Singapore: In the week since a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar, the editors of the ruling military’s daily mouthpiece have been onto a theme. It is not the thousands of people dead and dying. It is certainly not the regime’s inability and unwillingness to adequately address an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

Rather, the scribes at the grandly named The Global New Light of Myanmar have been feeding junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s ego while working to convince readers he is respected among foreign leaders.

Myanmar’s junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (left) shakes hands with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Friday.Credit: AP

Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra last week gave the junta what it most desired from the international community – legitimacy.

Her invitation to Min Aung Hlaing to attend the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation summit in Bangkok broke with a convention among ASEAN nations to exclude Myanmar’s military leaders from multinational forums.

It is the first time the regime chief has been asked into such a dialogue since the February 2021 coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now in prison........

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