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CLAT 2021 21 Year Experienced Team

Myanmar Military coup

Myanmar's military staged a coup on 1st February 2020 and declaring it had taken control of the country for
one year under a state of emergency.The arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and the political leadership of the
National League of Democracy (NLD), are a repeat of events thirty years ago.
About Myanmar
Myanmar or Burma (officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) is a country in Southeast Asia bordered
by:

f Bangladesh and India to its northwest,
f China to its northeast,
f Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast,
f The Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its
largest city is Yangon (Rangoon).

f Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and
the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma.
f Following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture, and
Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country.
The story so far: Situation of chaos in Myanmar
f For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its
myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars.
f During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and
systematic human rights violations in the country.

f In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally
civilian government was installed.

f This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, had improved the country's
human rights record and foreign relations and has led to the easing of trade and other economic
sanctions.
f There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of ethnic minorities, its response
to the ethnic insurgency, and religious clashes.
f In the 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses –however, the Burmese
military remained a powerful force in politics.
Form of government in Myanmar

f In 1948, Burma achieved independence from Britain, and became a democracy based on the
parliamentary system. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a
Chamber of Nationalities.

f The military succeeded in its coup d'état of 1962 and established a nominally socialist military
government that sought to follow the "Burmese Way to Socialism".
f Myanmar's army-drafted constitution was overwhelmingly approved in 2008, and the Multi-party
elections in 2010 ended 5 decades of military rule in Myanmar.
f The 2015 elections in Myanmar were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990 –
and this resulted in a resounding victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy raising

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