![coup in myanmar coup in myanmar](https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/210217_Tin_Hlaing_-_soliders.jpg)
Russia and China are the two most effective veto shields preventing criticisms of the military State Administration Council (SAC) in the UN Security Council and in other international bodies. At the same time, the authoritarian nature of Chinese politics represents a significant challenge for the processes of democratization in our country. Such trends in world politics also have impact on Myanmar. The first trend was highlighted by nationalist resurgence and the electoral victories of populist leaders in such countries as the USA, the UK, India and Brazil, while the second phenomenon is demonstrated by the increase in power projection by China and Russia on the international stage. According to the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, the international landscape has experienced two distinctive changes during the second decade of the 21st century: the upsurge of populism and illiberalism in many liberal countries and the resurgence of authoritarian powers in different parts of the world. Reflecting these instabilities, the military coup in Myanmar is mirrored by some critical changes that have been taking place in the international environment during the past few years. Certainly, democratic transition in Myanmar is still at a fragile stage. Equally pertinent, the first steps towards democratization in Myanmar took place in 2010 under the conditions of what the political scientist Samuel Huntington calls “transformative transition” in which the regime elites decide and initiate the form of political transition. As such scholars as Larry Diamond have pointed out, the number of democracies around the world has fallen since 2005. One issue is that of democratic transition. They therefore think that military leaders want to redraw the rules of the game to something like a “Proportional Representation” system in order to reduce the electoral strength of the NLD.Īpart from these institutional perspectives, there are analysts who look at more general trends and political phenomena that might have had impact on military thinking preceding the coup. Others said that, in terms of institutions, the military might think that they cannot compete in elections with the charismatic Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) under the “First Past The Post” electoral system. For personal reasons, some said the current Commander-in-Chief has to take retirement this year, and he is afraid of taking a pension without power because he has committed a massive crime against the Rohingya community. Some analysts have searched for the reasons for the military coup based on personal and institutional perspectives. The military coup took place three weeks ago, and the protests in urban areas are still continuing. Across the country, people are struggling to understand what has happened and why. I was shocked and the trip was immediately cancelled.
![coup in myanmar coup in myanmar](https://cdn.nos.nl/image/2021/01/30/711274/1024x576a.jpg)
that night, one of my closest friends phoned me and said: “The military has staged a coup and detained the State Counsellor and the President”. I had planned to travel to the Sagaing Region on 1 February. Demonstration by the General Strike Committee Nationalities, Yangon, 24 February