1 April 2026: The formation of an historic new alliance between key Myanmar revolutionary actors marks a significant step towards building a genuine federal democratic Union and must be supported by the international community, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M)

The Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF) was launched on Monday. It comprises the National Unity Government, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the Karen National Union, the Kachin Independence Organisation, the Karenni National Progressive Party, and the Chin National Front.

The Steering Council represents the most significant formal alliance between legacy Ethnic Revolutionary Organisations and federal democratic and parliamentary entities since the military junta’s February 2021 coup. It has six political objectives, including ending the military’s involvement in politics, the election of a civilian government through genuine democratic processes, the abrogation of the 2008 constitution and its replacement with a new constitution through consensus that embodies federalism and democratic values, the establishment of a new federal democratic Union in accordance with the new constitution, and instituting a system of transitional justice to deliver justice to survivors and to secure accountability.

“The Council’s formation is an incredibly timely and significant development,” said Yanghee Lee, Member of SAC-M. “Genuine efforts to build a future based on ethnic equality, the right to self-determination, civilian supremacy, justice and accountability are essential and accelerating.”

“The contrast between the junta’s despotic drive for total military rule and the people’s vision for their nation could not be starker,” Yanghee Lee added. “The international community needs to get off the fence by fully backing the people’s genuine will and aspirations for an inclusive new Union, and by ostracising the junta in its current and any future form it takes.”

Monday also saw accused war criminal and junta leader Min Aung Hlaing “elected” as a “vice-president” in the junta’s new proxy administration. It is a preliminary step to his long-held personal ambition for the presidency – a position from which he hopes to normalise engagement with the international community whilst prosecuting his brutal war against Myanmar civilians.

Min Aung Hlaing installed loyalist General Ye Win Oo as his successor as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, overlooking his long-time deputy and presumed successor Vice-Senior General Soe Win for the role. Ye Win Oo has been sanctioned by a number of countries and groups of states, including the European Union.

“A change of costume will not make Min Aung Hlaing presidential, or his fabricated government civilian or democratic,” said Ben Lee, Executive Director of SAC-M. “It’s a cheap repackaging of the junta that absolutely no one buys.”

The junta’s new proxy administration should not be seen as a softening or a change of course. In the last two weeks since the junta convened its illegitimate “parliament” for the first time, it has continued to target civilians with relentless airstrikes, killing dozens of people.

Five years of junta atrocities have done more to shatter the military’s veneer of invincibility than to break the will of the people. Myanmar’s political transformation is progressing while the junta’s generals and cronies in fortress Naypyitaw remain incapable of steering the course of events.

The international community must get behind the Steering Council and other efforts towards a genuine federal democratic Union by scaling-up technical, capacity-building and financial support to revolutionary actors, including state-based coalitions and local organisations.

At the same time, ASEAN, UN forums and States must strengthen their formal engagement with legitimate Myanmar representatives and emerging federal democratic institutions including the Steering Council, and refrain from any engagement that confers on the junta, its new proxy administration and its representatives the legitimacy they so desperately need.