Bizarre census push
Despite suffering ongoing military defeats and territory losses, the regime has stepped up preparations for a population census planned in October.
From August 16 to 22, junta officials met in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyarwady regions, and eastern Shan and Mon states to discuss census-taking. Meanwhile, training sessions on census-taking began, billboards sprang up, questionnaires and fliers were printed, and the junta’s newspapers published editorials about the census.
The census, scheduled for October 1 to 15, is intended to identify eligible voters for an election the regime plans to hold next year. The so-called election has been widely dismissed as a sham to legitimize rule by a military that seized power from the democratically elected government in 2021.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi offered Beijing’s help with the census and poll during his visit to Naypyitaw last week.
However, the junta’s string of embarrassing military defeats over the past 10 months makes conducting a national census a daunting task.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has admitted his regime has lost control over large areas of the country, but he insists on proceeding with the poll wherever security allows.
U Yee Mon, Defense Minister of the civilian National Unity Government, reported earlier this month that the regime controlled fewer than 100 of the 350 towns across the country.
Going for gold while losing the war
While his military is losing on almost every battlefield across the country, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing is busy supervising preparations for a national-level sports festival scheduled for December.
The upcoming festival will be the fifth of its kind in Myanmar. The fourth was held under U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian regime in 2015 while the other three were held under the previous junta.
The generals of the previous regime launched the festival in 1992 under the infamous slogan “Myanmar Sports – the World to Conquer.” Since then, Myanmar has been overtaken by most of its sporting rivals in ASEAN, let alone Asia and the world.
Organizing a national sporting event as a civil war rages and millions of civilians are displaced may seem like an odd choice. However, aside from constructing a colossal Buddha statue in Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing has nothing to celebrate since staging his coup. So, what can we expect from a sports event organized by a vain and uninformed military leader who is losing on all fronts? Not much.
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