Old Dictators, New Costumes: The Continuation of Military Rule in Myanmar

After 12 years of disastrous military rule, General Ne Win appointed himself president of Myanmar (then Burma) in 1974. The architect of Myanmar’s military dictatorship, Ne Win had long promised to transfer power back to a civilian government following his 1962 coup. In a sense, he kept that promise—by simply exchanging his military uniform for civilian attire and assuming power himself. A wry public captured the absurdity in a biting line: “General Ne Win transferred power to civilian U Ne Win.” The country’s fate did not change: Ne Win presided over the country’s fall from one of Asia’s brightest prospects to an impoverished and pariah state.

More than half a century later, history is repeating itself. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has appointed himself president. While some media outlets misleadingly described him as being “elected” by Myanmar’s parliament, the reality is different. The parliament is a military-controlled assembly devoid of democratic legitimacy. The entire process was a carefully choreographed political performance, designed to manufacture a veneer of legality for what is, in essence, an act of self-appointment.

Min Aung Hlaing’s longstanding fixation on the presidency is no secret. Like all Myanmar’s military chiefs, he sees himself as entitled to the role. Even before the 2020 elections, widespread rumors indicated that if the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won, he would be nominated for the presidency.