Myanmar’s Most Decorated Dictator: Inside Min Aung Hlaing’s Vanity Cabinet

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is fond of bestowing titles on loyalists and receiving honors from allies—but he also has a habit of awarding prestigious titles on himself.

As well as the six decorations he received before the coup—including honors from Thailand and Malaysia—the senior general has amassed at least 12 titles. That makes him the most heavily decorated military dictator in Myanmar’s modern history.

The most recent vanity honor came on February 5, when Yangon University handed him an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration. Education Minister Chaw Chaw Sein said the degree was awarded in recognition of his “successful” management of challenges during the country’s transitional period, including the recent election.