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Myanmar’s powerful military commander, Major General Min Aung Hlaing, is in the spotlight after politicians from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party were arrested and the army announced it was taking power.
Myanmar’s military is notoriously lonely, and even sophisticated observers know little about its inner workings.
Here are some key facts about their leader and the army’s enduring role in the political system:
THE ROLE OF THE MILITARY IN POLITICS
The army ruled directly for nearly 50 years after the 1962 coup and had long been considered the guardian of national unity.
As the architect of Myanmar’s 2008 constitution, the military established a permanent role for itself in the political system. It obtains an unelected quota of 25 percent of the parliamentary seats and its head appoints the ministers of Defense, Interior and Border Affairs, which guarantees a key participation in politics, which has generated an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the NLD.
Many party members, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi, suffered persecution for years for opposing the former junta.
READ: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior party figures detained by the army
SLOW AND CONTINUOUS RISE
Min Aung Hlaing, 64, stayed away from the political activism that was widespread when he studied law at Yangon University in 1972-1974. “He was a man of few words and usually kept a low profile,” a classmate told Reuters in 2016.
As his fellow students joined the demonstrations, Min Aung Hlaing submitted annual applications to join the leading military university, the Defense Services Academy (DSA), and was successful on his third attempt in 1974.
READ: Myanmar army seizes power and declares state of emergency for one year
According to a member of his DSA class, who spoke to Reuters in 2016 and still sees the army chief at annual class meetings, he was an average cadet.
“He was promoted regularly and slowly,” said the classmate, adding that he had been surprised to see Min Aung Hlaing surpass the middle ranks of the officer corps.
FROM SOLDIER TO POLITICAL
Min Aung Hlaing assumed command of the armed forces in 2011 when the transition to democracy began. Diplomats in Yangon said that by the start of Suu Kyi’s first term in 2016, Min Aung Hlaing had transformed from a taciturn soldier into a politician and public figure.
Observers noted his use of Facebook to advertise activities and meetings with dignitaries and visits to monasteries. His official profile drew hundreds of thousands of followers before being shot down in the wake of the army’s offensive against the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017.
READ: Crisis in Myanmar after army alleges election fraud
Min Aung Hlaing studied other political transitions, diplomats and observers told Reuters, and has been very insistent on the need to avoid the chaos in Libya and other Middle Eastern countries after the regime change in 2011.
The commander-in-chief has never shown any signs that he is willing to give up 25% of the army’s seats in parliament or allow any change in the clause in the constitution that prohibits Suu Kyi from becoming president.
Recent complaints from the army about irregularities in the voter lists for the November 8 general elections that, as expected, gave Suu Kyi’s party another major victory, have been accompanied by cryptic comments about the abolition of the letter.
Min Aung Hlaing extended his term as head of the army for another five years in February 2016, a step that surprised observers who expected him to step aside that year during a regular shakeup of the army’s leadership.
SANCTIONS
A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar brought more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh. UN investigators have said that Myanmar’s military operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent”.
In response, the United States imposed sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing and three other military leaders in 2019, and several court cases are underway in various international courts, including the International Court of Justice.
Also in 2019, UN investigators urged world leaders to impose targeted financial sanctions on companies linked to the military.
