P'doh Mahn Nyein Maung (Burmese: ဖဒိုမန်းငြိမ်းမောင်, born c. 1947) is a Karen politician and former rebel leader. He is currently serving as a member of Myanmar's State Administration Council.
P'doh Mahn Nyein Maung | |
|---|---|
မန်းငြိမ်းမောင် | |
 | |
| Member of the State Administration Council | |
| Assumed office 2 February 2021 | |
| Member of the Karen National Union's Central Executive Committee | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1947 (age 77) Maungdaw, Rakhine State, Myanmar |
| Political party | Kayin People's Party (2020–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Karen National Union |
| Occupation | Politician |
Mahn Nyein Maung was born between 1947 and 1949.[1]
Career
edit1960s–2020: Activism
editAfter the 1962 Burmese coup d'état, Mahn Nyein Maung became involved in underground political activism.[2] He was arrested in July 1967 and imprisoned in the Coco Islands.[3] He escaped in 1970.[3] He was recaptured and imprisoned until April 1973, under a general amnesty.[2] During his time in jail, he became acquainted with Mahn Aung Kyi, the secretary of the All Burma Karen Organization, who would become his political mentor.[2]
In 2000, he published a memoir entitled Against the Storm, Across the Sea, describing his prison break from Coco Islands in the 1970s, a feat that earned him the nickname "Burma's Papillon."[3] In December 2011, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for "unlawful association" after being deported by China due to visa issues.[4] In March 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison for participating in acts of war against the ruling government, but was released on 19 March via presidential amnesty.[5][3] Mahn Nyein Maung became an admirer of Thein Sein, who had pardoned him.[6] Mahn Nyein Maung participated in negotiating the landmark Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, which was signed by KNU on 15 October 2015.[7]
2020–present: Entry into politics
editHe resigned from the central executive committee of the Karen National Union in July 2020, in order to contest a Pyithu Hluttaw seat in his hometown of Pantanaw, Ayeyarwady Region in the 2020 Myanmar general election, representing the Kayin People's Party.[8] He lost the election, placing third, with 8.83% of the votes.[9] Nyunt Thein, representing the National League for Democracy, won the race with 58.01% of the votes.[9]
He was appointed as a member of the State Administration Council on 2 February 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.[10] Following his appointment, the KNU distanced itself from Mahn Nyein Maung, and reiterated its opposition to the military coup.[11]
References
edit- ^ "Burma-related Designations; Counter Terrorism Designations". U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
- ^ a b c "Burma's "Papillon"". The Irrawaddy. May 1999. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Karen Leader's Tale of Escape From Island Prison Makes Burma Debut". The Irrawaddy. 26 August 2013.
- ^ "Burma 'jails' Karen rebel leader Mahn Nyein Maung". BBC News. 16 December 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "Myanmar frees rebel leader for peace talks – Myanmar". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "NLD 'Turncoat' Criticized After Being Named to Myanmar Military Regime's Cabinet". The Irrawaddy. 5 February 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- ^ "Pado Mahn Nyein Maung will contest in the Myanmar general elections". Burma News International. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "KNU heavyweight prepares for election battle". Frontier Myanmar. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ a b "ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ်လောင်း တစ်ဦးချင်းစီ၏ ဆန္ဒမဲရရှိမှုအခြေအနေ" (PDF). Union Election Commission (in Burmese). p. 81.
- ^ "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ အမိန့်အမှတ် ( ၁၄ / ၂၀၂၁) ၁၃၈၂ ခုနှစ်၊ ပြာသိုလပြည့်ကျော် ၇ ရက် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်". Tatmadaw Information Team (in Burmese). Retrieved 4 February 2021.
- ^ "Phado Mahn Nyein Maung not part of KNU". Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd. Retrieved 8 February 2021.