Dr Maung Maung: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot 9789812306005

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Dr Maung Maung

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued almost 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

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Dr Maung Maung

Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot

Compiled by

Robert H. Taylor

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Singapore

First published in Singapore in 2008 by ISEAS Publishing Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 119614 E-mail: [email protected] Website: © 2008 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies or respective copyright holder. The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Taylor, Robert H., 1943Dr. Maung Maung : gentleman, scholar, patriot. (Local history; 15) 1. Maung Maung, U, 19252. Burma—Politics and government—1824–1948. 3. Burma—Politics and Government—19484. Burma—Biography. I. Maung Maung, U, 1925II. Title. III. Series: Local history and memoirs (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies); 15. DS501 I595L no. 15 2008 ISBN 978-981-230-409-4 (hard cover) ISBN 978-981-230-600-5 (PDF) Every effort has been made to identify copyright-holders; in case of oversight, and on notification to the publisher, corrections will be made in the next edition. PHOTO CREDIT Photo of Dr Maung Maung on the front cover reproduced courtesy of the Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung). Typeset by International Typesetters Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Utopia Press Pte Ltd

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Leviathan was a creature of the Law; it is by the law he lives, and laws and regulations are both the substance of his being and the basis of his power. The strong man, like some Burma rulers of the past, can build up an empire, but unless the framework be fashioned out of law his empire will last no longer than his strength. It is not sufficient for him to enforce the law; he must also submit to it, to offer himself a willing sacrifice to Leviathan.

J.S. Furnivall, “The Fashioning of Leviathan”, Journal of the Burma Research Society XXIX, no. 3 (1939): 18.

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Contents Preface Acknowledgements

xi xv

Section I Dr Maung Maung: The Life of a Patriot Section II Dr Maung Maung’s Approach to Life A. The Burma I Love B. My Politics C. Looking Ahead D. I Discovered Greatness E. The Turning Tide F. The Middle Way G. Books on Burma Section III Dr Maung Maung and Biography A. Mr Speaker Sir! B. Brigadier Kyaw Zaw: Battles and Books C. Bo Khin Maung Gale: “Democracy and the Rule of Law” D. Thakin Chit Maung E. General Ne Win F. Mr Justice Chan Htoon G. Daw Pyu la Mac Phsu

3 27 31 37 41 45 49 53 56 63 72 77 83 93 99 110 118

vii

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viii

Contents

H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. U. V. W. X. Y. Z.

U Kyaw Nyein U Hla Maung U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union U Tun Win Htain Lin, a Young PVO Insurgent Vum Ko Hau of Siyin U Ba Swe U Thant Thakin Than Tun M.A. Raschid Dr E Maung U Myint Thein, Chief Justice of the Union Saya Za Khup of Siyin U Nyo Mya, or “Maung Thumana” A Boundless Faith in Burma Daw Khin Kyi (Madame Aung San) A Book for Colonel Ba Than The Secretary-General’s Role in the U.N. Aung San: Hero of Burma’s Victory

125 146 158 171 183 190 200 210 219 229 243 253 265 270 282 288 292 295 302

Section IV Dr Maung Maung and Travel A. Elections: Burma and Britain B. Mandalay C. Vietnam (South) D. Malaya E. In the Fabled Land of Apollo and Socrates F. Impressions of the United Nations G. Antioch College, A Living Dream

309 315 319 327 332 338 342 346

Section V Dr Maung Maung and the Tatmadaw A. The Forgotten Army B. The Resistance Movement C. The Mighty Drama D. Soldiers of Victory E. Destination Monghsat

355 361 389 395 399 402

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Contents

F. G. H. I.

Burma Army Women Officers of the Burma Army Women on the Wing 106

Section VI Dr Maung Maung and the Constitutions of Myanmar A. “Pyidawtha” B. State Socialism in Burma C. The Burmese Parliament D. Burma’s Constitution Comes to Life E. Our Living Constitution [I and II] F. Section 116 of the Constitution G. Burma-China Boundary Settlement H. Lawyers and Legal Education in Burma I. The Search for Constitutionalism in Burma

ix

408 417 425 433 441 448 456 460 466 478 488 493 500 507

Section VII Dr Maung Maung and the Presidency A. Address to the Central Committee of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, 19 August 1988 B. Address to the Nation, 24 August 1988 C. Address to the Nation, 1 September 1988 D. Address to the Extraordinary Congress of the BSPP, 10 September 1988 E. Address to the Pyithu Hluttaw, 11 September 1988

560

Bibliography of Dr Maung Maung’s Writings

567

Index

579

The Editor

591

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525 536 543 549 555

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Preface

D

r Maung Maung:Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot consists of seven related sections. Each section has an introductory essay prepared by me. My introductory essays serve to place the reprinted publications of the late Dr Maung Maung into context to assist the reader to understand the time and circumstances of their original publication. In many cases, that was more than six decades ago. The introductory essays are based on my reading of Dr Maung Maung’s many published works listed in the bibliography, an oral history which he conducted with P. Lim Pui Huen in 1990 and 1991 in Singapore and Yangon for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, my exchanges with him over ten years, and discussions with individuals who worked with him from the 1940s through the 1990s. The Bibliography of Dr Maung Maung’s published works was prepared by U Thaw Kaung, the former Librarian of the Universities Central Library in Yangon. I first met Dr Maung Maung, thanks to an introduction by U Thaw Kaung, while I was conducting research in that library in 1982. Dr Maung Maung was the only senior member of the government who I met at that time. Subsequent meetings took place, twice in London and several times in Yangon, especially after he retired from government service in September 1988. xi

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xii

Preface

The oral history that Dr Maung Maung recorded at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) largely reviews topics and issues about which he wrote in a number of his historical publications. However, at several points he discussed his own life and personal experiences, adding to the information available in various publications. Where appropriate, I have quoted from the transcript of the interviews prepared by Daw Yee May Kaung in 1995 for the Southeast Asia Cultural Programme at ISEAS. In a few places I have slightly amended the text to improve readability and clarity. However, to the fullest extent possible, Daw Yee May Kaung’s transcription allows Dr Maung Maung’s words to speak for themselves. The decision to reprint so many of Dr Maung Maung’s many essays and short publications, mostly written prior to his joining the judicial service of Myanmar in 1962 and eventual rise through his service to the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) to the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) in August 1988, was made for several two reasons. One is that many of them are now rare and hard to find, but of use to historians and others seeking to write about Myanmar in the understudied 1940s and 1950s. Another is that they remind us of the intellectual life that persisted in Myanmar prior to 1962. While the easy access to English-language sources such as The Guardian magazine hid the vibrant and far more left-wing Myanmar-language discourse of the period, foreigners at least had one reliable window on the government, the legal system, and many of the leading personalities that has been closed since. The book is not intended as a critical study of either Dr Maung Maung’s political or judicial careers. That is an appropriate subject for a larger and more analytical work, rooted in an appropriate historical context. This book is to remind us of what one major Myanmar intellectual was able to produce in a remarkably short period of time. The energy, verve, and excitement that Dr Maung Maung manages to convey in these writings should encourage others to emulate his example. His patriotism guided him in his life and work but he did not allow his patriotism to deaden his appreciation of history and the multiple accidents and misunderstandings that make the prediction of the future impossible and the remembrance of the past essential.

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Preface

xiii

Both prior to and after his premature death in 1992 at the age of sixty-nine, Dr Maung Maung was widely criticized both in Myanmar and abroad for his role in Myanmar’s governance after 1962. Some in Yangon today become nearly apoplectic at the mere mention of his name. But others, with perhaps fewer grudges to bear and a more understanding view of human nature, and human fallibility, take a more sanguine and understanding view. As one retired writer and journalist said to the author in the course of an interview in Yangon on 19 January 2006, Dr Maung Maung decided to work with U Ne Win mainly because he thought he could do something for the country. A lot of people blame him for helping U Ne Win. Many people who blame Dr Maung Maung were former members of the party state as well. Some of them were even corrupt. Dr Maung Maung was by no means a corrupt person. His major problem was that he stood by U Ne Win even after he knew that he could not do what he wanted to do freely. Here again, the fact that Dr Maung Maung remained in the government until 1988 was not a bad thing for the country. He could not prevent the government from doing some unlawful things. His involvement in the party was bad for him. It was not bad for the country. He received all the blame mainly because he remained in the party until 1988. If he had resigned or retired before 1988, he would have been remembered by the people differently.

At another point in our conversation, the same writer, who had also joined BSPP in 1962 but was among those condemning it in 1988, said, The fact that Dr Maung Maung was helping U Ne Win was very good for the country. He made sure that there was the rule of law in the country. Thanks to him, the Revolutionary Council [which governed until the 1974 socialist one party state constitution came into effect] did not issue very many decrees.

May the essential lessons of Dr Maung Maung’s writings and career not be forgotten. Robert H. Taylor Yangon 1 July 2006

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Acknowledgements

E

fforts have been made to contact the possible copyright holders of the essays which are reprinted in this volume. However, the passage of time and the absence of accessible records has made that impossible. Permission from Daw Khin Myint, Dr Maung Maung’s widow, has been sought and received. I am grateful to a number of persons for assistance in collating this collection. Dr Maung Maung’s children have been very helpful on a number of points, especially determining some dates and collecting some photographs. U Thaw Kaung, now a member of the Myanmar Historical Commission, among the many hats he has worn over the years, has also been of great assistance in collecting rare materials and preparing the bibliography. Daw Khin Hnin Oo, the Librarian of the University of Yangon Library, also contributed significantly to the compilation of the Bibliography. Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing has also been of great help, particularly in assisting with interviews in Yangon. For finding a number of rare newspapers articles from the turbulent period of Dr Maung Maung’s presidency, I thank Daw Yin Yin Oo and also Daw Moe Thida Khaing. Thanks are also owed to the staff of the library of the Institute of Southeast Studies for much assistance in preparing xv

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Acknowledgements

this volume. Many a dusty tome had to be unearthed. ISEAS, thanks to its Director, Mr Kesavapany, kindly gave me an agreeable home from which to work in writing this work. Finally, the excellent publications staff of ISEAS also deserve thanks for making this volume available to posterity.

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SECTION I

DR MAUNG MAUNG The Life of a Patriot

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Section I

DR MAUNG MAUNG The Life of a Patriot

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r Maung Maung was a man of many parts — a scholar and a soldier, a nationalist and an internationalist, a parliamentarian and a public servant — and his life and times spanned seven decades of political, economic and social turbulence in the country he loved and served, Myanmar. A pioneer amongst post-colonial journalists in Myanmar and Southeast Asia, he was also at home in the libraries and seminar rooms of universities in the United States, Europe, and Australia in the midst of the Cold War. As a lawyer and jurist, Dr Maung Maung believed that the law had to remain relevant and adaptable to changing societal requirements. As an author, in Myanmar and English, he wrote both weighty scholarly tomes and light-hearted accounts spiced with his often rye observations on the varieties of the human species. A husband and the father to seven children, he was a keen observer of human strengths and weaknesses. A loyal friend to many, he was never known to malign his critics or deny the merits of their arguments. As a man of affairs, he was capable of understanding the weaknesses of individuals and the institutions they built, both historically and those with which he served and that ultimately failed to live up to their ideals. He was remarkably equitable and was never known to lose his temper or express his frustrations but always held firm to his own humane values. 3

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Prior to everything else, he was a Myanmar patriot. As a Myanmar, he served his country in a number of capacities, even briefly joining the British Burma Auxiliary Force along with five or six of his fellow underage classmates while he was a student in Mandalay on the cusp of the Second World War in Southeast Asia. After the British retreated to India, he enlisted in the new Burma National Army (BNA) and eventually served in the resistance to the Japanese occupation of Myanmar toward the end of the War. After the country’s independence was assured following the signing of the Aung San-Atlee agreement in 1947, he joined the Public Information Department of the terminating colonial administration in the months prior to the formal grant of independence. Called to serve as Deputy Attorney-General in the Caretaker Government that General Ne Win headed for eighteen months between 1 November 1958 and 6 February 1960, he later worked following the military coup of 2 March 1962, as a Judge on the Court of Final Appeal and then Chief Justice before joining the Revolutionary Council as Judicial Minister, subsequently Chairman of the Council of People’s Attorneys, in 1971. As the military dominated Revolutionary Council attempted to transform itself into a civilian, one-party government, he became a member of the Council of State in 1974 and was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the ruling Burma (or Myanmar) Socialist Programme Party (BSPP/MaSaLat/Lanzin Pati) in 1983, the pinnacle of power in the political order of that period. His last political act was to assume the Presidency of the state in 1988 in a doomed attempt to create the trust and order which was required to organize a peaceful transition to a new civilian-led multi-party political order. Despite his close proximity to power and authority, Dr Maung Maung continued to recognize the individual intellectual’s obligations as critic and commentator on his society and its politics. At the same time, he never shirked his duty to the Myanmar Government even when he perhaps felt his service was no longer required or valuable. He never abandoned a loyalty and remained true to his friends, even his critics, in difficult circumstances. It appeared that he believed firmly in the principle in speech and text that one should only present what is both true and beneficial to the best we can understand them. His lesser critics often pointed to this as a weakness,1 he would have seen it as a strength. Dr Maung Maung understood that history has tides and phases,

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and one has to learn to ride the waves and understand the currents. As he wrote toward the end of his life, Change comes in cycles, patterns and rhythms, sometimes seemingly regular and obeying some law of nature, sometimes seemingly erratic, unshackled by any law, entirely wild and free… Cycles of political change in Myanmar since independence was recovered from Britain in 1948 seems to have run in cycles lasting ten to fifteen years.2

Recognizing that historical tides cannot always be harnessed or mastered, he believed that a certain degree of historical inevitability shapes all our lives. From this perhaps he gained his great equanimity. Clearly Buddhism shaped his way of thinking about history, perhaps casting doubt on the Western notion of history being a story of progress and change: Thus, a historical cycle ended opening the way for another. Was it, in fact, an end or a beginning? Or was it only the endless round of samsara, the ceaseless revolving wheel of life where ends and beginnings are so intimately, inseparably merged and mingled that there seems to be no ends and no beginnings but only the changeless relentless samsara?3

In 1962, the late Professor Harry Benda, who observed Dr Maung Maung for two years during his stint as a Visiting Professor at Yale University, wrote in his introduction to Dr Maung Maung’s highly original and insightful book Aung San of Burma, How he manages to hide his inexhaustible energy behind an apparently leisurely and unhurried appearance, and how he preserves an almost proverbial charm and courtesy in the midst of the beehive activities of an American university campus are questions which none of us have so far been able to answer.4

Some might attribute his modesty and self-control, his appearance of always being in control of his emotions, to his Buddhist upbringing and perhaps there is some truth to that. As he wrote about his experience of Japanese military discipline while at the Mingaladon Training School in 1944, The secret to lasting, I found, was to relax and go along instead of fighting or resisting. A certain amount of surrender of the ego was

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DR MAUNG MAUNG: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot

needed. The ego generates pride of self-consciousness and these were hindrances when one worked with a group or as a group.5

He also felt that “it often paid … to persuade, and plead, rather than be proud and self-righteous and aggrieved” 6 as perhaps some of those around him sometimes did. Dr Maung Maung also understood that argument and disagreement, getting things wrong as well as right, is part of the role of academics as critics and chroniclers of their times. As he wrote in the beginning of his account of the events leading to his tumultuous one month presidency, [S]cholars and scientists watch them [cycles of change], analyse them, and make their projections. They do not always get things right, of course, but that does not matter. They do not always agree about their conclusions either, to put it mildly, but that too doesn’t matter. It is a fascinating occupation anyway.7

Born in Mandalay on 31 January 1925, forty years after the deposition of Myanmar’s last king in 1885, the third child in a family of six girls and one boy, himself,8 his education combined both the English-language curriculum of the government school system as well as Buddhist teachings. Following one year of instruction at Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) Church of England school to which King Mindon had sent several of his children, his parents, U Hsint and Daw Aye Tin, arranged for his attendance until the 10th standard at the Buddhist Thathana Anglo-Vernacular School under the National Education Council. Such schools were the product of the students’ strike that began in 1921 over the allegedly elitist nature of the new University of Rangoon and led to the formation of the national schools movement which Burmese nationalists commenced, rather like an earlier comparable movement in Eire. U Hsint, a successful middle-ranking lawyer, as a stalwart member of his community, was one of the governors of the school that both the young Maung Maung and three of his sisters attended. At the tender age of fourteen and a half, more than a year earlier than his schoolmates, the precocious Maung Maung completed high school and applied for admission to study science at the new Mandalay Intermediate College. The two-year programme followed there prepared students to proceed to an accelerated degree at Rangoon University in

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either arts or sciences. As the official admission age was sixteen, the head of the college, a former British army officer, Mr A.D. Marshall, allowed Maung Maung to attend classes for more than a year before finally enrolling formally. In all, he stayed at the college for about two and a half years, mainly following the science curriculum but also studying history and English with Mr Marshall, a man whose love of Shakespeare as well as military bearing had an impact on the young student. Maung Maung left Mandalay Intermediate College at the outbreak of the Second World War when the British retreated to India, but eventually passed the Intermediate Examination in Science in 1943 with distinctions in English, Mathematics, and Physics. As a young man, Maung Maung demonstrated two characteristics that were to mark his life. One was a penchant for quiet but persistent activity. He joined the Boy Scouts and rose to the top ranks, a Rover Scout and then a King’s Scout. Moreover, his love of camping and other activities led him to form another scouting group for younger boys. The second was an interest in the military. Though a Myanmar nationalist, Maung Maung was disappointed that Mandalay Intermediate College did not have a University Training Corps as Rangoon University had. Thus, when war loomed he along with six or so of his college mates joined the British Army Auxiliary Corps. Following some basic instruction at Maymyo (now Pwin Oo Lwin), he found himself on sentry duty at Mandalay Palace on the fateful night in April 1942 when the Japanese bombed the city, setting large parts of it alight. Given the option of retreating with the British or remaining in Mandalay, he stayed back and returned to his then very ill mother who, with the remainder of the family, had moved to a village about 8 miles from the city. Before the end of the year, Daw Aye Tin passed away and at the age of seventeen he left his father and sisters to join the growing Myanmar nationalist movement now centred on Yangon and the Japanese installed government of Dr Ba Maw. But it was not government service he sought but a return to the military career so quickly terminated in 1942. In 1943 Maung Maung joined the Burma Defence Army (BDA), the much smaller and more disciplined successor of the famous Burma Independence Army (BIA), led by General Aung San.9 Enrolling as a private, he was selected after passing the entrance examination to join the fourth batch of officer candidates sent to the Japanese-Myanmar officer

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training school at Mingaladon, passing out on his twentieth birthday, 31 January 1945. The young new officer was assigned initially to the War Office on U Wisara Road in Yangon. Recognizing his superior mastery of both the English and Myanmar languages, his first task was to write and translate military texts for the fledging army. There he was when the BDA, then renamed the Burma National Army (BNA), turned against their Japanese mentors on 27 March 1945, now Tatmadaw or Resistance Day, and organized a Myanmar resistance with civilian political parties including the Communist and socialist People’s Parties against the Japanese “fascists”. The failure of the Japanese to live up to their exalted promises at the beginning of the war and their own leftist political leanings, plus the increasingly apparent likelihood of the defeat of the Japanese at the hands of the British, the Americans and the Chinese, had convinced Aung San and his colleagues that this was the correct strategy to advance Myanmar’s claim to independence. Maung Maung served in Zone 1 of the resistance at its headquarters at Penwegon under the command of another Maung Maung, then Colonel, but eventually Brigadier, Maung Maung.10 There on the banks of the Sittaung River, he wrote his first book in English, The Forgotten Army.11 While still serving in the BNA at the end of the war in August 1945, Maung Maung began his journalistic career, writing articles in English for the Rangoon Review. Though offered a commission in the Burma army which the British organized after the war with former BNA troops and pre-war soldiers from Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, he turned it down, recalling years later that he preferred “freedom, academic work, teaching and so on” to a life in army.12 On leaving the armed forces, he applied to return to finish his university education. Under a British policy to recognize the accomplishments of men who had served in the armed forces but had not completed university before the war, Maung Maung was eligible to take the examinations for an external Bachelor’s degree. These he duly passed and was immediately offered both history and English tutorships at the badly understaffed Rangoon University, having never actually attended a degree level university course himself. He also became a hall tutor in one of the university hostels. Maung Maung’s teaching career, however, lasted less than a year for his previous journalistic foray led U Thant,13 newly appointed on

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1 September 1947 as deputy head of the Press Section of the government’s Ministry of Information,14 to offer him a position under him. As Burma, as it was then known in English, was on the cusp of independence, government departments were being rapidly staffed with indigenous recruits as the British and Indian expatriate staff of the ministries were preparing to return home at the time of independence. Maung Maung, then a mere twenty-two years of age, was appointed an editor of the daily Englishlanguage New Times of Burma,15 a post he held for about a year until it was sold into private ownership. However, he remained in government service after the privation of the paper. One of the duties he was assigned while working in the Ministry of Information was to prepare the first draft of the translation of Myanmar’s declaration of independence.16 At about this time, the famous poet “K”, U Khin Zaw, the director of broadcasting at Myanmar Athin, invited the Maung Maung to deliver short talks in English on the radio.17 At the request of U Thant, he wrote essays based on these radio talks which were brought together to form his second English language book published in 1949, Burma’s Teething Time.18 Not busy enough with his bureaucratic obligations in the Information Ministry, followed by a year as assistant secretary in the Burma Railways, the still young Maung Maung enrolled in a University of London external law degree programme, commencing in 1949 and passed his final examinations in London in 1953. Having married Daw Khin Myint after the war, their first child was borned in August of 1951. From 1950 to January 1952, Maung Maung was in London following the receipt of a state scholarship. Having hoped to enrol in a course in forestry, political machinations in the bureaucracy of the Yangon government determined that the place earmarked for him was given to another. So, with the help of U Kaung, then the ever resourceful education officer of the Myanmar Embassy on Charles Street, he put together his own training programme in journalism and broadcasting which included a six month British Broadcasting Corporation training programme and attachments to the Foreign Office Information Department and the Central Office of Information. These study programmes and the delights of London were insufficient to quench Maung Maung’s intellectual curiosity, so he also enrolled for legal studies at Lincoln’s Inn at his own expense as well as the LLM course at the London School of Economics. In addition, he gained a three-month scholarship for the study of international law at the

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Academy of International Law at The Hague. There he met Professor J.H.W. Verzijl, the man with whom he was later to be examined for his Doctorate in Law (LLD) at Utrecht University. Thus, while studying “journalism and allied tricks of the trade in London”, as U Thant wrote,19 he was called to the British bar at Lincoln’s Inn, as well as starting on his first doctorate. He had to forego the LSE London LLM because he ran out of funds to pay his tuition fees. Never one to miss an opportunity to write a book or an article about his observations, while in London he produced a little volume entitled London Diary.20 While observing aspects of London life as he saw it, including some rather revealing female sunbathing practices in public parks which he apparently enjoyed stumbling upon, he also reflected on the contrast between British political life in the early 1950s and the more heated and emotional variety that existed in post-independence Myanmar: And back in Burma, I shall miss the happy cheerful elections of old when men and women in their best silk sallied forth in hired cars to the festival of fun. Things did not go badly then [i.e., before World War II]; Parliaments assembled and dispersed, coalitions of parties formed and broke, and generally some good and little ill was done. Now perhaps the people are a little too serious, too politically minded. They talk and live politics; perhaps they do not want but are forced to by the parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the rains. A man is dialectically dissected and found a deviationist, or an opportunist, or a fascist beast, or an imperialist stooge. Parties and people are suffering from ideological indigestion.21

Nor could he resist drawing lessons, in this case that Myanmar’s politics would be greatly assisted if students were to withdraw from day-to-day politics and allow for a calming of the fervid political atmosphere of Yangon in the 1950s: In the East, of course, the student union plays a tremendous part in national politics. Our national leaders in Burma made their debut in the Rangoon University union, showed their mettle as organisers of university and school strikes. This state of affairs is only to be expected and, to a certain extent, even desirable. Students in our countries are in direct touch with the march of ideas and the movement of world events and forces, while their agrarian population toil in the dark. Students,

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rightly, take the lead. But once national independence is won it should not be difficult to admit new ideas into the country, not by the back door of college halls but through the front gates. All access to knowledge and political education should be open to the people, and students should retire awhile from politics. Those of them who are fixed on political careers would need to do serious political studies and equip themselves for leadership. The time for them to instigate masses and students into strikes and inspire them into national movements would then be behind them, the new need would be for them to train themselves for the role of mature politicians and statesmen. The world is fast becoming one large family, and though some members may bicker and quarrel, it is to their interest as much as those of others that the family should hold together. The art of living together is not easy to learn, but we must learn it somehow. Our students should bear this in mind; our student unions should therefore be nurseries for world citizens and statesmen, not mere platforms for local firebrands.22

Few heeded his admonishments, however, and student politicians continued to emerge from Yangon and other universities with not insignificant consequences for the establishment of democracy and political tranquillity in the country. On return to Yangon, he took a job as a Law Officer in the Attorney-General’s Department from 1953 to 1955 but he was not lost to journalism. Indeed, not only did he write for various newspapers, but became a founder of Myanmar’s once best known and most influential English-language monthly, The Guardian magazine. The Guardian began to publish in 1955 also as a daily English-language newspaper as a rival to Ed Law Yone’s The Nation as well as The Rangoon Times. This made possible, amongst other things, by the fact that Dr Maung Maung had left government employment and established his own law office at 55 Barr Street (now Pansodan) in 1955, thus allowing to double up as also sometime editor of the daily paper.23 Dr Maung Maung’s knowledge of world affairs and flair for journalism led him earlier to be identified by the Ford Foundation to organize seminars for the “Society for the Propagation of Democracy” in Yangon, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Saigon, and Phnom Penh. U Thant founded the organization in 1950.24 This was the first of several efforts by the Ford Foundation to involve Dr Maung Maung in American-sponsored Cold War activities. During the 1950s, Dr Maung Maung could sometimes

