Hla Swe

Hla Swe
လှဆွေ
Member of the House of Nationalities
In office
31 January 2011 – 29 January 2016
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Pyuu Lwin
Constituency Magwe Region № 12
Gangaw Township
Personal details
Born (1960-09-28) 28 September 1960
Kyaukse, Burma
Nationality Burmese
Political party Union Solidarity and Development Party
Spouse(s) Thida
Children Thiha Swe
Hla Myat Chel
Aye Mya Thida Swe
Parents Boe Thar (father)
Than Kyi (mother)
Residence North Dagon Township, Yangon, Myanmar
Occupation Politician
Military service
Allegiance Myanmar
Service/branch Myanmar Army
Years of service 1978–2003
Rank Lieutenant Colonel

Hla Swe (Burmese: လှဆွေ, also known as Bullet Hla Swe; born 28 September 1960) is a Burmese politician who served as Member of Parliament for Amyotha Hluttaw from 2011 to 2016. He was elected as a Amyotha Hluttaw MP for Magwe Region' Constituency № 12, Gangaw Township.

After he ended up his term length in the Parliament in 2016, he published a weekly newspaper The Bullet News Journal.[1][2][3][4] He is known for his outspoken, Islamophobic and homophobic statements.[5]

Early life and education

Hla Swe was born in Kyaukse, Mandalay Division to parents Boe Thar and Than Kyi. His father, Boe Thar was a former military officer. He attended Basic Education High School No. 1 Kyaukse and straight out of high school in 1978.[6]

Military and governmental career

Hla Swe joined the Myanmar Army in 1978 and most of his 25 years of service was spent fighting armed ethnic groups in border areas. In 2003, he took up an administrative role for the State Peace and Development Council military government in Gangaw Township, Magwe Region. In 2006, he was retired as a lieutenant colonel in Myanmar Army and took up the post of director of Myanmar Radio and Television.

Political career

He served as a central executive committee member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party.[6][7] In 2010 election, he was elected as a MP for House of Nationalities. He is clearly pro-military, he believes the Tatmadaw should gradually ease its grip on parliament.[6][8]

In 2015 election, he run for House of Nationalities seat from Gangaw Township constituency, but lost to National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate.[9]

Public image

In 1980–1981, as a military officer, he had deliberately forced LGBTs to serve as military porters, a practice internationally criticised as a war crime.[10] He supported the crackdown by Myanmar Army in 1988 Pro-Democracy Protests which resulted in 3,000 estimated deaths.[11] In 2015, he generated controversy for posting on social media about his hatred for LGBTs.[10][11]

He courted controversy during the run-up to 2015 election by playing on anti-Rohingya sentiment to win the election. He blamed his defeat on 2015 election not on the success of his NLD rival, but on Aung San, Father of the Nation of modern-day Myanmar.[9][12]

Quotes

“I think I am too old for politics. Look at our politicians, they are all around 70, there needs to be a younger generation of politicians. But if my party wants me to run, I will run.”[6]

“The situation today is good, we should not go back to the past, but should move forward towards democracy.”[6]

References

  1. ↑ The Myanmar Times Journal From lawmaker to publisher, ‘Bullet’ Hla Swe continues to court scandal
  2. ↑ Amyotha Hluttaw Gov Hla Swe's MP Profile
  3. ↑ "Proposal about Rakhine State by MP U Hla Swe". YouTube.
  4. ↑ The Irrawaddy News Election Tribunal to Hear Cases Brought by Ex-MP Hla Swe, NLD Rival
  5. ↑ "5 people who almost certainly will not be Myanmar's next president - Coconuts Yangon". 29 January 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Frontier Myanmar Media ‘Bullet’ Hla Swe: Contradictions and controversy
  7. ↑ Dawnmanhon News လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် ဦးလှဆွေကို Eleven မီဒီယာ တရားစွဲဆိုမှု တရားရုံးလက်ခံ
  8. ↑ "U HLA SWE QUOTATION ABOUT FOR GOING TO RUN THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS". MCNtv News YouTube Channel.
  9. 1 2 Barron, Laignee. "No sweet goodbye for outspoken USDP man".
  10. 1 2 Times, The Myanmar. "USDP representative prompts anger with anti-gay Facebook rant".
  11. 1 2 "'Bullet' Hla Swe: Contradictions and controversy | Frontier Myanmar". frontiermyanmar.net. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  12. ↑ "Former MP takes aim at politicians with new journal- DVB Multimedia Group". 6 July 2016.
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