Myanmar President and Suu Kyi confidant retires

Yangon, March 21

Myanmar’s President, a close friend of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said today that he was retiring, a move that puts a representative of the country’s already powerful military at least temporarily in a position of executive power.

An announcement posted on the Facebook page of the Myanmar President Office said 71-year-old Htin Kyaw would step down because he wished to take a rest.

It follows reports that he suffered ill health that forced him to travel abroad for medical care at least twice in the past year. The statement said his post would be filled within seven working days, in line with the constitution.

Htin Kyaw, who became President in 2016, was Myanmar’s first elected civilian President and head of its first government to be elected in free and fair polls since a 1962 military coup.

After he became President, Suu Kyi became Myanmar’s de facto leader when she was named state counsellor, a position created for the country’s once-leading voice for democracy because she’s constitutionally banned from the presidency. A clause in the charter bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the job. Suu Kyi’s two sons are British, as was her late husband.

By mutual agreement, Htin Kyaw acted as a proxy for Suu Kyi, who is also foreign minister. Suu Kyi had explained publicly, and to public approval, that she would be “above the President.” 

Htin Kyaw was “a constitutional President whose role and powers were reduced to that of a figurehead,” said analyst Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a policy advocacy group. “The new President, whoever he is, needs to take a firmer stand and not let the (state counsellor) do everything,” he said in an email.

He added that Htin Kyaw’s stepping down was widely expected because of his health, but that “there won’t be much of an impact unless his successor provides some unexpected surprises, good or bad.” 

Myanmar has two vice-presidents, and according to its constitution, 66-year-old First Vice President Myint Swe will serve as acting President.

He was nominated for Vice-President by the military, which retains great influence even in the elected civilian government because it is guaranteed 25 per cent of the seats in Parliament as well as the three key security portfolios in the Cabinet. — PTI

Military appointee will be ‘acting President’

• Myint Swe, who was the military’s appointment for Vice-President, will stand in as the acting President. The President is the head of state and government in Myanmar, and under the constitution has far-reaching powers
• Swe is a retired general who headed the feared military intelligence agency under former junta leader Than Shwe. When Than Shwe ordered a crackdown on anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007, known as the Saffron Revolution, Myint Swe was the head of special operations in Yangon
• One of the key questions facing Myanmar now is, “what will the acting President Myint Swe do during the interregnum because he has the power to do many things”