Thet Swe Win
Thet Swe Win became an activist in 2010. In 2011 he co-founded Myanmar Youth Empowerment Program, which focuses on preparing young people for the new political changes. In 2012, he co-organized Myanmar's first national-level youth forum, called Myanmar Youth Forum, with 300 youth delegates from the whole country. The forum initiated the youth policy advocacy process. He initiated the Pray for Myanmar Campaign against the 969 ultra-nationalist movement after the Meiktila massacre.
In 2014, he was elected as a joint general secretary of National Youth Congress and became coordinator of ASEAN Youth Forum in Yangon. He organized high-level youth interface advocacy meetings with the ASEAN leaders and youth delegates from the region. Later in 2014, he co-founded Center for Youth and Social Harmony to promote the idea of pluralism and unity in diversity among young people. He also advocated for youth participation in the peace process during 2012 to 2015. In 2015, he was invited to meet with U.S. President Obama’s town hall meeting with ASEAN youth leaders in Kuala Lumpur.
He initiated various movements and campaigns to counter the ultra-nationalist movement. In 2016 and 2017 he called on the NLD government to respond to a campaign by nationalist monks to evict Muslim vendors from Shwe Dagon Pagoda. He formed Synergy-Social Harmony Organization in 2017 to promote social harmony and social cohesion in Myanmar. He was invited to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama by the USIP generation change program in 2016.
After the first wave of Rohingya genocide in 2017, he decided to stand with the oppressed Rohingya people and against the majority population. He became a vocal critic of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD government on the Rohingya issue. As a consequence, he received several life threats. He made three trips to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2018 and 2019. He was detained by the Bangladesh intelligence during his second trip. His Bangladesh trips were documented as the Empathy Trip.
References
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