Former junta minister faces legal threat after alleged unauthorised meeting with diplomats

A Myanmar businesswoman once embraced by the generals and rewarded with a cabinet post after the 2021 coup now finds herself edging toward a prison cell. Myanmar’s junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) has threatened legal action against senior figures from the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP), warning that the party could be deregistered after its chair, Thet Thet Khine, allegedly met with foreign diplomats without official approval. In a statement released yesterday, the UEC said Thet Thet Khine and PPP central executive committee member Htet Htet Hlaing held a “secret” meeting with “individuals from an embassy” at a Yangon restaurant on December 14. The commission did not identify the diplomats involved. It said the party had already been warned on December 22 that meetings with foreign embassies or organisations without prior permission would constitute a violation of the Political Parties Registration Law. Political parties had also been informed, the statement added, that accepting foreign assistance or influence could result in the cancellation of their registration. The UEC also said it had questioned Thet Thet Khine and her party colleague, and that both had admitted to taking part in what it described as a “secret” meeting. It added that action would be taken against both individuals. The announcement came a day after reports emerged that the two women had been arrested, although the UEC’s statement did not explicitly confirm their detention. The PPP has not issued any public comment on the reports. The threat of prosecution follows a major electoral setback for the party in the first phase of the military-organised elections held on December 28. Party officials confirmed that the PPP failed to win a single seat in races for the lower house of parliament or regional assemblies in the initial round of voting, which took place in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. The December vote marked the first phase of a planned three-stage election process widely criticised as an attempt by the military to entrench its rule nearly five years after seizing power in a 2021 coup. Large parts of the country are excluded from all phases of the polls due to ongoing armed conflict and resistance to military rule. Thet Thet Khine runs a number of jewellery stores across Myanmar and has stakes in the construction industry. Her political trajectory reflects the junta’s narrowing tolerance even for once-compliant civilian allies. A former lawmaker from the National League for Democracy, she won a parliamentary seat in 2015 but was later removed from the party after publicly criticising its leadership. In 2020, she founded the PPP, which drew heavily on former military officers for its leadership but fared poorly in elections held that year. She went on to become one of the most vocal civilian supporters of the military coup in February 2021 and was rewarded with cabinet-level posts, first as minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement and later as minister for hotels and tourism. (Her status as a cabinet member in the regime also earned her a place on the US sanctions list.) Thet Thet Khine at an official meeting as the junta minister for social welfare in 2021 (Photo: Global New Light of Myanmar) Her standing with the generals began to unravel in 2025, when the military sidelined all civilian ministers and further consolidated power by filling senior cabinet positions almost exclusively with serving or retired generals. Thet Thet Khine was removed from her post as part of that shift. She was later barred by the UEC from standing as a candidate in the junta-organised elections, although her party was allowed to contest the polls. Officials cited unresolved financial liabilities as the reason for her disqualification, linking the decision to loans owed to KBZ Bank, the country’s largest lender, owned by crony Aung Ko Win, who is widely regarded as having close personal ties to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing. Political observers and party sources, however, have suggested that her exclusion had less to do with financial issues than with the military’s broader effort to marginalise civilian allies who were useful in the immediate aftermath of the 2021 coup but later became expendable as the junta tightened its grip on power. After being shut out of both the junta's cabinet and electoral participation, Thet Thet Khine began openly criticising the election process, saying it lacked a level playing field and accusing the military of abandoning neutrality. She said former military officers serving as election commission officials had imposed rules that made it difficult for candidates to comply, and pointed to the fact that senior military leaders had joined the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) only months before the polls. “The USDP and the military have aligned with each other,” she said in a recent interview with a pro-military media outlet. “I don’t want the military to be used as a walking stick for any political party.” She also criticised the military’s dual role in the election process. “In this election, the military acted as both referee and contestant,” she said. “That is how it played out.” Despite reports of her detention, the PPP’s Facebook page continued to post videos showing Thet Thet Khine travelling to major cities, raising questions about her current status and the circumstances surrounding her arrest.

Former junta minister faces legal threat after alleged unauthorised meeting with diplomats

Thet Thet Khine and a colleague from her People’s Pioneer Party stand accused of violating the Political Parties Registration Law

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