This US presidential election has cast such a long shadow that other events that would normally be noted have been overlooked. In the case of Myanmar’s general election, which takes place this Sunday, that may be to the relief of many in the country’s powerful elites. For, what the polls will mark is one of the worst instances of democratic backsliding and betrayal of hopes that the world has ever seen.
The contrast with the last election in 2015 is stark. There was huge excitement then, as it was seen as being the first properly contested national vote since the generals had taken over the country in 1962. Yes, there had been a general election in 1990 – but the military refused to accept the National League for Democracy's overwhelming victory, and placed the NLD's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. There was also another in 2010, after the junta followed through on its promise to put Myanmar on a "roadmap to democracy". But the NLD was effectively banned from taking part, and with the country still run by men who had swapped their uniforms for civilian clothes, many thought that Myanmar had become a democracy in name only.
In 2015, however, the NLD was allowed to participate. True, 25 per cent of the seats in parliament were still reserved for military appointees, and Ms Suu Kyi would be barred from the presidency by a constitutional provision tailormade to target her – anyone whose children are foreign citizens is excluded, and her two sons are British. The military retained other powers, such as the right to name the ministers of defence, home affairs and border affairs.
But it seemed as though the voices of the people would finally be heard; and they were. The NLD won 86 per cent of the seats in the two houses of parliament, and while Ms Suu Kyi couldn’t be the official head of state, the new role of “State Counsellor” was created for her and she has been internationally recognised as the de facto leader of the country ever since.
Since then, the disappointment has been so crushing that a recent Foreign Policy article accused Ms Suu Kyi's NLD of having "undermined democracy in Myanmar" and of "pursuing policies that resemble those of the military government that it fought for decades". That is quite a charge considering that the generals had turned a once-wealthy country into an economically ruined pariah police state.
What prompts that conclusion is to a great degree but not solely the tragedy of the Rohingya, whose displacement, murder and torture most of the world considers to constitute genocidal ethnic cleansing; but whose plight the NLD is in denial about, if not actively complicit in it.
The international NGO Human Rights Watch says that this election will be “fundamentally flawed” and held in a situation where the media has been muzzled and government critics are being prosecuted. The All Burma Federation of Trade Unions and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions want voters to boycott the election until the military-drafted constitution is changed. The jubilation felt globally in 2015 has so utterly dissipated that the NLD of today appears to be an entirely different party to the one whose struggle was supported for decades by eminent human rights figures such as South African cleric Desmond Tutu.
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Children are seen enjoying the rain at the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Getty Images -
Rohingya are taking shelter during a rainstorm at the Nayapara refugee camp. Getty Images -
A Rohingya child sits inside a sewage ring at a camp in Teknaf. AFP -
Rohingya youths study the Koran in a mosque at a camp in Teknaf. AFP -
Women are seen outside a shelter in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. Getty Images -
Refugees walk with food donations in a camp in Cox's Bazar. Getty Images -
A man sells betel leaves in a market at a camp in Teknaf. AFP -
A child collects discarded plastic at the Nayapara camp. Getty Images -
A boy pulls his goat at a camp in Teknaf. AFP -
A woman walks down a stairway in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. Getty Images -
Men renovate a roof of their makeshift house at a camp in Teknaf. AFP -
A sign is seen in Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp. Getty Images -
Rohingya people are seen at a camp in Teknaf. AFP
At the core of this is, of course, Ms Suu Kyi. She is the NLD. Her control is so total that she has not just no rival but no obvious successor. It is worth remembering who she once was. When "the Lady", as she is known, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the organisers called her a "modern symbol of freedom" and "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless". In 2006, Britain's New Statesman magazine conducted a readers' poll to name the greatest "hero of our time". Ms Suu Kyi came top, receiving three times as many nominations as the next placed figure – Nelson Mandela.
Now that she has been so thoroughly disgraced that her Nobel would surely have been revoked were there a process to do so – there isn't – her supporters abroad must ask how they misread her so badly. The truth is that there were many signs that she was not the person they thought she was. In 2012, well before she was in government, I wrote in these pages that "Ms Suu Kyi has been notably unforthcoming about the aggression inflicted on the Rohingya" – a year in which 100,000 were displaced and villages were torched. She has always been closer to the army – founded by her father, Myanmar's independence hero, Gen Aung San – than was widely understood.
