Than Nyein ( my, သန်းငြိမ်း; 5 August 1937 – 21 May 2014) was a Burmese politician and physician. He was one of the founders of the

National Democratic Force The National Democratic Force (NDF), is a political party in Myanmar (Burma). It was founded by former members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who disagreed with the party leadership's decision to boycott the 2010 general election ...

(NDF) party, after working for the

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 ...

(NLD) since its inception in 1988.

Early life and career

Than Nyein was born in Khanaung east village,

Kyauktan Township Kyauktan Township ( my, ကျောက်တန်း မြို့နယ် ) is a township of Yangon Region, located in the southern section of the region. Prominent People from Kyauktan Township *Dr. Than Nyein Than Nyein ( my, သန� ...

in British Burma on 5 August 1937. He graduated from Institute of Medicine, Yangon in 1963 after passing high school in 1954. He worked for the Ministry of Health as a leader in the leprosy prevention group and as a township medical officer. He also served for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

in Sri Lanka from 1984 to 1986.

Political imprisonment

He was forced to retire from government posts for his involvement in the

8888 uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

. He was arrested following an attempt by the

(NLD) to hold a meeting with

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 ...

and NLD youth in Mayangone Township in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. His medical licence was revoked and sentenced to 7 years in prison for participating in youth organization activities in October 1997. He was released in 2008 after his prison term was repeatedly extended by the

military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

Political career

He joined the National League for Democracy since its founding of the party. He was elected as a ''

Hluttaw The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စု လွှတ်တော် lit. Assembly of the Union) is the ''de jure'' national-level bicameral legislature of Myanmar (officially known as the ''Republic of the Union of M ...

'' member for

in the 1990 election. He served in various positions in the NLD and became a member of its Central Executive Committee in 2009. He disagreed with party secretary general Aung San Suu Kyi and advocated for major political decision that not to boycott 2010 elections. He, together with

Khin Maung Swe Khin Maung Swe ( my, ခင်မောင်ဆွေ) is a Burmese politician and member of Myanmar's State Administration Council. He is the chairman of the National Democratic Force (NDF). Early life and education Khin Maung Swe was born ...

founded National Democratic Force Party in June 2010. He did not run for election and only four candidates from the NDF were elected as

members in the 2010 election. He was the brother-in-law of

Khin Nyunt General Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a Burmese military officer and politician. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004. Early life and education Kh ...

, then chief of military intelligence and

Prime Minister of Myanmar The prime minister of Myanmar is the head of government of Myanmar. The post was re-established in 2021 by the State Administration Council, the country's ruling military junta, to lead its nominally-civilian provisional government. The provis ...

from 2003 to 2004.

Death

He died of liver cancer at the age of 76 at Pinlon Hospital of Yangon on 21 May 2014.

References

{{Authority control Burmese politicians 1937 births 2014 deaths Burmese prisoners and detainees People from Yangon Region Prisoners and detainees of Myanmar Burmese democracy activists University of Medicine 1, Yangon alumni