Just hours after Friday’s devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing made an appearance at affected areas in Naypyitaw, accompanied by his personal photographer, a former army officer best known for undersea photography, and other officials.
The coup leader visited a site where injured victims were being treated, posing for photos for handpicked pro-junta media outlets and select foreign media.
The powerful quake wrought havoc in Sagaing and Mandalay, destroying hotels, condominiums, hospitals, and historic religious sites. But the regime was completely unprepared, lacking both a disaster response plan and functional relief mechanisms.
For hours after the quake, local civilians and community-based civil society groups carried out rescue operations on their own, without proper equipment or support.
And while regime officials had deployed numerous construction vehicles—such as excavators and bulldozers—to demolish civilian homes accused of encroaching on state-owned land in Mandalay and other areas, those vehicles and demolition crews were nowhere to be found.
The parallel National Unity Government immediately suspended military operations. But the junta continued airstrikes even near the quake’s epicenter, including villages in Sagaing’s Chaung-U Township.
The contrast with neighboring Thailand was stark. During recent floods that badly affected both countries, the Thai army repurposed warplanes, drones, and military vehicles for rescue efforts. Meanwhile, Myanmar’s junta continued using its aircraft for strikes on civilian targets.
This time, the junta did not even send military personnel to assist in rescue operations in quake-hit areas. After past disasters, at least it distributed a lot of photos showing soldiers rolling up their sleeves.
Min Aung Hlaing did make a rare appeal for international aid and declared a state of emergency in six quake-affected regions, but he seemed unwilling to do much else himself.
Despite a visit to Mandalay on Saturday, his regime has largely failed to provide meaningful assistance.
Instead, it has blocked foreign media from reporting on the disaster from the ground, further limiting transparency in relief efforts.
Many observers conclude that Min Aung Hlaing’s response has been less about genuine humanitarian concerns and more about maintaining control and improving his image.
But it is becoming clearer by the day that while the regime frittered away millions of US dollars on warplanes, weapons, and daily bombing campaigns against civilians, it completely neglected disaster preparedness in a country as prone to natural disasters as Myanmar.
