Myanmar’s ex-information czar U Ye Htut is now in Insein Prison, a sudden change of circumstances that will give him a chance to meet up with some of the reporters and journalists he used to know when he served as information minister. Now perhaps they’ll be able to swap a few stories.
In a statement sent to journalists, the military regime’s information office said 64-year-old Ye Htut, a retired lieutenant colonel, was arrested for violating Section 505(A) of the Penal Code—a broad, ill-defined anti-state provision that penalizes “incitement” and “false news” with two- and three-year prison sentences—for writing and spreading false news on his Facebook social media account.
The irony is that since the coup, Ye Htut had enjoyed a freedom of expression not granted to the scores of reporters and journalists arrested by the junta.
Myanmar has been ranked the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 42 behind bars at the time of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Dec. 1, 2022, prison census. Most Myanmar journalists sentenced for their work have been charged under Article 505(A).
With over 700,000 followers, Ye Htut’s Facebook account frequently featured controversial remarks and seems to have struck a chord with the public. For two years, he subtly mocked the regime, often using anecdotes and recycling official clichés drawn from past regimes to indirectly criticize the current one.
The regime’s loyalists were less impressed—even furious. In late 2022, Ye Htut called a well-known journalist and told him his phone was being monitored, adding that the coup was a disaster.
Ye Htut was also a visiting senior research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore until July 2019 and is the author of Myanmar’s Political Transition and Lost Opportunities, 2010-2016.
The conventional wisdom was that Ye Htut was untouchable. He graduated from the Defense Services Academy as part its Intake No. 22 in 1977, his classmates including such future powerful figures as General Soe Win, General Yar Pyae and General Kyaw Swe.
Gen. Soe Win is now deputy leader of the State Administration Council, the junta’s governing body, and army commander-in-chief, while Gen. Yar Pyae is now home affairs minister. Gen. Kyaw Swe served as home affairs minister under the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi administration. In a twist of fate, Gen. Yar Pyae is now handling Ye Htut’s case.
However the episode unfolded, many assumed that Gen. Soe Win was protecting Ye Htut, but this is apparently no longer true.
One theory among Yangon-based diplomats is that regime leader Min Aung Hlaing and his loyalists decided to move against Ye Htut as revenge against Soe Win for his perceived role in the recent downfall of two of the junta boss’s confidantes, in corruption cases.
Ye Htut’s arrest came in the same month in which a Myanmar military tribunal sentenced two high-ranking generals to life imprisonment after they were found guilty of high treason, accepting bribes, illegal possession of foreign currency and violating military discipline.
The Myanmar regime’s “kickback king,” Lieutenant General Moe Myint Tun, and his key subordinate Brigadier General Yan Naung Soe were arrested for
corruption after being interrogated along with many businessmen who had dealings with the lieutenant general.
The sixth-most powerful figure in the Myanmar military, Lt-Gen Moe Myint Tun oversaw Myanmar’s economic affairs, chairing the junta-controlled Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) and the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee (FESC). The latter was formed by the regime in response to a dollar shortage and has control over the Central Bank of Myanmar.
He became the youngest member of the SAC and assumed lucrative posts in the junta-controlled MIC and FESC. But his corruption was too much even for the graft-riddled junta leadership.
The story widely shared in Yangon and Naypyitaw was that Gen. Soe Win blew the whistle on the rampant corruption surrounding Lt-Gen Moe Myint Tun. Min Aung Hlaing refused to heed the warnings or act on the information until the situation became so serious that he had no choice.
The depth of the corruption cases reportedly stunned top leaders including Min Aung Hlaing—though he and his family are known to be as corrupt as any among the top military leadership.
Regime boss Min Aung Hlaing was embarrassed by the scandal involving Moe Myint Tun, whom he had treated as a protégé. At one time there had even been speculation that Moe Myint Tun was Min Aung Hlaing’s heir apparent—but the potential successor is now serving a life sentence.
Then, in a double blow, another protégé, Home Affairs Minister Lt-Gen Soe Htut, was imprisoned for five years last week on corruption charges by a military court.
Last weekend, the junta’s Global New Light of Myanmar reported that Soe Htut abused his power by ordering subordinates to issue passports to companies operating in the country.
He took bribes and breached the financial rules of the Ministry of Home Affairs staff welfare fund, the paper said.
Some diplomats in Yangon speculated that Soe Win was behind the fall of Min Aung Hlaing’s trusted aides. In fact, Gen. Soe Win is not brave enough to go after Min Aung Hlaing in this way; rather, a group of senior active and former generals were behind the cases.
Businessmen said that in purging the corrupt generals, Min Aung Hlaing seeks to show that he does not favor anyone, even his own disciples. This has frightened many among the top leadership. As Moe Myint Htun was interrogated, dozens of tycoons were “invited” to spend time in guesthouses to answer questions from officials. Some remain in detention.
Min Aung Hlaing is known to receive daily briefings every day on the country’s affairs, including security.
In any case, Ye Htut, who became an unlikely critic of Myanmar’s hated regime, was arrested and imprisoned.
After seeing Ye Htut, Soe Htut and Moe Myint Tun carted off to prison, everyone in top leadership positions must be asking, “Who’s next?”
