How Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand are challenging authoritarian rule
By Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn, John Quinley and Sai Arkar in the South China Morning Post
This year, roughly half the world’s population will have taken part in more than 60 national elections, including in three of Asia’s most populous democracies – India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. This would appear to be a banner year for Asian democracy. But in three countries where we work to promote and protect human rights – Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand – mass democratic movements continue to face significant resistance from seemingly unyielding authoritarian institutions. So, is democracy in Asia regressing or progressing?
In Bangladesh, a democratic movement led by students recently swept Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina out of power, ending more than 15 years of her authoritarian politics.
Following January’s elections, millions of Bangladeshis from all walks of life flooded the streets to protest unfair quotas for civil servant jobs, which quickly grew into a broader movement advocating for democracy, human rights, and ultimately, Hasina’s resignation. In response, she ordered a bloody crackdown, resulting in the deaths of more than 600 people and the mass arrest of protesters.
The tides turned quickly. On August 5, Hasina fled to India. Soon after, protest coordinators negotiated with the military to establish an interim government and appoint Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus as chief adviser. Other ministers have been sworn in, but the situation in the country remains volatile, with social tensions running high.
The new administration must now weed out corrupt officials, revise problematic laws, and construct institutions that uphold and defend universal human rights. To ensure the stability of Bangladeshi democracy, there must also be accountability for past crimes, including the prosecution of Hasina and others involved in the crackdown.
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Bangladesh should only look to its neighbour Myanmar to see how impunity can lead to devastating consequences. Decades of impunity for its atrocities emboldened the country’s military to carry out an illegal coup in 2021 and subsequently launch a widespread, systematic, and ongoing attack on the civilian population.
In response, the people of Myanmar initiated a nationwide revolution for a federal democratic union. The revolutionary forces and ethnic resistance armies have cooperated and made significant progress against the military junta. They have captured numerous bases from the generals, including strategic locations like Lashio in Shan State, where the junta’s powerful Northeastern Regional Military Command was situated.
It’s difficult to say exactly what’s happening within the junta leadership, but the military, an institution that has fiercely dominated Myanmar society since independence in 1948, appears to be rattled and on its heels.
While this is good for Myanmar’s democratic revolution, as long as the junta remains in power, the people of Myanmar will continue to suffer from its murderous and despotic rule. Since the coup, the junta has killed nearly 6,000 civilians and arbitrarily arrested more than 27,000 according to national organisation the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. Deadly attacks continue.
The junta is now attempting to hold elections, which critics claim will be rigged, next year.
The international community must reject any attempts by the junta to legitimise its rule, and instead offer support to the Myanmar people and their democratic plans. Similar to Bangladesh, members of the junta must be held accountable for their crimes. To facilitate that, member states of the International Criminal Court should immediately refer the situation to the chief prosecutor.
In Thailand – a nation familiar with military takeovers – another powerful institution, the Constitutional Court, carried out its own form of coup. In two consecutive rulings last month, the court dissolved the nation’s most popular political party – the Move Forward Party – banning its leaders from politics for a decade. Their crime: running and winning an election campaign suggesting amendments to Thailand’s controversial royal defamation laws. Not satisfied with disbanding the Move Forward Party, the court removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and his entire cabinet for appointing a minister convicted of bribing Supreme Court officials.
While these actions are significant, the court’s rulings represent a more profound crisis within Thailand’s constitutional framework, designed by the last military government to be controlled by unelected and unrepresentative institutions. The decision to dissolve the Move Forward Party and remove its leadership is part of an ongoing campaign to undermine and destroy democratic and reformist voices within Thai society. This pernicious campaign has involved threats, intimidation, spurious lawsuits, and lengthy jail terms for many within the democracy movement.
While these efforts to silence dissent highlight the power of Thailand’s democracy movement, they also reveal the lengths those in power will go to stifle true democratic freedom. Like their counterparts in Bangladesh and Myanmar, reformists in Thailand require support.
Critics who argue that questions about democracy are separate from human rights are mistaken. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundational human rights document, ensures that everyone has the right to participate in their country’s government, either directly or through freely chosen representatives. It further states that governmental authority must be derived from the people’s will, expressed through genuine elections. These guarantees were included because all other human rights can be realised through democracy.
Governments have too often sacrificed support for mass democratic movements, including in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand, to appease autocrats and their illegitimate institutions. However, the political shifts we are witnessing in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand show that backing Asian despots is no longer a safe bet. The people will rise and take appropriate action, and UN member states should as well.
This article was originally published in the South China Morning Post.