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be seen on the cocktail circuit in Yangon quietly observing others while leaning against a wall with a glass of scotch in his hand.25 Dr Maung Maung was obviously immensely busy in the mid-1950s. Not only had he been a full time employee of the Attorney-General’s Department, an independent barrister, and a frequent contributor to The Guardian26 but he also travelled extensively abroad. In November 1954, he visited Phnom Penh27 and Saigon,28 returning home via Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.29 In 1956, he returned to Europe where he defended his dissertation at the University of Utrecht; in the same year, he also attended a seminar in West Berlin. He made his first visit to Australia at about the same time. There he participated in a seminar on constitutionalism in Asia. As if this were not enough to keep a man busy, in the same year he began to lecture in the Law Faculty of Rangoon University. He also bested the redoubtable Dr Ba Maw30 in a public debate on Yangon’s City Hall on 13 October 1956 on the subject “that this house deplores the present neglect of teaching English in Burma.”31 Travel to South Asia followed two years later when he attended an Institute of Pacific Relations conference in Lahore, Pakistan, accompanying the then venerable John S. Furnivall. Furnivall was at that time an advisor to the government of Prime Minister U Nu.32 In September 1958, a crisis in the political support for U Nu’s government occurred in the parliament following the split of the ruling Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) which he led. When the AFPFL split between supporters of U Nu and his “Clean” AFPFL faction and U Ba Swe’s33 and U Kyaw Nyein’s34 “Stable” faction, forcing the Prime Minister to turn to “above ground Communist” support in the legislature to maintain his majority, the conditions were set for the Army to intervene directly in national government. A “Caretaker Government” was then formed with a cabinet of civilian “non-political technocrats”, mainly judges and civil servants, led by the Commander of the Defence Services, General Ne Win.35 General Ne Win asked Dr Maung Maung to accept the number two position in the Attorney-General’s Department under the Minister for Judicial Affairs, Justice Chan Htoon.36 In that capacity he served for the next eighteen months until after elections were held which saw the return to power of a civilian government once more led by U Nu. Those eighteen months also involved a one-month long academic trip to Europe37 and a four month stint in New York where

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he attended the 14th United Nations General Assembly meeting as part of the official Myanmar delegation.38 On leaving the Attorney-General’s office, Dr Maung Maung again resigned from government service and prepared his growing family to move to the United States. There he had accepted a visiting Lectureship in Political Science and Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. This position, a joint posting in the Yale Law Faculty and the Graduate School, was funded by the Ford Foundation. By now he and Daw Khin Myint had six children, three sons and three daughters, from infants to the age of eleven. A seventh was conceived in America but born in Myanmar on 1 October 1962.39 The two years spent at Yale were remarkably productive in other ways as well and one can date three of Dr Maung Maung’s most significant scholarly contributions from that time.40 In addition he travelled in the United States and frequently visited his former boss, U Thant, who was then Myanmar’s permanent representative at the United Nations in New York.41 On one trip to New York, he addressed the prestigious Council of Foreign Relations on the subject of the China-Burma border treaty.42 Other trips included one to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.43 He also squeezed in a second trip to Australia to present a paper at another seminar on constitutionalism in Asia sponsored by the Australian Congress for Cultural Freedom and the International Commission of Jurists in Canberra at the Australian National University.44 While at Yale he also earned his second doctorate, the J.S.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) on 11 June 1962. While still at Yale, a momentous event took place back in Yangon that was to change not only the course of Myanmar’s history but also, consequently, the future direction of Dr Maung Maung’s life. The event, of course, was a military coup that removed U Nu and his government from power a second time but, unlike in 1958, led to the abrogation the 1947 constitution about which Dr Maung Maung had written so much. Arguing that conditions for a free-thinking intellectual like Dr Maung Maung in Myanmar under General Ne Win’s Revolutionary Council military government which had declared it was going to take the country down a more thoroughly socialist route than had been the case heretofore, American friends, including again the Ford Foundation, offered him academic positions in the United States should he and his family chose to remain in America. U Thant, now Secretary-General of the United

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Nations, also offered Dr Maung Maung employment in the UN’s vast bureaucracy. However, he and Daw Khin Myint decided that they wished to raise their children in Myanmar, and in July 1962, they returned home. Upon arrival, Dr Maung Maung was offered the post as a member of the Supreme Court or High Court of Final Appeal that continued to function despite the abrogation of the constitution. Having been turned down by General Ne Win for his requested appointment as Myanmar’s permanent representative at the United Nations, he accepted the judgeship four days after returning to Myanmar and three years later was promoted to the position of Chief Justice. He remained a judge, in total, nine years before being given his first ostensibly political appointment in 1971 as one of the few civilian members of the Revolutionary Council. It would take another book and detailed knowledge of Myanmar’s legal traditions to undertake a study of Dr Maung Maung’s judicial decisions during the 1960s. Here one can only recount his philosophy of law as evinced from his writings. He had a clear understanding of the role of the law in society. As he wrote in the Preface to Sir Arthur Eggar’s Law of Evidence which he published in Yangon, The aim of law is to do justice between citizen and citizen, between citizen and the state. Where there is no law there is anarchy. Where there is law, there is order and when the laws are just there is happiness and harmony in the society.45

Or as he wrote in the introduction to the Myanmar version of Burma’s Constitution Many think that it is boring when you say “law” in a pretentious or formal sense. They consider it even more boring when you say “basic law”. Constitutional or basic law is connected with everyday human relations. It is not boring so as to be cast away like some formal dead trifle. Nor is it to be feared. The fundamental law manifests the establishment of the state’s central pillar; recognizing the rights and responsibilities of the people on the establishment of an independent union. In the fundamental law the Union’s history comes to life.46

He also saw the law as a living and growing phenomenon that had to adapt itself to changing circumstances and conditions. In regard to

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his time on the bench during the Revolutionary Council government, he later reflected that he and his fellow judges … tried very hard not to introduce very vague, very dangerous thinking or socialist justice. We just made things simple, understandable and tried to put old wine in new bottles. That was what I think any serious student of law who cares to read the rulings, they are all there in the books and the law reports and so on.47

As will be seen from his writings on the 1947 constitution of Myanmar reprinted below, as well as his defence of the 1974 constitution in his speeches as President in 1988,48 he was acutely aware of the importance of precedent and example that the law provides. It is principles, not precise wording, which seemed to him to be most important in understanding and applying the law. The degree to which that is ever appropriate, of course, is a matter of dispute, as he would have freely admitted. The power of the law as a conservative force in a society experiencing revolutionary pressures for change was something about which he was acutely aware. As to the independence of the judiciary under General Ne Win’s government, he felt it was preserved. As he said, … Ne Win when he came to power, when he took over, he issued proclamations, and in one of them he said all the laws, all the existing laws will be continued, will be applied, until and unless he has changed, amended and so on. And we were briefed: The attorney-general, who was a friend of mine, and myself, we were invited by him for a briefing. He said, look, with this proclamation, it is sincere, you go by that, don’t be bullied by my fellows, by the judicial minister or other home minister or others.49

At least one of his decisions while he was on the Chief Court is indicative of his approach to his judicial responsibilities as well as gender equality. For many years well-to-do Myanmar men had been able to take a second or junior wife. Second wives were given no legal status, however. In one of his far reaching and frequently mentioned decisions, Dr Maung Maung overturned the prevailing custom and declared that in inheritance junior wives had equal status with the senior wife. It is doubtful that he was aware when he wrote sometime in 1960 or 1961 while still residing in New Haven, Connecticut, that one of the

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consequences of the Caretaker government in which he had served in the Attorney-General’s Department would be the abrogation of the 1947 constitution of Myanmar. At that time, in the introduction to the second edition of Burma’s Constitution, he stated that after the eighteen months of military-led government, the circumstances that the country found itself at that time required constitutional strengthening: The grand plans about the welfare state must wait; the glittering ideologies, such delicious mouthfuls to utter, must wait. Peace and stability, law and order, the rule of law, a strong civil service, an independent and fearless judiciary, a strong Parliament — the big beating heart of democracy — all these must be restored or reinforced or created altogether anew.50

General Ne Win was in fact deciding that these institutions had indeed to be “created altogether anew” but the “glittering ideologies” which had dogged Myanmar’s politics in the 1940s and 1950s, leading to so much conflict and violence, were not forgotten as Dr Maung Maung had wished. Reflecting on his and his family’s return to Yangon, he said nearly forty years after the 1962 coup, So we went back in July 1962, hoping of course that things would work out well and the nation building would proceed, not go backward. The first few years of the Revolutionary Council were fairly promising. Leftism, socialism, those were nothing new, really, it was not a dogmatic type of socialism, not communism, not Marxism. But things were overdone because the executors, the implementers, were the army, they always tend to overdo things. All armies, I think, they seem to use more energy, force than necessary. So when they go left, they go left all the way. When they nationalised shops and industries, they nationalised small shops, big shops, small industries, big industries and so on. And found they couldn’t manage, they couldn’t manage, that was the problem.51

While his time on the bench was a period upon which he reflected positively in later years, the general political situation he found rather depressing during the final decade of BSPP rule: I had, in my work on the bench and with the Revolutionary Council, I never had felt any guilty conscience. I gave all, you know, I did

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not do anything wrong, but at least of course, by my standards. Maybe sometimes I felt sad, well, I should resign when things were getting difficult, more and more difficult. The better trained, the more intellectual, people were slowly dropping out, one by one, very were few left. The new young, the new people with whom Ne Win surrounded himself were very third rate, fourth rate people, you know, people who were sergeants, NCOs when he was a battalion commander. That level of people. So these fellows were loyal to him, good people, but at the same time they did not understand what he was saying, they did not understand him enough, I think. So everything was going wrong, started to go wrong, about ten years, since ten years or so. Those ten years I was very unhappy, felt many times like leaving, but to leave in that … was also not very easy. And that system, if you leave and go, well, they will either put in under restriction or if I went and asked for a passport, they wouldn’t give me, you know. If I wanted to start a publishing house or a law firm, I wouldn’t be successful, you know, there will be things, obstacles in my way and so on.52

Ironically, the eventual decision by the Revolutionary Council to transfer power to the BSPP was the result of belief by General Ne Win that involving the army in politics and administration was ultimately bad for the army. Near the time of the 1962 coup, as Dr Maung Maung recalled forty years later, General Ne Win: … declared that this is not a good thing for the military to do. The military should keep out of politics, out of government, this is, you know, we had to do it because of the extreme circumstances, a matter of necessity, national necessity. We will start a political party or let other parties come up, and as soon as the constitution is written, we will handover. So that was his promise, that was what he tried to do, I think, and as he went along he probably thought about one party system would be better than a multi-party system.53

According to Dr Maung Maung, U Ne Win felt that “… if the army wants to stand united, as a cohesive body, it has to stay out of politics.”54 In 1971 the military dominated Revolutionary Council government began to make preparations for formally handing over power to the political party which it had created and largely staffed, the BSPP. Among the first steps taken was the resignation from the army of a number of

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key figures in the Council including General Ne Win, who remained, however, as head of state and government in his capacity as nominally civilian Chairman of the Revolutionary Council as well as Chairman of the BSPP. In a further effort to give the revised Revolutionary Council a non-military image, four civilians were appointed to it at this time. Among them was Dr Maung Maung who became Minister for Judicial Affairs and later under the 1974 constitution, Chairman of the Council of People’s Attorneys. Soon he became one of the ninety-seven member commission appointed to draft a new socialist one party constitution for Myanmar. That process, which took three years to complete, involved extensive presentations to the public throughout the country. Travelling about for these meetings and discussing constitutional and administrative affairs was an activity that Dr Maung Maung indicated he very much enjoyed. The new constitution came into force on 2 March 1974, twelve years after the coup that terminated Myanmar’s first constitution. At that time Dr Maung Maung became a member of the Pyithu Hluttaw (People’s Assembly) representing Mandalay Northeast One Division and also one of the twenty-eight members of the highest organ of state power when the Hluttaw was not in session, the Council of State, as well as the Chairman of the Law Commission. Because of his extensive legal knowledge, many people have claimed that Dr Maung Maung was in fact the sole author of the 1974 constitution, a claim he always denied. Noting the size of the drafting commission, and its extensive procedures, he argued that it was indeed a collectively drafted document. After the constitution was drafted and a nation wide referendum approved it, he was involved in the process of preparing the civil service and the judiciary to cope with the new order. In addition to writing a simple guide to the constitution and the law in the new socialist order,55 he travelled the country widely spreading the word. As he said, … I went off six months just preaching, teaching and so on, trying to get them ready, psychologically, for their [the judicial officials’] new roles and to the new judges, the men, the new people who are going to come on the council. Tell them their functions, tell them what they have to do and all that sort of, but it doesn’t work. The very first year, I knew that they failed because they are human beings. The people who went there were thinking only of their powers,

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you know. Further, one day they were peasants, maids in your house, next day they were sitting on the bench with power to sentence a person to six months imprisonment or fine him and so on and bucked up. The judicial officers, too, they didn’t like it, they missed their power. They felt they had to be, they were servants to that tribunal of unlearned, unlettered people. It didn’t work. And then slowly they became corrupted. The tribunal members of the council, judicial council as well the … , you know, they know how to take bribes and people starting saying that when only one man was on the bench, you had to pay only one man. Now there are three people on the bench and one judicial officer and one legal officer, we have to bribe, at least five or six, maybe, with the police officer included! So it costs us six times. And then the delays for the three people to assemble. You know they don’t meet, they are not punctual, they have their own jobs, they are part time people. So they don’t care enough, they don’t turn up on time and there is a lot of waiting, adjournments and all kinds of things. So all kinds of human factors came in.56

The BSPP was from the beginning of Myanmar’s one party socialist experiment that formally end in September 1988, the central institution to which one had to belong to be seen as influential in the new order which was being created. All members were assigned party numbers upon joining. The lower your number, the earlier you had been included in the inner circles of the party. General Ne Win’s number was, for example, 1000001, hence earning him the nickname “Number One”. Indicative of Dr Maung Maung’s trusted role in the new order, his party membership number was 1000060.57 Having been a member of the Party Central Committee for many years, in 1983 he was elevated to the inter-sanctum of the BSPP Executive Committee. However, Dr Maung Maung resigned from the Central Executive Committee two years later when he was hospitalized with diabetes, though he remained a member of the Central Committee. He was also at that time the Chairman of the BSPP’s Discipline Committee that had responsibility for policing the party rules and regulations. Three years later, however, in the midst of the social and political turmoil that ended the rule of the BSPP, Dr Maung Maung returned to the Party Central Executive Committee. At this time he also re-assumed the position of Attorney-General in the cabinet but resigned his post as a member of the Council of State. These moves all occurred on

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27 July, two days after U Ne Win resigned as BSPP Party Chairman and the party and the government where thrown into turmoil. Dr Maung Maung’s career as Attorney-General was to be short lived, however, for U Sein Lwin, who the Party chose as its new Chairman and President of the country under whom he now served, resigned from office in the face of mounting public demonstrations on 12 August. There then ensued six days of chaos before the Party and the Pyithu Hluttaw could respectively meet and chose a second successor to General Ne Win. The Party Central Executive Committee then chose Dr Maung Maung as its new chairman and on 18 August he was elected President of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the position he was to occupy until 19 September when he was removed from office by a military coup which abrogated the constitution which he worked so hard to help create and preserve.58 After retirement from public life, Dr Maung Maung reverted to his books and library. He visited London and Singapore including a stay at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies where he gave a seminar and began recording the oral history that forms one of the sources for this brief account of his life. Dr Maung Maung died of a heart attack in Yangon on 2 July 1994 at the age of sixty-nine. While his body lay at his modest house on Ady Road, opposite General Ne Win’s more prepossessing residence, the General came across to stand by his former colleague. Entering the room, he requested a state flag be brought to him. Placing the flag over the body of Dr Maung Maung, U Ne Win is quoted by those present as saying that it was only fitting as “he was the last constitutional president of Myanmar”.59 Notes 1. For example, Bertil Lintner, “His Story, not History”, The Irrawaddy 8, no. 8 (August 2000) and Myint Zan, “Misremembrance of an Uprising”, The Newcastle Law Review [New South Wales], www.newcastle.edu.au/school/law/review/back_issues.htm, accessed in January 2005. Both are reviews of Maung Maung, The 1988 Uprising in Burma (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph 49, 1999). 2. Maung Maung, The 1988 Uprising in Burma, p. 9. 3. Ibid., p. 29. 4. (The Hague: Martinus Nihjoff for Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1962), p. vii. 5. Maung Maung, To a Soldier Son (Rangoon: Sarpay Beikman, 1974), p. 42.

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6. Ibid., p. 32 7. The 1988 Uprising in Burma, p. 9. 8. His sisters and their activities in 1962 were (1) Daw Ma Ma Gyi, M.A., B.L., Lecturer in History, Yangon University; (2) Daw Than Than, B.Sc. (Hons.), B.Ed., D.T. (London), Inspectress of Schools, Domestic Science; (3) Dr Nyo Nyo, M.B., B.S., Civil Assistant Surgeon, Mandalay; (4) Daw Sein Sein; (5) Daw Nu Nu, B.Com., B.L., Mandalay University, and (6) Daw Su Su, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. (Final), Assistant Lecturer, Physics Department, Yangon University. “Profile: Dr Maung Maung” by M.B.K., The Guardian 9, no. 8 (August 1962), p. 12. 9. See Section III, Z., and Section V, G. 10. The existence of two Maung Maungs, both of whom have written several books on aspects of Myanmar’s history, has perplexed librarians and bibliographers for years. Brigadier Maung Maung is the author of the important books From Sangha to Laity: Nationalist Movements in Burma, 1920–1940 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1980) and Burmese Nationalist Movements, 1940–1948 (Edinburgh: Kiscadale, 1989). To add to the confusion for foreigners, when young both Doctor and Brigadier Maung Maung would have been known as Maung Maung Maung. Maung is the term of address for a junior male and some authors, but fortunately neither of the two Maung Maung scholars, with a false modesty, use the term as part of their published name as have others such as Maung Htin Aung who was actually Dr Htin Aung. 11. See Section V, A. 12. “Dr Maung Maung Interviews”, interviewed by P. Lim Pui Huen and transcripts edited by Yee May Kaung, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1995, hereafter cited as Interview, p. 74; also p. 110. 13. See Section III, O. 14. Thant had previously been in charge of the publicity department of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League, the party that led Myanmar into independence. Who’s Who in Burma, 1961 (Rangoon: People’s Literature Committee and House, 1962), p. 169. 15. See also June Bingham, U Thant: The Search for Peace (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968), pp. 193–94. 16. Maung Maung, “Introduction”, Do Pyihtaungsu Myanmar Naingngan Hpyeise Okchokchit Poun [Our Union of Myanmar Administrative/Constitutional Form] (Yangon: Myawati Publications, fourth printing, February 1990), p. 9. 17. The 1988 Uprising in Burma, p. 76. 18. See Sections II and V. 19. Thant, “Introduction” to Grim War against the KMT (Rangoon: Maung Maung at U Nu Yin Press, 1953). 20. (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1952). 21. Ibid., p. 31. 22. Ibid., pp. 50–51. 23. “A Helping Hand” The Guardian II, no. 8, June 1955), p. 8. 24. Perhaps also known as the Society for the Extension of Democratic Ideals. (See Bingham, U Thant, p. 194.) In Bamar it was known as either the Dimogareisi

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25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52.

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Pyan-pwa-ye Athin or the Dimogareisi Binnya Byan-bwa-ye Athin. U Thant at that time was working closely with Prime Minister U Nu and others to propagate anticommunist, pro-democracy ideas among the general population. See the discussion in Michael Charney, “Ludo Aung Than: Nu’s Burma and the Cold War”, in Christopher Goscha, ed., Culture of the Cold War, forthcoming. Discussions with Mr David Steinberg, Hiroshima, September 2005. Mr Steinberg was then working for the United States Asia Society in Yangon. See Sections II, G; III; IV; V, E–I; VI, A–B and E–H. See Section III, G. See Section IV, C. See Section IV, D. Dr Ba Maw had been a leading Myanmar barrister and politician since the 1920s. Also trained in the English Inns of Court, he was Premier of Myanmar in 1937–38 and head of state under the Japanese from 1943 to 1945. He was famous for his rhetorical skills, having defended the peasant rebel leader Hsaya San in the early 1930s. On which side of the argument Dr Maung Maung stood is unstated. See Section III, V. See Section III, N. See Section III, H. See Section III, E. See Section III, F. See Section IV, E. In Greece he participated in a conference at Rhodes on the “Rule of Law in Democracies”. See Section IV, F. They are Kyaw Thu (15 August 1951), Aung Naing (25 October 1953), Yin Yin Oo (28 December 1955), Yin Yin Aye (29 January 1958), Win Maung (31 December 1958), Khin Thida (21 April 1960), and Khin Sandar (1 October 1962). A Trial in Burma: The Assassination of Aung San (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1962); Editor and Contributor, Aung San of Burma and Law and Custom in Burma and the Burmese Family (The Hague: M. Njihoff, 1963). On 3 November 1961. See Section IV, F. See Section VI, G. See Section IV, G. See Section VI, I. Arthur Eggar, The Law of Evidence (Rangoon: Rangoon Gazette, 1958), p. 1. Eggar had previously been Attorney-General under the colonial government. Do Pyihtaungsu Myanmar, p. 1. Interview, p. 200. See Section VII. Interview, p. 198. Burma’s Constitution, p. xiv. Interview, p. 187. Interview, p. 207.

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53. Interview, p. 213. 54. Interview, p. 215. 55. Taya Upadei Ahtwehtwe Bahu Thutu (General Legal Knowledge, Yangon: Win Maw U Bookshop, 1975). 56. Interview, pp. 224–25. One is reminded of the story of the senior advocate in the Yangon Bar who lived across from the city in Thanlyin (Syriam). One morning he went down to jetty to hire a boat to take him across to appear in court at 10am. As they set out, he urged the boatman to row faster as he had an appointment in court and could not keep the judges waiting. The boatman rowed more slowly. He urged him again and again to make haste, but to no avail. Losing his temper in exasperation, the boatmen replied, “don’t be in such a rush, I am one of the judges.” Story retold by U Thet Tun, January 2005. 57. This information was made available to me by Dr Maung Maung. For a more extensive discussion of the BSPP and its workings, see Chapter 5 of Robert H. Taylor, The State in Burma (London and Honolulu: Hurst and Co and University of Hawaii Press, 1987). 58. See Section VII. 59. Two interviews in Yangon, January 2006.

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SECTION II

DR MAUNG MAUNG’S APPROACH TO LIFE

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Section II

DR MAUNG MAUNG’S APPROACH TO LIFE

A

ll but one of the articles reprinted in this section are based on radio talks that Dr Maung Maung gave over the English-language service of Myanmar Athan, the Myanmar government radio station, in 1948 and 1949. Commissioned by U Khin Zaw, the poet “K”, and published at the insistence of U Thant, then head of Information in the government of Prime Minister U Nu, these texts probably were listened to at the time of their original broadcast by relatively few people. The published versions, however, were widely circulated during the 1950s, but have since largely fallen from view. Dr Maung Maung was still a young man at the time he wrote these articles, not yet having reached a quarter century of life. However, his experience of growing up rapidly in the midst of war and the political upheaval that nationalist politics brought with it in the wake of the war, had clearly given him maturity beyond his years. It is important to remember the historical context in which he was writing. The first article reprinted was broadcast on the 17 June 1948, the last on 31 July 1949. This year-long period saw Myanmar caught up in the civil war that commenced within three months of independence on 4 January 1948. 27

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First the Communist Party of Burma, led by Thakin Than Tun, and joined by large numbers of Myanmar army troops that had Communistleaning officers in charge, as well as members of the para-military People’s Volunteer Organization (PVO), went underground and commenced their armed struggle with the government, a war which was not to end for another forty years. They joined other smaller groups, including Thakin Soe’s Red Flag Communists and Islamic separatists in northern Rakhine known as Mujahadeen, who had taken up arms against the British and their successors even before independence. Soon the civil war would take on an ethnic caste as Kayin (Karen) troops mutinied and joined with the armed forces of the Kayin National Defence Organisation (KNDO) in a doomed attempt to create a “Karenistan” out of Myanmar territory. The remnants of the KNDO, now the Karen National Union (KNU), persist in fighting against the government of Myanmar to today. For much of the year in which Dr Maung Maung was making his measured, philosophical comments, the government controlled only Yangon and only from just north of the university campus, as well as the heart of some of the other major towns and cities of the country. From time to time, Mawlamyaing, Mandalay, and other cities were seized by Communist, Kayin, and Mon rebel troops. At the line between government-controlled Yangon and KNU controlled territory to the north up to the then separate town of Insein, towns people came out to buy a chance to take a pot-shot at the “enemy” on other side. These were not normal or peaceful times.1 But Dr Maung Maung’s essays evoke more peaceful times and their references to the bloodshed, and its causes, which was on every side, are much muted and very subtle. The idyllic picture of village life described in “The Burma I Love”2 may be too good to be true, but it nonetheless captures the sensations that any city dweller, indigenous or foreign, undoubtedly feels when he or she enters a village in rural Myanmar. There is an outward air of peace, tranquility, and order which clearly was missing from Myanmar at the time this talk was first given. Given what was going on it the country at the time, his remarks contain a clear anti-Communist message along with its argument that Myanmar’s village life had already achieved a quality of classlessness that was far superior to that which the Communists were seeking, by force of arms, to create.

