• Burmese
Saturday, July 19, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Commentary

One Year Ago, Myanmar’s Military Passed a Point of No Return

Naing Khit by Naing Khit
February 1, 2022
in Commentary, Opinion
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0 0
A A
One Year Ago

An anti-coup protest in Yangon in February 2021.

9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In the year since the coup of Feb. 1, 2021, Myanmar has been turned into a killing field and the world’s biggest gulag. The military takeover’s inauspicious anniversary, which falls today, marks one full year of a new, hellish existence for the country’s 55 million people. Myanmar citizens, who long for—and have tirelessly fought for—the return of democracy and their honor, don’t deserve such a life, and have committed all of their efforts to ending military rule for good this time.

No one in this country, having suffered oppressive rule under continuous military dictatorships from 1962 to 2011 (nearly half a century), wanted the coup or the disaster it has wrought. But the people always knew that a military takeover was a possibility—it was a fear they lived with, even during the recent semi-democratic era from 2011 to 2020. In the end, their worst fears were realized a year ago today when military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power from an elected government, destroying the fledgling democratic process of rebuilding the nation.

Myanmar’s dark history repeated on that day.

RelatedPosts

The Nation Where Brave Hearts—and Martyrs—Dwell

The Nation Where Brave Hearts—and Martyrs—Dwell

July 19, 2025
89
Myanmar Junta Using Conscripts as Cannon Fodder, Defectors Say

Myanmar Junta Using Conscripts as Cannon Fodder, Defectors Say

July 18, 2025
450
Political assassinations and Myanmar’s fate

Political assassinations and Myanmar’s fate

July 18, 2025
143

Everything started going wrong for this diverse country on March 2, 1962, when General Ne Win staged a coup to overthrow the elected government of the day.

By seizing power, Ne Win sowed a poisonous seed. With his coup and his subsequent ironfisted rule over the entire population in the name of his “Socialist” regime (1962-1988), he became the country’s first dictator. Since then, a culture of staging coups or illegitimately seizing power has become entrenched, despite the Myanmar people’s vigorous and varied efforts to resist military rule.

The offenders are always military generals.

(From left to right) General Ne Win, Senior General Saw Maung, Senior General Than Shwe, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing

The original coup maker spawned succeeding generations of coup makers within the military—Senior General Saw Maung and his deputy Than Shwe in 1988; and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in 2021. Each of them stepped easily into the role of dictator in their respective eras. But they were never alone; almost all their high-ranking military subordinates stood together with the coup makers when they stole the people’s power and the nation’s wealth.

Thus, every generation of generals has been loathed; they are no longer trusted by the people. Their institution, known as the Tatmadaw and once respected due to its leading role during the country’s independence struggle in the 1940s, is now despised. Min Aung Hlaing has taken this process to new lows; his dictatorship has already ensured that the current military institution will never regain the people’s respect.

Instead, the people are resolutely committed to uprooting the military leadership. They no longer patiently seek to reform it, an approach the general public accepted under the elected civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi between 2016 and 2020. To be more precise, this view endured until the coup in 2021.

There is no such thing as a “legitimate coup” against a democratic government, not in Myanmar or in any other country. But coup makers in Myanmar seem always to have believed that they, as military officers, are a special breed entitled to rule the country as long as they see fit. They appointed themselves the “saviors” of the country. This wronghead, unprofessional hubris grew directly out of the seed that Ne Win, the “father” of the coup d’état tradition in Myanmar, sowed back in 1962.

This sense of entitlement was the root cause of the 2021 coup. But this misguided perception was aggravated by the generals’ lust for personal power and wealth—put simply, their naked greed. All of their actions flow from this. This mix of entitlement and greed motivates the generals as individuals and informs the political doctrine of the military as an institution.

This should be kept in mind by those who, on this inauspicious anniversary, are tempted to toss around scenarios in which, they believe, the coup of 2021 might have been deterred.

Some of them, including scholars, observers, politicians, activists and others, are of the view that if the elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had chosen, for the sake of the country’s political stability, to enter into negotiations with future coup leader Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the military takeover could have been prevented—despite the fact that the latter hinted at the possibility of a coup just a few days before his power seizure on Feb. 1 last year.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing / AFP

Some go further, bluntly accusing the government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which had governed the country since March 2016 after winning a landslide victory in the 2015 election, of failing to take steps to preempt a coup.

