Editorial | Compromise is the only way out for fractured Myanmar

Name: ‘I could not follow those orders’: Myanmar policeman in India after refusing to shoot protesters
Uploaded: 2021-03-16T19:55:25.000Z
Duration: 3 min 16 s
Description: ‘I could not follow those orders’: Myanmar policeman in India after refusing to shoot protesters

The military and National League for Democracy must once again find a way to share power for the benefit of their people and the nations who have invested so much into a once moribund economy

Reading Time:2 minutes

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16 March 2021, Myanmar, Yangon: Smoke rises as anti-coup demonstrators clash with security forces amid the ongoing protests against the military coup and the detention of civilian leaders. Photo: Aung Kyaw Htet/SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire/dpa

SCMP Editorial

Published: 3:55am, 17 Mar 2021Updated: 3:55am, 17 Mar 2021

As the death toll from political violence mounts in Myanmar, the threat of Western sanctions against the junta that seized power on February 1 grows ever greater. The generals weathered such punishments in past decades and seem unfazed by the threats.

But these are different times; the country has experienced the benefits of being open to the world and the economic and social rewards that foreign investment brings.

Isolationism is not an option and all sides have to negotiate a settlement that leads to a return of stability and co-rule, a situation that neighbours China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India and others with vested interests have to do their best to bring about.

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‘I could not follow those orders’: Myanmar policeman in India after refusing to shoot protesters

The military claimed ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party had fraudulently won elections last November. It used that as the reason to overthrow the government, impose a state of emergency and arrest and charge hundreds of political figures.

The protests that erupted were inevitable, but the subsequent crackdown that has led to scores of deaths has only hardened the resolve of opponents.

Beijing, with friendly ties to both the generals and NLD, has unwittingly become a target of outrage; perceived by some demonstrators as supporting the junta. Firms with links to China have been vandalised, causing tens of millions of dollars of damage and injuring a number of Chinese.

Myanmar is an important nation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, with investments being committed to building a deep-sea port, a special economic zone in western Rakhine state, oil and gas pipelines and a revitalisation project for the economic capital, Yangon.