Selling the Unsellable to the World
With its election looming, the junta decided it was time to dust off the stage this week. So, it invited foreign diplomats and UN representatives to a show on Wednesday. The aim? To convince the world that its ballot boxes are not just empty props.
At a meeting in Yangon, Foreign Minister Than Swe declared that preparations were underway for a “free, fair, and inclusive” election. He insisted there would be no restrictions on parties or candidates, welcomed both domestic and international observers, and said local and foreign media would be allowed to register. He even urged diplomats to report these “positive developments” back to their governments.
In reality, the junta is “displaying a goat’s head while selling dog meat,” as the Burmese saying goes. On the ground, the 2020 election-winning National League for Democracy has been dissolved, its leaders including President U Win Myint and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remain behind bars, and other parties with real chances of winning have been banned. Meanwhile, People’s Pioneer Party chairwoman Daw Thet Thet Khine has been disqualified as a candidate, heralding a likely purge of other high-profile contenders ahead of the vote.
As for election monitoring, the junta has extended invitations to its usual circle of friends—Russia, China, Belarus, and Cambodia—while barring independent organizations. Media access will be similarly restricted to regime-approved outlets and sympathetic foreign reporters.
Despite the elaborate performance, the civilian National Unity Government, resistance forces, ethnic armed groups, and Western governments have long dismissed the junta’s vote as neither free nor fair. The EU recently announced it would not send observers, while UN Secretary-General António Guterres offered a blunt verdict: “I don’t think anybody believes those elections will contribute to solving Myanmar’s problems.”
The military regime may keep rehearsing its democratic farce, but the audience already knows the script—and the ending—all too well.
‘Foreign Interference’ Won’t Stop Poll Steal
The warm-up act for Than Swe’s diplomatic show on Wednesday was provided by junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun via the regime’s propaganda outlets.
Zaw Min Tun boldly declared on Monday that the election had won “international recognition and support.” He meant political backing from China and Russia, the junta’s key allies and arms suppliers, and polite nods from a few other authoritarian regimes like Belarus, Kazakhstan, Laos, and Cambodia. Two exceptions are democratic neighbors India and Thailand, both likely fed up with a crisis spilling into their territories.
The United States, European Union, and United Nations have rejected the poll plan outright, triggering Zaw Min Tun to respond that “no foreign interference” could possibly derail the regime’s march toward democracy. The irony, of course, is that the only people definitely not interfering are Myanmar’s own citizens, who have already dismissed the whole charade as a second military coup.
By sidelining popular parties like the National League for Democracy and imposing severe restrictions—including penalties for election dissent ranging from jail to death—the junta has guaranteed the December-January vote will be a walkover for its proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Envoys Endure Junta’s Latest Production: ‘Scambusters’
Myanmar junta Foreign Minister Than Swe on Wednesday briefed Yangon based diplomats on the demolition of scam compounds in Myawaddy, claiming it as proof of the regime’s crackdown on transnational crime amid widespread skepticism.
Than Swe told diplomats that 99.5 percent of workers arrested in the border compounds had entered illegally from neighboring countries, and claimed that the scam syndicates depended on cross-border internet, electricity, and funds.
Mandalay Feels Ripple Effect From Chinese Pressure
The military regime has taken back control of all territories it had lost to the resistance in Madaya and Patheingyi townships in northern Mandalay.
They include the Phayaung Taung gold mine and nearby Alpha cement factory in Patheingyi as well as the Sedawgyi Dam on the border with Shan State, giving it full control of Madaya.
Observers believe that the next targets of the junta offensive will be Thabeikkyin Township, where many areas remain under resistance control, and Singu Township, currently controlled by the Mandalay People’s Defense Force (PDF).
Sacrificing a Scam Town
Myanmar’s military said Sunday it was demolishing nearly 150 buildings in a crackdown on a notorious internet scam compound bordering Thailand—including a gym, a spa and a karaoke parlor.
Sprawling fraud factories have boomed in war-torn Myanmar’s loosely governed border regions, housing workers targeting unsuspecting internet users with romance and business cons worth tens of billions of dollars annually.
Many workers are trafficked into the internet sweatshops, but others go willingly to the compounds, which are often furnished with luxury amenities for criminal bosses and their high-earning staff.