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The second essay, “My Politics”,3 is perhaps the most direct expression of Dr Maung Maung’s attitude toward serving his country and the obligations that come with that. Eschewing the ideologies and ethnonationalism which were driving so much of Myanmar’s post-independence politics, he argued for the appeal of a simple state-centric patriotism as his doctrine in life. He remained true to that doctrine throughout his public career despite his eventual disenchantment with the government of the Burma Socialist Programme Party in which he served. Written in March 1949, a year after the commencement of the Civil War which did not subside significantly until the early 1950s when the consequences of the Kuomintang (KMT) intervention were also being faced, this piece harks to a theme seen in other of Dr Maung Maung’s exhortations. He especially drew attention to the need for discipline and self-control in the practice of politics and the need for trust among citizens. One can indeed argue that the absence of trust in Myanmar society has been a major cause of the country’s post-independence political travails. The ideas that are expressed in this essay are advanced in an alternative manner in “Looking Ahead”.4 Not all of Dr Maung Maung’s radio talks directly address political issues, as with the one entitled “I Discovered Greatness”;5 it again evokes the spirit and atmosphere of idealized rural life. But indirectly, he once more alludes to the insurgency that wracked the country when he drew attention to how Myanmar farmers responded stoically to the destruction of war. Optimistically, in “The Turning Tide”,6 Dr Maung Maung predicted that soon the insurgents would be on the run. Once more he encouraged his listeners to “learn the subtle art of living together”, that is develop social trust. The final radio talk calls for Myanmar to follow “The Middle Way”7 in politics and life. Positing the past that most of his listeners would have identified as colonialism and capitalism as the darkness of the rightist political forces, and positing implicitly the ideologues of various extreme ideologies identified sweepingly with the Communists, he sought to find a moderate compromise in the middle. Though himself not a socialist, it was on that route that Myanmar found to be its middle way. The final piece published here is dramatically different in content and context than those discussed above. “Books on Burma”8 was published in February 1957. It is an appreciation of the academic writings of a

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number of foreign scholars, in contrast to the travel books of more popular authors. It is also a call for more Myanmar scholars to produce quality works on Myanmar’s modern history and politics such as his own rather more narrowly drawn account in Burma in the Family of Nations which had only recently been published. In particular, he called on scholars to meet with and interview the participants in the nationalist struggle while they were still available. As few participants had written their own memoirs, this was essential. His lament at the inadequacy of the resources made available to the nascent Historical Commission at that time is one that indigenous and foreign scholars of Myanmar could have made every year after he wrote these words.9 Notes 1. See Nu, Saturday’s Son (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1975), Chapters 6 and 7, for the Prime Minister’s account of those turbulent years. 2. Section II, A. 3. Section II, B. 4. Section II, C. 5. Section II, D. 6. Section II, E. 7. Section II, F. 8. Section II, G. 9. The Myanmar Historical Commission celebrated its 50th anniversary with a major international conference in Yangon in January 2005.

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Section II, A.

THE BURMA I LOVE

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he village, the jungle and the hill — they are the Burma I love. In the village, one gets quiet and peace and happiness, love and friendship. People there are simple and sincere; no hatred, no cunning, no evil desires pollute their honest hearts. Their speech is rough and often rude, it has not the polish of the city-born or the city-bred. Their ways of living, their manners and their dress may not be civilized as we interpret civilization. But they are healthy in body and mind, and even though their bodies may be dirty with the msud of the fields and the sweat of their honest labour their minds are pure. They mean what they say and when they do a thing they do it with good intentions. Their wants are few and they therefore do not have to worry much and there is peace and contentment in their mind.

“The Burma I Love” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 3–8; first broadcast 17 June 1948, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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One gets direct touch with Nature in the village. Man-made machines of awkward size, shape and design are absent there, and science has as yet been unable to make the Burmese village ugly. Thatch-roofed bamboo huts still stand there under umbrellas of mango trees and in the midst of plantain gardens. Now is the season for mangoes, and in the village we will see the yellow fruits dangling in bunches from the green boughs and from a distance, one sees the green umbrella above the bamboo huts spotted with gold. And then there are those numerous red-earth lanes cutting the village into several slices. These lanes have not been made by steam-rollers; they have been cut out by hands and beaten out by unnumbered feet which have trodden on them for numberless years. The lanes are dusty when the sun is hot, and muddy when it rains. That I think is their whole beauty — they do not resist Nature; they are dry and dusty when it is hot, wet and muddy when it is wet. In fact there is no question of their resisting Nature for they are part of Nature itself, they are Nature’s own. And then there is the village phongyi-kyaung where people go to observe Sabbath. The kyaung is usually on the skirt of the village or some distance out of it. There the villagers gather to hear their weekly sermon. When noon passes, they take to the shade of the trees or the shelter of a zayat and discuss religion, village affairs, and a bit of politics. They do not gossip, however, nor do they delight in scandal or sensational news. A sabbath day in the sacred precincts is a day for meditation and for prayer. In the hush of the quiet day whose silence is broken only by the soft tinkle of pagoda bells, the villagers turn to noble thoughts and plan noble deeds, feeling humble in the presence of God. Work in the farm is also happy. The Burmese villager is a hardworking person. He gets up before the sun and goes to his farm with his flock of cattle. Dawn sees him driving the plough across the field leaving behind him furrows of up-turned fresh earth. He works on till noon when he has his breakfast and a nap in the improvised sun-shelter he has built at the corner of the field. He then continues work till day is done and dusk has set in. Then homeward he returns, home to his waiting ) and ( ) home wife who has kept ready a handsome dinner of ( to his waiting children who will rush out of the bamboo hut and fling their dirty half-naked bodies on to him in a gesture of warm welcome. There in the village is the joy of life. A tiresome day in the farm, and

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then the return home, the welcome the farmer gets, the hearty dinner, and then the long night with the family. There are no electric lights, not even oil lamps. A fire kept alive through the night bursts into fits of flame and that gives enough light for all domestic purposes. The wife can weave by the light, or mend last year’s clothes which have been torn into ribbons by too much wear in all weather, or roll some cheroots for the husband to smoke at the farm tomorrow. When the moon in full or near full, even that fire can be dispensed with unless it is winter and a fire is necessary, moon or no moon. Harvest time is the happiest time of all in the village. The fields are golden — like a crucible filled with molten gold. The whole village turns out into the fields, the men to reap, the women to bundle the stalks, the children to look after the cows. Everyone is cheerful then, and the fields are filled with song and the music of flutes. The women are dressed for action — the sleeves of their jackets are rolled as far as they will go and their htameins are worn short. They sing as they tie up the bundles with great dexterity and they crack jokes and pass sly remarks at the men who, inspired by the presence of the women and by their songs and jokes, work hard and forget to get tired. There is so much fun, and the harvest gathering is indeed a festival. And then I love the sunset hour in the village. It is at this time that maidens well thanaka-ed and dressed in their best come to the village well to draw water. The shy and the bashful, the bold and the forward, all emerge from their homes at this hour and make for the well with earthen pots cleverly balanced on their heads. The well is a rendezvous where maidens meet maidens and exchange the day’s news, where young men wait to steal wistful glances at their special maidens and get in exchange an encouraging scowl which seems to say, “To-morrow again at this hour!” Speaking of the village well makes me remember the classless society which Communism seems to have as its ideal. Some countries are trying to experiment with that classless society with varying degrees of success and at the cost of much money, labour, blood and lives. But if you really want to see a classless society which has not been forged by blood and iron but which is the result of natural growth and which stands in peace and harmony, visit a Burmese village and see the society there which is older than Communism. In the Burmese

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village there is no class, no caste, no higher and lower level, no discrimination. The head-man’s daughter comes to the village well to draw water and so do the shop-keeper’s daughter and the poor man’s wife. Together all men and women work in the fields, together they participate in pwes and village functions. When there is a marriage, the whole village turn out to the feast. All maidens of the village join to make the ceremony go. All wives of the village come to cook the morning feast and all men come to erect the bamboo pandal or do other odd jobs. When some one dies, the same thing happens. The bereaved family are relieved of the burden of looking after the formalities: they can concentrate themselves on mourning. Nobody dreams of questioning whether the person who dies belongs to the farmer class, the shop-keeper class, or the upper class filled by such people as the headman and the landowner, for the simple reason that these classes are non-existant. All people belong to the same class, or in other words there is a class-less society. Everyone who works for his living, everyone who does not steal or rob, everyone who is god-fearing and honest, everyone who respects the laws of the village society is a full member of it. The village society is a classless society and a well-ordered and well-organised classless society at that. Not every classless society is good and desirable. For example where law and order fail and chaos runs wild over the country there can be a sort of classless society. The rich may be driven out of their homes and their riches looted by the armed poor, the government of the country may be wrested from the hands of a particular group of people by a particular group of people, and there may be a violent reversal of the social scale in other respects also. But if we examine that new order carefully we will see that it results not in the creation of a classless society, a Utopia in which all men are equal, but only in a reshuffle of personnel. The classes will still be there, only there will be new people in them. The Burmese village community is not an artificial classless society born out of revolution and chaos. There is law and order and peace in the village. Villagers obey the head-man and the head-man performs his duty conscientiously; the villagers and the head-man are all pupils of the village sayadaw who teaches them religion, and also gives them worldly wisdom in many matters. The villagers work hard and the village community is happy and peaceful.

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And then I love the Burmese jungle and hills because there one can find so many thrills and joys quite unknown to the town-dweller. One enters the jungle or climbs the hill with rapt feelings of awe and expectation and the feeling of an explorer probing further and further into the dark unknown. The padauk and the pyinkadoe look down from their immense heights at the puny human trespasser. The vines that circle round the tall big trees and burst forth into pretty flowers at heights to which human hands cannot reach, an occasional stream that zig-zags its way through the jungle with a murmur, the monkeys which make faces at you, the red squirrel which stares at a stranger and then wheels round taking sudden fright and jumps from bough to bough with its tail standing upright between its hind legs, the birds which sing, the flies which hiss and together form an orchestra, and then at a solitary spot you find a sand-and-stone pagoda raised hundreds of years ago by some pious hands to the memory of the Buddha — the jungle deep and dark and here a symbol of the All Powerful, the Divine. The wild animals of the jungle may roar or hoot or howl and fierce weather may rage, but this pagoda stands in its calm dignity heedless of the mortal forces which will tire themselves out while it will stand on through the ages. When you enter the Burmese jungle or climb the hill you must be careful. There are things which you mustn’t say, things which you mustn’t do. The jungle and the hill nats don’t like them. Those words and deeds are taboo. It is believed that if you utter words which offend the taw and taung saung nats, they will bring upon you a curse, or punish you at once by setting their pet tiger on you, or by making you lose your way. These may be idle superstitions but they at least give your journey a certain charm. You have to put a restraint on your deeds, your movements, and teach your tongue the virtue of discipline or else some kind of danger will topple down on you. This sense of danger is really delicious. When you have done something or said something, you examine what you have done or said in order to see if you have infringed the laws of the nats. If you have done so you may hastily offer an apology in a prescribed manner and that may save you yet if the nats have not already decided to be angry. The village with its bamboo huts and green umbrellas, its red-earth lanes running through the paddy fields, its pongyi-kyaung and its seasonal

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pives, its well to which its beauties come in the evening, the jungle and hill with their tall padauk and pyinkadoe, their grinning monkeys and shy squirrels and the singing birds, their murmuring streams their silver pagoda, and their many laboo — they are the Burma I love.

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Section II, B.

MY POLITICS

I

am a common man blessed with no special knowledge nor flashy brilliance. My thoughts are those of a common man and so are my aspirations. My desires are common desires: I like to live in peace and happiness and reasonable comfort, I want to add to whatever knowledge I may have so that I may become a better citizen of the State and a more useful person in the service which employs me. I love to have friends and I do love to love and be loved. And like every other common man, I love my country, my motherland which has given me birth and brought me up. It is my ambition to see my country free and to see her stand high and in dignity in the society of nations. When she was in bondage I wanted to see her free and willingly gave my service, meagre though it certainly was, in the struggle for her freedom. Now that she is free, I want her to preserve and uphold her freedom. My ambition goes a step further — not only do I want Burma to keep her freedom, but I also wish that she will thrive on it. I hope to see her flourish, and her “My Politics” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 65–68, first broadcast 23 September 1948, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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people prosper and grow happy in contentment. And that is the extent of my aspirations: that is my politics. I do not understand the various-isms of political ideologies. They puzzle me. All of them sound very good, all glitter but I do not know which is gold. One “-ism” says that it stands for the common man — a man like me — and that its business is to protect the common man’s interests. Another “ism” says about the same thing though in a different way. Up to this point, I am happy and so should the common man be for here we have two different “isms” out to protect our interests. Two is bigger and better than one, and two “-isms” which both have our interests in mind must therefore tender better for our good. But if the two “-isms” instead of working together to get the best results, fight each other on some minor points of difference, our happiness will cease. We will only be able to stand by and watch the battle with wondering eyes and saddened heart. If such a thing happens we will be confused, for we will be at a loss to know which is good and which is bad. You cannot blame us for that, for we are but common men. But I want to prescribe a test to find out which “-ism” is sincere and which party is working in dedication to our interests. We will give marks as we do in a school terminal test. Say ten marks for promoting peace in the country, ten for every stride of progress attributable to the party’s efforts, and certainly twenty should not be too much for finding a solution to all Burma’s problems, a solvent for all her difficulties and a way to strength and unity. Results, not words, will be the criterion. We will wait and watch: we shall not listen. Words confuse us but results will not, for they will be plain and unmistakable. Let all the “-isms” come out into the open and prove their worth. Let no “-ism” hide in the jungle and speak the language of guns. They shall have a fair chance and equal opportunity and we shall be an impartial judge. The party which shows by deeds its sincerity, by results its ability will be the party which will earn our lasting regard. We shall respect the “-ism” which gives us peace and happiness; call it by any name, call it “fasci-commu-Marxism” if you like and yet we shall love it. We will not look to surface beauty or the music of a name. We shall look to the real substance, the real stuff in the “-ism”. Names will not bother us for a rose by any name will smell as sweet. The “-ism” which promises us the moon but gives

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My Politics

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us the bullet and the bayonet cannot win our support. We are common men but we cannot be deceived. My politics is my country’s welfare. I cannot win that end myself alone for I can but do little. I cannot lead but am willing to be led. It is those who cannot lend and will not be led who retard progress. I can do little but I shall do what little I can, and if every man gives his little share, all the shares summed up should go a long way. Every man has his value, and his special ability. His ability should be utilised in the service of the country. We should not look down on it as mean or meagre. We should not think that he is a bad fellow just because he thinks differently from what we do. Just because his likes and dislikes are different from ours it doesn’t mean that he is bad and we are good. Sometimes the reverse may be true. Be that as it may, if his special abilities and our special abilities should work together, what glorious results would be achieved. There is another feature in my politics and that feature may perhaps be foreign to this, our feverish world. That feature is moderation. I love my Motherland just as, I am sure, every common man does, but that type of super-pariot-ism of blood and thunder politicians makes me nervous. My politics favours a sure and steady sort of patriotism and not that type which is aggressive, noisy and which works by fists. War-cries and blood-thirsty slogans also make my politics sick. I know that there are certain times when moderation becomes impracticable. We could not have been moderate or constitutional when the Japs were torturing our men, molesting our women and burning our villages. We could not have restrained them by politely pointing out that such acts were not proper and were a breach of etiquette on their part. On such an occasion we have to let moderation wait a while and act as the occasion demands. But once the crisis is over, we must forget it and turn back to moderation. We cannot always keep our emotions at high pitch, for life is not one long crisis: there are always the necessary breaks. In war we might play the lion but certainly in peace we cannot be at war always. A war is over and let us come and go and work in peace. Our country has great potential wealth but to tap that wealth we shall have to work, and to work, we need peaceful and workable conditions. The tall timber in the forests have to be cut and floated down to the saw mills. The minerals that repose beneath the earth and the oil in the

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wells have to be dug up. Unless we do all that our wealth will be an intangible kind of wealth, a kind of which we may speak with pride but which we cannot apply to immediate use. And while we let time and opportunity slip by, our debts will grow, not intangible debts, but very real, and under their weight which grows heavier, we shall gradually sink. Not a happy prospect, that. My politics therefore stands for unity, moderation, and a determined drive in our nation-building programme. Let us work together in close friendship, as we used to do in every phase of our national struggle before. Let not suspicion poison our heart and cloud our eyes. Let those who hide in the shadows come out and join us in our united endeavour, and we may yet save our country. Let us unite while there is yet time.

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Section II, C.

LOOKING AHEAD

I

t should not be long before the present crisis is overcome and normal conditions are restored. A crisis cannot drag on for a long time: if it does, it loses its dignity as a crisis. Since the end of the present difficulties cannot be very far off, it may be wise to prepare ourselves and plan for the period of peace that is lying ahead of us. Even that peace is not going to be an easy one. We were not yet fully recovered from the disasters of the last war when the internal troubles started and whatever reconstruction that was done was quickly undone and we progressed backwards at a rather uncomfortable rate. So when peace comes, as sure it will, we will have to start from the starting point again and cover the ground which we have already crossed and re-crossed. That will mean a lot of work, hard, unrelenting work. That will mean a lot of sacrifices too, a good many painful self-denials. Thus I say that the period of peace is not going to be an easy one: in fact, it is going to extremely difficult. “Looking Ahead” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 87–90; first broadcast 17 March 1949, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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Though I do not feel competent to suggest a plan for the peace in which policies and principles are involved, I should like to make a few remarks on the way in which we should work whatever plan that may be formulated. A plan may look good on paper, but unless it is worked in the proper way and spirit, it cannot yield results. Whatever plan we may formulate, its success will depend on us, for it is we who must put it into execution. It is not the Government alone which will be responsible in carrying out the plan, it is all of us who are jointly, and severally responsible — all of us, all the citizens of the Union, irrespective of race or religion or status in life. In discharging our responsibility it may be well to carry in mind the following few points. First, that discipline is very important, so important in fact that in many cases it may even be the deciding factor. We may have the best of intentions and our enthusiasm may be as keen as may be desired, but if we do not go about in a disciplined way we can hardly get anywhere. Quiet restraint is essential. Enthusiasm should be well controlled and it should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to develop into excitement. Liberty should not be confused with license and it must be realized that duties are always attached to rights and that if we want to enjoy the rights, we must discharge the duties. Certain spheres of action are marked out for certain people or certain types of people and it is necessary to respect such defined jurisdictions. The structure of the modern State is no longer the simple one in which all people can actively take part in every affair of Government and the State and therefore, we should learn to know our limits: when and where to stop. Lack of discipline will not only hinder progress, it may even lead to injurious results. Disciplined people working at their allotted posts with a determination will make the machine go round smoothly and the output of results will be encouraging. If people shift about making noise and meddling, the machine itself will be confused. Perhaps, the traffic in Rangoon’s busy streets will serve as a good barometer to make the rising or falling level of discipline in the country. If traffic is well-regulated, and pedestrians and vehicles move strictly to the rules of the road instead of going just where they like in just any manner they like, then the discipline of our people has reached a high level and we can reasonably expect an all-round improvement in efficiency in all the spheres of work in the State.

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Secondly, we should learn to trust each other a little more. Exaggerated fears have often made us suspect our neighbour as our enemy, as a capitalist out to get what little money we have, as an expansionist out to seize whatever little land we have, or as an imperialist out to deprive us of our freedom. It is all right for one to love his country, but just because he loves her, it cannot be true that everybody else hates her. We all love our country, each in his or her way, but it is not right to think that we are alone in loving her. Other citizens love her equally well and in their own way, they are working for her welfare. Even foreigners, countless number of them, have fond affections for Burma; some because of the long connection they have had with her, and many because they still remember with gratitude the times when they had basked in the sunshine of her hospitality. We should therefore cultivate closer friendship instead of looking upon other people with suspicion and calling them names. Don’t let us call each other traitor, or imperialist stooge or capitalist underling: don’t let us call each other a Red, a Yellow, a White, a Blue, or any other colour we can think of. Let us call each other friend and let us work together. Again, let us ourselves bear the responsibility for mistakes or failure, instead of looking for people on whom we can conveniently put the blame. Evasion of responsibility is a weakness and though, by indulging in it we may ease our conscience or think we can uphold our prestige, in actual fact it is we who suffer in the end. While we blame other people in hot terms, we are losing valuable time, and by living in an unreal world of our own wishful thinking, we become liable to bitter disappointments in the long run. Let not the people blame the Government, and let not the Government make an excuse of the people’s weaknesses. Let not the officer shift responsibility on to the subordinate and let not the subordinate say that his failure is due to the “bureaucratic methods” of his officer. When there is a fault or a failure and the real cause is searched for by an impartial observer, he will always find that almost always the involved parties are wrong, though may be in different measures. So let us all stand together, the Government and the governed, the officer and the subordinate, the leaders and the followers. Let us work together and if there is any blame to be taken, let us share it together. Just as we shall contribute to the maximum of our capacity to the national endeavour, we shall share

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in proportion the responsibility for wrongs done, errors committed, or failures suffered by us. We may embrace different ideologies but that should not stop us from working together. When we differ in principle, we shall try to convince each other of the right way: if we cannot do that we shall compromise and take the best and most expedient way of working under existing circumstances. I think that if we work as I have said, in unity, with discipline and mutual trust, bearing the responsibility for all things jointly and severally together, we shall be able to carry out any plan that may be devised to meet the country’s needs. Of course, it is easy to say things and to suggest what we should and what we should not do. Actual practice may be difficult. It is easy and often enjoyable to preach, but to practise what one preaches may not be as easy or as enjoyable. I think I must begin with myself in practising what I preach.

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Section II, D.

I DISCOVERED GREATNESS

O

f course, it is all a matter of opinion, and opinions, as we know are so susceptible to change. Everyone has his or her own idea of greatness. I remember well how, as a young fellow with too much of romance in my head and heart, I used to wield my toy sword and galloping hard on my wooden horse hacked my way through the armies of the enemy to the rescue of the fair. Inevitably I would win through in the end and get my well-earned reward of the smile of the damsel in distress. I was a great guy, the greatest in fact of all warriors who took the field. My idea of greatness at that stage of my growth was therefore courage and chivalry. After I had outgrown that stage, my idea underwent a change. I started writing silly short stories and composing unmetered rhymes and I thought I had a great writer and poet in me. Some of my stories managed to slip the editor in his busy moment and come out in print, and that was, for me, sufficient confirmation that I

“I Discovered Greatness” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 9–12; first broadcast 18 November 1948, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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was a great writer after all. The sword and the wooden horse fell out of my favour — they were childish pastimes, I thought. How foolish I was to think that to ride a horse and brandish a sword were the essence of greatness — anyone could do that! So ideas went on changing until today I have come to hold a different opinion of myself which is no longer as complimentary as it used to be before. My discovery of true greatness was intimately connected with my frequent visits to the Burmese villages. I like the life there in the villages where things are beautiful in their technicolour and there is peace, but my appreciation of the life did not, during my early visits to the village, go much further than an admiration of the beauty and an immense enjoyment of the peace. It was only when I began to think and to know a little that I discovered that there was not only colour and beauty and peace in our village, but also a greatness, an awe-inspiring greatness of the human mind, strength and form, which one can hardly find anywhere outside the village fence. The greatness is of an unobtrusive character and a casual observer will find it difficult if not impossible to notice it. It is not the kind of greatness that declares itself in public, that parades itself in all manners in order to catch the eye. It is a greatness that is silent that feels happy in its aloofness, that does not worry when it does not win notice. And that is why I think it is the true kind of greatness. A visit to the village always helps me by wearing down whatever conceit I might be suffering from before the visit. I might go thinking I knew too much, thinking that I was a living bank of knowledge, but inevitably I would come back with the realization that I knew too little. The farmer gets his early tutoring in the three “Rs” from the village phongyi. He does not get an opportunity to go to an English School leave alone a College or a University. He does not know when Queen Victoria was born and what her consort’s name was. He does not know how the Roman Empire rose and fell, nor does he have even a vague idea of what Plato thought of the ideal State. I happen to know these little things because my books taught me and because I had to swallow the knowledge in order to pass examinations. Whether I can digest the knowledge so swallowed is a different matter. The farmer has never read Shakespeare while I have read Shakespeare partly because it is fashionable to have read Shakespeare, and partly because he is a compulsory subject in the examinations. So when I first spent my holidays in the village, I

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used to look upon the farmers, young and old, with great condescension because they were so helplessly ignorant. Poor men, I thought. A few days of village life however, swung my ideas to the reverse side and discovery dawned on me that it was I rather than the farmer who was so ignorant. It was I who was so ignorant, so awfully in need of sympathy and help. The Burmese farmer does not know Shakespeare but he is quite familiar with the works of U Ponnya and other Burmese poets. He can sing Burmese lyrical songs and understand them, whereas I can neither sing nor understand a song when it is sung to me. The farmer does not know Plato or the Roman Empire or Queen Victoria, but he knows a lot of Burmese history and is full of tales of the ancient Burmese Court. His father or grandfather had fought in such-and-such battle and memories of Bandoola are still fresh with him because they have been piously preserved and handed down with care from father to son. He knows Buddhist Scriptures and what is more important, wears to heart the fundamental principles of goodness taught ages ago by the Buddha. He observes Sabbath regularly and treats his parents, elders and the Village Sayadaw with utmost respect. In him one can see old Burma still alive. His talk is Burmese: he can say what he wants to say without having to call for the assistance of English slang as the educated modern usually has to do. His ways and his culture are Burmese: they are not the awkward mixture of Anglo-Cino-Indo-Japanese-Burmese ways and culture which we commonly see round us, and which we think are Burmese. At work, the Burmese farmer is a wonderful sight. He rises before the sun and drives his bullocks and the plough to the farm. There he plods on till noon, bare-backed, his muscles shining with the sweat of honest labour under the sun. Rain may patter down on his naked back or the sun may blaze away in furious heat, but he does not bother. He is a son of the soil and the elements are his friends. He knows how to focus the weather and though he has no scientific apparatus to help him, his focusses rarely go wrong. He knows what to sow at what season and how to tap the richness of the soil to the greatest benefit. Of course, with the help of modern science, his efforts would be able to reap better results but even without that help he does not fare badly. His labour earns him enough food for his family, enough to make his wife’s spinning wheel and weaving loom give sufficient clothing for

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the children, self and wife. He is happy when harvest is good, for the earnings can then buy a few luxuries like special tobacco for his pipe, a new silk “htamein” for the wife and toys and trinkets for the children. He is not worried if harvest is poor, for better luck will come next year, and if not the next, certainly the year after next will bring good luck. Thus the smile always stays on his face and on the faces of the wife and children for they have a faith in life. Life goes on in the village in the same peaceful happy way. Time in the village is eternal and the natural cheer that is there is everlasting. The greatness of the Burmese villager — the purity of his mind, the greatness of character and strength — is the secret of Burma’s ability to come through all her struggles with success. The villager is the strength of Burma and her pride. Without him the country cannot exist. It is the greatness of the villager which enables him to resist the forces of destruction that invaded his village recently, and that still threaten him in some parts of the country at sporadic intervals. Lawless hordes may burn down his village but the villager and his family will build a new village. He will still tend his farm and look after the crops. He will never desert the soil whose son he is: come what may, he will reap the harvest and feed his family, his village, his country and also the hungry world. So long as the Burmese villager keeps his greatness, so long shall Burma stand in dignity. The Burmese farmer is my idea of greatness — and this time I think the idea has come to stay with me for ever.

