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導讀：The coup in Myanmar shocked the world. Few outsiders had predicted it since the army control controlled everything that mattered. In an attempt to secure perpetuity in legitimacy, what are their gains and losses? Why did they even start it under the circumstance that they have huge power over the country? Read this article to get more information.
The Meaning of Myanmar’s Coup
Most politicians find winning over a majority of the electorate challenging enough. Imagine, then, the difficulties of candidates in Myanmar, who must secure the approval not only of voters, but also of the army’s top brass. The National League for Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a veteran dissident, excels at the first task. It has won the past two national elections with landslide votes. But it is not so good at the second. On February 1st, as MPS elected at the most recent poll were about to take their seats, the army arrested them and said that it would run the country instead.
Key Points:
1) a majority of: 大部分的
e.g. Members of parliament approved the move by a majority of ninety-nine. 議員以99張的多數票通過了這項動議。
2) brass: 高級軍官; 黃銅; 銅管樂器
e.g. Obviously the thief had simply walked out this way as bold as brass. 顯然賊人是從這裡大搖大擺出去的。
3) veteran: 經驗豐富的人; 老兵; 退伍軍人
4) dissident: 異議者; 持不同意見者
e.g. Dissident thought is valuable just because it is dissident. 不同的見解的價值就在於它的不同。
5) with landslide votes: 以壓倒性的票數
6) MPS: member of parliament 議員
7) poll: 民意調查; 投票選舉
e.g. The newspaper took a poll of 300 people to see what the man in the street thinks. 那家報紙對300人進行了民意調查，看普通老百姓有些什麼想法。
8) take one's seat: 上任
Few outsiders had predicted the coup, despite the snarling statements emanating from the high command in the days beforehand, for the simple reason that the army was already in control of almost everything that mattered to it. Under the constitution, which the top brass itself foisted on the country, the army chief commands all the security services. He appoints his own boss (the minister of defence), as well as several other ministers and a quarter of MPS. That, in turn, gives him a veto over any attempts to change all this by amending the constitution. The system is designed to preserve the army’s interests, no matter what voters say they want. So why would the generals upend it?
Key Points:
1) snarling: 咆哮的
e.g. He raced ahead up into the bush, barking and snarling. 他嗥叫著衝向前，一頭鑽進了灌木叢。
2) emanate from: 從...處傳出
e.g. A huge row has developed about the pollution emanating from a chemical plant. 一家化工廠造成的汙染已引發了激烈爭論。
3) constitution: 章程; 構造; 體制
e.g. I do not regard the constitution of the U.K. as set in concrete. 我認為英國的憲法並非不可改動。
4) foist on: 把...強加於
e.g. She resented having the child foisted on her while the parents went travelling abroad. 她對孩子的父母出國旅行卻硬要她來照看孩子這事很反感。
5) upend: 顛倒; 倒放
e.g. If successful, we will upend our main competitors. 如果成功, 我們將擊敗我們的主要競爭對手。
Putschists and despots tend to crave at least a veneer of legitimacy. A semblance of democracy may help keep their subjects quiescent and certainly makes international summits less awkward. Their dream is to create some scope for genuine political competition, the better to appease the masses and their foreign friends, while retaining control over all important decisions. The generals who run Pakistan and Thailand have attempted to devise such systems, as have the autocrats ruling Cambodia, Russia and Venezuela, among others. But few have been as explicit as Myanmar’s top brass about seeking to enshrine their authority in perpetuity in what otherwise resembles a democracy.
Key Points:
1) putschist: 反叛者; 暴動者
2) despot: 暴君
3) veneer: 虛飾; 護面
e.g. Though a Tartar strain in many North China peasants, there is also a veneer of civilization. 雖然不少華北農民具有韃靼民族的血統, 但同時他們也擁有悠久的文明傳統。
4) semblance: 外表; 外觀
e.g. He did not give me magnificent semblance, not an excellent thought. 他沒有給我華麗的外表和過人的思維。
5) quiescent: 靜態的; 休眠的
e.g. The rapid development of the economy turns the quiescent town into a noisy city. 經濟的迅速發展使這個寧靜的小鎮成為鬧市。
6) appease: 平息; 安撫
e.g. In such a tight labour market, companies appease workers by offering higher wages. 在如此緊縮的勞動力市場, 企業提供更高的工資來滿足員工。
7) autocrat: 獨裁統治者
e.g. Republican in title he was, but an autocrat at heart. 他名義上是共和主義者, 但本質上卻是個專制君主。
8) enshrine: 珍藏; 把…奉為神聖
e.g. Southern farmers enshrine tombs on hillside terraces. 南方人把墳墓蓋在山上。
9) perpetuity: n. 永恆; adj. perpetual 永恆的
e.g. The site of the memorial is granted in perpetuity to Canada. 紀念館址已選定在加拿大作為永久的紀念。
Such arrangements, however, are inherently unstable. Autocrats dislike being shown up, no matter how negligible the consequences. The regime of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, this week jailed Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic, after he had the cheek to survive an assassination attempt, and to use his new lease on life to publicise a billion-dollar secret palace he says belongs to Mr Putin. In Myanmar Ms Suu Kyi was always careful to speak politely about the army, but her party repeatedly thumped the one backed by the generals, winning 12 times as many seats in the election in November. The snowflake generals found such humiliation hard to bear.
