David Abel (general)

David Oliver Abel (Burmese: ဒေးဗစ် အေဘယ်လ်; 28 February 1935 – 18 January 2019) was a Burmese economist, retired Brigadier General in the Myanmar Army and former cabinet minister.[2] He served variously as Minister of Commerce, Minister of Finance and Revenue,[3] and Minister of National Planning and Economic Development. At one time, he ran all three ministries simultaneously.[4][5] He was considered the country's economic czar throughout the 1990s.[6]

For the cinematographer, see David Abel (cinematographer).
Brigadier-General
David Abel
ဒေးဗစ် အေဘယ်လ် BC-7086
Minister of the State Peace and Development Council Chairman's office
In office
? – 25 August 2003
Minister for National Planning and Economic Development of Myanmar
In office
1990s–?
Minister of Finance
In office
1989–1992
Preceded byMaung Maung Khin
Succeeded byWin Tin
Minister of Commerce of Myanmar
In office
1990s–?
Personal details
Born(1935-02-28)28 February 1935
Insein, Burma
Died18 January 2019(2019-01-18) (aged 83)
NationalityBurmese
SpouseKhin Thein Mu
RelationsAlexander Abel[1]
ChildrenAung Thiha
Cho Cho Khine
Parent(s)Alfred T. Abel (father)
Daw Chai (mother)
Alma materRoyal Military Academy Sandhurst
Occupation
  • Economist
  • military official
  • union minister
Military service
AllegianceMyanmar
Branch/serviceMyanmar Army
Years of service1956-1991
Rank Brigadier General

Abel retired from the State Peace and Development Council and vacated his position as the Minister of the Chairman's Office on 25 August 2003.[7]

Early life and education

Abel was born in 1935 in Insein, near Rangoon, but his family's roots were in Maymyo (now Pyin Oo Lwin).[8] Abel's father, Alfred T. Abel was a Burma Railways engineer, while his mother Daw Chai, was a senior school teacher.[8] Abel's father is an ethnic Indian Catholic, but he does have some Jewish ancestry.[6] He is a Roman Catholic of mixed Anglo-Burman and Indian heritage.[9][10]

Abel matriculated from Maymyo's Saint Albert's Catholic Missionary School in 1951.[8] He then studied medicine at Mandalay College but did not complete his degree because of an ongoing insurgency in Upper Burma. He then attended the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) from 1953 to 1956, graduating with an economics degree.[8][11][12]

Military and governmental career

Abel had served as the personal assistant of then-President General San Yu of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. He retired the Tatmadaw in 1991 as a Director General of Procurement, with a rank of Brigadier General. Abel serving in the military, he has received many honors.[2]

Throughout his military career, he served in various civil administration posts.[8] He was appointed by the State Law and Order Restoration Council to serve as a cabinet minister for the Ministry of Commerce (Burma), the Ministry of Finance (Burma), Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, and the Ministry of State Peace and Development Council's Office before retiring in 2003.[8]

Abel was hailed as the economic architect of the country for pushing for privatisation and establishing some of the largest military-owned enterprises of the country, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL), Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) in 1990, along with 12 joint venture companies, and served as Chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission until 1997.[8][2]

Abel stood out as a member of the junta because he was media-friendly, outspoken and a member of a religious minority. He was a Roman Catholic in a junta dominated by Buddhists and before pre-publication censorship was lifted in August 2012 could only be referred to by his family name because his Christian name, “David”, was banned from publication.[2]

Personal life and death

Abel is married to Khin Thein Mu, a retired Major. They have two children, a son Aung Thiha and a daughter Cho Cho Khine. He died with heart attack at Yangon on 18 January 2019 at the age of 83.[13]

References
  1. Lintner, Bertil (16 November 2007). "Memoir to Bachoe". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  2. Wang, Ann (22 January 2019). "David Abel, the junta's stymied reformer". Frontier Myanmar.
  3. "Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. Jan-Oct 1989". HathiTrust. hdl:2027/uc1.c049297898.
  4. Soe Than Lynn (25 October 2010). "'Good economists' needed for parliament". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  5. "Military regime's economic adviser dies at 84". The Myanmar Times. 21 January 2019.
  6. Gillick, Jeremy (July–August 2010). "Letter from Myanmar". Moment. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  7. Khin Nyunt (23 August 2003). "Permission granted for retirement". State Peace and Development Council. Government of Myanmar. Archived from the original on 31 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  8. Myo Nyunt. "History". U Hla Tun Hospice (Cancer) Foundation. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  9. "'Don't Be So Impatient'". Asiaweek. 2000. Archived from the original on 27 January 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  10. Steinberg, David I. (2001). Burma, the State of Myanmar. Georgetown University Press. pp. 73. ISBN 9780878408931.
  11. "Burma's Former 'Economic Czar' on a Short Leash". The Irrawaddy. November 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  12. "စစ်အစိုးရ၏ စီးပွားရေးအကြီးအကဲ ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ်ဟောင်းအေဘယ် ကွယ်လွန်". The Irrawaddy (in Burmese). 22 January 2019.
  13. "နဝတအစိုးရဝန်ကြီးဟောင်း ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ် အေဘယ်လ် ကွယ်လွန်". Democratic Voice of Burma (in Burmese). 21 January 2019.
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