Aye Tha Aung ( my, အေးသာအောင် also spelt Aye Thar Aung; born: 10 December 1945) is a Burmese politician, former
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
and former Deputy Speaker of the
Amyotha Hluttaw
The Amyotha Hluttaw ( my, အမျိုးသားလွှတ်တော်, ; House of Nationalities) is the ''de jure'' upper house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 224 members, ...
, the upper house of the
Myanmar parliament. In the
2015 election, he contested and won the
Rakhine State
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...
№ 6 constituency for a seat in the country's upper house.
Early life
He is an ethnic
Rakhine and was born in Myebon Township,
Rakhine State
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...
on 10 December 1945. He had only received a high school education. He previously served as a
Sergeant Major
Sergeant major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world.
History
In 16th century Spain, the ("sergeant major") was a general officer. He commanded an army's infantry, and ranked about third in th ...
in the
Burmese Army and worked in the Military Industry Corporation. He was dismissed and imprisoned in
Mandalay as a result of his underground political activities, and was later released under amnesty in 1974.
Political career
Aye Tha Aung has worked with Aung San Suu Kyi since 1990 when he was a member of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP), formed by the National League for Democracy and victorious ethnic politicians to push for the convening of a parliament seating the 1990 election winners.
He was arrested in 2000 by
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
and was handed a 21-year jail sentence for breaking publication and emergency laws. He is believed to have undergone tough interrogation in prison, and has suffered various health problems and had neck surgery. He was released in 2002.
He is a strong defender of the rights of the
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
Rakhine people, but he is seen as a less strident nationalist than party leader
Aye Maung.
He formerly chaired the
Arakan League for Democracy
The Arakan League for Democracy ( my, ရခိုင်ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်; abbreviated ALD) is a political party active in Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma).
History
The ALD was founded on 27 September 1 ...
that merged with the
Rakhine Nationalities Development Party to form the
Arakan National Party
The Arakan National Party ( my, ရခိုင်အမျိုးသားပါတီ; abbreviated ANP), is a political party in Myanmar (Burma), representing the interests of the Rakhine people in Rakhine State and Yangon Region. The part ...
in 2014. He is a senior leader of the
Arakan National Party
The Arakan National Party ( my, ရခိုင်အမျိုးသားပါတီ; abbreviated ANP), is a political party in Myanmar (Burma), representing the interests of the Rakhine people in Rakhine State and Yangon Region. The part ...
, and a longtime political comrade of
National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It ...
leader
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
.
During the
2021 Myanmar coup d'état
A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then ves ...
on 1 February, Aye Tha Aung was placed under
house arrest by the
Myanmar Armed Forces
Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include t ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aye Tha Aung
Prisoners and detainees of Myanmar
Members of the House of Nationalities
1945 births
Living people
Burmese people of Rakhine descent
People from Rakhine State
Arakan National Party politicians
Arakanese politicians