Unarmed politicians in Potemkin democracies naturally look for ways around the obstacles erected by the men with guns. Myanmar’s generals thought they had sidelined Ms Suu Kyi by barring her from the presidency, but she invented a new position, 「state counsellor」, which she declared was 「above the president」. Political parties in Thailand that are hostile to the top brass keep winning elections and trying to form governments, forcing the authorities to ban more and more of them.
Key Points:
1) negligible: 微不足道的
e.g. In buying a suit, a difference of ten cents in price is negligible. 買衣服時，一角錢之差是微不足道的。
2) lease: 租約; 租賃權
e.g. My lease will expire on September 30th of this year. 我的租約今年九月三十日到期。
3) thumped: 重擊; 錘擊; 心臟等砰砰跳
e.g. His heart began to thump with excitement: the eastern bank was already quite close. 他的心激動地跳了起來，河岸已經近在眼前。
4) snowflake: 雪花; 雪片
e.g. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. 你不是獨一無二美麗的雪花片。
5) Potemkin: 裝點門面的
e.g. Many of Mr Obama's achievements have a Potemkin quality. 歐巴馬的許多成就不過是徒有其表而已。
6) sidelined: 使下場; 把...排除在外
e.g. He was removed from the admiralty and effectively sidelined. 他被從海軍部調離且實則坐起了冷板凳。
That hints at the most unpredictable force disguised despots contend with: their citizens. They tend to vote for the wrong people (witness how often the Pakistani army has had to see off tiresome prime ministers). The people can also take to the streets if the system is a hollow pretence. In Belarus, after phoney elections, thousands have been braving brutal repression. So too in Russia where, as Mr Navalny said this week, 「Lawlessness and tyranny pose as state prosecutors and dress in judges』 robes.」
Protests are also possible in Myanmar—as is their violent suppression. The army, after all, has quelled peaceful demonstrations by force plenty of times over the years. But the pariah status that comes with naked repression is precisely what the army was hoping to escape when it concocted the constitution it has just violated. In that sense, the coup, although crushing to Myanmar’s democrats, is a defeat for the generals, too.
Key Points:
1) see off: 送行; 送別
e.g. She raised her head to see off her son, her eyes blurred with tears. 翹望著兒子遠行的背影, 淚水模糊了她的雙眼。
2) take to the streets: 遊行
3) hollow: 空洞的
e.g. The boys scraped out a hollow place for planting trees. 那些孩子挖了個坑準備栽樹。
4) Belarus: 白俄羅斯
5) phoney: adj. 假的; n. 贗品
6) repression: 壓抑; 約束; 鎮壓
e.g. Being unemployed still means falling into a system of poverty, exclusion and repression. 失業仍然意味著陷入貧窮 、排外及壓制的泥沼中。
7) prosecutor: 公訴人; 起訴人
e.g. Police and prosecutors manipulated the eyewitnesses so they would finger Aldo. 警方和檢察官操縱目擊證人指證奧爾多。
8) quell: 制止; 鎮壓
e.g. Troops eventually quelled the unrest. 軍隊最終平息了動亂。
9) pariah: 賤民; 被社會遺棄者
e.g. The emancipation process of pariah began in the period of colony. 賤民解放的過程起始於殖民地時期。
10) concoct: 調製; 編造; 捏造
e.g. The soup was concocted from up to a dozen different kinds of fish. 這種湯是用多達十幾種不同的魚熬製而成的。
素材｜The Economist
筆記｜Rachel
排版｜Rachel