Young Asians offer hope, however. They are sick of rigged political systems, graft-based economies and poor job prospects
Brutally so in Myanmar. Its army chief seized power in a coup in February and has since ruled through terror. Not only has General Min Aung Hlaing wiped out years of fragile democratic gains. With dogged ignorance he attempts to stuff his country back into some prelapsarian mould of discipline, order and benevolent military rule. In reality his troops slaughter unarmed citizens as foreign investors flee and the economy implodes. Far from pulling Myanmar together, he is hastening its dissolution.
The ten countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations also include two Leninist dictatorships, Laos and Vietnam ; an absolute monarchy, Brunei, with whippings and amputations as potential punishments; and a dirt-poor autocracy, Cambodia, where Hun Sen, in power for nearly 37 years, dispenses favour with the munificence of an emperor of yore in Angkor.
In South Asia, even less joy. A drug-running theocracy seized power in Afghanistan. In Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brothers continue transforming the state into a family fief. And in India the prime minister, Narendra Modi, hounds critics, stokes sectarian tensions and hollows out Parliament’s supervisory functions. The irony of his imperial-scale plans to reshape New Delhi is in plain view: the old parliament building is to become a museum of democracy.
Above all young Asians offer hope. They are sick of rigged political systems, graft-based economies and poor job prospects. In 2022 Malaysia is a country to watch. New automatic voter registration and a lowering of the voting age will swell the electorate by over a third.
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