Protesters against the military coup won\u2019t be helped by threats. They need support to press for change from within <\/p>\n
Protests against the military coup continue in Myanmar; aerial images of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators<\/a> who converged in towns and cities in recent days have helped show the scale of animosity towards the country\u2019s military, which now faces the fallout of a nationwide strike. These events highlight the fragility of Myanmar\u2019s political landscape. But they have also prompted a reckoning with the shortcomings, if not worse, of western engagement in Myanmar, a decade on from the start of a transition away from authoritarian rule that saw Myanmar held aloft as a success story in liberal-democracy promotion and \u201cmeaningful intervention\u201d in Asia.<\/p>\n The 1 February coup triggered a course reversal from western governments and institutions. Praise for November\u2019s democratic elections, which handed victory<\/a> to Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s National League for Democracy party, has since turned to condemnation of the generals and promises of action to coax \u2013 if not force \u2013 them from power. The US state department framed new sanctions as a means of \u201cpromoting accountability\u201d and alluded to \u201cadditional policy levers we can pull<\/a>\u201d to return Myanmar to democratic government, while Boris Johnson stated that the UK would \u201censure those responsible for this coup are held to account<\/a>\u201d. The UN and G7 blocs have meanwhile denounced an \u201cunacceptable<\/a>\u201d situation.<\/p>\n