Ready Player One

In Myanmar, rebels play a video game called SpringBees to raise money for the civilian-led exiled National Unity Government that opposes the military junta which seized control of the Southeast Asian country in a 2021 coup.

“It provides support for our cause while offering a way to unwind,” a player in combat fatigues told Deutsche Welle. “That’s what keeps me coming back to it.”

Three ethnic-based armies have gained ground against the Myanmar central government’s forces. The People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), who are affiliated with the National Unity Government, are fighting intensely, too.

These gains have put pressure on the junta under President Min Aung Hlaing, Newsweek wrote. The country controls less than a quarter of the country now. Fighting has also displaced at least 3.4 million people. Corruption is rampant. The weak state is failing to uphold basic services, like sanitation that would prevent outbreaks of cholera, the Bangkok Post noted.

The rebels’ victory still appears to be a distant possibility, however. As World Politics Review explained, the two major rebel groups are only loosely coordinating with each other. The ethnic forces seek independence for their communities. The National Unity Government wants to restore the government ousted in the 2021 coup. The junta, meanwhile, has powerful patrons in China and Russia, two countries that have provided crucial aid in its times of trouble.

For example, as the Conversation noted, the Chinese government and Myanmar’s military junta are establishing a joint security company to protect Chinese projects and personnel from the civil war. “This development is extremely concerning and does not bode well for any of the players involved,” it said.

Min Aung Hlaing faces other issues, mainly because he oversaw a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority from 2016 through 2017. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest. At the same time, some Rohingya are slipping back into the country to fight the junta, Reuters noted.

Writing in a commentary for National Public Radio, the former American ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, agreed that the junta was terrible. But he noted that Aung San Suu Kyi, the symbolic leader of the National Unity Government who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her opposition to the junta, also “underwent a reputational transformation” for defending the military’s actions.

Today Aung San Suu Kyi, who endured years of house arrest under the junta, is in solitary confinement in jail, the Independent wrote in an op-ed. She is one of an estimated 20,000 political prisoners in the country. Torture is common. One journalist said security forces had cut off his brother’s legs for liking an anti-junta Facebook post, reported Mint, an Indian newspaper.

The rebels might be routing the government, noted World Politics Review. But it will likely end in a stalemate, not regime change.