
Myanmar, named Burma until 1989, has been beset with political instability since the country earned its independence from Great Britain in 1948. After years of political turmoil, the 1962 coup established a one-party rule dominated by a military junta. The Burmese military (the Tatmadaw) ruled with an iron fist until 2011.
The fate of famous pro-democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi parallels her country’s political state. Her release in 2010, after 15 years of house arrest, was a powerful symbol of the junta’s reduced omnipresence on the country’s political stage. The military’s Constitution draft ruled that the president must not be the parent of a foreigner, a provision tailored to prohibit her—mother of two British citizens—from becoming president.
However, she would lead the country’s opening in the next few years. In 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a parliamentary majority. Her childhood friend and member of the NLD, Htin Kyaw, was nominated as president, but Aung San Suu Kyi became the de facto head of state through her state counsellor role. Although her silence regarding the persecution and cleansing of Rohingya Muslims within the country has tarnished her international reputation, her popularity among the Burmese never weakened. In 2020, 79% of Burmese trusted her, according to the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections, an approval rate that was relayed at the polling station.