Myanmar's military: A state within a state | DW | 12.02.2021

Myanmar has witnessed widespread anti-coup protests this week where public anger at the military for toppling a democratically elected civilian government is on full display. On Wednesday, young protesters in the nation's largest city Yangon held a mock funeral for the army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Protesters were seen carrying placards demanding an end to military dictatorship, as well as the release of the de facto leader of the civilian government, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other political prisoners.

The Tatmadaw, as the military is known in Myanmar, is both omnipresent and impalpable. It is omnipresent because it dominates not only the political landscape but also the country's economy. It is impalpable because the military functions like a "state within a state," Marco Bünte, political analyst and Myanmar expert at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, told DW.

Yoshihiro Nakanishi, a Myanmar expert who published a book on the Tatmadaw in 2013, wrote: "Information about civil-military relations still remains limited; to a considerable extent we are forced to rely on hearsay and guesswork for analysis."

It was not without reason that the generals decided to relocate the capital to Naypyidaw, surrounded by dense forest and mountains, in the nation's heartland. A large area of the capital is a restricted military zone.