Myanmar's military took power on 1 February. Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party are now under arrest. The coup ends a democratic experiment in a country where generals usually rule. In 2017 Suu Kyi shocked the West by defending the generals’ ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya Muslims. But as her star faded in the West, it became brighter at home where the Rohingya are considered invaders. Riding on her popularity, her party won last November's election, intensifying tensions between the civilian government and the army. The generals only won 7% of the vote and cried election fraud, threatening to suspend the constitution if their claims were not investigated. This coup reverses the generals' declining influence in one fell swoop. The new leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, will remain in charge until 2022. Meanwhile, the economy will be crippled by fresh international sanctions, and Myanmar will become the pariah it was a decade ago. There have been widespread civilian protests against the coup, and the military have responded by shutting down Facebook ‘for the sake of stability’.