It is a pity that our unfortunate ex-president had not seriously found, literally, Myanmar on a map. Because if you knew where he was or what was going on in the last two days, think of the torment he would suffer when he learned that a coup had just taken place based on the unfounded assertion of widespread electoral fraud in the elections. last November. .
No doubt he was jealous when he learned that in a place where he could not begin spelling, the capital of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw, the military did what he hoped they would do for him and reversed the will of the people, the legitimate winners under house arrest, they shut down the media and installed their chosen leader in power.
While in the case of Myanmar, this leader is now General Min Aung Hlaing, the public statement read on behalf of the new leaders would certainly have left green with envy the instigator of America’s failed coup. He claimed that the voter lists used in the November elections “were met with huge discrepancies” and that the authorities responsible for resolving these issues did not. That the elections, which should have been postponed because of COVID, have been affected by a “terrible fraud” that had sparked unrest across the country and that they would therefore be forced to declare a state of emergency — in the name of democracy. He concluded that “the authority of the nation’s legislation, governance, and jurisdiction is vested in the commander-in-chief.”
What a painful moment it would have been for him when he read those words — or had someone read those words to him — and thought to what extent he came to live out his anti-democratic dream. The coup leaders would also have unleashed their envy because they had to arrest their Nobel Peace Prize-winning predecessor, while for him it has only been a threat to be sung at mass rallies of red-hat yahoos.
Of course, in his narcissism, our failed insurrectionist surely sees this week’s events in Myanmar in terms of his own life and his broken dream of the dictatorship that could have been, and not in terms of the deep setback that represents for the people there. In its profound simplicity, it would not have been able to fully grasp the underlying complications associated with this coup, which while the real winners of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were deprived of their legitimate role and their supporters had a voice. stolen, the deposed were themselves. not the clear defenders of democracy we had hoped they could be when they won the elections in 2015. Since then they have overseen, empowered and tried to excuse the ongoing genocide against Myanmar’s predominantly Muslim Rohingya minority.
These complications pose challenges for all who have to deal with the reality of the coup. When Suu Kyi took power after 15 years in detention, President Barack Obama hurried to embrace her as a hero. His administration lifted sanctions while overseeing democratic reforms. Many of the new president’s foreign policy team, Joe Biden, were involved in reshaping U.S. policy at the time and developed high hopes for the strategically located Southeast Asian nation. From conversations with several of them I know they felt whipped and to some extent betrayed by Suu Kyi’s position on the Rohingya.
That said, Biden and his secretary of state responded quickly and clearly to the news of the coup. At noon on Monday, Biden condemned the coup as an “assault on the country’s transition to democracy.” Declaring that the United States would defend democracy, he said his administration would immediately review whether the coup justified the re-imposition of sanctions against the new regime. The day before, within hours of Naypyitaw news, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the coup leaders to “release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people of Burma.”
The clarity and speed of the Biden administration’s response, which included arranging briefings with Congress on Monday afternoon, was welcome. The promotion and defense of democracy has been one of the clearest issues expressed by the foreign administration team of the new administration. Similar forceful statements had already been made with promises of sanctions regarding Russian efforts to crush the protests following the arrest of Alexei Navalny and the abuses of the Chinese regime in Hong Kong.
Although the previous administration responded to cases like these, they often did so slowly and, in the case of some aggressors of democracy, such as Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un, toothless and even sometimes even all with hue. In the case of others, such as China, Saudi Arabia or the Philippines, their message was also mixed. And imagine how difficult it would be for this administration if they were still in power to condemn military leaders in Myanmar. What would they say? “We condemn your coup that was exactly the same as what we tried on the same grounds.”
Still, for Biden, Blinken and their team, the challenge now will be to come up with a policy that works to restore democracy without at the same time re-establishing leaders who continue to persecute the Rohingya. In addition, because unilateral sanctions are so ineffective, they will have to find ways to cultivate significant international pressure, including from neighbors in the region who have been risk-averse in the past and referred the Chinese to them. issues. China, which has major interests in Myanmar, has so far adopted a neutral line with regard to recent events.
But the Chinese warned Myanmar’s army not to take such measures when China’s foreign minister met with them last month. In recent years they have seemed more comfortable with the government of Suu Kyi than that of the military mercurial leadership. Chinese pressure would be key to producing an investment, as it has been in containing Kim’s threat to North Korea. This is where international diplomacy becomes even more complicated, especially given the multiple issues of the new administration in conflict with Beijing.
However, the new administration has expressed its commitment to undertake the kind of blockade and diplomatic approach of the old school associated with the construction of international coalitions and the case of Myanmar, as the one associated with the defense of democracy in Russia. and elsewhere, it will be a first test of whether they can not only restore the American position, but actually work to develop new forms of international collaboration that work better.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the new foreign policy team has already begun “intensive consultations at various levels” with international partners and allies. Biden called on the international community to meet on this issue. Thus begins work on one of the first international crises facing this administration of less than two weeks.
But even in the early hours of the response, Biden’s team has been a welcome contrast to its predecessors in responding quickly, defending democracy, embracing diplomacy, knowing where Myanmar is on the map, and of course , not having recently participated in precisely the kind of coup we now rightly condemn.