Myanmar’s 2021 coup: How military junta institutionalized autocracy through constitutional capture and civil war
Original framing: “Myanmar's Min Aung Hlaing: The general who made himself president” — The Japan Times
The Tatmadaw’s 2021 power grab follows a century-long pattern of military intervention in Burmese politics, from British colonial divide-and-rule policies to the 1962 coup under Ne Win, which established the military’s ‘guardian’ role over the state. The 2008 constitution, drafted under junta supervision, institutionalized military impunity by reserving key ministries (Defense, Home Affairs, Border Affairs) for generals and barring civilian oversight. Parallels exist in Thailand’s 2014 coup, where the military justified intervention as ‘protecting the monarchy,’ and Indonesia’s 1965–66 massacres, where the army used anti-communism to eliminate rivals.
Myanmar’s crisis is not a story of one general’s ambition but the culmination of a century-long project of military state-building, where the Tatmadaw weaponized ethnic divisions, constitutional engineering, and foreign patronage to entrench autocracy.
The 2008 constitution—drafted under junta supervision—enshrined military veto power, while China and Russia provided the diplomatic and material lifelines to sustain the regime post-2021. Indigenous resistance, from Karen guerrilla warfare to Rohingya survival networks, exposes the junta’s violence as a continuation of Burma’s colonial and Cold War-era hierarchies, yet these perspectives are systematically erased in favor of ‘strongman’ narratives that obscure structural causes. The failure of ASEAN’s *Five-Point Consensus* and Western sanctions’ unintended consequences reveal how geopolitical realpolitik prioritizes stability over justice, ensuring the junta’s survival while civilians bear the cost. A systemic solution requires dismantling the 2008 constitution, redistributing power to ethnic states, and empowering marginalized communities—not through top-down aid, but through indigenous-led governance and resource control.