Ye Htut

Ye Htut (Burmese: ရဲထွဋ်, [jɛ́ tʰʊʔ]) is a Burmese veteran and civil servant who previously served as presidential spokesman from 2013 to 2016 and later as minister for the Ministry of Information (Myanmar) from 2014 to 2016 in the Thein Sein's Cabinet.[1] He left the office in 2016 and worked as visiting senior research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore until July 2019.[2][3]

For House of Nationalities MP, see Ye Htut (MP).
His Excellency

Ye Htut
Minister for Information of Myanmar
In office
1 August 2014 – 30 March 2016
Preceded byAung Kyi
Succeeded byPe Myint
Spokesperson for the President
In office
February 2013 – 30 March 2016
Deputy Minister of Information of Myanmar
In office
31 August 2012 – 1 August 2014
Preceded bySoe Win
Deputy Director General/Director General at the Ministry of Information
In office
2005 – 31 August 2012
Succeeded byTint Swe
Personal details
Born1959 (1959) (age 62)
NationalityMyanmar
Political partyUnion Solidarity and Development Party
Spouse(s)Khin Sandar Tun
ResidenceNaypyidaw
OccupationMilitary Personnel, Civil Servant, Academics
Websitewww.facebook.com/ye.htut.988
Military service
AllegianceMyanmar
Branch/serviceMyanmar Army
Years of service1977-2005
Rank Lieutenant Colonel

Military career

Ye Htut applied to Defence Services Academy but initially failed it first time, so enrolled at Rangoon University. He applied again and accepted for the academy's 22nd intake in 1977. After graduation in 1981, he was dispatched to Kayin State, where he would spend five years fighting the Karen National Union along the Myanmar-Thai border.

Over the next 16 years, he served in Tanintharyi Region, Kayin State, Kachin State and near Naypyidaw, before landing as the chief instructor at a training facility in southern Shan State in 2002. He also contributed articles for the army's Myawady news journal.[4]

In office

He was retired as a lieutenant colonel in Myanmar Army and took up the post of deputy director general at the Department of Information and Public Relations under the Ministry of Information in 2005. He was promoted as the director general of the department in 2009, which has been viewed as a propaganda machine for the military government.[1]

He became deputy minister for the Ministry of Information in August 2012 when the former minister Kyaw Hsan and deputy ministers were reshuffled to other ministries.[5] He became spokesperson for the President in February 2013.[4][6][7]

On July 30, 2014, he was nominated to be Minister for the Ministry of Information. On August 1, the Assembly of the Union confirmed his nomination. He left the office and USDP Party in 2016.

Public image

He is an active Facebook user, has an official account on the social media site where he often shares news from the government and the military and writes his opinions through his Facebook account.[1] He earned the nickname Facebook minister for his frequent use of Facebook.[8]

In 2012, Media reports, particularly those in Eleven Media, suggested that he was behind the blog posts known by the pen name Dr Sate Phwar, who criticized the legislature for acting above the law. However, he denied that the accusations linking him to Dr Seik Phwar.[9] The Assembly of the Union formed a commission to investigate the identity of Dr Seik Phwar after the blogger wrote an article criticising parliament. The commission's chairman said they found evidence that could implicate him.[10] However, the commission failed to disclose the identity of Dr Seik Phwar, after five months of investigation.[11]

In June 2014, he posted an apology note on his Facebook account after a storm of criticism followed his wife's sharing of a Photoshopped image of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Hijab. His wife deleted her Facebook account after screenshots of her post were spread by other Facebook users.[8]

Personal life

He married to Khin Sandar Tun.[8] His father, Shwe Than, was formerly the Chief of Burma Police Force and a People's Assembly representative during the socialist era.[12]

References
  1. "Facebook fan Ye Htut named presidential spokesman". The Nation. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  2. Kean, Thomas. "Ye Htut: 'Without domestic consensus, there's no workable Rakhine solution'". Frontier Myanmar. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  3. "Former Information Minister Surprised by USDP Membership Appointment". The Irrawaddy. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  4. "U Ye Htut: From military to ministry". Mmtimes.com. 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  5. Aung Zaw (3 September 2012). "Will Aung Kyi Defend Press Freedom?". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  6. "Who is Ye Htut?". The Nation. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  7. Kyaw Hsu Mon (24 September 2012). "Senior bureaucrats on the move in another reshuffle". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  8. Zarni Mann (6 June 2014). "Minister's Wife Shares Fake Facebook Photo of Suu Kyi in Islamic Headscarf". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  9. "I am not Dr Seik Phwar": U Ye Htut". The Myanmar Times. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  10. KYAW PHYO THA & HTET NAING ZAW (4 July 2013). "Deputy Minister Ye Htut in the Hot Seat Over Defamatory Anonymous Blog". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  11. "Parliamentary commission fails to expose defamatory blogger". Eleven. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  12. Zay Thu (27 August 2014). "ဒီမိုကရေစီ အစိုးရတွင်လည်း မဆလလူကြီးများ၏ သားသမီးများသာ ရာထူးကြီးများ ရယူထား". Tomorrow (in Burmese). Retrieved 9 July 2015.
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