Just don’t call him that...

Like-minded? Gen Hlaing (right) with Prayut at the government house in Bangkok in 2019. — AFP

ARE you ready to bet with me that at November’s Asean leaders’ summit, Brunei, the host, will officially – and of course unilaterally – call Myanmar’s junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing “His Excellency the Prime Minister of Myanmar”? But as gambling is unlawful in Indonesia, we cannot do it openly, although I am pretty sure I would win.

From the very beginning, Brunei has considered Gen Hlaing’s military coup part of Myanmar’s internal affairs. After entering mandatory military retirement last month, Hlaing, who toppled the democratically elected government on Feb 1, appointed himself the prime minister of Myanmar.