Thet Thet Khine

Thet Thet Khine (Burmese: သက်သက်ခိုင်; also spelt Thet Thet Khaing; born 19 August 1967) is a Burmese politician, physician and businesswoman who currently serves as minister for Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement of Myanmar. By the time she was announced as Union Minister, the number of employees boycotted the appointment. There are a long line that happened at all of her jewelry shops to sell the items back as a token of their disagreement of her role as Union Minister.[1]She is a former member of parliament in the House of Representatives for Dagon Township constituency.[2] She is a prominent businesswoman in Myanmar and owns a number of gold, jewelry, and gem production companies.[3][4]

Dr

Thet Thet Khine
Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement
Assumed office
4 February 2021
PresidentMyint Swe(acting)
Preceded byWin Myat Aye
SAC ChairmanMin Aung Hlaing
Member of the Pyithu Hluttaw
In office
3 February 2016 – 31 January 2021
ConstituencyDagon Township
Personal details
Born (1967-08-19) 19 August 1967
Mogok, Myanmar
NationalityBurmese
Political partyNational League for Democracy (2014–19)
People's Pioneer Party (2019 to Present)
Spouse(s)Aung Kyaw Win
ChildrenThet Yadanar Kyaw Win
ParentsKhin Maung Thein (father)
Khin Mya Mya (mother)
RelativesHtun Eaindra Bo (sister)
ResidenceYangon
EducationPhD in Walden University
Alma materInstitute of Medicine, Yangon
Yangon Institute of Economics
Nanyang Business School
Walden University
Occupation

Early life and education

Thet Thet Khine was born on 19 August 1967 in Mogok, Myanmar. She is the youngest child of three siblings, having an elder brother and an elder sister, Htun Eaindra Bo, an actress and singer. She graduated with M.B.B.S from Institute of Medicine, Yangon in 1993, MBA (General Management) from Yangon Institute of Economics in 2004, MBA (Nanyang Fellows) from Nanyang Technological University's Nanyang Business School in 2008, and then International Management Program, MA, (USA) from MIT Sloan School of Management in 2008. She started her Ph.D (Public Management and Leadership) course in Walden University in 2012 and successfully finished it in 2019.

Career

She owns a number of gold, jewelry, and gem production companies, including Forever Gems and Shwe Nan Taw[5] gold and jewellery, country's largest gold and jewelry retailer. She is also managing director of Jewel Collection Manufacturing Co.Ltd and United GP Development Co.Ltd.[6]

She had served as joint secretary General of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries (UMFCCI) from 2013 to 2016. She is also the vice president of Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association (MWEA) since 2013, and vice president of Infinite Myanmar Metta Foundation since 2012. Thet is an treasurer of Myanmar Gold Entrepreneurs Association (MGEA).[4][6]

2014-2018: Entry into politics

Her political aspirations first began in 1988, at the time of the 8888 pro-democracy uprising, when she was a student and joined the protests. She was an active supporter for the pro-democracy movement by the National League for Democracy in Mogok during the 1990 Myanmar general election.

In 2014, she became a member of the National League for Democracy. In the 2015 Myanmar general election, she contested the Dagon Township constituency winning a majority of 84,31 votes, won a House of Representatives seat. She also serves as the member of Banks and Financial Development Committee for House of Representatives.[7][8]

In 2016, Thet Thet Khine criticized Yangon Region government's announcement to halt more than 200 high-rise construction projects due their non-compliance with building regulations.[9][10] Thet Thet Khine herself was a major investor in one of the most controversial high rise projects, the 68 Residence in Bahan Township.[9][10][11]

2018-present: NLD dismissal and founding of the PPP

In September 2018, Thet Thet Khine and Kyaw Zeya, a Yangon Region Hluttaw MP were suspended from their duties by the NLD Central Committee for allegedly criticizing the party in the media. Thet Thet Khine told the public media at a discussion on the anniversary of the November 2016 election that "Aung San Suu Kyi could not decide her role in the government and was like a player who plays everywhere on the football pitch".[12][13][14]

After her dismissal from NLD, she founded People's Pioneer Party and became its chairperson . Her party was approved by Union Election Committee, Myanmar in October, 2019. Kyaw Zeya also joined the newly founded People’s Pioneer Party[15] in 2020 as the Vice Chairman. Thet Thet Khine claimed that her party would enlist the help of professionals and experts to come up with programmes to promote and protect public welfare.[16]

She contested in the 2020 Myanmar general election as the chair of the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) and suffered a landslide defeat. She lost her bid to win a seat in the House of Representatives representing Yangon’s Mayangon Township by an overwhelming margin. She garnered mere 7,498 votes (7.03% of votes)[5], less than a tenth of the number won by her National League for Democracy (NLD) rival, Dr. May Win Myint, who finished with 89,548 votes.[17]

In the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, the military regime, the State Administrative Council, appointed Thet Thet Khine as the Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.[5] Her acceptance of the role was widely criticized, reinforcing her image as a "turncoat" doing the Burmese military's bidding.[5][18] Burmese netizens called for the boycott of her jewellery businesses in response.[5][18]

Controversies

Thet Thet Khine garnered controversy for her ties with Ma Ba Tha, a renowned xenophobic and ultranationalist organisation led by Wirathu in addition to her People’s Pioneer Party fielding ultranationalist candidates in the 2020 general election.[17][19] She was also one of the sponsors for Ma Ba Tha's third anniversary conference in 2016 and made donations to Insein Ywama Sayadaw, former chairman of Ma Ba Tha, during her election campaign in 2020.[19][20] Her party included at least ten former Ma Ba Tha members.[21]

