Making His First Appearance On Television, Myanmar’s Military Leader Promises Democratic Elections

General Min Aung Hlaing. (Source: True News Information Unit via myanmar-now.org)

JAKARTA - For the first time, Myanmar's military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, appeared on television on Monday, February 8 local time, since the military staged a coup on February 1.

Wearing the green and green uniform typical of the Myanmar military, he repeated his statement about the coup, which is justified by the Myanmar Constitution 2008, due to fraud in the last November 2020 elections.

On this occasion, Min also repeated his statement of imposing a state of emergency for the next year, in a number of areas that became the pockets of protesters against the military coup, namely Yangon and Mandalay.

The announcement of this emergency situation was followed by the restriction of meeting for no more than 5 people, and a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. local time.

The 64-year-old senior general said the current military rule would be different from the previous military rule in Myanmar which lasted for 49 years, leaving Myanmar in isolation and poverty.

"The military junta will establish a true and disciplined democracy, different from before. We will hold multiparty elections and we will hand over power to the winner in the election, according to the rules of democracy", he said, quoted from Reuters.

It did not say when the exact time the elections would be held, but he said the elections would be held after the state of emergency had lasted for a year.