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The Fight for Democracy in Myanmar: Past and Present

Updated: Mar 14, 2021


Last week, Burma (Myanmar) had a coup in which the military retook control of the country. To remember how long the country has been fighting for democracy, you need to go back to the 1988 Burma uprising.


26 years of dictatorship


By August of 1988, Burma had been a one-party dictatorship for 26 years following a military coup in 1962. This coup was led by Ne Win, a military general who became Burma’s dictator. The 1988 protest was led by students who had been protesting since March. The initial cause of the protest was when Ne Win and his military government said that he would get rid of 25, 35, 75 and 100 kyat banknotes (Burmese dollars). The Burmese economy was one of the worst in Southeast Asia and this new economic initiative would have made it even weaker. The initial protest had ended in October 1987 but it restarted the following year in March 1988. The students were now calling for democracy and an end to one-party rule. A protest on 18 March led by students to Inya Lake ended in violence. The military used violence and some of the students were shot at, beaten, and even raped, often the students were beaten and shot to death.


8-8-88


By 8 August 1988 (8-8-88), the protest intensified and took an all-time high. On that day, the students called a general strike that was followed by hundreds of thousands of people. The demonstrators came from all parts of society including factory workers, bus drivers, lawyers, engineers, and even members of the armed forces who all joined in. The use of violence by the government only encouraged the protest to grow.



Protesters in Rangoon in early august 1988


On 12 August, Ne Win resigned along with his assigned successor Sein Lwin, called the “Butcher of Rangoon” for his murdering of students during the protest. A new president, Dr Muang Muang took power as the only non-militant president of Burma since 1962. After 10 days of peace, protests restarted on 22 August after the protester realized that Muang would not start the transition to democracy.


Aung San Suu Kyi


Aung San Suu Kyi is the icon for the fight for democracy in Burma. Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the founder of modern Burma who was assassinated 6 months before Burma became independent. By 1988, Suu Kyi had become the icon of the revolution. On 26 August, she addressed a crowd of half a million people in Rangoon. In her speech, she said that the protester should use non-violence. Suu Kyi also said:


“I believe that all the people who have assembled here have without exception come with the unshakeable desire to strive for and win a multi-party democratic system. In order to arrive at this objective, all the people should march unitedly in a discip­lined manner towards the goal of democracy.”

The end of the uprising


In the early days of September, the ruling government said they would be holding elections. After the ruling government refused to resign, the protest restarted on 12 September. The government promised an election in less than a month and the protesters hoped that they could establish democracy in Burma. Yet the clashes with the military became increasingly violent. On 18 September, the military retook complete control of the government under the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the leadership of General Saw Maung. Saw Maung immediately imposed material law and sent the army to end the protest with the use of force. By the end of the month, the new government had killed 3,000 protesters of which 1,000 were in the Yangon region.



Protesters clashing with police


The impact and aftermath of the uprising


An election was held in 1989. The political party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy( NLD), won 58% of the vote and 392 of the 492 seats in the national parliament. Yet the military government declared that these results were illegitimate and it arrested all the key NLD members. Suu Kyi was put under house arrest where she would eventually stay until 2010 except for five years that she spent overseas taking care of her dying husband. Suu Kyi won the Noble Peace prize in 1991 for her work for democracy in Burma. The SLORC government stayed in control of Burma until 2010. In 2010, the military made some concessions and decided to make Burma a semi-democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi became State Counsellor but the military kept full control of home affairs, national security, and defense and controlled automatically 25% of Burma’s parliament. Suu Kyi was criticized for her role in defending the military attack and burning of Rohingya villages. This event would make her lose her icon status around but she remained popular in Burma. On 1 February 2021, the military retook full control of the government after yet another military coup arrested Suu Kyi. Sadly, it looks like history is repeating itself in Burma.



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