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Section II, E.

THE TURNING TIDE

N

ow the tide has turned and is turning still and the forces of the law are sweeping on in one mighty wave. There is no stopping the forces now: they will just sweep on irresistibly, crushing all rebels and lawless elements that dare to stand in their way. Mostly these elements disperse and run on hearing the coming of the Union Armed Forces. And that, in fact, is the grand strategy of all the insurgents, red or purple or white; to take a town that is undefended, to loot the treasury and take the arms that are meant for the protection of the people and to establish a mockery of an administration for so long as the legal government takes time to launch the offensive. There is one thing, however, which insurgents can do with a measure of success — making speeches. Every-where they go they would summon, on pain of heavy penalty, the people from every house in the town and the surrounding

“The Turning Tide” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 81–84; first broadcast 14 July 1949, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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villages to come and listen to them. At the appointed hour the people would assemble in fear and the leaders would then arrive heavily escorted — an army of escorts is essential to protect the leaders from the people for whom they profess a great love and to the elevation of whose status they say they are forever pledged. Then come the speeches, full of fury, full of fire, full of bitter hatred for the bureaucrat, the capitalist, the imperialist, the expansionist and such other bogies, and full of love for the common man, the downtrodden masses, the poor cultivator, the miserable worker. The people listen to the speeches without understanding them. The big words about the strange isms puzzle them; the bitter hatred and the abundant venom of the speeches make them nervous and uncomfortable. When the speech-making was done, the leaders go back satisfied that they have made use of the language and ideas which they have learnt with great labour from some book, and the people return to their homes with a sick feeling. But insurgents know that their days are numbered and they always have a programme of work by which they can make the most of their short hour. They collect the cash from the treasury, convert the stores from the Civil Supplies godowns into cash, and when the amount realised is not satisfactory, they supplement it by a little bit of robbery which they call an act of liquidating the capitalist class. So the insurgents who have started as unemployed and disgruntled persons who do not care to stoop below the rank of Prime Minister if they do have to do some regular work for a living, now become rich for just organising some armed gangs and making speeches. It is a profession they like and one to which they would wish to stick if they are allowed. They know however, that they will not be allowed and so they keep the riches packed and ready for the run. When the Armed Forces begin the onslaught, the insurgents make their hasty retreat taking away with them the loot and plunder which they have acquired. The people watch the heroes run and they are not surprised for they knew from the beginning that the heroes can only give brave talk but not brave battle. In fact it is a great relief to the people to have back law and order and to be able to settle down to work and normal life. The insurrections are, in the ultimate analysis, the manifestation of a conflict between good and evil, between good men and bad men, between the good in a man and the evil in him. Political causes may

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have served as the spark to blow up the barrel, but the spark alone could have done little harm if there had not been the barrel which was only too eager to get blown up. There were the pent up feelings of hatred and jealousy and intense egoism and the insurrections were only an outburst of those feelings. To single out one of these contributory factors, let us take egoism. Some of the young men who have instigated or led the insurrection, are men who have learnt a few things about some ideology from some book or some lectures given by someone who professes a thorough knowledge of the ideology. These men, after having read a translation or listened to some lectures become fully satisfied that they know all that is there to know and that therefore there is nothing more for them to learn. Being introduced to but one ideology they think it is the best and being unfamiliar with other ideologies they think those others are all wrong and bad for the people. Though their ideology may be one imported into the country from abroad and not quite suitable to the country’s local conditions and local needs, yet to those all-knowing few the ideology is right and good and must be accepted in toto. The few do not keep quiet; they go about telling the people what they must believe in and what they must do and when the people do not respond the ideologists become very bitter, very desperate and wild, and they take to the jungle to force their ideology down the throats of the poor villagers. Some of the insurrectionists must of course, be sincere in a way and that is the most tragic part of the story. They cling with a fanaticism to their faith and when they fail to win converts by fair means they resort to foul measures and force. They kill and destroy to prove the sincerity of their purpose and the efficacy of their programme. None but fanatics could commit such grace blunders. The rest of the insurrectionists, as I said, are pleased with insurrection as a profession, easy and profitable and also attended with immense powers and no responsibility at all. Thus though the insurrection may be attributed by foreign observers to political causes, it is nothing, looked at from one angle, more than the expression of man’s most elemental instinct, the instinct to vindicate one’s ego, the instinct, to satisfy one’s native desires. Now the tide has turned and everywhere the multi-coloured insurgents are scampering for safety towards the hill and jungle. Peace is being restored to those areas which have been through a nightmarish existence

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and with peace will return the wonted Burmese cheer and happiness. This is a victory for the Armed Forces over the armed bad hats, a victory for the people over the few who want to dupe them and exploit their innocence and good heart, a victory for right and justice over the many irresponsible ideologies. But will the victory endure? Will the peace that will follow in the wake of victory endure? Will it be just a close of a chapter and not the end of the story of troubles and sufferings? The answer lies with us it can be yes and it can be no as we will it. We shall have lasting peace and order when we all can learn that subtle art of living together, in free and friendly co-operation. It is not enough to crush the insurrection or accept the surrender of the insurrectionists. It is not enough if men drop their arms just because they cannot continue fighting, if they drop the arms with a resolve to pick them up again when opportunity offers itself. Men who have erred must see their errors and return into the pale of the law with a mind to make themselves into good citizens. We must help them reform and encourage them to lead good lives. Perhaps, we ourselves are not altogether innocent of faults. We may not have committed anything but we may have omitted to do many things which omission may it its way have helped what have happened to happen. We too must search for our errors and correct them. The evil in us must be eradicated and the good in us must be made to grow. Then only will the conflict cease, then only can we all live in one happy family. We must not pretend to know more than the other men nor must we feign to be more good. There is no man in Burma who knows everything, no man who knows nothing, no man who is absolutely good, no man absolutely bad. We must share our knowledge, teaching others who need to be taught, learning from those who can teach us. We must pool our moral virtues together and share the joy of living a good clean life together. Unless we do so, we shall never have peace and happiness, never be able to do anything, achieve anything, for the tide that is turning today will keep on turning, forward and backward, and we shall forever have to watch in breathless suspense the eternal ebb and flow of the tide of Samsara.

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Section II, F.

THE MIDDLE WAY

W

here do we go from here? To the left or to the right? If we incline leftwards we have to change, either by violent revolution or by gradual evolutionary process. We must uproot the Old Order and plant the New. Our destination in that leftward journey will be the Utopia in which all men enjoy free and equal opportunity and share in proportion to their skill and the amount of work they put out the fruits of this fruitful land. On our rightward journey, we cling as fast as we can to the Old Order, to the accepted ideas of the Old Order and we fight shy of change. We look upon innovations with suspicion, but that does not mean that we do not change. We change a little just to accommodate ourselves to the changing times but in changing, we want to preserve as much of the Old Order as we can. So, where do we go: leftwards or rightwards? We must go somewhere for we cannot stop dead at the crossroads. To stop when the world is “The Middle Way” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1949) pp. 94–96; first printed in The Burman, 31 July 1949), by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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on its forward march at a rapid rate is to fall back in time. We must go forward, to the left or to the right? x

x

x

x

x

Leftwards, the land is bright. The Utopia is inviting and who on earth does not want to enjoy a fair and equal opportunity, to receive a fair share for his skill and labour? Which farmer on earth does not want to own his little plot of land and be his own master? The Utopia is inviting but the road to it is honey-combed with pitfalls and because the land is bright, dazzling bright we may be blinded in regard to the pitfalls. The invitation is urgent and people are impatient to accept it; they rush forward and they fall into the yawning traps. Few, if any, have yet reached the Utopia alive or unbroken. Rightwards the land looks dark. Things appear gloomy and to us who are impatient for change, quick change, they are definitely repelling. We do not want the Old Order, we want a New, a brand new one. The Old Order was bad. It might have its good points, no doubt, but it was bad all the same and we do not want it. It must go. But the rightward road is one that has been trodden for unnumbered years by numberless feet. The land is not bright to us, but the road has no pitfalls. You can tread along it in the dark without fear of a fall. So where do we go from here? Leftwards to the bright and inviting Utopia to reach which we must take the hard uncertain road? Rightwards along a safe road to an undesired destination? We cannot stop or turn back. We must go forward, to the left or to the right. A confusing problem this. We want to reach the Utopia by a safe road. x

x

x

x

x

Why not the Middle Way then? That road is comparatively safe and though by taking it we may not reach the Utopia quickly, we shall reach it all the same if we go on without stopping or turning back. We shall be inspired by the ideals of leftism and be guided by the experience and the knowledge we have gained from the Old Order. We shall take or adopt what is good in the Old Order and discard what is bad in it.

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With the good from the Old we shall guide our steps towards the New. Thus can we avoid the pitfalls, thus can we reach the destination with our limbs intact. To follow the Middle Way is to adopt a golden mean between the extremism of the left and that of the right. We must not go for violent revolution. We must not expect to uproot the Old Order overnight and plant the New Order in the morning. We must not be impatient and we must hasten slowly. We must not squander time, money and energies in the pursuit of flitting whims. We must have our feet firmly on the earth and we must be realists. And yet we must not fight innovations. New ideas must be accepted and careful experiments on a laboratory scale must be done to test the efficacy. We must not squander the country’s money in chasing wild ideas and yet when an idea is proved good we must spend liberally in order to work the idea for the be betterment of the country. We must not squander nor must we be stingy. As an example of this we may take the Mass Education Scheme. The scheme will cost money and it is not going to pay back in money. But we know it is good, and absolutely essential. For a sound democracy we must have our masses fairly educated. The adoption of the scheme therefore as important as, if not more important than the floating of a commercial project that will immediately bear profit. For such a good cause we must spend. The Middle Way means moderation. We must not be swayed by sentiments or led by slogans. We must be calm and cool and be wise. The Middle Way will lead us ultimately to the Utopia and the road is safe though it may be long. Why not the Middle Way then?

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Section II, G.

BOOKS ON BURMA

T

here has been growing interest in Burma abroad, and scattered attempts to publish books in response. Few of those attempts have been made by Burmans. There have been authors who came to Burma for a brief few months, rushed round and saw everything and met everyone, and went back to write their books in briefer fewer months. Their books are not to be denounced. They probably serve their purpose, giving the impressions of Burma that the writers received: incandescent pictures rich in many colours. Burma is the land of pagodas in those books, of smiling people and unending song. Or Burma is the dreadful country where people are lazy and callous, and railway trains are busy getting shot up by insurgents or just breaking down. The kindness shown to the writers by some nice people would be remembered and exaggerated, and the curtness delivered by some would also be remembered and exaggerated. That is only natural, for a writer, one must not forget is a human being capable

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Books on Burma” in The Guardian IV, no. 2 (February 1957): 37–40, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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of warming up to kindness and love, of being wounded by slights and discourtesies; and when the writer writes his warmth must radiate to the pages of his books in which also his wounds must show. Among those impressionistic travelogue-style books must be classed Ethel Mannin’s Land of the Crested Lion, and Norman Lewis’s Golden Earth. The authors came to do Burma in two months, and do their books in a similar period, and their books are good, for the authors are masters of their craft and their technique. Yet, the books will not be read for many long years, will never be consulted as reference sources. And they are clever authors, clever without heart, and their books show their cleverness and cunning but not much of Burma. Serious studies of Burma are, therefore still rare. John L. Christian’s book, Burma under the Japanese Invader written a decade and half ago now, still remains one of the principal reference books on contemporary Burma. So much has happened, however, in Burma, to Burma, to her peoples, that Christian has inevitably become out of date. He was correct and thorough, but he is old. For the Burman it is a difficult task to write his country’s history. It would be difficult to be free of prejudice. The closer the events are, the more difficult it is to write about them. In my modest way I tried. I planned carefully, and made the book into a thesis, instead of the other way round, because I wanted to work under discipline and restraint. Sentiments would be wrong in a thesis, or partisanship. I worked successfully for permission to present my thesis to a Dutch University, for, for one thing the Dutch are thorough and hard to satisfy and I wanted my book to reach up to their demands, for another, they are neutral in a history of Burma and I could write more freely than I might have been allowed by a British University. The result, Burma in the Family of Nations,1 is, foreign reviewers have said, a fairly objective study of contemporary Burma with a background of her early international relations. Reviewers have also observed that I wrote without rancour. Yet writing without rancour is not necessarily the biggest quality of a historical writer. I might have played down here and there, suppressed the natural fire and spirit, just to prove I was an objective historian. I might have succeeded, but my story might suffer. Another method which is being adopted in getting Burma’s history written by Burmans is the appointment of historical research organizations.

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There is in Burma — there has been for some time now — a Historical Commission. The best available talent have been taken into the Commission which is headed by U Kaung, the Director of Public Instruction. There is also a Defence Services Historical Institute, headed by Lt-Colonel Ba Than who was so excited with the idea of the Institute that he gave up a desirable appointment abroad a year ago to start it from scratch. Both the Commission and the Defence Institute have yet to publish, and that is due to several reasons. Firstly, the support given to the organizations is not always steady or sustained. The Commission, especially, has suffered from lack of funds, and though, for the first year, Government’s enthusiasm ran rather high, and U Kaung was made whole-time Chairman of the Commission, in the second year, due partly to the fact that U Kaung was urgently needed back to resume charge of his Department, and partly, no doubt, to flagging zeal on the part of the Government, he was made a part-time Chairman. The Institute began with brighter prospects and practically limitless funds. But there shortage of trained staff and writers held back publication programmes and Col. Ba Than was asked to edit and publish a training journal for the Forces. In both organizations, therefore activity is limited to collecting material, classifying them, and keeping them for future use, and present enjoyment by a few. Nobody writes in Burma today because everyone is busy. The few who have written are already recognized, and recognition has brought them jobs and status, membership of at least a dozen learned committees, and endless invitations to social functions where the intellectual elite gather and look wise and talk shop. The learned committees and organizations also cannot produce much, for their main power must come from the very people who serve on so many other committees and must discharge so many social obligations. Probably the only way to get some results in research and publication would be to try and discover a few young people who have the bent, and give them grants or fellowships to enable them to work on their own — with, of course, some guidance, but under no control, — and let them produce. What they yield may not have artistic excellence, but the solid meat of history should be in them. The Commissions and the Institutes would still be necessary, to build repositories for the material and the reference books, to put out official and authoritative volumes occasionally, but for the immediate task of getting things done, they may

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not be the answer. Fellowships granted to individuals, the underwriting of books to be made from finished manuscripts, the sponsorship of ad hoc research organizations which will work freely and fast, are probably some of the more practical methods. New York University has rendered a service in that respect. It made Dr Frank N. Trager, formerly United States Point Four programme administrator in Burma, a Research Professor, and the Human Relations Area Files, incorporated, gave him a grant for a Burma Research Project. The grant enabled Dr Trager to assemble a team of scholars who have been to Burma on study tours, and get down, with their help, to preparing a study of the different aspects of modern Burma. The result of some years of this work, has now appeared in the form of 3-volume mimeographed books,2 running altogether into some 1600 pages. The books make a symposium to which eminent experts like Mr J.S. Furnivall and Dr Cady, contribute; most of the remaining chapters are the result of research work by Dr Trager and his associates. The chapters are well-done, and the books are of great reference value. The approach to the subjects is unfailingly sympathetic and fair. The source material on which Dr Trager and his associates have drawn for their studies of the contemporary period mainly consist of newspapers, Information Department and Government publications, and articles in the Guardian magazine. They are, of course, inadequate, though for the Burma Research Project they had to suffice. For contemporary times, the research should be done in Burma, preferably by Burman authors, or at least with their collaboration. For, even though documents and material have the uncanny trick of disappearing quickly in Burma, yet it is here in the country that the first-hand sources still lie. In the memories of people who have lived through vital phases of history, for example, or those who played their parts at the centre of the stage. What better source is there, for example, on the occupation period, than Dr Ba Maw who was head of state, U Tun Aung who was a Minister in Dr Ba Maw’s Cabinet and now a practising lawyer, and such other people. Can more competent authorities be found on the students’ strike of 1936, now a landmark in Burmese nationalist movement, than U Nu, and U Raschid, and U Kyaw Nyein and others. This idea has always been very much present in my mind when I choose subjects for my profiles and go about to collect material for writing them. Interviews with the

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people about whom I write have always been most revealing, and, for me, educative. Just as Dr Trager and his associates have done a magnificent piece of work in preparing and getting out the books on Burma, so we can do something to place history on proper record by organizing series of lectures on “Contemporary Burma”. People like U Nu, U Raschid, Dr Ba Maw, U Tun Aung, Dr E Maung, U Ba Nyein, U Thant, Dr Htin Aung, U Kaung, U Thein Han, Professor Kyaw Myint, should be invited to participate and deliver 3 or 4 lectures each on different aspects of contemporary Burma. Tape recordings of the lectures would become the raw material for a very successful symposium. It is a pity that Dr Trager’s books have not yet been published for the general reader. A few hundred mimeographed copies have been made for a private circulation, and I was fortunate enough to be sent a set by Dr Trager. The books should be published commercially for wider circulation. As by-products of the main work, Dr Trager has also been able to bring out a comprehensive bibliography on Burma which has been published, and bibliographies of Burma’s work in the United Nations, and of Chinese source material on Burma. Just as at New York University Dr Trager has been able to achieve much in research on Burma on grants from a private organization, so in Burma too much can be achieved by small groups of individuals sponsored by the Government or privately, to get specific assignments done. That way only, it seems, lies hope of getting any substantial writing done on Burma, in English or Burmese. That is the way that Miss Dorothy Woodman is working on her book: doing hours of research every day in the India Office Library in London, meeting people, getting information from the original sources. She came to Burma for a few months in 1955, and travelled far and wide, and met many people — and they were not all Ministers. She could have rushed off an excellent travalogue, but she refrained. Now she is deep in Burma’s history: she hopes she will emerge with her book one day. But that, seriously, is the best way, possibly the only way, of getting things done. Notes 1. Published by Djambatan Ltd., Amsterdam. 2. “BURMA” — Human Relations Area Files Inc., 1956, 3 Vols.

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SECTION III

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND BIOGRAPHY

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Section III

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND BIOGRAPHY

D

espite the important role that Dr Maung Maung played in Myanmar’s journalistic world from the cusp of independence until the time of the Revolutionary Council government, he wrote and spoke relatively infrequently on that aspect of his life. As discussed above, while his career as a newspaper editor was relatively short, less than a year, and perhaps occasionally between 1955 and 1958, these were very tumultuous times in Myanmar’s history. Though he was a mere twenty-two years of age when he commenced his editorial career, he was responsible, under the direction of U Thant and with the assistance of Tawtha (jungle man) U Khin Maung, for one of Yangon’s leading English language publications at a time when the world was trying to understand what a post-independence Myanmar would be like. Dr Maung Maung clearly enjoyed that period and frequently retold the story of how the clerk of a newly appointed judge telephoned the paper on one occasion to complain that “The Honorable” had not been included in his title in an article about a foreign trip he was making. U Khin Maung told the man to complain to the Prime Minister and took two sips from his “amber medicine” (i.e., Scotch) bottle that apparently he had cause to frequent throughout the editorial day.1 Dr Maung Maung 63

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had no resort to his own medicine drawer. However, he managed to put in an edition of the paper a bit of doggerel that would deflate the pomposity of the most pretentious of judges. His role in the founding of The Guardian magazine and eventual daily newspaper was also not insignificant. As he describes it, he and a group of friends pooled their resources to launch the venture in 1954,2 each buying 500 kyat worth of shares. Eventually the daily newspaper that they founded moved to the press owned by the Army-back Myawaddy press and Guardian Sein Win, who had previously worked for The Nation, was appointed editor.3 The Myawaddy press was backed by the Defence Services Institute (DSI). The DSI, formed by the army under Colonel Aung Gyi, was an organization established to provide inexpensive food and other necessities to members of the armed forces. It soon, however, grew to be the largest business in the country. Like its daily offshoot, The Guardian soon established itself and became the leading English-language Myanmar monthly periodical. All of the major authors in the country who wrote in English were contributors and it soon had a sizeable following.4 Amongst the features of The Guardian most sought by its readers were the biographies and related articles that Dr Maung Maung regularly contributed. These involved lengthy interviews with their subjects, generally important politicians or leading figures in Myanmar’s political firmament in the 1950s. In some cases, they remain to this day the only description of the character and nature of some of modern Myanmar’s most important political actors during the first decade after independence. As for individuals about whom he wrote that were either “underground” (i.e., in armed rebellion against the government of U Nu) or deceased, he relied heavily on his memory from the times he had met with them in 1947–48 when he was editing the New Times of Burma or earlier during the nationalist struggle. Selected for reprinting are twenty-five of the profiles that Dr Maung Maung wrote between 1954 and probably 1962. Missing from the list of some of the most prominent figures of the day about whom one would have expected him to have attempted to write. Among the missing were the Prime Minister, U Nu, from the political elite and Brigadiers Aung Gyi and Maung Maung from the military elite, though then Colonel Aung Gyi was a contributor to the issue in which the first of

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the “sketches of men and women who matter”, according to the preface to the article about the Speaker of the House of Deputies (lower house of the parliament under the 1947 constitution), Bo Hmu Aung,5 in May 1954. Not surprisingly, the first five persons Dr Maung Maung profiled were former members, like himself, of the Burma Independence Army and its subsequent incarnations. More surprising, given the subjects known reticence to reveal much about himself, the fifth was of General Ne Win.6 However, the General managed to reveal almost nothing of his personality and character through the article. Like Bo Hmu Aung, Brigadier Kyaw Zaw,7 Bo Khin Maung Gale,8 and Thakin Chit Maung9 had all been active in student nationalist politics and the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) nationalist youth association prior to the Second World War. When the opportunity for them came to join the Burma Independence Army or assist the nationalist cause through the Youth League, these four like, Generals Aung San10 and Ne Win, were in the forefront. After the war, however, their careers diverged, some joining the Socialist Party led by U Kyaw Nyein and U Ba Swe, others remaining in the armed forces. The personal relationships among them normally remained close though mavericks, like Brigadier Kyaw Zaw, who was eventually cashiered from the army for unauthorized negotiations with the Communists, and ended his years in China, often took separate paths. The three nationalist youths who became soldiers and then politicians had their careers curtailed by the coup of 1962. Among those with primarily civilian careers about whom Dr Maung Maung wrote, the essay on U Kyaw Nyein11 was among the longest, taking up a total of 10 full pages of the magazine in which it was published. Dr Maung Maung, it is said now by people in Yangon who followed his career, during the 1950s was close to the Socialist Party members of U Nu’s government, most particularly U Kyaw Nyein and U Ba Swe,12 as well as the highly political Colonel Aung Gyi. U Ba Swe’s profile, published in March 1956, a full year after U Kyaw Nyein’s, was, however, half as long and not nearly as detailed. Reprinted below are also the profiles of two of Myanmar’s leading diplomats of the 1950s, U Hla Maung,13 then Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and Vum Ko Hau of Siyin,14 then Ambassador to France. U Hla Maung had worked closely with Dr Ba Maw and U Nu during the Japanese-occupation “independent” government and Vum

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Ko Hau, who prior to the war was clerk to Norman Kelly in the Chin Hills,15 had fought with the British against the Japanese and their Burma Independence Army (BIA) allies. Both joined together as servants of the new independent state following independence just three years later. Saya Za Khup of Siyin,16 Vum Ko Hau’s father, was also written about. These two distinguished Chins were the only members of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities about whom Dr Maung Maung wrote. Three of the longer “Profiles” are written about Chief Justices or members of the Supreme Court of Burma during the first years after independence. As the law was Dr Maung Maung’s primary career, his interest in these subjects was more than merely journalistic. As he has to succeed them all to the top judicial positions in the country, these articles are of more than passing interest. All of these four men, as befits members of an essentially conservative profession, the law, could be described as on the right in terms of Myanmar’s political spectrum. Dr E Maung17 had worked for the British and took no part in public life during the Japanese occupation. His entry into politics after leaving the bench was for that reason all the more remarkable. U Chan Htoon,18 with whom Dr Maung Maung worked in the Caretaker Government, was one the leading judges of his period who had not studied abroad. U Thein Maung,19 who was Myanmar’s second Chief Justice, had been involved in the nationalist movement almost from the start. The last of the judicial profiles is of U Myint Thein,20 youngest son of a distinguished Myanmar elite family and sometime diplomat, including Ambassador to China and delegate to the UN General Assembly as the time of the KMT crisis in 1953. Known to many as Uncle Monty, like others of the members of the judiciary, he was often seen by left-wing politicians as pro-colonialist because of the military service during the British period and his ease in speaking English and dealing with foreigners. Two of the articles are about individuals, also like Dr Maung Maung, involved in the world of journalism and information, U Tun Win21 and U Nyo Mya.22 U Tun Win was Minister for Information in U Nu’s government and a close childhood friend of U Thant and other persons active in the government. Like most of the persons Dr Maung Maung wrote about, he was nearly a decade older than him and therefore had had an opportunity to be involved at least in student politics prior to being drawn into the wartime nationalist struggle. Nyo Mya, the pen

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name of U Thein Tin, had been a writer all his life and had published the article in the Rangoon University student annual magazine, “Oway”, that prompted the 1936 student strike.23 Nyo Mya was unusual in being one of the few prominent Burmese who ever visited the United States prior to the Second World War. After independence he founded and edited his own newspaper, also known as “Oway”. Four of Dr Maung Maung’s “Profiles” reprinted below are about four quite different but important figures in modern Myanmar’s history: M.A. Raschid,24 U Thant,25 J.S. Furnivall,26 and Daw Khin Kyi.27 U Raschid, Minister of Mines at the time of his profile appeared in The Guardian in December 1956, was an active student nationalist agitator in the 1930s including playing a significant role in the 1936 students’ strike that brought for the first time to national prominence Thakin Aung San and Thakin Nu. But what made U Raschid’s biography so fascinating was that he was a Myanmar-Muslim, a descendant of Indian immigrants who had settled in Myanmar only after 1885. His assimilation into the political elite of Myanmar, like that of his brother, Dr Rauf, who was India’s first Ambassador to Myanmar, says something about the openness to non-Buddhists in Myanmar politics at that time. The biographies of U Thant and J.S. Furnivall tell part of the stories of the intersecting lives of both of them with the then Prime Minister, U Nu. Though now famous as the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the decade of the 1960s, U Thant had had a significant career as a writer, educator, administrator, and general “oiler of the wheels” of government prior to his having been sent as Permanent Representative of Burma to the United Nations. As Dr Maung Maung had worked for U Thant in several roles in the 1940s, they were clearly on very friendly terms. His admiration for the man is made clear in these two pieces. John Sydenham Furnivall, a former member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), had lived in Myanmar with his Myanmar wife and daughters most of his life. His scholarship, most especially, Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of Burma and Netherlands Indies,28 has been extremely influential in shaping Western scholarship on Myanmar as well as the literature on the role of economic development and the ethnic division of labour in tropical political economies during the colonial period. His ideas were widely shared among the political elite of Myanmar in the 1950s.29 The June 1959, issue of The Guardian in

