According to an article discussing the persistence of autocracy in Asia, “although Asia has enjoyed rapid economic growth and social development in the last decades, only a comparatively small number of Asian countries have become democracies.” In fact, there are more and more concerns that autocracy is on the rise in Asia. In an article published by the New York Times, Hannah Beech is of the opinion that Myanmar’s coup of February 1, 2021 reflects autocracy’s rise in southeast Asia. Beech states that:

Late last month, foreign officials in army regalia toasted their hosts in Naypyidaw, the bunkered capital built by Myanmar’s military. Ice clinked in frosted glasses. A lavish spread had been laid out for the foreign dignitaries in honor of Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day.

That very day, the military, which had seized power on Feb. 1, gunned down more than 100 of its own citizens. Far from publicly condemning the brutality, the military representatives from neighboring countries — India, China, Thailand and Vietnam among them — posed grinning with the generals, legitimizing their putsch.

The coup in Myanmar feels like a relic of a Southeast Asian past, when men in uniform roamed a vast dictators’ playground. But it also brings home how a region once celebrated for its transformative “people power” revolutions — against Suharto of Indonesia and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines — has been sliding back into autocracy.

Access the full article here.