Myanmar junta leader signals enduring military role in politics after elections

Mizzima

Myanmar junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in a speech to Tatmadaw personnel under the Yangon Regional Command and their families, reaffirmed the military’s central role in national politics, signalling that the armed forces intend to retain power even after the December-January elections.

The remarks, reported in the junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar, outline a vision of continued military oversight over the country’s political institutions and legislative process. 

In the address, Min Aung Hlaing asserted that military’s central role in Myanmar’s post-independence history. He went on to emphasise that “if Tatmadaw members and families know this history correctly,” they would understand the military’s “role and position” within Myanmar’s political landscape.

He emphasised the military’s decades-long self-defined mandate to safeguard “non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty,” known in the military’s propaganda as the Three Main National Causes. With this, he framed military intervention as a stabilising force across successive eras and governments.