From general to Myanmar president: Min Aung Hlaing’s rebrand dismissed as ‘cosmetic’

His makeover from junta chief to president now complete, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing may seek to tiptoe back into the international fold as a civilian leader.But critics say the change is just a “veneer” that poses a challenge for Asean, the regional bloc that has frozen out Myanmar from its top summits, while its military wages war on its own people.On Friday, a parliament stuffed with military loyalists made Min Aung Hlaing president. They were put there by an election held five years after his coup, but a poll only possible in a third of a country lacerated by war.The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is in a bind over whether to welcome the new president back to its diplomatic events, or continue isolating a country whose generals still run the show behind a nominally civilian government.Some Asean countries, including Myanmar’s neighbours Thailand and Laos, “are looking for an excuse to engage”, Sean Turnell, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute think tank told This Week in Asia.“The bar for some may be set pretty low. Even though the rebrand is a veneer and nothing has changed,” added Turnell, a former economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. He was jailed for nearly two years in Myanmar after the 2021 coup that also triggered massive pro-democracy protests and a near-nationwide rebellion.