How will Myanmar’s military respond to anti-coup protests? Al Jazeera English UP NEXT
People in Myanmar protesting against this month’s military coup have faced arrests, curfews and some internet blackouts for several days now.
But despite those challenges, they have been going out in huge numbers to make their voices heard.
Tens of thousands on Saturday rallied to demand a return to civilian rule and the release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
Airline staff, health workers and school teachers are among groups who have joined the marches.
There have been a number of detentions of military government critics during overnight raids. Meanwhile, police have increased their crackdown on large gatherings, which they say violate COVID-19 restrictions.
Published on: Sunday, February 07, 2021
By: FMT
Credit: thesundaily.my
PETALING JAYA: Experts have called for more self-governing autonomy in Sabah and Sarawak, saying Putrajaya’s control over political power has led to unfair revenue distribution.
In an online forum, the panellists proposed for the Federal Government to only control matters concerning defence and foreign affairs in Sabah and Sarawak.
Economics professor Rajah Rasiah and political analyst Bridget Welsh pointed out that economic inequity and poverty were still major issues affecting Sabah and Sarawak, despite being oil-rich states.
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Other panellists, including former Pandungan Assemblyman Dominique Ng and author Zainnal Ajamain, also highlighted the poor economic advancement in the two states when compared with the peninsula, even after 58 years of being part of Malaysia.
Wearing masks, gloves and face shields, voters across Myanmar on November 8 braved surging coronavirus infections as they turned out en masse to cast their ballots in the country’s second democratic vote since the end of military rule in 2011.
At polling stations in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, the enthusiasm was palpable.
“People are excited to vote, as they would like to escape from the political struggles,” one poll worker said at the time. “They want real democracy.”
Trouble, however, was already brewing.
Just days before the polls, Myanmar’s powerful military chief Min Aung Hlaing had raised the possibility the army may not accept the outcome of the election. Accusing Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s government of “unacceptable mistakes”, he told a local news outlet that “we are in a situation where we need to be cautious” about the results of the poll.
January 15, 2021 Share
The Malaysian government’s surprise state of emergency, declared this week to help beat back a surging coronavirus outbreak, may be more of a bid by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to preserve his slipping grip on power, some analysts say.
The country’s constitutional monarch, Al-Sultan Abdullah, declared a nationwide state of emergency for the first time in over 50 years on Tuesday at Muhyiddin’s request.
Malaysia counted a record 3,309 new COVID-19 cases the same day, in the midst of its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began. The country of 32 million has logged more than 144,000 cases in all to date, over half of them since early December.
Malaysia Leader Accused of Power Grab After Parliament Suspended Bloomberg 1/13/2021 Philip J. Heijmans and Anisah Shukry
(Bloomberg) In explaining why Malaysia needed to suspend democracy for the first time in half a century to fight the pandemic, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin assured the nation he wasn’t staging a military coup.
But his opponents found it hard to view the first nationwide emergency since 1969 as anything but a power grab. While the Southeast Asian nation has seen a surge of coronavirus cases in recent weeks along with many other countries, measures to combat the pandemic have generally enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum.