9/24/21, 8:03 PM Hard talk or hate speech? Outlet spreads disinformation and bigotry under guise of political commentary | Frontier Myanmar Behind the page is a man named U Aung Min. An enigmatic political commentator, he told Frontier he models his talk show on the “black man show” in America – possibly a reference to “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”. He has claimed to be a Dutch citizen who fled Myanmar after participating in the 1988 protests against the military government. He said he started MHT to “resist” coverage in other media outlets, and runs the page on a shoestring while living with his mother. The Dutch embassy said it was unable to confirm his identity due to privacy restraints. Despite claiming to have participated in a protest movement that was ruthlessly suppressed by the military regime, Aung Min’s content is almost universally pro-military and anti-NLD. “Young people in Burma do not understand the role of the military… they do not understand how the military built the nation,” he told Frontier, adding that “senior military leaders pushed Burma on the path to democracy”. One of Aung Min’s most frequent guests is U Maung Myint, a USDP central executive committee member who represents Sagaing Region’s Mingin Township in the Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of Myanmar’s national legislature. Maung Myint is also a retired military officer who once served as deputy minister for foreign affairs under the military junta, then as social welfare minister and later minister for industry in U Thein Sein’s USDP government. He has a close relationship with some of Myanmar’s most infamous nationalists. Earlier this year, Maung Myint attracted attention when he revealed on Myanmar Open Talk, one of MHT’s affiliated pages, that he purchased an apartment for a group of extreme nationalists to use as an office headquarters. “Our party is a nationalist party,” he said at the time. The group included nationalist hardliner Daw Khin Waing Kyi, who has close ties to now disbanded Buddhist extremist group Ma Ba Tha, which encouraged racial violence against the Rohingya. Khin Waing Kyi, while a lawmaker for the National Democratic Force, also first proposed the controversial “race and religion laws”, which critics say codified discrimination against non-Buddhists, especially Muslims, by regulating religious conversion and inter-religious marriages. The page’s “likes” increased as the campaign season picked up. Asked about his relationship with Aung Min and MHT, Maung Myint said, “We only know each other through online live discussion.” He said Aung Min “caught my eye” and admitted that his interviews with MHT helped boost Aung Min’s reputation. Maung Myint refused to answer a question about https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/hard-talk-or-hate-speech-outlet-spread-disinformation-and-bigotry-under-guise-of-political-commentary/ 4/9