The news of the last few weeks has highlighted the fragility of democracies. Yes, the oldest democracies like the United States, like the one that was emerging in Burma and whose military coup on February 1st sounded the death knell.
In the United States, the last presidential elections showed the importance of the fact that a leader must be accountable to the people and that the latter, in a democracy, asserts its sovereignty at the time of voting. But by calling for a march on the Capitol on January 6, the outgoing president shook democratic institutions. The assault by his supporters on the Capitol clearly shows Trump's worst legacy: " through his violence, the triviality of his words and, often, his actions, the outgoing president has given free rein to instincts that a good institutional functioning is precisely intended to contain and channel," underlines the journalist Guillaume Goubert (editorial of La Croix of January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration).
But to the benefit of this tragic ordeal, we can emphasize the fact that the institutions, equipped with powerful safeguards, have held up well.
Yes, that's true. In addition, Donald Trump's Twitter account with its 88 million subscribers was permanently closed, three days after the Capitol riots, due to the "serious and repeated violations" committed by Trump on the digital platform: the President of the United States made his political announcements, ranted against the media and insulted his opponents on a daily basis. Six other digital platforms have, after Twitter, decided to exclude Donald Trump. Clearly, these activities and positions taken by the digital giants highlight their power over public debate and democracy. It underlines the need for a more in-depth political debate on freedom of expression and respect for others on the internet and social networks.
Which brings us to Burma. Since the military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government on February 1, the military has repeatedly ordered Twitter and Facebook, the gateway to the internet for millions of Burmese, to be blocked in an effort to silence the growing protests in the country. Despite continued arrests and the internet being shut down, thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Rangoon this weekend, holding up three fingers, as in the Hunger Games film, to signify their act of resistance. In the images posted by AFP on Twitter yesterday, we see the people of Rangoon banging pots and honking their horns, as they do every night at 8 o’clock. They are refusing the coup and the military dictatorship. "It is unimaginable and unbelievable to me in this 21st century," said a young protester. We can only express our support for the Burmese people and pray for a return, as soon as possible, of democracy in this country.
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