Former Naypyitaw mayor Thein Nyunt, who oversaw construction of the new capital, died in the city’s military-run hospital on Sunday aged 77. His funeral was held at the military cemetery on Tuesday.
When then-dictator Than Shwe formed the State Peace and Development Council in 1997, he replaced the ministers appointed by his predecessor Saw Maung.
Thein Nyunt, then 49, was appointed border progress minister while he was still a colonel in a regime filled with generals.
Thein Nyunt’s classmate in the Defense Services Academy Lieutenant General Tin Aung Myint Oo, who later served as a vice-president in Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian administration, was named the key official overseeing the construction of Naypyitaw. But it was Thein Nyunt who closely oversaw the secret construction of Naypyitaw after 2002, regularly updating Than Shwe on its progress. Naypyitaw became the new capital in 2006.
Than Shwe inspected progress in the construction of key buildings such as the Uppatasanti Pagoda, Presidential Residence, ministries and parliament every week, and Thein Nyunt always accompanied him on his tours, wrote Naypyitaw commander Lt-Gen Wai Lwin who was then responsible to provide security for the former military dictator in his tours. Wai Lwin later served as the defense minister in Thein Sein’s administration.
Wai Lwin said Than Shwe only missed his weekly inspection tours of Naypyitaw during relief work after Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
Thein Nyunt was responsible for land grabs for the sprawling city and behind the planning of a row of six mansions in Naypyitaw for Than Shwe, who took the largest plot with 6.4 hectares (16 acres). His deputy, Maung Aye, future speaker Shwe Mann, future president Thein Sein and future Union Election Commission chair Tin Aye took the remaining plots on the row.
Thein Nyunt, then chairman of Naypyitaw Council, sold plots to ministers and slightly smaller areas to deputy ministers for a few thousand US dollars each. Top civil servants were also allocated land.
Private companies had to construct the homes and military cronies won the contracts.
Thein Nyunt was also active in the Union Solidarity and Development Association, which was formed by Than Shwe in 1993. It later transformed into the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) ahead of the 2010 general election.
Thein Nyunt won a seat in the 2010 election for the USDP, representing his hometown, Maubin in Ayeyarwady Region.
He was appointed President’s Office minister under then-president Thein Sein and served as Naypyitaw’s mayor.
He lost his seat to the National League for Democracy in the 2015 general election, ending his political career.
His junta colleagues and other fellow soldiers expressed their condolences in junta newspapers.
