Faktor Internal dan Faktor Eksternal yang Mempengaruhi Terjadinya Demokratisasi di Myanmar

Abstract

Abstract: Democratization in Myanmar has drawn international attention, when on April 1, 2012
military junta held a free, fair general election. The success of Myanmar in holding the general election
would become a new era of changes that was occurring domestically. Positive responses on the
changes were shown by not only Myanmar's people but also the whole international comunities which
had previously pressured the state due to various violations of human right and democracy. Basically,
some democratizing efforts had begun since the government drafted a new constitution in 2008, up to
the winning of Thein Sein as President in the 2010 preliminary elections. Under Thein Sein leadership,
there have been much changes leading to democracy, such as the achievement of ceasefire, economic
improvement, the release of political detainees, mass media freedom, general elections, and the
reestablishment of parliamentary functions. The question in this paper was, “How these internal and
external factors influence the occurrence of democratization in Myanmar?” In this paper, the writer
drew on the theories of democratization in describing the internal and external factors that have
influence on the occurrence of democratization, by the three approaches, namely, modernization,
transition, and structural approaches, from David Potter. The paper results indicated that the aim of the
military junta at implementing the democratization was due to some internal factors in a domestic
scope, predominated by domestic actors, and some external factors in a framework of democratization
waves by a reason of spreading or promoting democratic values, as well pressures and other sanctions.
The entire threats have led to the decline of military junta legitimacy in political arena, and expulsion
by international world. Therefore, the writer concluded that the relationship between the internal
factors and external factors would determine the continuity of democratization in Myanmar.

Keywords : Democratization, Internal Factors, External Factors, Military Junta, Myanmar