The prime minister of Myanmar is the
head of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...
of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. The post was re-established in 2021 by the
State Administration Council, the country's ruling
military junta, to lead its nominally-civilian
provisional government. The provisional government is subject to the decision-making of the SAC; additionally, there is a significant overlap in the membership of both bodies. There is no provision for a prime minister in the
2008 Constitution of Myanmar, with the
president being the constitutional head of government. The current prime minister is
Min Aung Hlaing
Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Co ...
, who is also the
leader of the junta and the
commander-in-chief of defence services. The post had been used by previous military governments, as recently as 2011.
History of the office
The position of Prime Minister was created in 1948, with the adoption of the
Burmese Declaration of Independence
The Burmese Declaration of Independence ( my, လွတ်လပ်ရေးကြေညာစာတမ်း) was officially promulgated on 4 January 1948, as a result of the Burma Independence Act 1947, which brought to an end British rule in Bu ...
from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
. Since then, eleven people have held the office (with two of them doing so on multiple occasions). Due to the country's long period of military rule, it has not been uncommon for the prime minister to be a serving (or recently retired)
military officer.
The actual power of the prime minister has considerably varied over time, differing based on who holds the office. In 2004, a power struggle between the then–
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...
, Senior General
Than Shwe
Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
During thi ...
, chairman of the
State Peace and Development Council
The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...
, and his prime minister, General
Khin Nyunt, resulted in the prime minister being dismissed and arrested.
The position was abolished on 30 March 2011, according to the current
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these pr ...
(adopted in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
). It provided that the
president is both the head of state and head of government. But after the
2015 general election, as
Aung San Suu Kyi was constitutionally barred from becoming
President, an office named
State Counsellor, functionally identical to that of Prime Minister, was established for her on 6 April 2016.
On 1 August 2021,
State Administration Council formed the caretaker government and
chairman of SAC became Prime Minister.
List of prime ministers of Myanmar
See also
*
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
**
Politics of Myanmar
**
List of colonial governors of Burma
**
List of premiers of British Burma
**
Deputy Prime Minister of Myanmar
**
President of Myanmar
**
List of presidents of Myanmar
**
State Counsellor of Myanmar
The state counsellor of Myanmar ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ်) was the title of the ''de facto'' head of government of Myanmar, equivalent to a prime minister. The office ...
**
Vice President of Myanmar
*
Lists of office-holders
Notes
References
External links
World Statesmen – Myanmar (Burma)
{{Prime Ministers
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...