On Friday, a parliament stuffed with military loyalists made Min Aung Hlaing president. They were put there by an election held five years after his coup, but a poll only possible in a third of a country lacerated by war.
The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is in a bind over whether to welcome the new president back to its diplomatic events, or continue isolating a country whose generals still run the show behind a nominally civilian government.
“The bar for some may be set pretty low. Even though the rebrand is a veneer and nothing has changed,” added Turnell, a former economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. He was jailed for nearly two years in Myanmar after the 2021 coup that also triggered massive pro-democracy protests and a near-nationwide rebellion.
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