The Burmese Military’s ‘Elections’: New Date, New Danger, Same Sham

The Burmese military are planning new elections at the end of 2025. They will clearly be a total sham and mostly rejected internationally and domestically. The Burmese military know this but are calculating that it doesn’t matter. They want to repeat what happened with the 2010 elections.  Those elections were also rejected, but the international community went on to drop sanctions and support the regime it had previously described as illegitimate.

For the Burmese military, elections are an opportunity to rebrand, renew, and try to convince the people of Burma and the international community that reforms are finally happening. If the international community goes along with it like they did after the 2010 elections, they risk enabling military rule and human rights violations for decades to come.

There is unbearable suffering in Burma, millions of people displaced, more than half the population in poverty, most of the population living in fear. The international community should not try to use this crisis to pressure and manipulate the people of Burma into compromising with the military and coming in under the 2008 Constitution.

Trying to impose a single central government on Burma doesn’t bring stability, it does the opposite. It causes conflict and instability.

An alternative to the single central state structure which has contributed to conflict and instability is being built from the bottom up. When the Burmese military are forced out of an area, new devolved administrations expand into the space created. Some are authoritarian themselves, but many others are not. They are engaging in long consultations with local people about what they want and need, and what kind of government they want. Local people are gaining more control of their lives, identity, religion and natural resources. They are providing schools and health services.

This is the process the international community should be supporting. Bottom up democracy built mile by mile. What has been achieved with little or no international support so far is remarkable. It offers a viable, if unfamiliar, alternative to ongoing Burmese military dominance, with much better long-term prospects for peace and economic development than that offered by the Burmese military.

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