Myanmar’s coup has no heroes

Worldly

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the recent coup in Myanmar, in which the Myanmarese military deposed the country’s quasi-democratic government and detained its civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, along with hundreds of members of her political party. They look at why this happened, explain why both sides in this fight are morally compromised, explore what the Biden administration and the international community can (and can’t) do in response, and project what this means for the future of Myanmar's democracy — and the safety of the country’s many persecuted minority groups. References: Alex wrote an explainer on the Myanmar coup. And he also wrote about why the coup is a problem for Biden’s pro-democracy agenda. Jen Kirby wrote on why the coup is deeply troubling for Myanmar’s most vulnerable. And she wrote about the laughable charges the military leveled against Aung Sang Suu Kyi. The AP explains the differences between “Myanmar” and “Burma.” The new military leadership has shut down Facebook, Reuters reported. Slate has a great piece on why an Obama-era democratization push for Myanmar probably won’t happen this time. Here’s the Foreign Policy story with the headline “Who Lost Myanmar?” Hosts: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox), White House reporter, Vox Consider contributing to Vox: If you value Worldly’s work, please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts More to explore: Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram. About Vox: Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Follow Us: Vox.com Newsletter: Vox Sentences Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The government in Myanmar was never really a democracy.
0:13.3	But this week they made it pretty official, seizing control of the civilian leadership
0:19.8	of the country in a military coup, what is now officially a military coup according to
0:24.3	the U.S. government, and installing a general as the leader and postponing elections for
0:29.4	at least a year, and who knows if they'll ever come back.
0:32.2	Today on Worldly Part of the Fox Media Podcast Network, we're going to break down how this
0:35.4	coup happened, why it matters, and what might come next.
0:38.6	I'm Zach Beechem here, as always, with Jen Williams and Alex Ward.
0:42.5	Hello.
0:43.5	A coup only two weeks into the Biden administration, how I'm fun.
0:47.0	You know, look, this is certainly an early challenge for them coming into it.
0:51.2	I just hope that they can approach it with the pep of that woman who was filmed doing
0:56.2	an exercise routine outside of the coup, like literally you can see armored vehicles in
1:01.4	the background as she is doing a dance routine to some music.
1:05.5	It's, we, on the Worldly Team, have been talking about this for the entire week.
1:09.9	It's like, none of us can think about anything else because it's the most incredible video
1:13.5	we've all seen.
1:14.5	To the point that we were doing like shadow analysis, like, well, is it real?
1:17.3	Is it not?
1:18.3	Well, the shadow breaks and then Buzzfeed had a story being like, it is real because of
1:21.9	satellite imagery and wherever they found where she was, and we'll link to it in the
1:25.0	show notes.
	...

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