Critics call Myanmar's first elections since military coup a sham as civil war rages on

John Yang:

This weekend in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, the second phase of national elections is underway. It's the first election since the ruling military regime seized power five years ago. But with major opposition parties barred from participating, leaders jailed, and an ongoing civil war keeping many from voting, the process is widely criticized as a sham. Special correspondent Kira Kay has our story.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

The newsroom of the Democratic Voice of Burma, DVB is on countdown, their 2:00 p.m. broadcast about to go live. Today's news is the bombing of a hospital by the Burmese military who took control of the country in a coup five years ago.

Although the junta says they were striking rebels, they are fighting, DVB's reporters confirm that 34 civilians were killed, including a pregnant woman and a three month old baby.

Aye Chan Naing, Democratic Voice of Burma: You see all these bombing in Gaza or bombing in Ukraine almost every day on the TV and similar things happening in Burma every day. We're seeing two or three airstrikes every day.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Aye Chan Naing, DVB's founder, relies on a network of journalists who risk their lives daily to get footage out of the country. The newsroom sits in northern Thailand.

Kira Kay:

And this is all across the country?

Kira Kay (voice-over):

It had been founded in exile in 1992 and now finds itself there again after the coup. Life in Myanmar today is a far cry from its so called decade of hope, which began in 2010 when the long repressed country first tentatively opened to the world and tried democracy.

That's when Nobel Prize winning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, allowed to run for parliament and eventually became the country's de facto leader. The United States engaged, funding democracy efforts and encouraging investment. Newsrooms opened.

Aye Chan Naing:

We were quite excited to be able to move back to Burma. We were able to travel around the country. We can do stories from anywhere. Young people are really enjoying the freedom, mobile phone, internet, it's affordable to almost everybody and lots of foreign companies are coming in. So it's a pretty promising future for the country.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

But the military never fully let go. The constitution guaranteed them 25 percent of the seats in Parliament, giving them an effective veto over true reform. And the army's genocide of the minority Rohingya people, which happened under Aung San Suu Kyi's leadership, was a black stain on her reputation. She walked a fragile line with the military from the beginning.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI:

If you have read the present constitution, you will understand that without the backing of the military. We can never say that we are really on the road to democracy.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Then on February 1, 2021, following another humiliating loss at the polls and claiming election fraud, the military ended the democracy experiment. Newly elected parliamentarians, including these three from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, were about to be sworn in for the new term.

Thida Nyein, Mandalay Regional Parliament (through interpreter):

They detained U.S. regional representatives elect at 2:00 a.m. in our homes. Some of the male representatives were taken away with hoods over their heads. Civil servants and students launched a nonviolent protestant. But then the junta cracked down.

Thida Win, Myanmar National Parliament (through interpreter):

We had to launch our resistance together. Students and other young people, even the general public. None of us wanted to do armed resistance. But we had no other choice.

Yin Min Hlaing, Myanmar National Parliament (through interpreter):

I took a leading role in organizing units of the People's Defense Force. We held basic military trainings on the border in coordination with people from my constituency.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Five years later, Myanmar is in the grips of a brutal civil war that an increasingly desperate junta has not been able to win despite help from abroad.

Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur for Myanmar: We've been tracing the use of sophisticated weapons of war to attack civilians. Where is the junta getting these weapons? Who's supplying them? Well, Russia number one, China number two.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Tom Andrews is a former U.S. congressman and current Special Rapporteur for Myanmar to the United Nations.

Tom Andrews:

The international community has been not only not providing the requisite levels of humanitarian aid, but have been unwilling to provide the pressures necessary to back this military junta off.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Western sanctions on jet fuel and Myanmar's banking systems have been partial and uncoordinated. The Trump administration dropped some American sanctions on allies of the ruling generals this summer.

Kira Kay:

Aung San Suu Kyi. Where has she been? Has anyone seen her?

Tom Andrews:

No, we just don't know what her condition is. We don't know where she is. We've heard reports of her being moved to harsher conditions, but it's very difficult to get information.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

While fighting rages in the country. Across the border in neighboring Thailand, a pro-democracy movement is flourishing comprised of one selected leaders.

Nay Phone Latt, National Unity Government:

I will try my best to take down this military junta.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

The NewsHour first met Nay Phone Latt 10 years ago as he registered to be a first time candidate with his father in tow. We next met him in hiding in 2022 as helped establish a pro-democracy national cabinet. He admits he's tired, but no less determined.

Nay Phone Latt:

The young generation and Generation Z, they are fighting against military junta forces in the battlefield. Compared with them, you know, my situation is not so bad.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Those young forces have gained territory from junta control and local administrations are taking over with guidance from the pro-democracy leadership.

Nay Phone Latt:

In some control area, we have to give the public service to the people, especially education and also the hair care system. And also there are so many public service things. So we are trying to give that kind of public service to the people.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

The women parliamentarians are also actively coordinating aid and services for the communities in most desperate need.

Woman:

Now we are collecting taxes and rely on that money for public services. My ministry is the Ministry of Electricity and Energy. We oversee road construction and can also provide electricity to hundreds of villages.

But now, despite having lost control of significant parts of the country, Myanmar's military government has decided this is the time to hold a new nationwide election.

Tom Andrews:

The junta knows how much they would lose in a free and fair election. So they're doing everything possible to go through this ruse, this charade of an election. We're going to make sure that the actual political parties that would overwhelmingly win, that they're all outlawed. We'll make sure that freedom of speech is outlawed and hope that the international community is going to ignore everything and accept this so called election.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Inside Myanmar, brave Burmese activists are urging a boycott openly on public streets at great risk to their lives. There have already been more than 300 arrests under a new so called election interference law with violators facing the potential of the death penalty.

Yin Min Hlaing (through interpreter):

I feel abandoned and have much less faith in democracy. The world doesn't need to do a lot of things to help Myanmar. First recognize our truly elected leadership, put pressure on for the release of our leaders, help prevent jet fuel and arms by sanctioning and other methods, and strongly reject these sham elections.

Tom Andrews:

You have champions on the front lines of the very values that are supposed to be about what Americans are all about. It's also in our national security interests. This is a very strategically important part of the world, the natural resources that are there.

The United States and other countries really have an opportunity here to stand for principle but also sees strategic interest.

Kira Kay (voice-over):

Myanmar's military government says it will announce final results after a third round of voting at the end of January. Voter turnout so far has been low. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Kira Kay along Thailand's border with Myanmar.

John Yang:

On January 26, the Trump administration will end temporary protected status for about 4,000 Burmese refugees in the United States, saying it's now safe for them to return. Advocates for these refugees say most of them are human rights defenders who would be targeted by the military regime if they were forced to go back.