Al Jazeera Discovers Wartime Elections Are Problematic in Myanmar
The story details how Myanmar's military government is holding an election amid ongoing conflict, rendering towns abandoned and elections difficult. One might wonder if Al Jazeera missed the memo on every US-backed intervention in the last three decades. How many 'democratic' elections have been held under occupation or while populations were displaced—often by the very governments the US
supports? This 'problem' seems only to register when the perpetrators aren't Washington's strategic partners. Perhaps Al Jazeera could apply the same critical lens to situations where 'elections' in occupied territories like Palestine are meaningless, or where democratic processes are derailed by external funding and military support for authoritarian regimes. The selective outrage over
'democracy' in wartime reveals more about geopolitical allegiances than genuine concern for electoral integrity. (Or perhaps for human beings in general, if they aren't the 'right' kind of human beings.)