender-to-kokang-fighters-in-northern-shan-state-capital/ For decades, the military has been able to pick and choose its conflicts, always deciding where and when it wants to fight. Now it is being beaten badly on multiple fronts, leaving it bruised and wounded. Lashing out against its relentless losses, it has unleashed hell on civilians living in resistance-held territories. And yet it cannot stop its enemies, who continue to push forward, pursuing a predator that has become their prey. And in the face of all this, Min Aung Hlaing’s only consolation is that he can now call himself president. Falling ever deeper into denial, it is unlikely that he will back off now and admit his defeat. Indeed, he cannot afford to. Unlike his predecessors, he has no exit strategy, no prospective dialogue partners with whom he can pretend to negotiate. While Ne Win and Than Shwe were able to retire in peace, Min Aung Hlaing knows that that is no longer a possibility for him. He can assume the mantle of president, but that doesn’t mean that he can now relax, having achieved his goal. The reality is that the war will go on, and that Myanmar’s people will continue to suffer, for as long as it takes to remove Min Aung Hlaing from power. Only when he is stripped of every last vestige of authority, and forced to face his fate, will there be peace in Myanmar.

As president, Min Aung Hlaing will only prolong Myanmar’s misery

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