The Lens: Myanmar’s junta extends state of emergency, promises elections as people protest on anniversary of military coup

Myanmar’s junta – the military group that runs the country – extended the nation’s state of emergency by another six months, the acting president said last Wednesday, as protesters marked the anniversary of the 2021 military coup with a “silent protest”.

Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing also said multiparty elections would be held “as the people desire”. He did not provide a timeline for the polls, which cannot be held during a state of emergency. Critics have said any elections are likely to be a sham aimed at allowing the military to retain power.

The Southeast Asian country’s top generals led a coup against the former government in February 2021 after five years of tense power-sharing under a political system created by the military.

Protesters and exiled civilian leaders vowed to end what they called the army’s “illegal power grab” last Wednesday. In major cities across Myanmar, streets emptied as people stayed home in protest, while hundreds of supporters of democracy for Myanmar attended rallies in Thailand and the Philippines.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the coup, with a resistance movement fighting the military on multiple fronts after a bloody crackdown on opponents that saw Western sanctions reimposed.

The nation’s military took power after complaining of fraud in a November 2020 general election won by the National League for Democracy, the party of former leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. However, election monitoring groups found no evidence of mass fraud.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced and over 70,000 have left the country, according to the United Nations, which has accused the military of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Reuters and Yanni Chow

• How has the 2021 military coup in Myanmar affected its people?

• What is the significance of the three-finger salute protesters are making in the photo?

Calissa Poon, Diocesan Girls’ Junior School

I was horrified to learn about the three mass shootings that occurred in the US during Lunar New Year, which killed 19 people. Lunar New Year is a festival that celebrates love and peace, and it was shattered by gunfire. Why do such mass shootings happen so frequently in the US?

The US constitution allows its citizens to own guns. According to Pew Research Center, nearly 1 in 3 adults in the US owns at least one gun. While always present, gun violence has surged during the pandemic; as of June 2022, guns had killed around 19,000 people in 2022 alone, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. A majority of those were acts of suicide, and mass shootings – those with at least four victims – occurred at a rate of at least one per day.

Easy access to guns means many use them as a tool to vent their anger or hatred towards others. Americans live in fear of becoming the next victim of gun violence. To prevent mass shootings, the US government should tighten regulations on gun ownership. However, gun control has always been a divisive political issue in the country. While many voices have demanded stricter gun control, others oppose restrictions.

Considering that the US constitution was ratified more than 200 years ago, I believe it is high time to abolish the law allowing people to own guns, since the world has become more civilised, without the need to carry a weapon.

Multiple mass shootings in California kill 19, casting shadow over Lunar New Year celebrations