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Who governs Myanmar?

Who makes up Myanmar’s rightful government? The officials elected by the public? Or those who are currently ruling, having deposed the civilian leadership in the 1 February coup?

At the UN General Assembly next week, that very question will be up for debate by the nine-member Credentials Committee.

Earlier this year, Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government, imprisoning its top leaders and violently suppressing any and all civilian protests—killing more than 1000 people in the intervening months. The junta fired the sitting UN envoy, appointing a deputy to the role who quickly stepped down himself. Subsequently, UN bodies quietly allowed junta representatives to sit at the table. It wasn’t until May, when the World Health Assembly excluded Myanmar ‘pending guidance from the United Nations General Assembly’ that the question was pushed to the fore.

Since its formation in mid-April, the National Unity Government (NUG) has been campaigning the international community to recognise it as the only legitimate representative of Myanmar. Organised by deposed elected lawmakers and ethnic minority representatives, among others, the government-in-exile bills itself as ‘the only and legitimate’ government of Myanmar. Though both remain imprisoned, President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi retain the positions they held in the deposed civilian government, with the vice-president, Kachin politician Duwa Lashi La, serving as acting president.

In spite of the NUG’s apparent bone fides, the decision is far from a simple one. There are geopolitical considerations (China and Russia, relatively friendly with the junta, both sit on the Credentials Committee.) If the committee recommends a recognition of the NUG, it will require that two-thirds of UNGA’s 193 member states vote in favour—an outcome far from guaranteed.

Some suspect the committee will punt on a response, stalling for time. ‘It is rare for the committee to accept the credentials of an ousted government that does not hold power or control territory, but it is not unprecedented,’ Catherine Renshaw wrote in the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter.

Should the unlikely outcome come to pass, however, it would represent more than a symbolic gesture of support. It would be easier to coordinate international aid relief and humanitarian assistance, for example.

Moreover, while Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Statute, NUG said it accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The legalities of a declaration by a government-in-exile are thorny, but if NUG is accepted as the legitimate government it’s a different matter entirely. The ICC could consider a crimes against humanity case for the military junta’s latest actions. (The court could also, in theory, greatly expand its probe into the Rohingya genocide.) Recognition may be far from a full-fledged solution to the crisis in Myanmar, but it represents a step on the path to justice.

From the archives

In your face

James Yu

The woman was of European extraction, tanned, in her fifties or sixties, and was idling at the periphery of the night market, her back against a closed shopfront. She looked tired and was not carrying any bags.

Before I saw the woman, I took pictures of other shoppers. One had put his hand to block my shot, but others had ignored me. Yet after I took her picture, she shouted and in seconds she’d seized my wrist like a shackle. She demanded I delete her image, and I scrolled through the images to the photo in question, shocked by her aggression.

Read more here

Tune in:

On Thursday 9 September, Northern Illinois University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies is hosting an online talk by Nicolas Verstappen (whose book, The Art of Thai Comics, we reviewed in our May 2021 issue). Learn more about the free lecture and register here.

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