"Myanmar’s official public messaging about the coronavirus pandemic began with a video. To airy elevator music and a placid voiceover, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, stood in a nondescript bathroom and demonstrated the proper way to wash hands. It all seemed very calming and benevolent, with Suu Kyi acting out the maternal role she is accorded by her supporters. Before the video was posted online on March 21, the government also established a coronavirus task force. But all the while, it sought to downplay the likelihood that COVID-19 would wreak havoc in Myanmar to the same degree it had elsewhere. When the first positive cases soon cropped up, Suu Kyi opened a Facebook account—her first, and likely an attempt to better personalize her relationship with the public—to, as she put it, “communicate faster and more efficiently” on coronavirus-related developments. While Suu Kyi focused on public relations, others among the country’s leadership, which is still dominated by the military despite a transition to civilian rule, quickly and very publicly inserted themselves into the pandemic response. When reports of the first deaths from COVID-19 in Myanmar began to circulate in late March, senior officials aligned with the military established their own coronavirus task force. Stacked with high-ranking military members of the Cabinet and headed by the military-appointed vice president, U Myint Swe, a former general, it set about opening a quarantine center in the capital, Naypyidaw. As the number of cases in Myanmar crept up, the military sought to redirect more of the spotlight away from Suu Kyi and toward itself. In parliament, where a quarter of the seats are constitutionally reserved for the military, the men in green did the sensible thing and wore surgical masks, a precaution civilian members of parliament had failed to adopt. This public jockeying to project authority during the pandemic is indicative of the political tensions and rivalries that existed in Myanmar before COVID-19 hit. In 2015, Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, competed in elections for the first time in a quarter century—and won. By defeating the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party at the polls, the NLD brought an end to overt military rule and raised hopes for genuine change. Yet Suu Kyi—who promised to develop the economy, institute deep democratic reforms and promote unity by ending the country’s many internal conflicts—has offered up little to show for her five years of leadership. Her immense popularity may now be beginning to wane. With elections due in November, the military has started unofficial campaign efforts to retake some of its lost ground..."