By Kyaw Zwa Moe

The Irrawaddy-Aug 16

When the people of Myanmar defied the socialist military regime’s automatic rifles and took to the streets in 1988 to demand democracy, what they were really saying was: “We want regime change.”  Thirty years on, that regime (whether in the form of General Ne Win’s authoritarian administration or the military governments that succeeded it) no longer exists in a technical sense. But in another sense it never really went away. Rather, it conducted a kind of tactical retreat, successfully executing an exit strategy that has allowed its institutions to maintain considerable power.

Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/commentary/30-years-on-the-mission-of-regime-change-remains-a-work-in-progress.html

First published in: The Irrawaddy