CNI News

7 March 2025

It was necessary to be loyal to the State and the Tatmadaw, and because they were civil servants, they needed to stay away from party politics, said the chairman of the State Administration Council, Sr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing to the civilian and military state scholar officers in Russia. He said the above while he was in Russia on a goodwill visit on 5 March 2025.

" State scholar officers need to be loyal to the State and as military personnel joined the Tatmadaw only after taking an oath that they would give their lives for the country, they need to abstain from engaging in any activity that could harm the interests of the state; they need to act with loyalty to the state and the Tatmadaw. In the same way, because they are civil servants, they need to avoid party politics." said the SAC Chairman Sr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

While the SAC was meeting with state scholars on 5th March 2025

According to Section.26 (A) of the 2008 constitution, civil servants must be free from party politics. Today is the era of AI technology, and so it is necessary to continuously study AI technologies;  state scholar officers needed to strive to learn and develop the technologies needed for Myanmar and they needed to try hard so as not to leave behind in technology, he said.

Although the SAC Chairman said that civil servants must be free from party politics, the Tatmadaw is always allowed to play a leading role in the national politics, imposed in Section. 6 (F) of the 2008 constitution, pointed out military and political analysts.

In the same way, the Tatmadaw takes 25 percent of the Hluttaws that emerge from elections and  it takes part in politics. 

While seeing the SAC Chairman Sr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing

So, that the SAC Chairman said that soldiers and civil servants must be free from politics was questionable, they pointed out.

Having said that the NLD was trying to form a government without solving the vote list dispute that took place in the 2020 general election, the Myanmar Tatmadaw overthrew the NLD government and took the State power after announcing the state of emergency on 1st February 2021.

After that, political crises emerged and members of the public and EAOs including military and civil servants protested against the Tatmadaw.

Moreover, some civil servants joined the Civil Disobedience Movement and resigned from their positions.