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which the Furnivall profile appears has as its cover a picture of him playing the Myanmar xylophone. Daw Khin Kyi, the widow of the martyred national hero General Aung San and the mother of his three children,30 was appointed by U Nu as Myanmar’s Ambassador to India not long before the coup which replaced his government with the Revolutionary Council regime. However, the new head of state and government, General Ne Win, kept her in place in Delhi for a number of years after that event. The biographical profile that Dr Maung Maung wrote of her, however, only covers her life up to the assassination of Bogyoke Aung San. Originally published in The Guardian in June 1960, it was subsequently reprinted in Dr Maung Maung’s edited volume, Aung San of Burma.31 Dr Maung Maung alludes to this book in another article reprinted below, “A Book for Colonel Ba Than.32 Colonel Ba Than was Director of Army Education and Psychological Warfare and an author in his own right.33 Perhaps the most unusual character about whom Dr Maung Maung writes is Daw Pyu la Mac Phsu.34 Daughter of the Myingun Prince, King Thibaw’s brother, who plotted with the French in the early 1880s to take the throne and thus inadvertently gave the British one more reason to annex Myanmar to British India, she grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where her father settled after his failure to seize power. Ignored by the French, the family went into the business of making Tiger Balm, the famous South East Asian elixir which is now spread throughout the world and is usually identified with a Myanmar Chinese family which settled in Singapore. Daw Pyu’s approach to life, including men and whiskey, will delight some and horrify others of a more prim disposition. Two profiles have much more explicitly political messages than any of the others unless one sees Daw Pyu women’s liberation cause as political. These are of Thakin Than Tun,35 then leader of the Communist Party of Burma or the White Flag Communists and one Htain Lin,36 an insurgent with the Communist-aligned People’s Volunteer Organisation (PVO). Both organizations had taken up arms against the government of U Nu within months of Myanmar regaining independence. Dr Maung Maung was no fan of Communism and as demonstrated by his activities to spread democratic values in Asia in the early 1950s, these two articles were designed to demonstrate the treachery posed by Myanmar’s Communists. However, the two articles are quite different

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in that Thakin Than Tun is described as a scheming opportunist merely seeking power at the expense of democracy where as Htain Lin has been merely duped by his leaders and is encouraged to return to the legal fold. He eventually did so, soon after General Ne Win established the Revolutionary Council government.37 Dr Maung Maung’s journalistic career ended in July 1962, when he joined the judiciary but that was not the end of his writing. More books were to appear, less frequently than in the past, but always keenly received. He even had one more known stab at journalism, writing an article in the Bangkok Post on 24 November 1968, warning the world of the consequences of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its effects on Myanmar-Chinese relations at that time.38 The last “profile” that Dr Maung Maung wrote was that of General Aung San. It did not appear until 1969 though it reads as if it might have been written earlier. Unlike much else written about Aung San in the 1960s, it makes little or not reference to Aung San as a socialist and as a close colleague of General Ne Win. As General Ne Win in part justified Myanmar’s turn to socialism and autarky after the 1962, the article is striking for not discussing those themes. Aung San’s strong nationalism, of course, does shine through and as Myanmar was facing increasingly difficult relations with China at that time, a reminder of nationalism might have been thought appropriate. Still, the date of the publication is curious, coming seven years after Aung San of Burma. As Dr Maung Maung’s old friend and former employer, U Thant, was chosen as the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 3 November 1961 following the death in a plane crash of the incumbent, Mr Dag Hammarskjold, the final article is the essay “The SecretaryGeneral’s Role in the U.N.”39 Initially appointed to serve until the end of Mr Hamerskjold’s term of office, U Thant, seen as a compromise candidate by the United States and the Soviet Union in those Cold War days, was eventually appointed to serve two additional terms, before retiring in Connecticut until his death in 1974. At the request of his family, he is buried south of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Yangon. Notes 1. To a Soldier Son (Rangoon: Sarpay Beikman, 1974), p. 83; Do Pyihtaungsu Myanmar Naingngan Hpyeisi Poun [Our Union of Myanmar Administrative Form]

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2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

30.

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(Yangon: Myawati Publishing, 4th edition, 1991), p. 11; The 1988 Uprising in Burma (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph 49, 1999), pp. 127–28. The 1988 Uprising, p. 138. See Guardian Sein Win, Gadiyan U Sein Win ei Za Htu Hta Atu Man Dain hnin Gadiyan Thatinsa [Guardian Sein’s Fourth Pillar and the Guardian Newspaper] (Yangon: News and Periodical Press, 2nd printing, 1993), pp. 127–29. After it was nationalized in 1964, it continued to publish into the 21st century as a government magazine. The newspaper also survived until the early 1990s. Section III, A. Section III, E. Section III, B. Section III, C. Section III, D. Section III, Z. Section III, H. Section III, N. Section III, I. Section III, M. Desmond Kelly, Kelly’s Burma Campaign (London: Tiddim Press, 2003), passim. Section III, T. Section III, R. Section III, F. Section III, J. Section III, S. Section III, K. Section III, U. An event which propelled many nationalist youth in the public eye and greatly assisted their rise to political power after the Second World War following their organization of the BIA and subsequently the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League. Section III, Q. Sections III, O. and Z. Section III, V. Section III, W. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947. See Robert H. Taylor, “Disaster or Release? J.S. Furnivall and the Bankruptcy of Burma”, Modern Asian Studies 29, no. 1 (1995), pp. 45–63; Julie Pham, “Ghost Hunting in Burma: Nostalgia, Paternalism and the Thought of J.S. Furnivall”, South East Asia Research 12, no. 2 (2004), pp. 237–68; Julie Pham, “J.S. Furnivall and Fabianism: Reinterpreting the ‘Plural Society’ in Burma”, Modern Asian Studies 39, no. 2 (2005), pp. 321–48. Aung San U, Aung San Lin (deceased), and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi.

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31. Aung San of Burma, pp. 117–20. 32. Section III, X. 33. Dhammika U Ba Than, The Roots of the Revolution: A Brief History of the Defense Services of the Union of Burma and the Ideals for Which They Stand (Rangoon: Directorate of Information, 1962; reproduced from The Guardian, 27 March 1962). 34. Section III, G. 35. Section III, P. 36. Section III, L. 37. Chit Hlaing, “The Tatmadaw and My Political Career”, translated by Kyaw Yin Hlaing, unpublished paper, 2006. 38. “Burma: A Slap for the Reds”, Bangkok Post Sunday Magazine XXII, no. 327, 24 November 1968. 39. Section III, Y.

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Section III, A.

MR SPEAKER SIR! Being the first of a series of biographical sketches of men and women who matter.

B

o Hmu Aung, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, successor to Pyawbwe U Mya, is 44 but looks younger, except for his greying hair — his hair went grey during that heart-breaking period of splits in the Peoples Volunteer Organisation which he led. “That was a real nightmare,” he said sadly. “Party affiliations asserted themselves at the hour of triumph and men broke away in response to calls from their parties.” Bo Hmu Aung did a very wise thing during that uncertain and anxious period. He stayed single until the fight for national freedom was decisively won, until he felt quite sure that chances of his becoming a casualty in the fight had receded to a reasonable distance. “I wanted to save my bride from premature widowhood if I could” he said. Result: a happy marriage and three young children, the youngest of which was shouting out lustily from the adjacent room while we heard Bo Hmu Aung tell his life story.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Mr Speaker Sir!” in The Guardian I, no. 7 (May 1954): 25–26, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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Mr Speaker Sir!

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Self-Made Man While the story was being told the thought came up in my mind that here was a story that should inspire. For Bo Hmu Aung was a living success story, the story of self-help and resolute endeavour and sincerity and earnest purpose getting their deserved reward at last. He spent his youth in the service of religion, a young monk, serious-minded and studious. He passed examinations without difficulty, and reached the Pahtamagyi grade at the early age of twenty. He nearly made that grade but not quite; he generously allowed his fellow examinees to copy from his script with the result that all of them were disqualified. Monkhood did not however, offer full scope for Bo Aung’s energy and reforming zeal. Unfortunately or fortunately, he was thrown into contact with one or two presiding monks whom he considered lax and complacent, even selfish. The monks did not like the young priest who wanted to combine in himself the religious scholar and the social reformer. Bo Aung left the order in disgust and the abbots sighed with relief. The Plunge From monastery, Bo Aung turned to the land. A farmer at heart he enjoyed working on the land, but national struggles in these Asian countries usually spring from the peasantry and Bo Aung was soon deeply involved in the new Dohbama Asiyone, the Thakin party led by young radicals and idealists. The young thakins were transparently honest, infectiously sincere and earnest. Bo Aung was dazzled and fascinated. Here at last was something he could put his heart and soul into. Here was everything he had been looking for, yearning for; the cause, the ideology, the comrades. The time too was opportune. War clouds were gathering. A great awakening was surging through the peasant and workers masses. There were student strikes, bugle calls for the national uprising. Bo Aung joined the Dobama Asiayone and quickly found his way into the executive committee of Pyu. The struggle gathered strength and speeded on with giddy speed, and Bo Aung did a thing that was to become typical of him. He worked hard on his farm for one year before plunging into wholetime politics, so that he might collect enough money to keep his ageing mother provided for some years. After that was done, he went in to join the fight.

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To Japan There was the famous Tharawaddy conference where the Thakins and the opposition parties formed a united front and declared war against imperialism. Soon after, Thakin Aung San “went underground” to evade a warrant for his arrest, then slipped out to Amoy and established contact with the Japanese. “Foreign aid”, it was then the unanimous opinion of Burmese nationalists, must be sought: what happened later must be dealt with later. Thakin Aung San went to China expecting aid; it was one of the ironies of international politics that in China he met Japan. However, beggars could not be choosers, and soon young men were being smuggled out of Burma to Japan where arrangements had been made to give them some military training and prepare them for leadership of the Burma Independence Army. Volunteers were not wanting, but things were urgent, and recruitment had to be made mostly in Myaungmya, Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Tavoy and Mandalay where the men were readily available and on call. Bo Aung was in the last batch of eleven; one of that batch was Thakin Shu Maung, now General Ne Win, Supreme Commander. Ships going out to Japan were getting scarce, and Bo Aung and friends, missing one, had to wait for another in hiding in Rangoon. Bo Aung and a few others served as salesmen and general handy men at the Varsity Co-operative Stores, then situated in 49th Street, Rangoon; thus they earned their keep and evaded arrest. BIA Commands The story of the “thirty comrades” is too well known for repetition here. Bo Hmu Aung returned as a general staff officer, later became adjutant of the BIA 2nd. Battalion commanded by Bo Yan Naing. When the BIA was reorganised, Bo Hmu Aung got a command for himself, he became O.C. 5th. battalion. Later, when the regional commands of the Burma National Army were set up after “independence”, Bo Hmu Aung became deputy commander of the southern region. His able lieutenants included Bo Sein Hman (who died in action as Special Commissioner) and Bo Aung Gyi (now Colonel, GSO.I.). When the Resistance was launched Bo Hmu Aung commanded Zone 7., one of the hottest areas of war. One of the trickiest problems of the Resistance was where and how to keep General Aung San happy and safe. The General would not be happy

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Mr Speaker Sir!

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unless he was in the thick of it, and that condition was hardly compatible with his safety. Bo Hmu Aung undertook to provide both, and General Aung San spent the critical months of the Resistance in his zone. PVO Baby War was hell, but Bo Hmu Aung could take it, for he could take a lot. But what happened after the war nearly broke him. The Peoples Volunteer Organisation the PVO, was organised to provide help for the ex-servicemen, to keep them in discipline, and to use them, if necessary, as a nucleus of resistance against British power if negotiations for transfer of sovereignty should fail. It was an ambitious scheme which contained at its very inception, the seeds for failure. If it was a simple welfare organisation for ex-servicemen it might have worked, but inject politics into such an organisation and mischief begins. However, the situation made it imperative that the PVO should be something more than an ex-servicemen’s welfare society, and Bo Hmu Aung and Bo Aung Gyi, under orders from Bogyoke Aung San, set about building the PVO. Bo Aung Gyi was later called up to raise the levies, and Bo Hmu Aung was left alone to hold the baby. It was not a pleasant task. The PVO split into the White Bands who followed the Communists underground, and Bo Hmu Aung valiantly kept together some loyal men as the Yellow Band PVO. Now the PVO has been officially disbanded and a welfare organisation simply and purely is left. Bo Hmu Aung feels greatly relieved. Invitation Bo Hmu Aung became Minister for Rehabilitation, and he took an important part in the negotiations with the Communists for a coalition government. He and his colleagues were then naive enough to put trust in Communist words, and they resigned their cabinet jobs as a gesture of invitation to the Communists. Needless to say the Communists stayed away and said unkind things in the bargain. They said the government was weak and tottering. They said the Socialists were corrupt and crooked, the AFPFL was an empty shell. The Communists laughed because Bo Hmu Aung and colleagues were so easily taken in by their strategem. So at last, it became clear that it was to be a fight to the last. Government

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began operations against the insurgents in four planned phases; “We’re now in the last — mopping up — phase,” Bo Hmu Aung said. Even in 1952, the Government offered general amnesty, and the insurgents had time to consolidate and make good their escape. The Communists knew only the language of power; friendly words and gestures do not go to their heart. They wanted their field-marshals and high brass to be absorbed back into the Burma Army retaining their ranks. “Our Lt-General Ne Win will have to step down for them and salute them,” Bo Hmu Aung laughed. So the fight has been resumed, and now it must be carried to the finish. Keen Observer The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies has had little formal education. He has not seen much school, instead he has taught himself. He knows he has much to learn, and he is learning. He is not ashamed to acknowledge ignorance if he does not know. Yet, he is a hard worker, and in the few years as Deputy Speaker of the Chamber, he has learned much and acquired a grasp of the fine points of parliamentary procedure. His powers of observation are keen, his capacity to take not immense. He has recently visited Soviet Russia and New China and from what he had to say to us we could see at once that he had used his eyes and ears with intelligence on that visit. We asked what he thought about conditions in China, and he said that there was regimentation and rigid discipline but things were moving forward and the people were moving happily away from the hunger line. “It is like looking at soldiers. They are regimented. They work under strict discipline. But they, on their part, are happy. Their lot is improving, and for them that is the main thing for the present.” Bo Hmu Aung thought there was another test of prosperity and well-being. Under the Kuomintang regime, the people were too poor to marry or have children. Girls were turned out into the streets. But in New China things are different. Young people can marry and have families. “Out of every ten young women I saw, nine would be pregnant”, Bo Hmu Aung said in support of his theory.

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Section III, B, Profile

BRIGADIER KYAW ZAW Battles and Books

I

n 1945 it was, I think. The Patriot Burmese Forces had just been demobilised, and the men were going home. The Burma Army was being re-formed and a limited number of PBF men were being selected for commissions. Bo Kyaw Zaw who had made a name in the resistance as commander of the Pegu zone which witnessed the bitterest and the most protracted fighting, had been selected for an important command. He knew little English, had little formal education. The British Burma Command took him only because he was good, and had a solid reputation as a leader of men. When I saw him from three or four rows to the back of him in the cinema hall, he was in uniform and wore the crown on his shoulder. And, before the show began and during the brief interval, he was studiously learning from some book of fundamental English. Bo Kyaw Zaw, as usual, was trying hard to make the grade. Yet something happened at the cinema which left a lasting impression on my mind. When

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Brigadier Kyaw Zaw: Battles and Books” in The Guardian I, no. 8 (June 1954): 38–39, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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the show ended and the Union Jack unfurled on the screen and music played “God save the King”, some people stood, some fidgeted uneasily or moved stealthily towards the door lest they should be seen paying respect to the British flag and King and thus be branded pro-British or anti-nationalist. Bo Kyaw Zaw, I observed stood rigid at attention and moved away only when the anthem was finished. Once again I made a mental note of his character: strict and true, no pretence, a soldier who would do his duty. Bo Kyaw Zaw was no pro-British or anti-nationalist, but he was an officer in the pay of the King, and so long as he was that he would pay his respect to the King. If there was need to rise against the British and Bo Kyaw Zaw decided to join in — and doubtless he would have — he would first take off his uniform, say his apology and fight. “Seik-Ko-Seishin” Brigadier at 36, (born. Nov. 30, 1918) Bo Kyaw Zaw is still a young man, but serious beyond his age — which he had always been. He came from one of the rural areas, went to vernacular primary schools and for a time worked as a teacher in a vernacular primary school. He worked hard and studied what he could, but opportunities were few in those days. The “Nagani” or Red Dragon leftist book club publications caught his imagination and like most young men of his time he became interested in politics. The “Thakins” were rising, the peasants were organising, the oilfield workers were marching on Rangoon. All around him the trumpets were sounding, and the sound of marching feet was irresistible invitation to Teacher Kyaw Zaw. He left home and school and all, and joined the general forward march; he was selected for military training in Japan and thus he joined the ranks of the now celebrated “thirty heroes”. In training, he distinguished himself easily. He was eager to learn, hardy, tireless. He was just the right material for the Japanese officer training schools where men were made into efficient fighting machines. The emphasis was on the “seik-ko-seishin”, the deathless and defiant spirit, and well might the Japanese emphasise on that spirit, for in the war’s long run they would have little else. Bo Kyaw Zaw was, however, fired by this spirit. Men were expendable in war, he learned, and the important thing was victory, victory at all costs. The human sea tactics of the Communist

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armies at Dien Bien Phu would have been justifiable to Bo Kyaw Zaw in that early stage when his military mind was just developing. BIA to PBF Bo Kyaw Zaw steadily built a reputation for himself as an efficient, hard-working and thorough officer during the war. His performance in the Burma Independence Army, though not spectacular, was steady and sound. He led a column of the BIA into the far northern-most reaches of the country and returned when the operations were wound up. As military administrator of occupied areas he was trusty and impartial. When the BIA was reduced, in number and status, to the Burma Defence Army, Bo Kyaw Zaw quietly took the jobs that came his way, and while waiting for the day, he improved his military knowledge and qualities of leadership. BDA then turned again into the Burma National Army, as Burma became “independent” in 1943, and Bo Kyaw Zaw took charge of the Officers’ Model School at Pegu, to which staff officers and officers of field rank were sent to rough it out under the exacting leadership of the commandant. The school was tough. The commandant was fond of the “night attack”, a favourite tactic of the Japanese, and the programme of the school would be liberally sprinkled with the dreaded night exercises. Night meant night, and the students would be turned out of their tents at midnight and the manoeuvre would take place across wild country, through swamps and across the river, at a hot pace, for the objective must be taken with the first hint of dawn. The Model School became an experience that officers enjoyed only after they had survived it. The Rescue of Rangoon The war and the resistance were just training grounds for Major Kyaw Zaw, a sort of a model school for him. What followed after independence was tough, tougher than his Model School ever was. A few months after independence, there was the Communist rising, followed close on its heels by the breaking up of the People’s Volunteer Organisation, and the formidable Karen rebellion. Insurrection became an epidemic that swept the county, and soon government was reduced to pockets of stubborn resistance, and Rangoon lay besieged. Only a few loyal officers of the Burma Army working in close touch with the determined

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Supremo, General Ne Win, fought off the hordes that were converging on Rangoon. The KNDO rolled down from Toungoo, taking the motor road, and their confidence was such that Karens from the roadside towns and villages jumped on to the trucks meaning to join the sack of Rangoon. From Prome came a mutinous Karen battalion of the Burma Army, motoring down in broad day light, mounting guns on the lorries, delirious with anticipation of easy victory. Insein was in KNDO hands and if the converging forces could consolidate at Insein, Rangoon was lost. Those were the anxious weeks, or days, when decision lay only with a few undespairing officers of the Army. Bo Kyaw Zaw, with the full support of General Ne Win, took up defence positions at Pegu to stop the columns coming down from Toungoo. He had a few companies of men, the KNDO had enough to push them out by sheer weight of numbers, Bo Kyaw Zaw had to employ a ruse: if it worked, the day was saved, if it failed it was death for him and his men. He lodged all available combat troops that he had at Payagyi just outside Pegu. If the KNDO went at that prepared position, they would be tied down for maybe a day, maybe some days, and there would be some time yet for rallying the defence. Forward to Victory The KNDO, spoiling for a fight, went at Payagyi and went all-out. Bo Kyaw Zaw was delighted. The urgent and eager advance of the KNDO was halted and for days the invading battalions and the defending companies were locked in angry battle. The KNDO, foiled when Rangoon was almost in sight, were desperate and fought with more recklessness than wisdom. The Burma Army was determined and jubilant because the trap they had laid had worked. News from Rangoon improved. The KNDO battalion which was speeding down from Prome had been harassed by the Air Force, decimated by defiant sections of the loyal Army and the hastily organised units of Bo Sein Hman’s forces, and finally captured by a battalion commanded by Bo (now Colonel) Chit Myaing. Even reinforcements were coming into Pegu and — give them their credit — some units of the White PVO had called off fighting the government to join in fighting the KNDO. Thus, the KNDO were stopped outside Pegu and their broken armies were chased back to

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Nyaunglebin. Bo Kyaw Zaw divided himself between leading the assault, in joint command with Col. Aung Gyi, on Insein, and clearing up the Rangoon-Toungoo road. In due course, Nyaunglebin was captured, and Bo Kyaw Zaw likes to tell the story of the “battle of the bridge” outside Nyaunglebin. He had some bren-carriers and a few clumsy Sherman tanks. The tanks were pinned down at a bridge by accurate KNDO fire, and for a good part of a day the Army was stopped. Then, Bo Kyaw Zaw had a brainwave and sent out a fighting patrol to clear another bridge a little way down, and the patrol reported the bridge was clear of enemy! The KNDO had brilliantly expected the Army at the first bridge and left the second entirely open. So, across the open bridge the troops were rushed and in one encircling movement captured or drove out the KNDO. From Nyaunglebin northward it was just an uninterrupted route march to Toungoo. Bayinnaung and Books The most recent service that Brig. Kyaw Zaw, commander of the North Burma Army Sub-District, has rendered is in the Bayinnaung operations against the KMT marauders. It was a combined manoeuvre of the largest scale ever, and for the first time in its brief history the Burma Army had fought on divisional level in difficult terrain. Brig. Kyaw Zaw had been tireless and thorough as usual, and he had the support of War Office chiefs — eg. Colonel Aung Gyi, GSO (I), Col. Maung Maung, and the departmental heads — who could cut through red-tape and render decisions on the spot. Thus, Bayinnaung operations were carried through under the direction of the top levels of the Army, and Brig. Kyaw Zaw, in overall command, had risen to the occasion. He was in his elements; buoyant, cheerful, eager, a little lacking in caution perhaps in committing himself to too forward positions when even the tactical headquarters was yet far behind. The commander was nice to the press who followed him to the forward areas and people found that he had relaxed a lot: he was still the disciplinarian but he was reasonable. He would invite the press to drink, and even his junior officers, and he would keep company sipping a glass of beer. His views on war had gradually changed, and in Operation Bayinnaung he had matured as a modern commander of a modern army. He had realized that the most valuable weapon of war is

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man; he would not risk lives unnecessarily but would instead blast the way clear for his men by artillery and air bombardment. “Men are not expendable,” he says, “the life of a man is invaluable.” Brig. Kyaw Zaw has read the books and seen the world and he has matured. He talks of the philosophy of war, and he likes to discuss advanced science — eg., atomic energy, or political theories — with his young staff officers. He is not by any means a master of English but he reads much. “I can read 20 lines in one hour, and that makes 160 lines in eight hours” and appreciates most of what he reads. Reading so much, swallowing up so much, may cause indigestion, but the battles provide enough physical exercise to help the intellectual digestive processes.

