March 31, 2016

Myanmar’s new President, Htin Kyaw (at left), receives the presidential seal from outgoing president Thein Sein during the handover ceremony at the presidential palace in Naypyidaw, March 30, 2016. Credit: © Ye Aung Thu, Pool/Reuters

Yesterday, March 30, Htin Kyaw became the first civilian president of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) since 1962. Kyaw is a staunch ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese human rights activist whose struggle to return Myanmar to democracy earned her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize—as well as a lengthy time under house arrest. In 2000, Htin Kyaw served four months in prison for helping Aung San Suu Kyi travel outside Yangon, the nation’s largest city.

In 1962, Burmese Army General Ne Win seized power from the democratically elected government. He suspended the Burmese Constitution and set up a Revolutionary Council of military leaders. Ne Win—who changed his title from general to president—and his Revolutionary Council allowed only one political party—their own. The nation fell on hard economic times, and the government closed the nation’s borders, took over media and schools, and put down unrest with gunfire. Ne Win and his party ruled strictly until 1988, when social and political unrest led the military to seize power from Ne Win. In 1989, the new military leaders changed the nation’s name from Burma to Myanmar.

In recent years, the military had eased political restrictions and given more power to the nation’s elected Union Assembly. In 2010, they released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, but a complex system of laws bans her from ever serving as president. On March 15, 2016, Myanmar’s Union Assembly elected Htin Kyaw as the new president, but Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to govern through him.

Other World Book articles

• Asia (a Back in time article-1962)
• Myanmar (Back in time articles-1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2014)
• Nobel Prize (a Back in time article)