DNA Special: Death of democracy in Myanmar as military stages coup

A video of an aerobics instructor exercising in front of Myanmar's Parliament is going viral on social media, capturing the initial moments of the Myanmar coup. In the video, the woman is seen performing exercises, behind which a convoy of army trucks is seen. At the time when the woman was doing exercise like any other day, some of the army vehicles appeared to be behind her. In fact, these were going to detain the President of Myanmar at that time and when the world came to know about it, the video became a matter of discussion. 

The woman was identified as Khing Hnin Wai, a 26-year-old physical education teacher, who later claimed her oblivion on the passing of the troops when she was doing her workout. 

 In the viral video, Hnin Wai is seen dressed in a black and neon green athleisure outfit dancing on a popular Indonesian song, “Ampun Bang Jago”, as black SUVs approach up a security checkpoint on the road leading to the Assembly of the Union complex behind her. The gymnast was completely unaware while doing her aerobics, while her camera recorded the moment.  

Initially, the video was alleged to be fake. Then the 26-year-old, while sharing the videos, wrote, “It’s normal when I wake up in the morning,”. Hnin Wai later posted several other videos saying she has been exercising in the same location for 11 months.

Myanmar is in the news after Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy (NLD) said on Monday (February 1).

The move came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the powerful military that stirred fears of a coup in the aftermath of an election the army says was fraudulent.

With this military coup, the visibility of democracy in Myanmar has become almost insignificant amid the fragile conditions. 

Understanding the political crisis in Myanmar is important and so is understanding the importance of democracy. Let us understand in just five points how there has been the death of democracy in Myanmar as the military staged a coup:

Firstly, two months before the coup, there were general elections in Myanmar where Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 396 seats out of 498. She succeeded in forming the government for the second time. But only in two months, her party was taken away from power and she was taken into custody.

Secondly, Aung San Suu Kyi won the election, but the army began to accuse her party of rigging the elections. It was also said that the Election Commission of Myanmar has helped Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the army's allegations, there were confrontational situations. In the meantime, there was a protest against the soft attitude towards the Rohingya Muslims.

Thirdly, since the election results, the Army started protesting and the same confrontation broke out in Myanmar and the president and state counsellor Suu Kyi was taken into custody.

Fourthly, democracy was restored in Myanmar in 2011. Earlier there was the army rule for 50 years and once again the army has seized power there.

And most importantly, Emergency has been imposed for a year and the army has taken control of Myanmar's power. For the next one year, Myanmar's power commander in Chief of Defence Services will remain with General Min Andang Lang.

The situation in Myanmar is very tense at present and the army has deployed tanks on the way to Parliament. In addition, government television and radio have also stopped working there and in many provinces, telephone and Internet services have been suspended.