Why Are Myanmar’s Dictators So Lucky?

The world has seen no shortage of dictators. What differs between them is how they end: some are toppled by their people, some fall as a result of a power rivalry among their inner circle, some die in exile, some end up in prison, a few on the gallows. And in rare, dramatic cases, dictators are removed by a foreign power—captured, hauled out and prosecuted elsewhere.

In Myanmar, however, dictators have been remarkably fortunate. From General Ne Win to Than Shwe and now to Min Aung Hlaing, the story is brutally simple: they wreck the nation, brutalize the people, and remain personally untouched.

That is what I mean by “luck.” Not moral luck, not karma either. It’s just impunity—a life without enforced accountability.