38 Asia The Economist February 13th 2021
better than cancellation, economically
speaking. Big sporting events elsewhere
offer hope that the games can proceed: just
this week, America’s National Football
League crowned a new Super Bowl cham-
pion, while the Australian Open, an inter-
national tennis tournament, got under
way, despite a series of covid-19 scares.
The Olympics, however, present a chal-
lenge on a different scale. Some 1,200 play-
ers, staff and officials visited Australia for
the Open. More than 11,000 athletes from
some 200 countries are booked to compete
in Tokyo, with many more officials, coach-
es and reporters tagging along. Organisers
must figure out how to keep athletes
healthy, especially in close-contact sports.
Outbreaks have already disrupted sumo
and rugby tournaments in Japan this year.
If top contenders are infected, it would
threaten not only their health, but also the
integrity of the competition. Organisers
will also have to work out how to welcome
fans, if they are allowed to attend at all. At
the moment foreign spectators are unlike-
ly, though some local ones may be permit-
ted, as they have been in recent months at
Japanese football and baseball games.
Plans released by the organising com-
mittee this month offer hints of what such
an event might look like. Those attending
would be subject to constant testing and
rigorous restrictions on movement. What
spectators there are would be allowed to
clap, but not sing or chant. Hugs and hand-
shakes should be avoided. The Japanese
government’s covid-19 tracking app, co-
coa, would be deployed to try to stop the
spread of any infections. (It has problems
of its own: the health ministry recently ad-
mitted that for more than four months, a
bug prevented the Android version of the
app from notifying users who came into
close contact with individuals who tested
positive for covid-19.)
The fate of the games, like so much else,
will depend on how the pandemic pro-
gresses. In private, some sources close to
the government presume that holding
them as scheduled will prove impossible.
They wonder about the next unclaimed
summer slot—in 2032. Other sources think
that the obstacles will seem less daunting
once the winter outbreak ebbs and vac-
cines start flowing. The public, they reck-
on, will come around. Either way, Japan
will probably twist and turn to avoid mak-
ing a unilateral decision, lest it be seen as
denying the world. Last year’s postpone-
ment came only after Australia and Cana-
da, among others, announced they would
not send any athletes. In late January, by
contrast, the head of Australia’s national
committee declared: “The Tokyo Games
are on. The flame will be lit on July 23rd
2021.” If any athletes do indeed make it to
the starting line, that in itself will be a feat
worthy of a medal. Protests in MyanmarDon’t putsch me
I
t was difficultto hear the commander-
in-chief over the din. Every night since
the army toppled Myanmar’s civilian gov-
ernment on February 1st, people all over
the country have banged pots and pans at
8pm, turning a traditional ritual to cast out
evil spirits into a political protest. On Feb-
ruary 8th, at 8pm, the head ghoul made his
first televised address since the coup.
Those who were not drumming kitchen-
ware or slapping the image of the general
on their TV screens with their slippers
would have heard Min Aung Hlaing trying
to reassure the public. There would be no
change in government policy, he said, and
elections would be held in a year. His inter-
im government would be “different”, he
pledged, from the oppressive junta that
had preceded Myanmar’s ten-year experi-
ment with democracy.
His audience is not convinced. Just
hours earlier the army’s Orwellian “True
News Information Team” had warned that
action would be taken against “wrong-
doers” who “disrupt the state’s stability”.
But its pleas for “discipline” are falling on
deaf ears. Tens of thousands of Burmese
have thronged the streets in cities big and
small, day after day, since February 6th, in
the biggest protest movement in a genera-
tion. They are clamouring for the release of
Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Nation-
al League for Democracy (nld), the erst-
while ruling party. To justify the coup, the
army claimed, without evidence, that the
election in November at which the nld
won a second term by a landslide wasmarred by “terrible” fraud.
Many of the demonstrations have the
air of a carnival. On February 10th young
women paraded around central Yangon
wearing Disney princess outfits. Another
group carried a coffin with a picture of the
commander-in-chief. Placards full of ob-
scenities abounded. Shops have sold out of
balloons in the nld’s trademark red.
Yet a current of foreboding is charging
the atmosphere. The previous junta
crushed dissent ruthlessly. Htay Win, who
runs a tea shop in Yangon, took part in pro-
tests in 1988 and 2007. Both times the army
shot into crowds, killing hundreds. “I
think 100% that the military is going to
crack down on us very soon,” he says.
General Min Aung Hlaing’s assurances
notwithstanding, agents from the feared
intelligence service are knocking on doors,
prompting many activists and journalists
to go into hiding. Some 200 people have
been arrested, according to the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners, a hu-
man-rights group. Ninety districts, includ-
ing all of Yangon, the largest city, and
much of Naypyidaw, the capital, have im-
posed curfews and restricted gatherings to
no more than five people, in effect crimi-
nalising public assembly.
The authorities have also begun trying
to disperse the protests. Police have fired
tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets
into crowds. Videos on social media
showed police beating protesters with
truncheons in Mandalay, a big city. Three
protesters are being treated for wounds
from rubber bullets. Two people in Naypyi-
daw were shot with what seems to have
been live ammunition; one, Mya Thwe
Thwe Khine, is on life support.
So far, the protesters seem undeterred.
Their numbers are swelling with people
from all walks of life: teenagers, labourers
and professionals. Teachers, firefighters
and health workers across the country are
on strike. Civil servants are reportedly re-SINGAPORE
The army faces growing public
opposition to its coupGhost busters