Nearly a year after his ouster as speaker of Myanmar’s lower house of parliament, it has emerged that T Khun Myat has since been reappointed to his former position.
Like every other parliamentary leader, T Khun Myat was removed from his job during last year’s coup. Until recently, however, it was unclear what had happened to the 72-year-old ethnic Kachin lawmaker from Shan State.
The first evidence that he was alive and well and still in the capital Naypyitaw appeared nearly two weeks ago, in a letter published in a regime gazette on January 7.
The letter, which formally denied a leave request by the director general of the Union Assembly, Kyaw Soe, was signed by T Khun Myat as speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw.
Parliamentary sources have since confirmed that he has been in the position since early last year.
“Lower house speaker T Khun Myat is now overseeing all parliamentary proceedings, and also hosts staff meetings,” said a source who did not want to be named.
According to Aung Kyi Nyunt, a central executive member of the deposed ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), T Khun Myat was reappointed by the junta in April.
“The military council forced him to return to his former official residence. It seems he couldn’t resist the pressure because he was still in Naypyitaw,” said Aung Kyi Nyunt, who is also chair of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a body formed shortly after the coup by MPs elected in 2020.
The junta that seized power last February has sought to maintain the appearance that Myanmar still has a functioning legislature, despite overthrowing the country’s government on the grounds of alleged election irregularities.
While the regime claims that the move was lawful under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, the CRPH and other critics say that it was unconstitutional because it was carried out without the approval of the sitting president, Win Myint, who was forced from office and replaced by the military-appointed first vice-president, Myint Swe, on the day of the coup.
Power was then immediately transferred to coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, the armed forces chief who has since imprisoned most former leaders or forced them into exile.
Mahn Win Khaing Than, the speaker of the upper house, the Amyotha Hluttaw, until the military takeover, was one of those who managed to escape. He is currently prime minister of the shadow National Unity Government.
Henry Van Thio, the second vice-president, has not been heard from since the coup and his whereabouts remain unknown.
T Khun Myat was first elected to parliament in 2010 as a member of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). He was reelected as a USDP candidate in 2015, but later left the party after coming under attack for failing to block NLD-led efforts to amend the constitution, which he helped to draft under the former dictatorship of General Than Shwe.
In May 2020, the USDP and military-appointed MPs filed a motion to have him impeached as speaker of both the Pyithu Hluttaw and the Union Assembly, or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
Despite his controversial background (including his alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade as leader of a militia based in Shan State’s Kutkai Township, which he later represented in parliament), T Khun Myat was trusted by the NLD leadership, according to Aung Kyi Nyunt.
“He wasn’t so bad. He was loyal to [NLD chair] Aung San Suu Kyi and the party. He had the right attitude, and was very cooperative,” the CRPH chair told Myanmar Now.
“Once he takes a stand on a cause, he fulfils his duty wholeheartedly and honestly,” he added.
Attempts to reach T Khun Myat for comment on his reappointment as lower house speaker were unsuccessful.
