Myanmar’s Transition

Under decades of military rule, the battle lines in Myanmar were stark. On one side stood Burmese generals — brutal and corrupt — arrayed against dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic daughter of the country’s modern founder. Six years into the Southeast Asian nation’s highly praised opening to the outside world, the situation is both hopeful and murky. A much-needed influx of foreign investment has driven up property prices and threatens to widen inequality. A liberated media and internet culture have created a freewheeling arena for debate and dissent, yet also have facilitated a swell of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by radical Buddhist monks. Above all, a sweeping victory for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in November 2015 elections greatly advanced the country’s transition to democracy, yet also increased pressure on her to deliver prosperity and peace, even as she negotiates a new relationship with the military.

After defeating the ruling party by a margin of nearly 10-to-1 in the elections, Suu Kyi’s party took over the two houses of parliament in February 2016. While the head of the army has promised to cooperate with the former political prisoner, the military continues to control the powerful security ministries and has rejected efforts to amend the constitution, which bars Suu Kyi from serving as president because her children are U.K. citizens. Instead, her longtime confidant Htin Kyaw assumed the office in April 2016, while her party introduced a bill to name her as “state counselor,” a role akin to prime minister, cementing her dominance of the government. (She also serves as Myanmar's Foreign Minister.) Among the Buddhist majority, prejudice against the Rohingya community — Muslims castigated as illegal immigrants and stripped of citizenship — remains fierce and widespread. After a series of attacks on security forces by Rohingya militants in August, soldiers and vigilantes retaliated brutally, launching what the United Nations has called "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." More than 300,000 Rohingya are estimated to have fled the country.