Myanmar’s military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, made a rare public appearance on Saturday (July 19) at the country’s Martyrs’ Day ceremony, his first since leading the 2021 coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
The ceremony, held at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon, honors General Aung San — the country’s independence hero and father of Suu Kyi — who was assassinated in 1947 along with eight colleagues. Suu Kyi, currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges widely seen as politically motivated, was absent for the fifth consecutive year.
Ye Aung Than, a relative from Suu Kyi’s family, laid a wreath in her absence. Meanwhile, Min Aung Hlaing, flanked by top generals and ministers from the military-led administration, placed flowers at the tombs — a move analysts say is symbolic but deeply political.
The junta’s renewed focus on Martyrs’ Day, a holiday it had downplayed in recent years, comes just months ahead of elections promised by the end of 2025. Critics view the polls as an effort to legitimize military rule and entrench power through a controlled electoral process.
“The timing of his appearance is not coincidental,” said a Yangon-based analyst. “It’s a strategic attempt to link the junta to national history and gain credibility ahead of the vote.”
Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar has been gripped by civil conflict. While the military claims to be restoring order, it has lost control of large swaths of the country to resistance forces. Nearly 7,000 people have reportedly been killed and over 29,000 arrested since the takeover, according to rights groups.
While authorities in military-held areas held official commemorations, people in resistance-controlled regions marked the occasion by sounding horns and sirens at 10:37 a.m. — the time Aung San was killed — and staging peaceful protests.
As the junta presses forward with election plans and military offensives, observers warn that Min Aung Hlaing’s public gestures may signal a push to reshape the regime’s image, not a move toward reconciliation.
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