Htin Kyaw
| H.E. U Htin Kyaw | |
|---|---|
| ထင်ကျော် | |
| President of Myanmar | |
|
Assumed office 30 March 2016 | |
| Vice President |
Myint Swe Henry Van Thio |
| State Counsellor | Aung San Suu Kyi |
| Preceded by | Thein Sein |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 July 1946 Yangon, British Burma |
| Political party | National League for Democracy |
| Spouse(s) | Su Su Lwin (m. 1973) |
| Residence | Presidential Palace, Naypyidaw |
| Alma mater |
Yangon Institute of Economics University of London Arthur D. Little School of Management |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
| Website | Government website |
Htin Kyaw (Burmese: ထင်ကျော် [tʰɪ̀ɴ tɕɔ̀]; born 20 July 1946) is a Burmese politician and scholar who has been President of Myanmar since 2016. He is the first elected civilian to hold the office since the 1962 coup d'état. The second son of scholar Min Thu Wun, Htin Kyaw was born in Rangoon, Myanmar. After graduating from Rangoon University in 1968 and University of London in 1975, he worked in various positions in the education, planning and treasury ministries.
He is an ethnic Mon-Bamar, and viewed as a proxy while National League for Democracy leader and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency. He was inaugurated as president on 30 March 2016, taking office from his predecessor Thein Sein.
Early life and education
Htin Kyaw was born in Rangoon, British Burma (now Myanmar), to the late Burmese scholar and poet Min Thu Wun and Kyi Kyi.[1][2]
Htin Kyaw graduated high school from English Methodist High School in 1962. He enrolled at the Rangoon Institute of Economics (then part of the Rangoon Arts and Science University) and graduated with an M.Econ. in statistics in 1968. He started working as a teacher while studying towards his master's degree.[3] He then moved to University Computer Center as a programmer/system analyst in 1970.
Htin Kyaw pursued further studies on a scholarship to the Institute of Computer Science, University of London in 1971–1972 and attended computer studies in Asia Electronics Union, Tokyo in 1974. He completed a second master's degree in computer science in 1975.[1][4] He attended a course at the Arthur D. Little School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1987.[5][6]
Career
In 1975, Htin Kyaw joined to the Ministry of Industry 2 as a Deputy Division Chief.[7] In 1980, he was appointed as a Deputy Director in the Foreign Economic Relations Department, Ministry of Planning and Treasury, and resigned from government service in 1992.[1]
He was arrested on 22 September 2000 and spent for four months in Insein prison for assisting Aung San Suu Kyi to travel outside Yangon.[8] From 2012, he worked as a senior executive for Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, founded by Aung San Suu Kyi and named after her mother Khin Kyi. Though not a veteran member of the NLD, Kyaw worked very closely with Aung San Suu Kyi at the Office of NLD Chairperson.
He was mentioned as a possible presidential pick after the 2015 general election, while Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency. Upon his nomination for presidency, Aung San Suu Kyi said she had chosen him for his truthfulness, loyalty and respectable education.[9][10][11]
Presidency
On 10 March 2016, he was nominated as one of the Vice Presidents of Myanmar by the NLD for the House of Representatives (Lower House). On 11 March 2016, 274 MPs out of 317 (during Elected MPs assembly) voted him as one of the Vice Presidents. On 15 March 2016, 360 MPs out of 652 of the Assembly of the Union (Union Parliament) voted him as the President, ahead of Myint Swe and his party colleague Henry Van Thio.[12][13]
On 17 March 2016, Htin Kyaw proposed formation of 21 ministries with 18 ministers to be appointed.[14] On 21 March 2016, he delivered a speech in the Assembly of the Union for the first time regarding the proposal of the formation of ministries and the MPs of the Union Parliament approved it.[15]
On 30 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was sworn in as President of Myanmar. Despite Htin Kyaw being a nominally independent leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has said that she will in fact direct the actions of the president and lead the country through him since she has been barred constitutionally from becoming president. Aung San Suu Kyi publicly stated before Htin Kyaw's election that she would "be above the president” and make all decisions.[16]
Personal life
Htin Kyaw has been married to Su Su Lwin since 1973; she is the incumbent House of Representatives MP for Thongwa Township and Chairperson of the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives. The couple have no children.[17]
His father was the famous writer, poet and scholar Min Thu Wun, who won a seat in the 1990 election. His father-in-law, U Lwin, was a co-founder of the National League for Democracy.[1][9]
Literary works
Htin Kyaw writes under the pen name Dala Ban, a famous Mon warrior. He wrote a biographical book about his father Min Thu Wun: The Father’s Life: Glimpses of my Father (Aba Bawa Aba Akyaung Tase Tasaung).[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Who Is Htin Kyaw, Myanmar's Newly Elected President?". VOA.
- ↑ "သမ္မတသစ် ဦးထင်ကျော်၏ အစ်ကို ဦးကျော်စိုးနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံခြင်း". 17 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- ↑ "ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရဲ႕ ၉ ဦးေျမာက္ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သမၼတ". ဗီြအိုေအ. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
- ↑ "Who is Htin Kyaw, Myanmar’s new president?". South China Morning Post. 16 March 2016.
- ↑ "Myanmar's NLD nominates presidential candidate | Kyodo News". english.kyodonews.jp. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
- ↑ "Ex-driver gears up for Myanmar rule but Suu Kyi still at wheel". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
- ↑ Ye Mon and Lun Min Mang. "U Htin Kyaw: from computer science grad to NLD loyalist".
- ↑ Holmes, Oliver (2016-03-15). "Myanmar parliament elects Htin Kyaw as first civilian president in 53 years". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
- 1 2 Ei Ei Toe Lwin. "Daw Suu eyes foreign minister role".
- ↑ "NLD Dropped a Name List to Lead Its New Government". The Burma Times.
- ↑ "Myanmar Starts New Parliamentarye Era". The Bangkok Post. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ↑ "Myanmar elects Htin Kyaw as first civilian president in decades".
- ↑ "Myanmar Lawmakers Name Htin Kyaw President, Affirming Civilian Rule". The New York Times. 16 March 2016.
- ↑ "Htinkyaw propose formation of Ministries".
- ↑ "Parliament Approves President-Elect’s Proposal to Downsize Ministries".
- ↑ Zin, Min. "Channel_banners_1000px_demlab-r3 (1) Burma's Puppeteer-in-Chief Takes Charge". Foreign Policy.
- ↑ Ei Ei Toe Lwin. "Who is President U Htin Kyaw?".
External links
Media related to Htin Kyaw at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thein Sein |
President of Myanmar 2016–present |
Incumbent |
| |||||||||||||
