TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsAn election without legitimacy in Myanmar
The recent sham election, sham parliament and sham political structures are attempts to erase the will of the people.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Members of Myanmar's Union Election Commission (UEC) count ballots at a polling station in Yangon on Jan. 25 after the closing of polls in the third phase of Myanmar's general election. (AFP/Sai Aung Main)
T
he Myanmar military’s playbook is predictable. It stages controlled political processes to project legitimacy. It labels those who reject its authority as terrorists. It convenes forums framed as “peace” while excluding those who represent the country’s political future.
The recent sham election, sham parliament and sham political structures follow this pattern. They do not mark a transition. They are an attempt to erase the will of the people.
In November 2020, the people of Myanmar delivered one of the clearest electoral mandates in the country’s history. That mandate has not disappeared. It cannot be annulled by force.
The military’s so-called election was held in barely two-thirds of the country, without the participation of the 2020 winning party, and under laws designed to exclude opposition.
The outcome was predetermined, dominated by the military’s proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party. This process does not reflect the political will of the country. It attempts to overwrite it.
This reality should guide how the region responds.
Political legitimacy cannot be manufactured by decree. It can only be conferred by the people, and it has already been given.
