{"id":29195,"date":"2021-02-19T15:12:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T21:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=29195"},"modified":"2021-02-19T15:12:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T21:12:37","slug":"the-coup-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2021\/02\/19\/the-coup-in-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coup in Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The nation of Myanmar has made international news after its military<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-55882489\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> took control of the government <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in a coup on February 1. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, claims that the 2020 elections were fraudulent, and have declared a year-long state of emergency. Several government officials have been detained, including Aung Sun Suu Kyi, the former head of state.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjsu.edu\/faculty\/watkins\/burma.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Myanmar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, formerly known as Burma, was a British colony until 1948 when it was granted independence from the British Empire. In the years following independence, the country faced widespread ethnic and political strife. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-pacific-12992883\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1962<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the military took control of the government in a coup d\u2019etat. After widespread protests in the late 1980s, free elections were held, and the National League for Democracy became the majority party of Myanmar. However, the military never fully ceded power and has maintained control of the government. After further reform in the 2010s, the NLD gained more power and attempted to dissolve the military junta.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On February 1, the Tatmadaw<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.trust.org\/item\/20210201014444-5u7cm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> dissolved the parliament<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, detained multiple NLD officials, and seized power. Before the coup, the military demanded a recount of the vote despite election commission officials claiming no evidence of fraud. The commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing, became the de facto leader of Myanmar. Hlaing has had influence over Myanmar politics for decades and has been criticized in the past for his role in military attacks on ethnic minorities.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hundreds of thousands of people have<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/2021\/02\/protests-anger-spreading-rapidly-in-the-wake-of-myanmar-coup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> taken to the streets<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Myanmar to protest the military government. Protestors carry NLD flags and portraits of Suu Kyi. The government has responded by restricting internet access and forcefully stopping protests.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Hlaing has stated that free and fair elections <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/31\/world\/asia\/myanmar-coup-aung-san-suu-kyi.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">will return<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> after the state of emergency ends, many international organizations are skeptical. The coup has been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/2\/1\/world-reacts-to-military-coup-in-myanmar\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">widely criticized<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Western politicians in the UK, EU, and the USA. The United Nations has described the coup as \u201ca serious blow to democratic reforms.\u201d The neighboring nations of Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam have refused to<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangkokpost.com\/world\/2060651\/west-condemns-myanmar-coup-but-thailand-cambodia-shrug\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> support a side<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The nation of Myanmar has made international news after its military took control of the government in a coup on February 1. The military, known&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":560,"featured_media":29203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2724,1],"tags":[3565,3564,3566,1234],"coauthors":[3339],"class_list":["post-29195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-worldnews","tag-coup","tag-myanmar","tag-political-violence","tag-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29195"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29226,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29195\/revisions\/29226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29195"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=29195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}