If Myanmar's people drive Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and his brutal military regime from power, as they seem about to do, the first thing they should do afterward is take a page from Costa Rica’s book and abolish the army. Don’t reform it or downsize it — just get rid of it forever.

Myanmar has no foreign enemies threatening to attack it. All its security problems are domestic. What it needs is an impartial police force, not a corrupt and cruel army. The military has been a curse on the country ever since Burma got its independence in 1948.

The Tatmadaw, as the army is known, got off on the wrong foot from the start. Under British rule, there was no Myanmar army, but during World War II, young Myanmar nationalists sought military training from the Japanese. Quite a few fought alongside the Japanese. No surprise in that: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Japan lost the war, but those turbulent young patriots became the founding generation of Myanmar's military officers — and they had learned some bad lessons from the Japanese. They had learned that the army is privileged above all other institutions and that civilians have to be led firmly. They also learned that overthrowing governments is easy and quite rewarding.

The........

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