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As the people of Myanmar recently commemorated the 8888 uprising that demanded political freedom but was brutally put down in August 1988, Thailand was playing host to Min Aung Hlaing, the former general who seized power through a coup in early 2021.
This was Min Aung Hlaing’s second official visit to an ASEAN member state since military-staged elections in December and January ensured his transition to the presidency and one that widened the schisms within ASEAN, which has barred Myanmar from official summits and events amid a bloody civil war.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul broke with that line despite ASEAN protocols and potential legal issues given the International Court of Justice will soon deliver its verdict on whether Min Aung Hlaing and Myanmar’s senior generals committed a genocide against the Rohingya.
Min Aung Hlaing’s first official visit as president was to Laos in early July and his trip to Thailand came less than a week after he allowed a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross to meet with the jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been unsighted for many years amid concerns for her health.
Mark Cogan is an associate professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka and a regular contributor to The Diplomat. He joined Luke Hunt on Beyond the Mekong to discuss the recent developments in regional politics.
That includes the moral and political questions that have divided maritime and mainland Southeast Asia, including the civil war in Myanmar, which has claimed 100,000 lives, the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and Thailand’s simmering border conflict with Cambodia.
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