JOHANNESBURG – In Madagascar, weeks of nationwide protests led by the younger Gen-Z generation have culminated in a military coup, resulting in President Andry Rajoelina’s forced exile. In his place, Colonel Michael Randrianirina has been appointed as the new leader of this Indian Ocean nation.
Colonel Randrianirina’s rise to power is not an isolated incident in history where military personnel transition to political leadership.
Below are five notable examples of military figures who have similarly ascended to leadership roles:
Myanmar — Min Aung Hlaing
Min Aung Hlaing climbed the ranks of the Myanmar military over several decades, ultimately becoming the joint chief of staff for the army, navy, and air force in 2010. By 2011, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief, using the next decade to solidify his authority.
With mandatory retirement looming in July 2021, Min Aung Hlaing preempted this by orchestrating a military coup in February of that year. In the aftermath, he declared a state of emergency, assuming complete control by forming the State Administration Council (SAC). Under various official titles, he has led Myanmar since. The military government has since announced intentions to conduct a general election by the end of the year.
Uganda — Idi Amin
Idi Amin began his military career as a cook and served in the British colonial army. After Uganda’s 1962 independence, he rose quickly through its military ranks under President Milton Obote’s guidance to become commander of the army. In January 1971, Obote was in Singapore for a Commonwealth summit when Amin took control in a military coup. Obote fled to neighboring Tanzania after the coup, which was the result of the two men’s growing political and personal animosity.
Ugandans initially welcomed Amin’s rise to power, as he promised to release political prisoners and restore democracy. However, his regime rapidly descended into a brutal dictatorship characterized by violence and human rights abuses.
Amin was himself overthrown in April 1979 by an invasion force composed of the Tanzanian military and Ugandan rebels.
Turkey — Kenan Evren
Kenan Evren began his military career as an officer from a military academy, rising through the ranks over several decades until he reached the highest rank of general, serving as the chief of the general staff. He led a military coup in Turkey in September 1980 after months of violence between left-wing and right-wing militants that nearly brought the country to civil war.
The leader of the coup took over the presidency and then rewrote the constitution to guarantee the military’s political power. The military dissolved Parliament and ruled through a National Security Council, which Evren was the head of, effectively running the country as a dictator.
His period of sole military rule ended when he formally assumed the title of the seventh president of Turkey in November 1982, after a new constitution was approved by referendum, and he served until November 1989.
In 2012, he was put on trial for leading the coup and later sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against the state.
Ghana — Jerry Rawlings
Jerry Rawlings rose to power through two military coups, first in June 1979 and then in December 1981, before transitioning to a democratically elected president.
Rawlings, a pilot in the Ghanaian Air Force, became well-known for the successful first coup he led. He briefly held the position of ruler of Ghana before ceding it.
In a second coup in 1981, he toppled the civilian government and commanded the Provisional National Defense Council military dictatorship in the early 1990s. Following the drafting of a new constitution in 1992, he was democratically elected as president and held office for two four-year terms, from January 1993 to January 2001.
His legacy is complex, with both praise for his economic reforms and criticism for human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances.
Chile — Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet was a career military officer who had risen through the ranks and was appointed commander-in-chief of the army by Chile President Salvador Allende in August 1973. The following month, Allende, the democratically elected socialist president, was overthrown in a bloody military coup led by Pinochet. The military surrounded and bombed the presidential palace, La Moneda, where Allende remained until his death by suicide.
In the aftermath, the military imposed a junta where Pinochet emerged to establish himself as its single head before instituting a cruel, 17-year dictatorship. Until 1990, Chileans lived in a period marked by systematic human rights abuses and the implementation of radical free-market economic policies.
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