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Section III, C, Profile

BO KHIN MAUNG GALE “Democracy and the Rule of Law”

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943, or was it 1944? Time has passed so quickly these years, and one loses the exact reckoning. But I was in the Burma National Army doing a tour of duty at the supply corps of which Capt. (later Major) Khin Maung Gale was the commanding officer. I worked close to him, we all worked closely together for it was a small team of busy men running about all over the country procuring food and things for the army, an assortment of men including regular soldiers and engineers, politicians and Burma Independence Army veterans, young boys whose school had been interrupted by war, teachers, artists, historians… The commanding officer was a little of most of these: politician teacher historian, BIA veteran, artist. He was a fascinating subject for study and I studied him, perhaps even against my will for he was a personality that naturally draws attention. He had a flair for drama, and he enjoyed few things more than addressing the full parade, gestures and flashing

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Bo Khin Maung Gale: ‘Democracy and the Rule of Law’” in The Guardian I, no. 9 (July 1954): 35–40, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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eyes and telling words unspared. His biographer I thought even at that time, would not want for material; Bo Khin Maung Gale was there, a biographer’s delight, art, action, drama, thought, eccentricity, depth, pose, sincerity, patriotism, fire, all complete; all he needed was his Boswell. The Making of a Leader Home Minister at 42,1 Bo Khin Maung Gale has come a long way, and all along the way he has been the same: enthusiastic, idealistic, romantic. He was one of those young nationalists who early dedicated themselves to the fight for Burma’s freedom. The 1936 students’ strike, the clarion call for the surging nationalist forces, found him within sight of graduation; he let graduation wait and went into the strike and joined the small circle of young leaders who are now together again sharing the leadership in Burma. After taking his degree in 1937, Bo Khin Maung Gale went back to his hometown, Mandalay, and taught at the National High School. The School, itself a symbol of the nationalist movement, having been born out of an earlier students’ strike, enjoyed the reputation of making politicians of students, of injecting earnest and urgent patriotism into their blood. True, the building of the patriot and the politician was done at some sacrifice of legitimate studies, but that did not unduly worry the teachers or the students; the times justified it, in fact demanded it; freedom first, and time enough for studies, academic work and training required for nation-building. Bo Khin Maung Gale taught history, and his history was a slightly different version from the books and the prescribed syllabus, but it was colourful and inspiring and it easily captured the imagination of his students. Sayagyi Abdul Razak2 was headmaster of the School, and he too was an ardent nationalist, a quiet slow and harmless looking man, but strong and potent as vodka. Between them Razak and Bo Khin Maung Gale and their colleagues made the School the rallying point of nationalist forces in upper Burma. Teacher with a Mission A teacher is expected to teach. His functions are limited, his confines are within the cloisters of study. Bo Khin Maung Gale was impatient with these conventions. He taught in school and out; he lectured, addressed meetings, organised. He brought back, excited like a child with a new

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treasure, the Dobama national anthem from Rangoon, and sang it and taught it in Mandalay; a bold and revolutionary thing to do even in the late 1930’s which, from the point of view of history, are in fact an altogether different era from today. Teachers are not expected to go on strike. Not unless they want more pay or something of the sort. However, Bo Khin Maung Gale led the students’ strike in Mandalay in 1938. He simply could not let himself be left out. He was hailed as a leader, a hero. In the Ain-daw-ya pagoda where the strikers gathered, he made his speeches and got his applause. The first day, he was lavishly garlanded, and inspired by this show of appreciation, he went off into a speech against imperialism. The strike even then was to him an instrument, a weapon to fight the alien ruler with. The petty, puny demands for small changes in the education system and University education were nothing, mere excuses for showdowns that would lead to more showdowns and the ultimate, the grand showdown. I remember that Ain-daw-ya meeting well; the huge crowd, a sea of mesmerised faces, and on the stage the garlanded Bo Khin Maung Gale, a little incongruous perhaps among the students’ strike leaders. Bo Khin Maung Gale spoke on, drawing waves of wild applause. He said, at one stage, that he was resolved to give up his life, if necessary, for the Cause, and that drew prolonged applause. There did not appear to be any imminent need for Bo Khin Maung Gale to carry out his resolution but it was pleasing to all who heard him that there was at least someone who was prepared to do the dying for them — if necessary. The Martyrs No imminent need to die? I was wrong, for soon the strikes were to spread and merge with the larger national movement and soon students and peasants, workers and even the phongyis were marching together. Boycott of foreign goods, strikes and more strikes, meetings and demonstrations and denunciations; the armies of marching men and women were growing rapidly in number, their clamour and their slogans were becoming thunder. The whole country was a bristle with activity and Mandalay was one of the storm centres. The British government was puzzled, bewildered, bothered. Whether to compromise and appease — and the nationalists did not appear kindly disposed to any appeasement, and compromise

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short of immediate freedom — or to bring down the mailed fist. The latter method was tried; in Rangoon Bo Aung Gyaw lost his life when student strikers picketting the Secretariat were charged by the police, including mounted police. In Mandalay a huge demonstration staged in protest against the murder was fired upon by the military, and seventeen people were killed. Bo Khin Maung Gale was at the van of the long march when the soldiers opened fire and he narrowly escaped. Thakin Hla Maung3 who had come up from Rangoon to represent the University students, was hit in the thigh. A number of phongyis were among the casualties, and some young students. A few phongyis fell, hugging the banners to their shattered breasts. Young Maung Tin Aung, a student aged 13, kept on marching towards the guns, waving his banner, even after the first volleys had been fired and the crowd was breaking up in confusion; the boy was shot down. The seventeen became martyrs and received a funeral fit for kings. There were of course, the inevitable one or two among the martyrs who were elevated by accident. There was one man I knew, a never-do-well and a bit of a gambler who went to have a look at the crowds and join in the shouting, maybe, and he caught a bullet in his head before he could realize what was happening. But he became a martyr, and he deserved it. For, after all, martyrs in all countries and for all causes are always a mixed lot. At those meetings and demonstrations slogan-shouting was already going up a new pitch; “Rebel against the foreign ruler! Rise! Rise!”; “We want fools to fight for freedom!”4 The slogans, coined by the young radicals such as Nyo Tun5 and, of course, Bo Khin Maung Gale, quickly caught on, and soon the slogans were heard all over the country. It was not, therefore, a people praying for a few favours, beseeching for a few privileges; it was a people, united and determined, rising to shake off the alien ruler. Rebellion was a noble thing, and fools — people who would not be “clever” or “wise” enough to seek and take coveted government jobs such as the ICS and the BCS — were wanted to lead the rising. On to BIA Bo Khin Maung Gale became an effective leader of the young group of nationalists. All the young leaders were bound by the fellowship of

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having been strike leaders together: Thakin Nu, M.A. Raschid, Kyaw Nyein etc., and Aung San. So all were together, planning to secure foreign aid for the “liberation” of Burma from British bondage; organising the dispatch of the “thirty comrades” to Japan; languishing in jails or escaping from them; working for a united front against the Japanese, and talking it over with Chiang-Kai-Shek’s generals who were in Burma to fight their last-ditch battles against the invading hordes. Inconsistent perhaps, groping perhaps, but one thing was sure; the young leaders, wanted freedom, freedom at once, freedom at all costs. When the United Front leader Dr Ba Maw was put away behind the bars at Mogok jail, U Kyaw Nyein and Thakin Thein Pe6 smuggled themselves up to see him and discuss things, and brought back a letter from the “Dictator” (Anarshin) for General Aung San, then leading the Burma Independence Army into Burma. Bo Khin Maung Gale took the letter down across the country over which the war was spreading confusion, with the British retreating and the Chinese going down to have a last fling and the Japanese and the BIA pouring in from all directions. Even around Yedashe the Japanese were still having to contend with the immovable Chinese. Bo Khin Maung Gale met General Aung San and accepted a BIA commission. Politician turned soldier, he marched with his men into the Southern Shan States and when the fighting was done, he brought back the forces for re-grouping and reorganisation in Amarapura, one time capital of the kings. Resistance From BIA to PBF, Bo Khin Maung Gale took on varied and responsible duties; War Office, field command, the Supply Corps, military planning, etc. etc. He was one of the small group of officers and partisans who were sent out by General Aung San in September 1944 to establish contact with the Communist leader Thakin Soe, then roaming the Delta, organising resistance. A combined Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was being formed. The army was to provide the fighting strength, the partisans were to organise in the country and get ready for the Day. Thakin Soe, as one of the few politicians who were not in office, enjoyed the freedom that was denied to his less fortunate colleagues. The group went out: U Ba Swe, U Ba Swe Galay, Thakin Chit, Capt. Aung Gyi, Capt. Maung

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Maung,7 and Bo Khin Maung Gale. To satisfy the suspicious Japanese military, it was given out that the mission was out to get some recruits, and it was not such a big lie, only the recruiting was for the AFO. The dramatic meeting marked an important milestone in the Resistance. The AFO took shape, and a joint declaration for Resistance was approved. Though one of the first to establish contacts with the Communists, Bo Khin Maung Gale saw through the Communist character early; he was not a one to be duped by communist pledges of loyalty. In the diary which he kept at Thayet when he was working close to Gen. Aung San at the time of Resistance, he made this shrewd appraisal of the Communists: “These chaps are crooked, and ruthless. The day will come when we must go at them.” The Goal is Reached Back to politics again after PBF. Every PBF officer had this choice: he could offer himself for service in the reformed Burma Army, taking the chance of a commission, or he could leave to train for or practise a profession or for politics. Bo Khin Maung Gale decided to work on with Bogyoke Aung San who himself refused a Brigadier’s King’s Commission to actively organise and lead the AFPFL. Once more the mass meetings and the demonstrations and — unique in the history of the nationalist struggle — strikes of the government services. The nation solidly became one, and values took an abrupt change. It was no longer the ICS or the government officer or the clerk who could boast and swagger, it was the AFPFL and the many affiliated Unions and the people in the struggle around whom glory clung like a halo. Those were great and moving times and Bo Khin Maung Gale enjoyed them; he was in his elements. Then, the promise of freedom, and the responsibility of making it real, making it work. From the first constitution-drafting committee of seven headed by the late Thakin Mya, to the Constituent Assembly to which he was elected from Mandalay (now he is Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Theinbyu north), and the larger and more numerous committees, from fighter to government responsibility, from a destroyer of the colonial rule to a bulder of a new nation, it was a fast journey, almost breathless.

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In Harness Bo Khin Maung Gale became Parliamentary Secretary to the Finance Minister in 1947 and had a busy time presiding over the Pay Commission which recommended rises in salaries of government servants and also cost of living allowances (“My recommendations cost the Union Government 3 –¹ crores of kyats per year”); going to the ILO conference ² at Cuba; joining Premier Nu on the goodwill mission to the U.K., the same year, when arrangements for the transfer of power were finalised, and returning home via Yugoslavia. In 1949, with insurrections still at a critical stage in the country the Socialist ministers and parliamentary secretaries and the PVO led by Bo Hmu Aung8 decided to resign and make way for a peaceful settlement with the communists. Bo Khin Maung Gale, as a member of the executive of the Socialist party, also tendered his resignation. Nothing came out of that group surrender of power. The Communists only laughed and said the Socialists and the PVO were simpletons. It was an unnatural situation anyway; the Socialists held predominant majority in the Assembly and yet no government office; Government was a group of overworked “independents” who had to lean, for parliamentary support, on the Socialists. This farce had to be ended and the Socialists came back. Bo Khin Maung Gale was offered an important ministry, and refused, much to the surprise of everyone. Within a few months there was another offer again, and he repeated the refusal. Offer of Cabinet office is not a thing that people casually turn down; it was mad but it was Bo Khin Maung Gale. He took office at last in 1950, as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, a portfolio that used to pay very well under the British regime, but the new minister would not touch tainted money. Instead, he worked hard and produced a five-year plan for agricultural and rural development which he had the pleasure of putting before the first Pyidawtha conference in August 1952. New Methods Now Bo Khin Maung Gale has been Home Minister for over two years, and that has been a long time. When he first took the job it was hot. The “Peace Within One year” drive was on in right earnest and that meant a full mobilisation of the police, the Union Military Police, and other security forces under the command of the Home ministry. Night and day

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the Minister and his lieutenants worked. Cases calling for preventive detention piled up, and correspondingly applications to the Supreme Court for habeas corpus writs increased in number. Everyone was busy; the Minister, the police, the Supreme Court Judges, the lawyers. Only the lawyers were happy. The police were at first puzzled with their new Chief, and some were a little doubtful of his methods. A Home Minister, to the police of the old school, was a god from another planet, and if the god wished to visit the earthly abode where the police indulged in their earthly pleasures, the god gave due notice. And then, some ugly earthly things would be hurriedly hidden, and things would be made to look good and innocent; then the god descended, smiled sweetly all round, shook selected hands, and went back to his heavenly throne happy to have done his bit. The new Minister did not follow the old tracks. He was fond of going out to explore and, of course, he conveniently forgot to give the required notice. He would pick up his shoulder bag and stuff in the papers and then walk out with an attendant or two. No fuss, no bodyguards, no ceremony. The police authorities blinked. The outposts were often caught while they were in a relaxed and merry mood, quite unprepared for the honour of the Home Minister’s visit. And when the Minister not only came at all times, but often wanted to go out at insurgent positions leading a posse of men, the police and the UMP could only shake their heads sadly and whisper behind the Minister’s back that the golden days were over; in future they would were over; in future they would have to work and earn their living. Family Man Now things are getting easier. Bo Khin Maung Gale can now enjoy leisure hours of reading or watching a good football match — he is patron or president of boxing, soccer, chinlon and other sports organisations. Or listening to his favourite classical songs; he is deeply interested in culture and when the Cabinet was reorganised in March 1952 he caused a flurry of excitement among his colleagues by offering to give up the important Home portfolio in exchange for Culture; “I consider culture important. Culture keeps a civilization alive, and a people who have a deep love for their culture can never be slave.” When, for a brief period he took on the Culture ministry in addition to his duties,

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he worked hard to plan a trip to Pagan to recapture on film and canvas the city’s ancient glory; the trip came off, but he was too busy to go along. Or playing with his children. Po Thagya is 9, born a year after his marriage — and during the Resistance, in a village nunnery — to Daw Thein Nu, a fellow graduate and once of the staff of the Mandalay College. Po Mingala, another boy is 3; Mai Thingyan, the girl, is 2. The proud father has strong opinions about his children’s education, and when the grandfather took away Po Thagya to London on a visit to his daughter, Daw Hla Shwe, wife of the diplomatic secretary U Zaw Win, Bo Khin Maung Gale could find no peace until the boy was brought home. He would not listen to an education abroad for his children. “I want my children to grow up in normal Burmese surroundings. If they go to England now, they will imbibe the English culture and learn the English way of life. Their entire mental make-up will become English.” He likes to pretend that the marriage and the family are just routine things, one does not have to be sentimental about it. But he has had a happy marriage, a peaceful and happy home to which he can return in the depths of night after a weary day; a happy home is a necessity for an overworked Home Minister. Today Bo Khin Maung Gale can look back with pride on many things; the Social insurance schemes which he has been pushing forward have matured into the Union Insurance Board and such other working arrangements; the Frontier Areas Enquiry Commission which, as historian, he was able to help a great deal; the Regional Autonomy Commission which recommended the separate Karen state; the Kayah Commission; the Democratisation of Local Administration Act, now in operation in some pilot districts, which he helped to draw up; reform of the police and other security services; the introduction of Burmese as the official language: “It is now 75% Burmese in executive business, and 45% in judicial work. Soon it should be 100%.” Democracy Triumphant Bo Khin Maung Gale’s greatest pride is that through all the difficult years, the spirit of democracy has been kept alive in the Union. “That is the basis on which we must build for the future,” he said with firm conviction, “the cult of the gun must go. There must be rule of law,

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equality before the law, one law for all.” I asked him if there was any hope for a negotiated peace with the Communists and the rebels and he had an angry and emphatic No for an answer. “No compromise. Lawbreakers must take the consequences. Otherwise people will only fall into the habit of breaking the law with impunity and making a profession of it. No, oh no. No compromise. We shall fight the Communists because they have killed and raped, looted and destroyed. They are only criminals, whatever they may call themselves. I shall fight them as Home Minister, with all the weapons I can wield. I shall fight them as a Member of Parliament. I shall carry on the fight as a common citizen.” But it was not to be just a continuous fight to the death. The Communists offer an ideology, the Union Government would offer a better, higher one. “We shall not retaliate with bullets alone. We shall offer the people better things, things that will make communism look like dirt. Materially we are offering the people pyidawtha, spiritually Buddhism, and politically and socially democracy and the rule of law.” I watched Bo Khin Maung Gale as he spoke with obvious faith and conviction, and I believed him. Notes 1. Born Oct. 12, 1912 of parents U Po Hla and Daw Aye Mai, second eldest son among 10 brothers and sisters. 2. Education Minister in Bogyoke Aung San’s Cabinet; fell, with the Bogyoke, in the assassinations July 19, 1947. 3. Bo Zeya of the “thirty comrades”; now a “field-marshal” with the communists. 4. 5. Escaped to India during the war, and organised resistance; one time Information Minister. 6. U Kyaw Nyein, now Minister of Industries; Thakin Thein Pe, better known as Tetpongyi Thein Pe, a leftist intellectual and writer. 7. U Ba Swe — Defence Minister; U Ba Swe Galay, artist, film producer, freelance fighter against insurgents; Thakin Chit, now with the Communist underground: Colonel Aung Gyi, GSO (I); Col. Maung Maung, War Office planner. 8. Now Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

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Section III, D, Profile

THAKIN CHIT MAUNG

A

moon looking very much like a young lady’s severely plucked eyebrow floated lazily in the clear sky above. Our canoe cut silently through the night, speeding forward at every dip of the muffled oar. The canoeman was Karen and we were moving in friendly Karen territory in the depth of night. The nocturnal rendezvous was soon reached. We were taken by mysterious lanes to a mystery-covered bamboo hut. There, in a Karen plantation somewhere behind Ahtaung on the border of Henzada and Bassein districts, I met Thakin Chit Maung again at the end of March, 1945. The Resistance was on, fast and furious, and outside, a few miles away, on the trunk roads, Japanese Kempetai patrolled with doubled vigilance. Assorted Elements The Resistance was a product of many elements. The Burma National Army which provided most of the armed strength of the movement, Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Thakin Chit Maung” in The Guardian I, no. 11 (September 1954): 37–40, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung. 93

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was supposed to tbe playing the leading role. But the Communists were there, sometimes disguised, sometimes not even bothering to disguise themselves, distributing their propaganda leaflets to use by the army, instead of giving us the help we needed. There were other partisans, some coming from the sincere and effective Burma Revolutionary Party — an offshoot of the Dobama Asiayone — and some local nationalists and freelance politicians. Thakin Chit Maung, I later came to know, came from the BRP, and the one quality that he showed which impressed me most at our many stealthy conferences in the hills and jungle was his level-headedness. His more vocal colleague, Maung Maung Gyi — who has recently returned to light after some years with the Communist underground — would wax eloquent and dream their many dreams and weave their many plans. Big plans, small plans, medium plans, all would fall thick and fast in the packed hours of conference and yet in the end, distilled by hard facts, few of the plans would remain. Thakin Chit Maung, among the partisans, had his feet firmly on earth. He was not a dreamer. He was very much a realist. Facts did not frighten him; he lived with them, made friends with them, and even the difficulties thus wooed, would become a little friendlier. Lemyethna We raided Lemyethna, I remember, in a night attack we planned to culminate in a dawn victory. By some errors it became a dawn attack that did result, by sheer good fortune, in a noon victory. The partisans, including Maung Maung Gyi, were jubilant and made their speeches. The Lemyethna raid was one of the shining landmarks of resistance in Henzada district, but it was a costly venture. The Japanese Kempetai took their revenge, after we had withdrawn, by murdering a few of the people whom they suspected to be our friends, and one of the victims was the Police Station Officer. We were so excited with our little victory, so full of our own importance, so dazzled by the sight of our own heroic figures, we did not stop to think of those friends whom we abandoned. I cannot remember the name of the murdered Police Officer now. That was the Resistance which tested men, made men, broke men, gave opportunities to men to do deeds good and bad. I noted a few of the partisans and assessed them in my mind. Thakin Chit Maung was

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the sober mediator, who would come in to smooth out matters when the soldiers were too impatient or imperious or the communists were too selfish and wicked, the organiser who would get things done. Mahn Ba Khaing, the Karen Minister in whom Bogyoke Aung San learned to put a great amount of trust, operated with great loyalty and efficiency the Yonthalin base to which we returned occasionally to rest or confer. Maung Maung Gyi, impetuous, fiery, sincere, with his eyes on the stars. Aye Maung, a good man, fond of publicity, eager to make speeches, quick to hide in the face of danger. U Than Tin, now Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Henzada North, good natured, willing to work and be used, shy and retiring. School of Life Born July 14, 1914, Thakin Chit Maung is now 40. At the time of the resistance he was 31, and comparatively old and mature in a circle of young leaders whose average age was 20. Birthplace Kyangin, Thakin Chit Maung knew the lay of the land well in the zone that was allotted to his command during the resistance — Ngawun river upwards, an area large enough by proper military allocation for a brigade group. Thakin Chit Maung went to school at Myanaung and on matriculation he chose to earn his own living and study at the school of life. He came to Rangoon, worked for some years as a clerk in the Municipal Corporation, married his boyhood friend Ma Mya Kyi of Myanaung in 1937. In the meantime, the libraries and the Nagani (Red Dragon) leftist books were beginning to claim his attention, and when the Dobama Asiayone was formed he became a member. Those were the days when life in Burma was riddled with politics. Students’ strikes, the oilfield workers’ march on Rangoon, the peasants’ growing unity and clamour, the mass demonstrations in Mandalay on which the military were called upon to rain murderous bullets, the rise and fall of governments. Few young men could have resisted the call of politics, and Thakin Chit Maung was only too eager to respond. When the Dobama Asiayone broke into factions his sympathies were with the Aung San group, but the BRP led by young leaders such as Aung Gyi, Maung Maung, Khin Maung Gale1 claimed his immediate attention. Then the war and the Burma Independence Army, and the triumph of nationalist force. There

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was no real freedom, it is true, but at least there was a national army and a national government, and the people, in the face of common enemies and dangers were united and strong. The AFO Thakin Chit Maung organised the All Burma Youth League in Myanaung, and was appointed an honorary recruiting officer for the army by General Aung San himself. The Youth League was then the second front or auxiliary army, and everywhere it and the army worked closely together. Early in 1944 the Resistance began to take vague shape and in the heavily guarded offices and homes of Gen. Aung San, Thakin Than Tun, and other leaders, young men once again began to meet in secret to discuss and plan for the future. Contacts were established between the Anti-Fascist Organisation and the Allied Forces in India which were gathering themselves for the final assault. Men began to slip across frontiers bearing secret messages. Thakin Chit Maung was early admitted into the secrets and with other partisans he began to organise in Henzada. Bo Ba Thein, an energetic and inspired young man whom I met and grew to like, was sent by the Henzada group to India, and Thakin Chit Maung played an important part in getting the envoy off. If all went well Bo Ba Thein was to have been air-dropped to use during the fighting phases, but all did not go well. Bo Ba Thein died in an air-crash as he was taking off from an Indian airfield. After the war, politics. Once again the organisation of men and parties, the meetings, the discussions, the action. Thakin Chit Maung could not stay away. The Communist Party that started operating soon after liberation and therefore had the advantage of the early bird, did not catch Thakin Chit Maung. He steered clear away and joined the Socialist Party, became a leader for Henzada. When the Communists were expelled from the AFPFL, Thakin Chit Maung gained entry into the Supreme Council of the League. Then the promise of independence, the elections and the Constituent Assembly to which he went as member for Henzada North2 and the drafting of the constitution which he took part in as a member of the now historic 101-member committee.

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Visits Abroad A nationalist who is blessed with a sober mind — a rare blessing for intense nationalists — can gain a good deal from visits abroad, and Thakin Chit Maung, after his visits to Paris in 1948 to attend an international agricultural conference, to Europe in 1952 as deputy leader of a good-will mission led by U Kyaw Nyein, and to Israel in May this year as leader of a mission, has gained a breath of vision and a depth of understanding which every politician of his responsible standing should have. He will be a delegate to the UNO General Assembly meeting next month. He has seen much and learned much on his visits to military installations and establishments in Yugoslavia and Israel, and much of what he has learned will be useful when he helps to establish the projected National Service in Burma by which manpower in the country will be mobilised to maximum advantage with minimum cost and wastage. Israel impressed Thakin Chit Maung; there the new young state, occupying very limited territory and faced with many hardships, is building itself into a respectable military power without the sacrifice of social welfare and national prosperity. Thakin Chit Maung has been mentioned many times as a candidate for a cabinet appointment. When the job comes as it seems it must, he will be well equipped to take and hold it. He has had tough assignments in office. Parliamentary Secretary in the combined ministries of Home and Defence since 1952, he has now been connected with his old friend the armed forces for many years. At the War Office, his energetic direction runs into every department, brushing aside red tape, introducing new reforms, creating a new efficiency into a traditionally regulation-bound organisation. Outstanding Service If his services to the country so far are assessed, Thakin Chit Maung’s leadership of the Peace Guerrilla Force — a volunteer organisation — in the turbulent days of 1948 will no doubt stand out. Everything was in turmoil and greatly confused. Rebellion flared up here and there and everywhere and Rangoon was a beseiged city. It was only a few battalions of loyal soldiers and the Guerrillas and the hastily raised Sitwundans and such assorted elements which kept the rebels away.

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“The rebel forces were overwhelming,” reported Thakin Chit Maung to the Chamber of Deputies on March 5, 1953, during a debate on the Kuomintang aggressors, “and it was only by hurling the last available loyal elements at the rebels converging on Rangoon that we were able to gradually win our way through. We fought with our backs to the wall. At one point, we did earnestly try to bring about a negotiated peace. We smuggled into Rangoon some of the leaders of the rebels and discussed terms for three whole months. Did we not humour them? We gave what they asked for, from the widest variety of the best food to luxuries including women. We let them enjoy our hospitality and yet abuse us. We gave them the greatest freedom. We offered to form a united democratic front and restore peace and build our shattered country. We offered to resign and hand over governmental power to them. All we asked was peace in the country, the cessation of destructive activities and the shedding of Burmese blood on Burmese soil. When the rebel leaders promised to go and put proposals before their chiefs, I escorted them back to Prome in an armoured car. But Thakin Than Tun, their chief decided that peace and unity were not to be. The fighting had to begin all anew, and we decided that there was no one to whom we could safely hand over power. We had to fight or die. We fought sometimes without food for days. We lived with our weapons at the ready and marched for days on end through battle after battle. It was a grim time.” Thus, when people talk to him these days about negotiation with the rebels and sharing power with them in the interests of peace, Thakin Chit Maung would only smile sadly in reply. Notes 1. Col. Aung Gyi, GSO, I: Col. Maung Maung, Director of Military Training; Bo Khin Maung Gale, Home Minister. 2. Now he represents Kyangin constituency.

