A trusted friend and aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, the famed Burmese icon of democracy, Htin Kyaw is the first civilian president since 1962.
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Htin Kyaw, the son of a national poet, went to school with Ms Suu Kyi and helps run the charity she founded in her mother’s name.
It was revealed that a milestone was met by Myanmar just this week, after Htin Kyaw was elected as president.
The Myanmar parliament set three groups representing the two Houses and military MPs to nominate one candidate each for the presidential race and through voting, the one that wins the most number of votes takes the presidency while the remaining two become vice presidents.
“Suu Kyi remains the leader … she will give instructions and guidance to the new president”, Paul Naw Sam, an ethnic Kachin told ucanews.com on March 15.
Most of Gen Myint Swe’s votes came from the army’s parliamentary bloc, which has a prereserved quarter of seats in parliament, and from military-backed parties. However, the election of Htin Kyaw, a confidante of Suu Kyi and once her driver, effectively puts her in the driver’s seat.
Suu Kyi apparently chose U Htin Kyaw “not because he has political experience, since he doesn’t, but because she trusts him”.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, was under military rule for half a century.
“U Htin Kyaw has never held a public office”. Suu Kyi’s nonviolent campaign won her the Nobel Peace Prize.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won a November 8 general election by a landslide, gaining an overwhelming majority in both houses of parliament.
However, the military still restrains the power of the new civilian authorities as it controls the home, defense and border-affairs ministries, as well as the country’s security forces and civil service.
The two other candidates who were also running will now become the country’s joint vice-presidents. The military may have tried to intimidate her or her NLD party at the last minute, but Suu Kyi has spent most of her life refusing to be intimidated.
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Its candidate, Myint Swe, a conservative hardliner allied to outgoing president and former junta leader Than Shwe, was elected first vice-president. After the parliament session ended, Suu Kyi did not comment as she exited, leaving the new president to deliver the first reaction. He studied at the now-defunct University of London Institute of Computer Science at the same time that Aung San Suu Kyi lived in London.
