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,

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

, 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