The general who made himself president

His name was not on the ballot, nor did his photographs appear on campaign posters. But one man loomed large over the general election held in Myanmar in December and January: Min Aung Hlaing. On Friday, April 3, the 69-year-old general who has ruled the impoverished Southeast Asian nation since ousting Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a 2021 coup was elected president in a parliamentary vote. The carefully engineered transition came in the midst of a civil war triggered by the coup, which has displaced millions and left swathes of Myanmar’s borderlands in rebel hands. Min…