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Section III, E, Profile

GENERAL NE WIN

I

t was a moment of decision, again. The crossroads, again. Time: the middle of 1945. Place 77 Sanchaung St. in the Sanchaung suburb of Rangoon, an ageing wooden house standing on stilts. Colonel Ne Win, having directed Resistance operations in the Delta had handed over command to his trusted lieutenants Bo Aung Gyi and Bo Tin Pe to return to Rangoon and organise for the future. Bo Khin Maung Gale had come down from Thayet and Myanaung to help. The two lived in austere circumstances and kept irregular hours and when I went to report on the situation in Henzada we all squatted on the floor and shared a poor meal while an oil lamp gave grudging light. Things were not good, and many of the professed friends had disappeared and enemies were on the prowl. The British had tried to belittle the Resistance and even to brand the Burmese army as the Traitor Army. The Resistance forces were being variously named: the Local Burmese

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “General Ne Win” in The Guardian I, no. 12 (October 1954): 55–60, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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Forces, the BTF (Burmese Traitor Forces), and only later, much later, came the recognition in the name Patriot Burmese Forces. The Japanese remnant armies were crossing the Yomas and attempting a heroic breakout into Thailand. The British and their Indian forces were coming in, halted here and there by a handful of Japanese, but they were coming in and the pro-British elements in Rangoon were joyous. Those who were neither pro- nor anti-British but simply pro-self were also beginning to forsake the nationalist cause; already the Resistance and the national struggle for freedom were conveniently fading out of their memories as they desperately sought invitations to parties given by the British Chief of the Civil Affairs Admn (Burma) or his staff, or eagerly offered to report on the occupation period when the “legal government” was away — and how they missed their white masters and hated, how passionately they hated, the Nippon “masters”! Irrevocable Decision It was a lonely time for Bo Ne Win and his handful of friends. Rumours were going round that Bogyoke Aung San and Bo Ne Win and other prominent commanders of the Resistance were to be tried for treason for fighting the British. Lukewarm friends therefore though it wise to stay away from the leaders of the Resistance and alone they plodded their weary ways. It was a moment of decision: whether to give in and give up, and slip quietly away to forget and be forgotten, or whether to carry on the fight, the hard, bitter fight for freedom, suffering all the frustrations and disappointments of the fighting. Yet, though there was time enough to beat a retreat, the decision had been made a long way back, way back when the youthful leaders were students or just out of school and college and they decided that liberation of Burma from foreign rule would be their mission in life. Way back in 1935 and 1938 when the University students went on strike clamouring, in effect, for national freedom, way back to those tumultuous years when young men left their classrooms, their homes, their jobs, to meet in secret meetings and dream and plan a free Burma, to study Marx and discuss the glittering ideologies, to organise and debate and set the people on fire. Way back to 1940 and 1941 when, under the gathering clouds of war, the young Thakins were planning to seek foreign armed assistance

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in their struggle and, evading police warrants, roaming the country or slipping across the borders. As for his young Thakin contemporaries, so for Bo Ne Win (or Thakin Shu Maung as he then was) the irrevocable decision was made a long way back. Since he left College in 1932 without taking the science degree which he was working for, or even earlier perhaps — even when he was studying for his matriculation at the Prome Government High School? Young Shu Maung was born on May 14, 1911 in Paungdale, Prome District, of parents U Po Kha and Daw Mi Lay. His father was a revenue surveyor but, a man of independent mind, he soon left service and made a happy if not ample living as a paddy broker. The son took after the father in being a spirited lad whose passionate love was for sport (the favourite form of sport — soccer) and for freedom. Even when it was still too early to forecast the future of the lad, it was accepted in the U Po Kha family that the boy would not take the usual road into regular government service through the established gateways of competitive examinations. It was accepted that he would be different. Surging Tides Not young Shu Maung alone, but the times were different, and fast changing. Old values were going, new values and new standards were rising. Government service was beginning to lose glamour and association with the ruling class was becoming a thing for which one was not proud but was apologetic. After leaving College and joining the young nationalist organisations that were just beginning to emerge the embryo — Thakin Shu Maung wandered about spending a year or two in the postal and telegraphs service, just marking time, making enough money to live, supplying the organisations with useful information. For example he could tip off a Thakin leader, the order for whose arrest was being sent out over the wires, or he could give away the secret messages that were passing between the powers that be in Rangoon and their faithful servants in the districts. Then came the war in Europe and the prospect of its spreading over to the East. The growing unrest in Burma provoked most effectively by University students and the young radicals; the peasants march; the oilfield workers demonstrations; the students’ strikes; the British government, at bay and desperate, trying to

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beat off the surging waves of nationalism with bullets and lathi charges. Overnight youthful students and Buddhist priests, peasants and workers, were becoming martyrs. Some young Thakin radicals grouped themselves into what they called the Burma Revolutionary Party and planned for the liberation of Burma with the aid of China or Japan, or anyone at all who might care to help. The main thing, it was thought, was to get the British out. Once that was done, Burmese independence could be negotiated with the foreign ally. If the ally betrayed? Well, the young radicals dismissed the question impatiently, that ally could be fought and driven out as well. Naive? Oversimple? Amateurish? Of course. But freedom movements must always have that element of naiveté, that blind, unquestioning faith, that reduction of issues to simple black and white clearness. 30 Comrades Thus, the now famous “20 comrades”, the young men who smuggled themselves out to Japan to contact those elements who were then organising for Japanese invasion of S.E. Asia. It was yet a little premature, when the young, Burmese patriots arrived in Japan, for open preparations for the war, and the young men had to be hidden, disguised, confined to their training camps, taken to secret conferences with the Japanese military authorities who were sponsoring them. Their presence in Japan did not, at the start, receive official blessing, and the Japanese General Headquarters cautiously kept the Burmese mission at arm’s length, and left it to private individuals and freelance Japanese military planners and politicians to look after the mission and make the necessary preparations. Thakin Shu Maung like his other colleagues assumed an astrologically auspicious name and became Bo Ne Win (Japanese name — Takasugi Susumu) and entered with whole heart into the intense military training that was laid out for the mission in Hainan island. The Japanese were shrewd judges of character, and they early recognised the leadership that Bo Ne Win was capable of, and picked him out, along with Bo Aung San (or Bo Teza — Japanese name Omoda Monji) for training for command positions. However, with characteristic thoroughness, the Japanese made the future commanders of the Burmese army go through a condensed course of double-tough drilling and training, and did not

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forget to make them humble by assigning cookhouse duties and such chores which the Japanese believe are good for the soul. Bo Ne Win was in Hainan from August to October, 1941, and in Formosa from October to December, map-fighting, learning guerrilla warfare, and the noble art of blowing up railways and bridges, and other sabotage tactics and techniques. He was picked out to lead a team of five back into Burma and there unfurl the flag of their nationalist war before the Japanese and the Burma Independence Army arrived. Bo Ne Win was delighted, as were his other colleagues; they were only impatient to be on their way. But it was not so easy; they reached Bangkok, then Tokyo was undecided because war had not yet been openly declared and appearances had to be kept up. However, after a few disappointing delays, the Bo Ne Win group, the vanguard of the BIA, were off, off like an eager arrow shooting up gleefully into the blue. Triumph In February, 1942, the fight began. Villages on the outskirts of Rangoon began to bristle with rebellious activities. Arms were smuggled in, police stations were raided and deprived of their armour, recruits came pouring in, and training them began in earnest. Propaganda leaflets were printed or mimeographed and while the British government, cornered and confused, committed blunders, the nationalist elements spread out over Rangoon and beyond into the north. The British gave out that they were holding Rangoon, then left the bewildered city with 24 hours notice to government officers and their families. General Wavell, appointed a lastminute commander of the ABCD Powers1 came to Rangoon and ordered that there was to be no more retreat. Indeed, of retreats there were no more: there was only a general rout. Bo Ne Win and his colleagues, riding high on the resolute tides of nationalism, had an exciting time. In March 1942, the BIA came in from Tavoy and Moulmein and the “30 comrades” — minus one or two who had fallen — met in happy reunion in the liberated capital. A Nation on the March And then the northward thrust of the BIA, a crusade which is now a part of history (though that history is still to be written). Bo Ne Win led

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one of the two Divisions with Bogyoke Aung San in overall command. Everywhere, all along the way, up across the Delta over to Prome and along the great river Irrawaddy, the forces marched or sailed, their numbers swelling with volunteers. Here and there the BIA had a sharp encounter; at Shwedaung there was a pitched battle in which many young patriots fell; cholera took its heavy toll of many young lives. The BIA was the nation on the war path. 50,000 strong that great army grew to be. So strong, so keen indeed was the BIA that the Japanese became panicky and cunning. The Japanese had promised to give freedom to Burma after the fall of Moulmein but now they conveniently forgot the promise or were evasive. The BIA was curbed, recalled to grouping points and disarmed for re-forming into the “Burma Defence Army”. The young commanders of the BIA felt betrayed but they decided to abide their time. Bo Ne Win took command of one of the three battalions into which the BIA was reduced. From a strong, spirited army, 50,000 strong, to a skeleton of 3,000! Bo Ne Win, commanding his battalion and leading it to Arakan and other out of the way places found it hard to wait for the day of reckoning. The Crossroads Again The time for decision did not tarry too long. The crossroads was soon reached again. In August 1943 the Japanese had declared Burma free and Bogyoke Aung San had joined the cabinet as Defence Minister leaving Bogyoke Ne Win in command of the army. True, the independence was only a name, but much could be done under cover of a name. The hated name, “BDA” was discarded and the 3 battalions expanded in the Burma National Army. Resistance was now a matter of time. Everyone was resolved. Only, it had to be kept a secret. And the office of Bogyoke Ne Win became the headquarters of the revolutionary forces. Leaflets were manufactured there; funds raised for the movement were kept there; arms which had been stolen smuggled seized or bought were stored there; meetings were held there between the BNA, the partisans and the political leaders including those of the Communist party. His Japanese training for leadership in guerrilla warfare and resistance organisation was a great help to Bogyoke Ne Win as he prepared actively for fighting the Japanese military forces.

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Memories Thus, back again into the field, fighting again for freedom, once more in the vanguard of a liberation movement. The Resistance in the Delta, so full of memories. That time, for example, when Thakin Soe, the Communist, who acted as political adviser to Bogyoke Ne Win wanted to get, by airdrop from allied forces in India, some fancy revolvers and watches and lipstick for his girl friends or pupils as they were called. Bogyoke, after a heated argument with Thakin Soe got his own requisition order transmitted to India — and it was only for rifles, Piats, and essential supplies for the men: no lipstick. Or that time when the village in the Pyapon-Dedaye area — was it Kyongananwa, or Pazu unyaung — was surrounded by the Japanese and Thakin Soe started shooting wildly, killing a young BNA officer. Bogyoke and Bo Aung Gyi2 who were having a discussion in a friend’s house when the firing started, just managed to slip out and climb over the high fence. Outside, just beyond the arc of fire, Bogyoke remembered that the old lady, their hostess and benefactor, was left behind in the house, and he decided to go back and extract her from danger. Bo Aung Gyi tried to stop his chief and wanted to go himself but Bogyoke was already up the fence again and into the fire-swept compound. He brought the grateful old lady back on his shoulders. These endear Bogyoke to his men and inspire their confidence in him. These make him remembered in the areas in which he has moved. Recently,3 he went back with his old comrades to the Delta and visited the villagers who had helped him during the Resistance. Some of the old friends had disappeared from the scene: killed by the Japanese, or the Communists, or just by old age. In one village, for example, he found his old friend U Hla Maung, blind with age, and he left some money with the old man for coming down to medical treatment in Rangoon; when the unseeing old man arrived in busy Rangoon, Bogyoke was there to welcome him and take him to hospital. Or the family of U Tun Sein, deceased, for example; when Bogyoke went, the widow burst into weeping: they had seen so much together, her husband and Bo Ne Win and she, and now the Resistance leader who was like a son to them had come back a General, a big man, but her husband was not there to revel in the glory of it, to feel the joy of it. Bogyoke brought U Tun Sein’s

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young son to school in Rangoon. I could add examples, many from my own experience, of Bogyoke’s thoughtfulness for his men. He never forgets a face, a voice, or a service rendered, and always he has a kind thought for his men and friends and time to help them. These make him “Aba” (father) to the men; sometimes, less reverently and with some injustice for he is still young and youthful, the men call him “Apogyi” (Old Man). Getting the Army Ready And, the Resistance leaders were not shot for treason after all. The British were wise to the situation, and wisely they recognised the Patriot Burmese Forces and the aspirations of the nation. Bogyoke Aung San and Ne Win were successful to a large extent in getting the political leaders to come in with them and form a united front in the form of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League. Bogyoke Aung San stayed to build the League, Bogyoke Ne Win went back to build the army. Once more the PBF had been broken up and only a limited number of commissions had been offered to the PBF commanders, and only some 5000 men were to be taken in the other ranks. But this had happened before when the BIA was reduced to the BDA, and Bogyoke Ne Win could take it calmly, and so could the PBF men and officers — hundreds of the latter joined as privates. Once more Bogyoke went back to the command of battalions and brigades, and army sub-districts, once more leading the men in the field against terrorists and bandits, and at last, the inevitable call back to General Headquarters to be, firstly, Vice Chief of General Staff, and later Chief General Officer Commanding, Supreme Commander of the armed forces and the police. The army battalions had been built not a moment too soon for soon after independence the insurrections began. The Communists took to arms The ex-servicemen who had been organised as the PVO, but sadly uncared for, blindly followed. Then the Karen National Defence Organisation, insistent on a separate Karen state, dissatisfied with solemn promises and pledges. With the KNDO in revolt, Karen elements in the forces — and they were considerable — became restive and mutinied, though a good many loyal Karen officers and men stood by. Soldiers with party affiliations also became restive and soon they deserted to join their masters in

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rebellion. It was a desperate situation. One by one the districts were submerged, and soon the world was calling the Union government the “Rangoon government”. Into the Breach Action, again. The crossroads again. No time to think, no time to despair, for it was just do or die, with a dozen crises on his hands. Bogyoke Ne Win mustered the loyal forces, mobilised available manpower, called back his trusted lieutenants who had dispersed4 and went into action. The few battalions which were available were sent to trouble spots, brought back when the troubles were temporarily over, and sent back again to more trouble spots. The troops hopped though, again, that chapter is yet to be written. Bogyoke Ne Win was asked to do not mere fighting alone. When the Socialists resigned from government office by way of inviting the insurgents to make peace and join in the building of peace and prosperity in the country, Bogyoke was asked to take cabinet office as vice-premier and minister of home affairs and defence in addition to his supreme command of the forces. Ill at ease in political office but determined to do his duty, Bogyoke did achieve a few things in the cabinet. For example he got things moving towards a proper control of immigration: he brought method and fairplay in regard to preventive detentions by having cases carefully examined before detention orders were passed (as a last resort) and regularly reviewed afterwards; he encouraged, even at the time when the government was fighting desperately for survival, the planning of democratisation of local government; his goodwill mission to the United Kingdom and the United States was a success. The Communists hailed Bogyoke, during that period, as a hero, and denounced him as an imperialist stooge in turns. The sensation — mongering foreign press read his advent in the cabinet as a climb to dictatorial powers; an American book on contemporary Asia described him as “commander of the army, vice-premier, minister of defence, and judge of the high court.”5 But Bogyoke took it all calmly, and the country believed in him and his assumption of cabinet duties did much to bolster national morale.

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MILESTONES Enlistment date Lt-Colonel Col. Brig. Maj-General Lt-General

.... .... .... .... .... ....

27-7-1942. 15-12-1945. 8-10-1947. 22-12-1947. 13-8-1948. 1-2-1949.

Command North Burma Army Sub-District

....

22-12-1947.

VCGS Offg. CGS & GOC

.... ....

1-8-1948. 1-2-1949.

Supreme Commdr & GOC Return from Cabinet to the Forces

.... ....

1-6-1949. 9-9-1950.

Message Now the Forces have their Aba exclusively for their own again. Under Bogyoke’s leadership the Forces have steadily grown in strength, improved in quality. From defensive, holding-out operations to the offensive the young, re-vitalised army has been able to advance: operations, Maha, Bayinnaung, Sinbyushin … and such massive operations have been mounted not against bands of ideology-intoxicated Communists alone, but against well-armed and well-supplied formations of the Chinese Kuomintang on the borders. The Forces have been re-formed, trained to international standards, equipped, disciplined. Through the baptism of fire the Forces have emerged, chastened, strong. I asked Bogyoke about the future of the Forces, and found that it was a subject very near to his heart and one over which he could wax eloquent. “First,” he said by way of a message to the nation, “our peoples must remember that the defence of the nation is everyone’s responsibility. Was it yesterday that tributes were paid in Parliament to the Forces for the Bayinnaung operations? We are grateful, of course, for the kind words, but the peoples must remember that they were as much a party of Bayinnaung as the Forces. The Forces cannot, do not, fight alone. These are days of total wars and distinction between civilian and soldier

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is becoming only academic. A soldier is a civilian in khaki, a civilian a soldier off duty. At least that should be the spirit.” National Service Secondly, the National Service is coming into operation within a few years. Vast and elaborate planning is being made for it. Every able-bodied young man or woman of a certain age group will be called up for training, which will include not the science of war alone, but the arts and crafts of peace. A National Service man will learn a trade or two, agricultural methods or industrial skill. When he finishes his tour of duty a job will be waiting for him; resettlement schemes will go hand in hand with the call-up and training. There will thus be a full exploitation of Burma’s man and womanpower at minimum costs to the state. The National Service will be productive activity because the men and women will be learning and producing in agriculture or the industries all the while. And after the schemes have been working for some years, the nation will be trained and prepared — for daily needs and national emergency; it will be a national confident and unafraid. “The need for a large regular army will then disappear.” Bogyoke Ne Win said fondly, “and the army will truly become the People’s Army. After we have retired and gone, the Army will go on, serving the peoples of whom it is a part.” Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

America, Britain, China and Dutch. Now G.S.O. (I) War Office. April 1954. Bo Aung Gyi, for example, was recalled from parliament and political office to take charge of the brand new Territorial Force. 5. The New World of S.E. Asia, Minnesota Press, 1949, page 172.

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Section III, F, Profile

MR JUSTICE CHAN HTOON This month, the third international convention organised by the World Fellowship of Buddhists begins in Rangoon, and the Sangayana starts a new session. Arrangements for the Asian Cultural Conference also approach completion, and Rangoon will again be the forum. The man who is most closely connected with these important events is the subject of this profile.

T

he lights shone, and the big and crowded assembly hall was hushed in attentive silence. U Chan Htoon, the Attorney-General, was the guest speaker. The spotlight was on him; to him a thousand eyes were turned. It was an atmosphere, a situation, that he loved. He spoke clearly and forcefully. His Burmese was rich with idiom. His delivery, his gestures, were right, well-timed. We laughed with him at his jokes. When he uttered learned things we were impressed. We were young and impressionable but that was not the only reason he impressed us. Nor was it the fact that we were young law students and he the first AttorneyGeneral of a newly independent Burma. “Bench and Bar,” he said then, “Are inseparable. A lawyer and a judge are like a married couple, husband and wife. And if you ask me who is the husband and who the wife, I would answer without hesitation, the lawyer is the husband.” Applause, laughter, ovation. We were law students within sight of graduation, and

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Mr Justice Chan Htoon” in The Guardian II, no. 2 (December 1954): 33–37, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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we hoped we would become lawyers, good lawyers, famous and rich. U Chan Htoon promised us more. We would become husbands of judges also. It was a pleasing prospect. Husband into Wife Now U Chan Htoon, Attorney-General and ex-officio the leader of the Bar, has become Mr Justice Chan Htoon of the Supreme Court. From husband he has turned wife. From brilliant oratory with which he had swayed conferences and committees, he must now turn to the sedate work of the Bench; no longer will he mesmerise Bench and gallery with his eloquence and persuasion; now he is at the receiving end to listen to the talkers; some wise and some not so wise. Will the transformation be conducive to the Hon’ble Mr Justice Chan Htoon’s happiness? Or will he feel the weight of the red silk and ermine of his judge’s robes too heavily; will he look down from the Bench with yearning eyes to the well of the Court in which, as a brilliant barrister he had fought his way to many legal victories? Only he will be able to tell; only time will be able to soothe and settle the yearnings. Down with Slave Education Born in 1906 at Ainyagyi, 6 miles from Pyapon, young Chan Htoon went through the conventional Buddhist education at the village monastery. Those three years at the monastery were to mould and make him. There he learned and imbibed the fundamental precepts of Buddhism and there he roamed in joy in the vast wondrous expanse of Burmese literature. In three years he assimilated more than enough for six. He was blessed with a photographic memory: he would briefly scan a verse and that would leave a clear and lasting imprint of it on his memory. He would look at an arithmetical problem, his mind would play with it, and there was the answer. His memory and his mental agility, his precociousness, made him serious beyond his age. Life early became for him a serious affair of study set purposes and eventual success. Even in his young days young Chan Htoon liked to plan his day and his affairs; he liked things to be well ordered and tidy right down to the way he dressed. After monastery, the A.B.M. Anglo-Vernacular school in Pyapon. Then the 1920 students strike, the first open flareup of resurgent nationalism. Students walked

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out of their schools, protesting against “slave education”, clamouring for national freedom. Compared with modern mass movements, the strike was, perhaps, a feeble affair, but it marked the start of the national movement, the beginning of the end of British rule in Burma. Young Chan Htoon was among the strikes and a leader of his class. When the strike was called off, “national” schools were organised, and in Pyapon a National High School came up and to that young Chan Htoon went. The school was a makeshift affair. Funds were difficult to come by, and it was therefore a chronic problem getting qualified teachers. It therefore happened that the school was in need of someone to teach Burmese literature in the higher classes. For the precocious young man in the middle classes it was a challenge and an opportunity; young Chan Htoon accepted both without question, without flinching, and became tutor in higher Burmese in the higher classes while he himself was by right still on the lower rungs. It was a busy time, studying, teaching, running from one class to another, lecturing to students, some older than he; but he was important, he was doing an essential service, he was being listened to and he enjoyed every moment of it. Road to the Bar From Pyapon National High School to the Myoma National in Rangoon for a few months, just long enough it would seem to qualify him to be an “old Myoma” and become president of the Old Myoma Association for a long unbroken stretch of years later. Then to Ceylon to study at the Ananda College, to pass the London matriculation exams in 1928, the second best student in the whole island. From Colombo the inevitable road led the young man to London, the Inner Temple which called him to the Bar in 1931, and the University College from where he took the Bachelor of Laws degree with honours. Exams did not wholly consume him in London. In Ceylon, while working for his matriculation, he had helped to organise the Burmese Students Union and — a much more difficult task effectively worked for better relations among the Burmese bikkhus. In London, his talent for organisation found full scope for exercise: there was the Burma Club, but as always, it needed funds and support and workers to organise healthy activities. The Club needed good organisers, and it was in the natural course of things that

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Mr Chan Htoon should become its President, with Ashin Kyaw Sein as its secretary. Back in Rangoon a Barrister, 1931 was just about the end of the golden era for lawyers in Burma. The depression hit the profession hard. Competition was becoming keen. The star of the London-returned young barrister was no longer as bright as it used to be. Yet, as always, there was room at the top and that was where the eyes of U Chan Htoon were fixed — as always. He was undeterred by the dim prospects; he made his brave debut and early won the notice of such High Court Judges as Dunkley J. For U Chan Htoon a profession was not enough, he had to have a cause, or causes to fight for, to organise for, and it happened that at that time there were plenty of them. The nationalist movement was beginning to gather momentum. The “Thakins” were beginning to force themselves on the attention of the public and the rather annoyed government. They were making their speeches after the fashion of Lenin or Mussolini, Hitler or Kemal Ataturk, depending upon the latest book, or translation of a book, that they had read. Their speeches were fiery, their gestures were grand; the people were attracted to the new breed of young politicians who wore native loom-woven clothes and clattered about in native wooden slippers, talking big and dreaming big whenever they could get an audience. As more and more people began to talk about the new politics, the police had to take more and more interest in the young Thakins and where they went followed the plainclothesmen, the CID detectives. Thakins were prosecuted for sedition or attempting to bring the government into hatred or ridicule. Thakin cases meant publicity for their movement and headlines in the papers, but few lawyers of any ability cared to defend them in court. The British were still strongly entrenched and to be blacklisted by them could well mean professional disaster. But U Chan Htoon gladly risked it. He was looking for a cause and here was one. He had his hand in many things: the Physical Culture League that was building up Zaw Weik; the Young Men’s Buddhist Association; the Old Myomas. But here was something with plenty of challenge to throw out, plenty of risks, pregnant with a future. U Chan Htoon made his decision and he became a lawyer for the Thakins. He defended them in court, often incurring the expenses himself apart from charging no fee. Thakins Ba Sein, Lay Maung, Aung Than (Bo Setkya), Soe (the Red Flag) … they were among the many clients

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who have today become famous or notorious. He got Thakin Soe off a murder charge. He appealed on behalf of Thakin Lay Maung against a conviction for sedition, and the High Court appeal (reported in 1939 Rangoon Law Reports at page 239) was partly successful. Thus U Chan Htoon, Barrister, scholar, Buddhist, became associated with a radical revolutionary movement which was, at the time, considered even red. High Court Judges who had made mental note of the promising young Barrister quickly changed their minds about him. Fellow lawyers were afraid to mention his cases in court when he was unable to attend. An Offer and a Call A brief excursion did U Chan Htoon make into active politics. Representing the Taxpayers Organisation, Daw Mya Sein, U Yan Aung (advocate), U Ba Sein (now Government Advocate), and he gatecrashed into the traditionally sedate Rangoon Municipal elections for councillors, and won their way in. It was the first revolt against the oldtimers. The four young councillors could do little, but they did what they could and made the oldtimers in the council acutely uncomfortable. U Nu, in his book “Burma under the Japanese” has spoken of the peace-loving nature of U Chan Htoon. The Barrister, he has said, is incapable of associating himself with any sort of violence. That was true. When war broke out and the nationalist movement took that inevitable swing towards bloodshed, he stepped quietly out and retired to Pyuntaza to spend the war period, reading, thinking. He had married wisely and well and his family was fast growing (he has 8 children — so far. Son Ye Htut is in a ranch school in S. California). The war period was a period of peaceful home life for the family. After the war other urgent demands would be made on him, and his family was to receive what little could be spared of him by other interests and obligations. At the end of the war, he returned to the law and built up a flourishing practice. It was the boom period for lawyers; good lawyers rolled in money, and U Chan Htoon was a good lawyer. Offers of office came from the British government soon enough: he could either be a Government Advocate or a Sessions Judge — both were then very attractive positions. From either office to the High Court bench was but a step. The offers and the call came about the same time. The call was from the AFPFL, from

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General Aung San and his colleagues. Times were urgent. The Thakins were no longer young men wearing wooden slippers and talking big. They were organised; they had fought, seen much, matured. The AFPFL was the national front, and the British government was, comparatively, only a formality. U Chan Htoon thought carefully, saw clearly, decided quickly. He refused to become a Government Advocate, refused the Sessions Judge appointment, and chose to be legal adviser to the AFPFL. That was in 1946. Ahead lay all the hard work and the difficulties. The People’s Volunteer Organisation, then a wing of the AFPFL, was in earnest training for a possible resistance to British rule, and the government tried to stop it. Wearing of uniforms was prohibited, military training of any kind except with the approval of the government — was made an offence. PVO cases piled up at the Police Commissioner’s office, and there frequently had to go Bogyoke Aung San and his legal adviser. On one trip, after a heated argument with the Commissioner, the two came out and Bogyoke remarked jokingly, “U Chan Htoon, you are a marked man now.” U Chan Htoon laughed. He had always enjoyed being a marked man, even in the young days when as a 6th standard student, he had taught higher Burmese to the students of the higher classes. From Committees to Commitees The British took the hint and gave way. There was to be no fighting. Independence was to be a real thing after all the legal things involving transfer of power were properly organised. U Chan Htoon, as legal adviser, played a prominent part in those vital preliminaries. He was sent to New Delhi to make an intensive study of the constitutions of the different countries, to watch how the Indian constituent assembly was getting on, to make friends with the Indian colleagues in the freedom movement. He went and worked hard and made close friends — among them the late Sir B.N. Rau, then constitutional adviser to the Indian government, later to help polish up the Burmese constitution, to serve as Indian representative to the UNO and finally to wind up a brilliant career as Judge of the International Court of Justice. U Chan Htoon collected information and gathered material which he sent to Rangoon to be hungrily consumed by his AFPFL colleagues. Then came the elections to the Burmese constituent assembly in April, 1947, and the

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mighty AFPFL victory. A constitution was to be drafted at once and finished within the year. Bogyoke gave the broad outline, the AFPFL convention gave the mandate, U Chan Htoon was the draughtsman of the details. U Chan Htoon set up office in the constituent assembly and kept a team of secretaries and stenographers busy. Meetings overlapped; committees ran into committees; it was a race with time. U Chan Htoon became known by his staff as the slave-driver; he drove his staff and himself hard, working 18 hours a day often. The job was done in time. The draft constitution which was the result was a model constitution containing many novel and unique features: the structure of Parliament, for example, and the happy mixture of federal and unitary elements in the organisation of the state. More important than the good finish of the document was the unanimity with which the racial minorities and the Burmese accepted it. A few years ago, even a year ago, the minorities were suspicious of the Burmese. There were audible murmurings that even if if was written into the constitution that both the President and the Prime Minister must always be one of the minority races, even on such terms all that would be acceptable would be a loose, informal confederation. Yet, when the constitution was put before the assembly, it was accepted unanimously, jubilantly, and the minorities were all for it — even the Karenni with their history of semi-independence. It was indeed a job well done. Further assignments followed for U Chan Htoon. He had to go to London and set up his office in Whitehall as consultant to the British Foreign Office in arranging the details for the transfer of power: the ceremony, the protocol, down to the last detail. U Chan Htoon was among friends and familiar surroundings and he enjoyed that tour of duty. Then a tour of the United States, Ireland and other countries, making a comparative study of the constitutions and the judiciaries. As honoured guest U Chan Htoon sat on the bench at a sitting of the Supreme Court of New York, perhaps the first Burman to be accorded the honour. After independent Burma was safely launched, who was to be the first law officer, the first pilot to guide the young state through legal pitfalls, national and international. Who was to be the first AttorneyGeneral but U Chan Htoon? He who had refused to be a Government Advocate now became the chief of the Government’s advocates and law officers. He was to hold the job six continuous years.