No. Such speculations betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the military leadership’s political mentality and the military’s political doctrine.

Nothing or no one could have deterred the coup of 2021. “Nothing” meaning no political strategy or ideology or method or approach. “No one” in the sense that there was no individual or group with more legitimacy or political capital than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party; nor was it a question of lacking someone with sufficient political shrewdness.

The coup had a specific motive; it was premeditated by Min Aung Hlaing, who is of course among the generals who harbor the misperceptions outlined above—in other words, who believe in their own lies.

Min Aung Hlaing had simply been waiting for the right time to strike since the NLD government was inaugurated in 2016. He finally executed his plan on Feb. 1, 2021. He did not form the plot alone; his fellow generals, even ex-generals, were in on the plan.

U Soe Thane was one of those complicit officers. An ex-admiral and key minister in the administration of general-turned-president U Thein Sein, U Soe Thane praised coup leader Min Aung Hlaing’s seizure of power from the NLD as “a very smart move” in his latest book, in which he also described the nation’s worst day as follows: “Our Myanmar’s independence was restored on Feb. 1, 2021.”

The worst day for the entire population of Myanmar was the best day for the generals. These generals and other high-ranking military officers are no different from the dictators they serve, be it Ne Win, Than Shwe or Min Aung Hlaing.

They had a shared motive for staging the coup. And most Myanmar people believe the new generation of officers coming up under the current leadership will inherit that motive. Many people in this country now perceive the military as a “terrorist” force, rather than the Tatmadaw—a word that still carries a certain esteem.

This represents a drastic shift in views since the coup of Feb. 1, 2021, one that some international players including members of the UN and ASEAN and others still fail to grasp.

The people of Myanmar will continue to fight for their freedom, their honor and democracy. The political implications of this are clear: There is no longer any question of accommodating the military in its current form, or its leadership. A year ago today, Myanmar entered a new and utterly different era.

Naing Khit is a commentator on political affairs.

You may also like these stories:

Silent Strike: A Quiet Display of Power From Myanmar’s People

Myanmar’s Military Chief Staged a Coup. But He Did Not Act Alone

Rohingya Without Myanmar ID Not Being Given COVID-19 Jab: Junta

Your Thoughts …
Tags: anniversaryCoupDaw Aung San Suu KyiDemocracydictatorshipGeneralsjuntaleadersMilitaryMin Aung HlaingMyanmarNe WinNLDofficersoppressionregimeSaw MaungtakeoverTatmadawThan Shwe
Naing Khit

Naing Khit

A pseudonym used by Kyaw Zwa Moe, executive editor of The Irrawaddy, when he went into hiding in the wake of the 2021 coup.

Similar Picks:

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
47k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.8k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses
Business

Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses

by The Irrawaddy
November 27, 2023
38.6k

Jin San Jiao is latest northern Shan State trade hub in crosshairs of ethnic Brotherhood Alliance.

Read moreDetails
Arakan Army Captures Myanmar Junta Brigade General in Chin State Rout: Report
Burma

Arakan Army Captures Myanmar Junta Brigade General in Chin State Rout: Report

by The Irrawaddy
January 15, 2024
36.6k

Rakhine-based armed group has reportedly detained the chief of 19th Military Operations Command after seizing his base in Paletwa Township.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Coup Leader Showers Medals on Troops as String of Defeats Erodes Morale
Burma

Myanmar Coup Leader Showers Medals on Troops as String of Defeats Erodes Morale

by The Irrawaddy
December 8, 2023
32.9k

Min Aung Hlaing was trying to distract attention from a string of military defeats by handing out 147 medals for...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes
Business

Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes

by The Irrawaddy
June 4, 2024
27.7k

Monday’s arrests follow reports that Myanmar has become one of Thailand’s most lucrative markets for selling condos since the 2021...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
VIDEO: On anniversary of coup

VIDEO: On anniversary of coup, reporters discuss experiences

Myanmar’s CDM

Myanmar’s CDM, Shadow Govt Among Nobel Peace Prize Nominees

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

4 days ago
1.5k
Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

1 week ago
3.5k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Protecting Irrawaddy Flotilla Kill 20

    Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Protecting Irrawaddy Flotilla Kill 20

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • More Than 20,000 Displaced As Myanmar Junta Burns Homes Around World Heritage Site

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Top Brass Visit Myanmar After Cross-Border Drone Attack

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Using Conscripts as Cannon Fodder, Defectors Say

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.