Keep Myanmar’s ‘hated’ military or face another Iraq or Libya: Singapore’s George Yeo

Singapore’s former foreign minister says the Tatmadaw is part of the problem in Myanmar but must also be part of the post-coup solution

Dissolving it would destabilise the country in the same way Western invasions of Iraq and Libya left security vacuums that were filled by Islamic State, he says

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Police officers march towards a university in Myanmar, where demonstrators were protesting against the military coup. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:28pm, 11 Mar 2021Updated: 7:11pm, 11 Mar 2021

Myanmar’s military might be “hated” but it needs to be part of the solution to the country’s post-coup crisis, or the nation could become another Libya or Iraq.

That is the view of Singapore’s former foreign minister George Yeo, who warned on Wednesday that dissolving the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, would destabilise the Southeast Asian country in the long term.

He pointed to how the dissolution of military forces in Iraq and Libya after Western powers invaded in 2003 and 2011 eventually led to a security vacuum filled by the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Tatmadaw seized power from the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup and has since used violent means, including the firing of live bullets, to disperse a growing civil disobedience movement on the streets.

Yeo, who led Singapore’s foreign ministry from 2004 to 2011, acknowledged that the Tatmadaw were “hated” by many Myanmar people. The reaction to “removing the army from the equation” would be euphoria, he said.

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