Concurrent Emergencies in Authoritarian Regimes: Law, Emergency Powers and Military Overreach during COVID-19 in Myanmar

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries experienced concurrent emergencies that intensified the social impact of the pandemic on society. This report focuses on Myanmar as an example of how the quasi-civilian and military regimes used different constitutional and legislative measures to respond to the pandemic, and the impact these measures had on society. The report provides a brief overview of emergency powers in Myanmar. The report then examines the legal measures taken during the National League for Democracy (NLD) government (2020-21) and then by the military regime after the coup from February 2021 to 2022. It finds that the NLD government avoided the use of constitutional emergency powers to prevent a military takeover, and instead used executive power under existing laws. Its approach was similar to countries in the Global South that attempted to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on the economy by limiting the scale and scope of lockdowns given the high levels of social fragility and vulnerability. In contrast, the 2021 military coup produced a concurrent emergency that led to the militarisation of emergency powers. The military claimed (incorrectly) to use constitutional emergency powers but did so for the sake of regaining control of the state. The military also used law as a weapon against political opponents, often directly contrary to the aims of reducing COVID-19, such as the widespread imprisonment of doctors and nurses. Myanmar is an example of the complexities associated with the pandemic response in military regimes and fragile or failed states. Salai Samuel Hmung is a PhD student at the Australian National University’s Department of Political and Social Change and received his Master of Political Science (Advanced) from the ANU under an Australian Awards scholarship. Melissa Crouch is Professor in the School of Global and Public Law, the Faculty of Law & Justice, the University of New South Wales, Sydney.