In Myanmar, opponents of the military government quietly protested on the second anniversary of the coup. Photos on social media showed deserted streets in the economic hubs of Yangon and Mandalay on Wednesday. Elsewhere it was louder. “We are the people, the future belongs to us,” hundreds of protesters chanted outside the Myanmar embassy in Thailand on Wednesday. “The revolution must win.” Protests also erupted in the Philippine capital, Manila.
“For two years, the people of Myanmar have held their heads high,” said the national unity government, formed to neutralize the military government. The population is staunchly defending itself against the head of the military government, General Min Aung Hlaing, and the attempt to overthrow the elected government.
The military staged a coup on February 1, 2021, overthrew the government at the time and arrested its de facto boss, Aung San Suu Kyi. The population protested against this for months with rallies, civil disobedience actions and strikes. Thousands of people were arrested at the time and hundreds were killed by security forces.
Myanmar’s army justified the removal of the democratically elected government for allegedly rigging the November 2020 parliamentary elections, in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory. The army has long justified its claim to a central political role by claiming it is the only one capable of holding together a country of 53 million people and numerous ethnic minorities.