When Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) took office in 2016, a wave of euphoria swept over Myanmar, shared by many people in other parts of the world.
At the time, there was a rather naive belief that everything would suddenly be transformed. It was widely assumed, for example, that the key components of the old regime would be dismantled, and the repressive military government that had ruled the country for the past half century would soon become a bad memory.
That has not happened, and was never going to happen.
Eight years after the armed forces stepped back from direct rule, and despite promises of sweeping reforms, there are few indications that Myanmar’s approach to security matters has significantly changed.
Please click here to read the full “Myanmar’s intelligence apparatus under Aung San Suu Kyi” article at The Interpreter, written by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Professor Andrew Selth.