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A handout photo released by the International Court of Justice shows a general view of The International Court of Justice (ICJ) holding a public hearing in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar) at the Peace Palace in The Hague, with Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (5thL) and Gambian politician and lawyer Abubacarr Marie Tambadou (4thR) attending. AFP -
A handout photo released by the International Court of Justice shows International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judge and court president Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf speaking during a public hearing in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar) at the Peace Palace in The Hague. AFP -
A handout photo released by the International Court of Justice shows International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judge Navanethem Pillay attending the public hearing in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar) at the Peace Palace in The Hague. AFP -
epa08062118 Abubacarr Tambadou (L front, seated), minister of justice of The Gambia, and Aung San Suu Kyi (C), Myanmar State Counselor, on the second day before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Peace Palace, The Hague, The Netherlands, 11 December 2019. Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country at the International Court of Justice against accusations of genocide filed by The Gambia, following the 2017 Myanmar military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority. EPA/KOEN VAN WEEL -
epa08062116 Abubacarr Tambadou (2-L front, seated), minister of justice of The Gambia, and Aung San Suu Kyi (C), Myanmar State Counselor, on the second day before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Peace Palace, The Hague, The Netherlands, 11 December 2019. Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country at the International Court of Justice against accusations of genocide filed by The Gambia, following the 2017 Myanmar military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority. EPA/KOEN VAN WEEL -
TOPSHOT - Protesters in support of Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi hold pictures in front of the Peace Palace of The Hague on December 11, 2019, following Aung San Suu Kyi's second day of hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi is set to speak out in Myanmar's defence at the UN's top court on December 11, 2019, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, the Nobel peace laureate will this time be on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she takes the stand at the International Court of Justice. - Netherlands OUT / AFP / ANP / Koen Van WEEL -
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks in front of the judges on the second day of hearings in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman -
epa08062075 A general view of the court room in the Peace Palace as Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (C-L, back) stands during the second day before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, The Netherlands, 11 December 2019. Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country at the International Court of Justice against accusations of genocide filed by The Gambia, following the 2017 Myanmar military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority. EPA/KOEN VAN WEEL -
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (C) stands before the UN's International Court of Justice on December 11, 2019 in the Peace Palace of The Hague, on the second day of her hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN's top court today, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, the Nobel peace laureate will this time be on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she takes the stand at the International Court of Justice. - Netherlands OUT / AFP / ANP / Koen Van WEEL -
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi looks on before the UN's International Court of Justice on December 11, 2019 in the Peace Palace of The Hague, on the second day of her hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN's top court today, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, the Nobel peace laureate will this time be on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she takes the stand at the International Court of Justice. - Netherlands OUT / AFP / ANP / Koen Van WEEL -
People demonstrate against Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the second day of hearings in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman -
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (R) stands before the UN's International Court of Justice on December 11, 2019 in the Peace Palace of The Hague, on the second day of her hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN's top court today, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, the Nobel peace laureate will this time be on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she takes the stand at the International Court of Justice. - Netherlands OUT / AFP / ANP / Koen Van WEEL -
TOPSHOT - A handout photo released on December 10, 2019 by the International Court of Justice shows Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attending the start of a three-day hearing on the Rohingya genocide case before the UN International Court of Justice at the Peace Palace of The Hague. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi faced calls for Myanmar to "stop the genocide" of Rohingya Muslims as she personally led her country's defence at the UN's top court on December 10. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / UN Photo/ICJ/ Frank Van BEEK" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS --- / AFP / UN Photo/ICJ / Frank Van BEEK / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / UN Photo/ICJ/ Frank Van BEEK" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ---
turn away
For such a formerly admired person, it is surprising how critical three of her biographers, Justin Wintle, Bertil Lintner and Peter Popham, are of her in their books. Her intransigence and inflexibility are repeatedly described, and the haughtiness of her and her staff are amusingly recounted in Mr Popham's second volume, The Lady and the Generals. Arranging meetings with Ms Suu Kyi was so difficult, Mr Popham wrote, that one visitor "in exasperation… phoned her office himself. 'I am the president of Mongolia,' he told the functionary at the other end. He was told to 'please send in your CV'."
Ms Suu Kyi turned out to be a classic case of international human rights organisations assuming that, because she was opposed to a dictatorship, she must be a liberal of their stripe too. Very clearly she is not. What she means by "human rights" does not include an iota of compassion for the Rohingya nor unanimity on many of the freedoms essential for a democracy to be worthy of the name.
Myanmar will have its election, and Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD will probably win. They will do so squarely if not totally fairly, because they are genuinely popular in a country that is rife with anti-Muslim prejudice. But Myanmar is no longer a symbol of hope. If this vote attracts relatively little attention internationally, it will be because Ms Suu Kyi’s former admirers are so sad and disillusioned that they would rather turn away. Dwelling on the downfall of one of their most treasured secular saints is simply too painful.
Sholto Byrnes is an East Asian affairs columnist for The National