She was also present at a controversial meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar military, where 34 of Myanmar's 95 registered political parties sought the military chief's support in the 2020 general election.[22]

She has also denied the Rohingya Genocide.[23] She was also critcised for voicing to collaborate with the military as well as backing its role in politics.[23][24]

In August 2020, Thet Thet Khine drew further criticism when she praised a controversial music video released by Yone Lay, which depicted an assassination attempt on Aung San Suu Kyi and praised the military as saviours.[25][26] The music video was widely criticised as a pro-military propaganda piece and was promoted by social media pages with ties to the military and the military-backed opposition party, USDP.[27][28][29] Thet Thet Khine stated that she respects Yone Lay for his efforts in making the music video and gave her thanks to him.[25]

Awards

She was awarded Outstanding ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Award.[4] She was also awarded Thudhamma Theingi for her contributions to the nation.

She holds two Master of Business Administration degrees from University of Yangon and Nanyang Technological University under the Nanyang Fellows program. She also completed an online Doctor of Philosophy in Public Management and Leadership from Walden University, a controversial, online, for-profit university based in Minnesota.[30][31]

Personal life

Thet married Aung Kyaw Win, a businessman and physician on 3 April 1994. They have one daughter, Thet Yadanar Kyaw Win.

References
  1. "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ အမိန့်အမှတ် (၂၅ / ၂၀၂၁)". 4 February 2021.
  2. Aung Shin (9 October 2015). "NLD candidate and businesswoman: 'It's very hard to change old habits'". The Myanmar Times.
  3. "The Leaderboard: Thet Thet Khine". Center for Strategic and International Studies. 6 December 2015.
  4. "Mp Profile". Pyithu Hluttaw (in Burmese). Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  5. "NLD 'Turncoat' Criticized After Being Named to Myanmar Military Regime's Cabinet". The Irrawaddy. 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  6. "Dr. Thet Thet Khine". The Irrawaddy.
  7. "Elections Results – Global New Light Of Myanmar". Myanmar1329.rssing.com. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  8. "ဘဏ္မ်ားႏွင့္ေငြေၾကးဆိုင္ရာဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးေကာ္မတီ". Pyithuhluttaw.gov.mm.
  9. Htun Khaing (18 August 2016). "The big high rise freeze". Frontier Myanmar.
  10. San Yamin Aung (27 July 2016). "Lawmaker and Real Estate Developer Condemns Suspended High-Rise Construction". The Irrawaddy.
  11. "68 Residence to Inspire 'New Standard' of Luxury Living in Yangon". Myanmar Business Today. 12 July 2014.
  12. Chan Thar (3 September 2018). "Ruling NLD sanctions two Dagon MPs for breaking regulations". The Myanmar Times.
  13. Htun Htun (3 September 2018). "Two NLD Lawmakers Dismissed from Executive Committee". The Irrawaddy.
  14. San Htoo Aung (2 September 2018). "NLD dismisses two MPs from positions". Weekly Eleven.
  15. Times, Myanmar (2019). "MPs joined PPP Party". Myanmar Times.
  16. Times, Myanmar (2020). "New Party". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. Phyo Thiha Cho (9 November 2020). "PPP chair Thet Thet Khine faces landslide defeat". Myanmar Now.
  18. Staff, Reuters (2021-02-05). "Former Suu Kyi ally says no betrayal in taking Myanmar junta job". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  19. Khin Moh Moh Lwin (17 September 2020). "People's Pioneer Party hides hardline nationalist politics beneath progressive veneer". Myanmar Now.
  20. Mratt Kyaw Thu (23 June 2016). "What next for Ma Ba Tha?". Frontier Myanmar.
  21. Khin Moh Moh Lwin and Thaw Zin Myo (4 November 2020). "The PPP, a party of NLD defectors, military men, and ultranationalists". Myanmar Now.
  22. Nyein Nyein (15 August 2020). "Dozens of Myanmar Political Parties Seek Assurances From Military Chief Over Election Concerns". The Irrawaddy.
  23. AFP (21 September 2020). "Ousted and outspoken: the lady taking on The Lady in Myanmar". Bangkok Post.
  24. Thompson Chau, John Liu and Kyaw Soe Htet (19 October 2020). "Thet Thet Khine slams Suu Kyi's leadership on economy". Myanmar Times.
  25. Wunna Aung (17 August 2020). "အဆိုတော်ယုန်လေး၏ သီချင်းရုပ်သံဖန်တီးမှုကို ကျေးဇူးတင်၊ လေးစားကြောင်း ‌ဒေါ်သက်သက်ခိုင်‌ပြော" (in Burmese). 7Day News.
  26. Aung Thiha (6 August 2020). "Myanmar Ministry to Probe Whether Pro-Army Video Was Shot in Violation of COVID-19 Ban". The Irrawaddy.
  27. Min Pyae Sone (5 August 2020). "A walkthrough of the hottest new music video in town". Myanmar Mix.
  28. Nadi (6 August 2020). "Music video with controversial message gets slammed by netizens". Myanmar Times.
  29. Sandar Nyan (6 August 2020). "ယုန်လေး၏ သီချင်းဗီဒီယိုကို Facebook စာမျက်နှာငါးခုက တစ်ပြိုင်နက်တင်ခဲ့" (in Burmese). Myanmar Now.
  30. Anna Schecter (2 December 2016). "Student Sues Walden University: 'I Wasted Six Years of My Life'". NBC News.
  31. cogitASIA Staff (6 December 2015). "The Leaderboard: Thet Thet Khine". CogitASIA.
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