Election-denying regime has a new election chief
The junta’s new Union Election Commission chair, former religious affairs minister Ko Ko, met members of his commission for the first time in Naypyitaw on Feb. 5. At the meeting, he said the fresh election proposed by the regime would not be just any ordinary vote. Rather, he vowed, it would undo the reputational damage caused to the country by the 2020 election, and would go down in history as the “cleanest poll ever”.
As a member of the 10th intake of the Defense Services Academy, Ko Ko is considered to have the most seniority of any military officer serving in the current regime. The retired colonel served as the chairman of the Yangon Region Election Commission under Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian administration. Prior to his appointment to the junta’s election body, he served as the religious affairs minister, overseeing the construction of the colossal Maravijaya Buddha statue built by Min Aung Hlaing as a form of yadaya, the traditional Burmese magic rituals intended to avert misfortune.
Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, alleging fraud in the 2020 election as an excuse. This bogus claim has never been able to hide his true motivation: the desire for power and to prevent the National League for Democracy from governing the country for another five years.
Min Aung Hlaing has repeatedly said that power would be handed over to the party that wins his planned election. But three years into his failed coup, his regime still hasn’t been able to update the voter lists or fix a date for the poll. Many foreign governments have said that any voting held by the regime would be bogus and neither free nor fair.
Junta troops opt to defend border bases… from across the border
With junta boss Min Aung Hlaing having earned himself a new nickname for extending the state of emergency for a fifth time on Jan. 31, it seems only fitting that his soldiers should grab themselves a snappy epithet, too.
Myanmar people have taken to calling the junta chief “Toe Aung Hlaing” (“toe” means “extend” or “renew” in Burmese) as he is incapable of government and seemingly must resort to extending the state of emergency in perpetuity.
As for his troops, they have now been dubbed “Ma Ah La troops without borders” and “runners without borders.” Ma Ah La is the Burmese-language acronym for Min Aung Hlaing.
Since late last year, hundreds of junta troops defending border towns have fled into India, Thailand and China in the face of resistance attacks. More than 700 junta soldiers have fled into India alone since November. More than 300 of their colleagues and border guard police recently followed suit, bolting for Bangladesh after being attacked by Rakhine ethnic armed group the Arakan Army (AA) in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
The flight of hundreds of soldiers, egg dripping from their faces, across borders in all directions into almost all neighboring countries is unprecedented in the history of the Myanmar military, which likes to call itself the strongest institution in Myanmar. And quite the humiliation for what Min Aung Hlaing calls “a modern army in the making.”
Netizens have helpfully advised junta soldiers facing AA attacks in coastal Rakhine State to flee into the Bay of Bengal next time, should India and Bangladesh decide they’re no longer welcome.
Praise for notorious artillery units
As the army’s artillery corps—which has slaughtered hundreds of civilians—celebrated its 75th anniversary, Min Aung Hlaing praised its “precision” on the battlefield. Read more.
New ‘peace talks’ point man
With war raging from the east to the west of Myanmar, the military regime has appointed a
new general as its top negotiator with ethnic armed groups, including those it is bombing. Read more.
Depleted military hands out guns…
Yangon, Bago, Tanintharyi and Mon civilians are being given weapons and forced into “people’s militias” to defend Naypyitaw. Read more.
…and recruits professors, students
Professors and students at universities in Ayeyarwady Region began receiving military training this week, but one analyst says the move will backfire. Read more.