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Today, Mr Justice Chan Htoon might perhaps enjoy a little leisure sometimes — during Supreme Court vacations or in sessions in which the cases are quickly disposed of — to look back over the crowded six years when he was Attorney-General. He had done much to promote the spread of Buddhism in the country and better relations and a more copious interchange between neighbouring Buddhist nations. He had gone to the first conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Colombo in 1950, to the Hirosaki conference in Japan in 1952. He is Vice-President of the WFB of which Dr Malalasekera of Ceylon is President, and President of the WFB, Burma region. U Chan Htoon is also secretary of the Buddha Sasana Council, an organisation which he had helped to bring into existence. The Sixth Great Buddhist Convention and the 3rd. WFB conference (talking place on December 3) are colossal affairs of which U Chan Htoon is a vital, indispensable part; thus the Prime Minister is reported to have said that until the Sangayana was over, he would not hear of U Chan Htoon going abroad for any period. Thado Maha Thray Sithu U Chan Htoon is also President of, among many other organisations, the Society for Extension of Democratic Ideals which, in conjunction with the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, is organising an Asian Cultural Conference to take place in Rangoon in January. A host of important, essential activities, perhaps even too many, yet U Chan Htoon has taken leading part in them, going about his business calmly, unflustered, steady, sure, getting the job done in time. The future could not have less for him in store, and surely the Supreme Court bench will not contain him.

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DAW PYU LA MAC PHSU

I

landed in Pnom-Penh, Cambodia, right, I might say, in Daw Phy’s lap. There was a weary night at Bangkok before we flew the next morning for Pnom-Penh. My colleague, Nyo Mya, editor of the “Oway” had gone out into the night to study, so he said, Thai culture. I had stayed in our hotel room writing late into the night. So it was but natural for me to fall asleep in the Air-Vietnam’ plane, and falling asleep with the ventilator full on — and I had taken off my jacket in the Bangkok dry heat — was not quite the wise thing. Thus I stumbled down from the ’plane into the untimely rain at Pnom-Penh rather sick and tired. At the Hotel Pnom-Penh, nobody spoke or understood English, and we could only resort to the sign language. My signs were not, however, as effective as they should be, for I asked for rice soup which I interpreted by putting some grains of rice into water and putting the bowl over the fire. “Ah”, said the waiter, with understanding spreading like morning light over his face. Some half an hour later rice and curry were brought

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Daw Pyu la Mac Phsu” in The Guardian II, no. 3 (January 1955): 46–49, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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to me, my version of rice soup having been read as “cooked rice”. In the circumstances that I found myself helplessly in, the arrival of Daw Pyu was a real blessing. She came the next morning escorted by the faithful Ko Tun Yi. She looked me carefully over, felt my temperature with her feeling hand. She studied Nyo Mya carefully too. Then she decided we must go with her and put up at her mansion. I needed nursing, she decided, and Nyo Mya, who looked sad and lost, needed alcoholic nourishment. Prince Myingoon’s Daughter For ten days thus, we were under the care and protection of Daw Pyu who is also widely known through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos as Mac Phsu or Madame Mac Phsu the queen of the Mac Phsu balm empire. In Malaya Eng An Tong Tiger balm, in Indo-China Mac Phsu. Yet that was not what interested me most. It was an advantage, of course, that the hostess was queen of an empire, with business organisations scattered everywhere in the region, with a fleet of cars at her disposal, and an army of domestic workers to look after our smallest needs. My main interest lay in her ancestry, for Daw Pyu is Prince Myingoon’s daughter. Myingoon was the prince who fled from the court of Ava and tried to unfurl the flag of rebellion with French help. Those were the last decisive phases of Anglo-French contention for supremacy over Burma. If Myingoon had been able to stage a come-back, Burma might have become a French protectorate or a colony, an extension of French empire from Indo-China. But the French failed and Myingoon failed, and Myingoon spent his last days in Saigon where he had many wives who bore many children, one of whom was Daw Pyu. The pension that the French gave to Prince Myingoon was inadequate and it steadily became more so as his family increased. Daw Pyu was on the fringe of this family, never too near the centre, one of the many children whom the father sometimes vaguely recognised as his but could not remember by name. When Burma became British, French interest in Myingoon practically ceased, and the twilight of the Prince’s life was sad and lonely. The tombs of the Prince and his mother are well-preserved in the Saigon cemetery and silver peacocks stand in silent homage over them. There is yet another monument to Myingoon’s memory, and that is Daw Pyu.

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The Hard Way Where Myingoon failed Daw Pyu succeeded. She had difficult times, and she had to work hard and suffer much, but in the end she built her empire. Myingoon would have been content to be a French stooge in French-protected Burma. Mac Phsu had nobler ambitions. She would build a Burmese commercial empire in Indo-China, and she who had been only a small and insignificant part of her father’s family would reign over that Empire. Things did not happen by deliberate planning, however; there was much drift at first. Mac Phsu’s mother was an intense patriot and she would not let her marry a foreigner. At 18 Mac Phsu was sweet and tender and she could have got any price from any man — for wives were bought those days. But her mother had no monetary ambitions; she was looking out for a Burman bridegroom for the daughter. Thus, Mac Phsu was married off to an old, unprincipled Burman adventurer, and the outcome of the union was Ma Khway a baby daughter, now a grandmother of fifty, and unhappiness. Mac Phsu was young then and weak and helpless. Soon, as the years sped by, the hardness of life made her hard and determined, capable of giving back as much as she had to take. The marriage broke up. Mac Phsu went out into the world, taking her daughter. She was often on the brink of starvation. She worked as a domestic servant. She slaved as a cook in hotels. She sold things in the open market. There were Burman traders in Saigon and Pnom-Penh, but from them she received no sympathy, no support. She was alone in the wide big world, with a young daughter to look after. She grew hard and she grew reckless. She married many men, just for the fun of it, and took many more without bothering to go through the formality of marrying. Men, she found, were dispensable; they were necessary sometimes, but not always. Thus when one husband left her for a younger thing, she did not mind; instead she adopted the offspring of that union as her own children. Her home, I found, was therefore full of children of all ages and colours and features: children that her ex-husband got by another woman, children of her daughter’s daughters, children got by her daughter’s husband by his extra wives… It was a home full of happy children, an empire of love and kindness, and Mac Phsu was the queen.

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Fortunes Earned From thirty onwards, Mac Phsu was free. “There I am,” she said to me pointing at a large photograph of a beautiful woman hanging on the wall, “that’s me at thirty. That was the decisive point of my career. I decided then not to have any man lording over me anymore. I wouldn’t have a man anymore, not as a proper husband, that is. I was going to build my future alone.” But not quite alone, really, for her daughter Ma Khway helped, with touching loyalty. When Ma Khway was still young and sweet, she cuddled up to her mother and asked for a husband. “Mother,” she said, “find me a husband. Any sort of husband. Blind or black, whole or crippled, old or young. Find me a man, a young handsome man if you can find him, but find me a man. When I am a properly married woman, I can go out and work for you and with you. I can help you. Now as a maiden, I am a prisoner of modesty and custom and taboo.” Thus Ma Khway got her husband, not very young, but not very old, not blind at all for he could see and appreciate beauty — so much so that he married two or three other women after Ma Khway had given him two lovely daughters. But Ma Khway did not mind at all. Her purpose was served. She was a married woman, and together Daw Pyu and her daughter, and the son-in-law began building their balm business. It was an excellent idea. “Daw Pyu’s balm” became famous in Indo-China almost overnight. Rubbed into the skin the balm soothes pain and bronchial trouble, headaches and body-aches, malaria and what-have-you. And the peasants in IndoChina, living along creeks or in swampy valleys were always afflicted, and Daw Pyu’s balm was their salvation. Daw Pyu had a flair for publicity. She advertised widely and intelligently. The trademark of her balm bears the name, “Birmanie” (Burma), for Daw Pyu is a patriot and a nationalist and her Vietnamese birth and unbringing could never extinguish the Burmese in her. Mac Phsu of Birmanie thus became, quickly and surely, an institution in Indo-China. Generous Dictator As her balm empire flourished, her fortunes prospered. She bought up real estates, sold them off and bought better, larger ones. She travelled about in fast powerful motor cars. Where once she trudged wearily under

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the weight of the wares she had to sell from door to door, now she flew past in her car, the object of awe and respect to everyone. Her Burmese colleagues in Phom-Penh and Saigon came to her for help. She was amused. Even her ex-husbands occasionally came for loans of money or asking for jobs. She did not turn any of those supplicants away. In her wealth and power she was generous and kind. She gave freely, helped much. A devout Buddhist, she was always the leading donor in any religious cause, and an unfailing bank to the Sangha. In her youth she had been fierce and untamed. It was necessary for her to be that way, for she had to fight for survival. But when she gathered her fortunes and her family grew, she became mellow and kind and all the softer virtues blossomed in her. Over the expanding empire of her family, however, she continued to rule with an iron hand. No grandson could fall in love with an unapproved girl; no grand-daughter could even dream of romance without the terrible matriarch’s prior blessing. A grandson made the mistake of breaking the law. He fell in love and even dared to elope. At once he was declared an outlaw. Tears and tireless beseeching would not move her an inch. To this day the son’s wife is unaccepted, unrecognised. Daw Pyu seemed to have a partiality for the son-in-laws, however. They could go after other women with impunity. Her daughter and grand-daughters must take their fate uncomplaining. “A woman,” the matriarchal dictator used to say, “must learn to wait and weep in silence. I learned it myself.” Rebel One granddaughter nearly rose in resolute rebellion against Daw Pyu recently, but this kind of rebellion Daw Pyu, with Myingoon blood in her, did not mind. In fact she secretly admired. The granddaughter was at school, turning giddily into her teens. She was different from other girls. She wore no fashionable clothes, cared not for lipstick and makeup. She was quiet, serious, and Daw Pyu was puzzled a little for the daughter was pretty and pretty girls, in her experience, made the most of their looks and had a whale of a time flirting. She knew for she had done it in her time. But now the girl was different. One day, Daw Pyu thought she must find a husband for the girl, and she at once started looking about for a suitable man. There was plenty to choose from now. Daw

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Pyu was rich, the girl was pretty, suitors were many. But the girl, it was discovered, had her own love already. She was an intense nationalist, in love with her tortured country, keen to join the rebels fighting for the country’s freedom. “She was in league with the ‘other side’ you know,” related Daw Pyu, not without a touch of pride, “and she was going to go over. But we had to stop her. We had to bribe the people in power heavily to prevent them from taking any action.” Then, the girl was safely married off to a young man who could appreciate the new ideas of the girl. In Vietnam a girl took without demur the man who was given to her. But Daw Pyu’s rebel-girl would not submit so easily. She would meet and question the prospective bridegroom for one hour daily for fifteen days before she finally consented to marry him. By then she was already in love and it made things easier. Sangayana Daw Pyu drinks — her preference is for Old Scotch — and gambles heavily. In Vietnam and Cambodia, gambling is the spice of life. People gamble about everything. One popular form of gambling, for example, is predicting rain. If rain fell at the stipulated hour, the better on rain at that hour won. If not he lost, and so on. So big was that gambling about rainfall that rain-watching became a profession. Men would be hired to station themselves on the housetops and watch the skies for rainclouds. They could pass on the message of oncoming rain, and the betting would take a new turn and there would be frantic buying and selling of betting tickets. Some rain-watchers lose their lives, falling off the roofs after hours of strain. Daw Pyu has lost a fortune in gambling, and will no doubt lose much more. “It is much wiser spending on drinks really,” she would say after each heavy loss, “for a good strong drink stimulates you and makes you happy.” But Daw Pyu is devoutly religious, and when the Sangayana in Rangoon was opened, she left Pnom-Penh and flew over to attend. She had not been in Burma even once in her 60 years, but she came. She could not help it. The greatest urge compelled her to Rangoon. And the story of her farewell to Pnom-Penh is famous in Cambodia and Vietnam. The eminent Cambodian sangha were to go in the same ‘plane with her, but she carried her bottle of Ye Olde Scotch with her, just in case. The story goes that she climbed the steps of the

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’plane with a sad backward look to her daughters and granddaughters, their husbands and the tens of little boys and girls, all her own in some way or other. Tears were in her eyes, but she went up bravely, the bottle of Old Scotch consoling her, giving her courage. “My visit to Burma and the Sangayana purified me”, she said, “and I’m glad I went.” x

x

x

x

x

Is there a Judgment Day at which all men must take their orders from the Lord? Must we all go one day before that awesome tribunal and receive the order? If we must, then we must. But that awesome tribunal, I am sure, will not awe Daw Pyu. When she goes, she will go calmly. The Lord will see her come in with steady steps, and this young old girl who stands a little over 5 feet, will no doubt impress him favourably. She had been wild, untamed, passionate, irrespressible, uncurable; but she has also been kind, generous, good. The Lord will look down upon this relic of Myingoon who, with her middling height, towers a mighty cut above the miserable mediocrity of modern man, and the judgement he will pass down will not doubt be kind. And I’m sure that the Lord will also be able to forgive or overlook the bottle of Ye Olde Scotch under her arm.

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Section III, H, Profile

U KYAW NYEIN

T

he coffee was growing cold. U Kyaw Nyein broke his talk with me just long enough to pour some cold coffee into the cold saucer and drink in thirsty gulps. To transfer tea or coffee from the cup to the saucer before drinking is the habit of the ahnyatha,1 and I was glad to note that U Kyaw Nyein still kept his ahnya habits. When one remains oneself through changing fortunes, when one keeps true to one’s past and one’s customs and traditions, then one acquires, even if unintentionally, a certain immunity from the foibles of circumstance. U Kyaw Nyein’s taking his coffee straight from the saucer was, I thought, an indication that he has that immunity. Or was I reading too much into his way of consuming coffee? But indeed there have been other indications, even more trustworthy, that U Kyaw Nyein has built that immunity over the years of fight and struggle. The vicissitudes have been many; when life was too calm for his liking he had sought trouble. He was an agitator. Not a rabble-rouser, but a serious agitator. Even in his college days when he began to train himself

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Kyaw Nyein” in The Guardian II, no. 5 (March 1955): 9–19, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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as an agitator, he had been clear-sighted, rational, and in full possession of himself. Circumstances did not sweep him off his feet; rather, he created them and used them. Emotions did not carry him away; rather, he provoked — them in others and used them. No mere rabble-rouser was he. x

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x

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Young Kyaw Nyein was born into a family with a history. By the time he was born in March 1915, in Pyinmana, his father U Po Tok, a lawyer, was already prominent in local politics as a leader of the General Council of Buddhist Associations — the early religious body that gradually and naturally turned political and became the vanguard of the nationalist movement. His mother, Daw Thon, was also a sturdy and resolute soul, and between them the parents taught their boy to know his mind, make his decisions and strive relentlessly for the goals that he set himself. The boy was given his schooling in Pyinmana and Daik-U, and he got over the first hurdle — the matriculation — from Katha. It was indeed a nomad’s schooling that led young Kyaw Nyein to the Intermediate College, Mandalay in 1930, to begin his studies in science. School had been a bit of a bore to the restless, eager boy, but college opened wider avenues, and the study of science was as exciting as the freedom of life was exhilarating. It was a period of blossoming. The library attracted Kyaw Nyein as did the debating halls. He was normally shy and reticent, but on the stage, with an audience looking at him and listening to him, he opened up well and excelled himself. Chance for organising and agitation also came soon enough. The government was thinking of closing down the college on grounds of economy. There was only a handful of students, it was said, and the results therefore did not justify the expenses. Those who were really keen, it was said, could go down to the University College in Rangoon, where they must go eventually, in any case, to take their degrees. In those days education was only a means of producing clerks and government subordinates — non-vital cogs in an indifferent government machinery. Matriculates were quite adequate for clerical jobs, and their numbers were growing so fast that already the problem of the “educated” unemployed was making itself felt. Thus, it was pointed out that the shutting down of the Intermediate College Mandalay would be not only not detrimental to the country’s interests but actually desirable.

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The authorities were nearly unanimously agreed. Only Kyaw Nyein, his friend Thein Pe, and a few others made bold to differ. At the turn of the 1930’s it was not right to differ with authority. Acquiescence was the fashion. Those whom the powers condescended to like got on well in life. Favourite students usually got good degrees and good jobs — even jobs in the Indian Civil Service, (ICS), the most coveted of all. Those who fell out with authority fared ill ever after. Kyaw Nyein knew, but the agitator and the nationalist in him were too strong. He formed a band and fought against the proposal to show down the College. The authorities, unused to opposition, were surprised and embarrassed. They gave in, and the College carried on and thus it was possible, after the war, to elevate the College to degree status without much difficulty. x

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Mandalay gave Kyaw Nyein the first intoxicating taste of victory. At the University College, Rangoon, where he forsake science to roam in the vast expanses of literature with an honours degree in English as a vague and not so important objective, he and his contemporary, Thein Pe, began organising and fighting again. They looked round for fields to conquer, and decided that the Rangoon University Students’ Union needed their leadership. The RUSU however, was quite sure that it did neither need nor want the two agitators who were already stained with the black mark of the agitator. The RUSU was then a very quiet and tame affair. Most of the office-bearers were non-political; a good few were the Principal’s favourites and comfortably certain of getting into the imperial services after graduation. The Union executive therefore viewed with growing anxiety the advent of the agitators — Kyaw Nyein, and young Aung San who had just joined the University as an intermediate student, Thein Pe, Maung Ohn,2 Thi Han,3 and a few other firebrands and “queer” beings. This new breed of queer birds did not go walking along Inya lake in the evenings in order to meet and respectfully greet the English principal, his wife and his dog. The new breed shunned the fashionable tennis courts where the main form of exercise was playing for the favour of the Principal and the powerful professors. The new breed read, discussed, and lived politics. The RUSU, therefore, did not want to have anything to do with the new breed, and when Kyaw

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Nyein and Thein Pe first fought the RUSU elections they had to fight hard and their narrow victory was bitter. In the executive they became a small minority, always thwarted even in the most trivial matters, always outvoted. They clung on, however, to their seats much to the annoyance of the majority. Their behaviour so upset the majority that some members of the majority resorted to unfair means to oust them. Once, at a hall anyein pwe Thein Pe was dragged out from the crowd into the shadows of the night and given a beating. This resort to violence either received the prior blessing of the authorities or a pleased approval after the event; anyhow, the powers did not try to bring the offenders to book. It was a different story, however, in 1936. The small band of queer birds had been formidably reinforced. Their influence on the students had increased. Their fortunes were improving; times were becoming more ripe for their activities. The RUSU elections were a landslide victory of the pioneers. All the seats were captured, and the old gangs beat a hasty retreat. Ko Nu, or Kogyi (big brother) Nu as he was affectionately called by his younger contemporaries, became president of the RUSU, and Ko Thi Han became secretary. It was a fateful year and the men who worked together in the Union executive and as leaders of the historic students’ strike were Burma’s men of destiny. Ko Kyaw Nyein was not on the executive that year. It was his third and final year in the honours class, and he hoped he would be able to concentrate on studies by withdrawing for a while. But the strike happened. Students left their halls and classrooms and swarmed on to the Shwedagon and pitched their camp. The nation was astir, and it was a situation that needed Kyaw Nyein, a situation that Kyaw Nyein needed and waited for. Even as the first clarion calls sounded, Kyaw Nyein left the pleasant, mellow fields of English literature, emerged from his poetry and old English prose, and came out into the urgent present to play vital part in the organisation and execution of the strike. Public relations and publicity, keeping the boys happy and united, keeping the Inya4 girls happy at the Shwedagon — and though their numbers were small they formed an important force and a special attraction — negotiations with politicians and the government — there were many things to do and Ko Kyaw Nyein took a hand at them all. He was everywhere. He was essential. x

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But life at the University was not all politics and Plato’s Republic. There was fun and romance and Ko Kyaw Nyein had a healthy appetite for both. Inya attracted him and he liked to go there with as many large and learned-looking books as he could carry under his arm — some of which books he even read. He liked feminine company, and appreciated feminine sympathy. To the young belles of Inya he was either a hero of the strike, or an honours student within easy reach of his degree and good jobs. He might get into the BCS, some hopeful young ones thought, or at least become an English tutor and, later, a don. Wearing those thick glasses and carrying those big books he must be marching straight into a noble destiny. Thus Ko Kyaw Nyein was eligible and he had his affairs, some small, some medium, some big. He liked to exchange letters and probably found in writing letters a useful medium for self-expression. Once, he left his love-letters carelessly behind in a friend’s room and the friend, a genius for mischief, published them in the College magazine. The girl was furious. She wanted a satisfactory explanation, threatened to sever relations if there wasn’t one. And, of course, there wasn’t, and relations were broken, and the freed lover heaved a big sigh of relief and wandered on to new fields. The friendship that grew between Ma Nwe Yi, a later arrival at the College, and Ko Kyaw Nyein was, however, of the firmer and deeper kind. Nwe Nwe was young and sweet and an eager recruit to the political group of students. Ko Kyaw Nyein liked to lecture to her on his politics, and dream aloud before her. She would listen, rapt, stars in her eyes. She understood him and shared his hopes and ambitions. “Our day will come,” Ko Kyaw Nyein would declare to his fellow students, and, when walking through the fashionable Golden Valley or along Prome Road, he would point to beautiful buildings enjoyed exclusively by Europeans and promise, “We shall be there before long.” This sort of promise might sound to other friends as optimistic or even boastful, but Nwe Nwe understood and believed in Ko Kyaw Nyein. She did not think or hope but knew they would be there — together. x

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In 1937, the year after the strike, Ko Kyaw Nyein took his degree with a third class honours. “I was an honours student for four years and passed

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third class. If I had only worked for the usual three years, I might have passed fourth class,” he likes to recall with a chuckle. The moral lesson for students today: concentrate on studies; keep politics and Inya well alone; times are different, anyhow, and the fight against colonialism is over. The times were different in 1937. The nationalist movement had then gathered momentum, and the students, with their patriotism, their energy and idealism and, their close contact with new and liberal ideas, were the natural leaders of the movement. They were the dreamers and the workers. They stirred the nation into alert wakefulness with their strike, they fired the nation’s imagination with their ideas, and with their new politics of self-sacrifice they were setting new standards and creating new values in the struggle. All the student leaders were poor, and they rather enjoyed being poor. They worked together at the headquarters of the Student’s Union, ate where they could, slept on the floor; they borrowed books and read them, they translated Marxist literature for Nagani (Red Dragon) leftist book club for small fees, they tried to earn some sort of living out of writing or reporting. Ko Kyaw Nyein, with his degree, had gone out to get a job so that he might keep his parents provided, and he inevitably became a provider also for his hungry colleagues. One other provider was Thakin Mya, who was coming up as a lawyer in Tharrawaddy — where Saya San raised his defiant flag of rebellion against alien rule in 1930. x

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Then came the exciting years. The young Thakin movement spread fast and strong. It appealed irresistibly to the youth and the striving, suffering classes: students and peasants, workers and progressive professionals. In the elections under the new 1935 Constitution, some Thakins led by Thakin Mya had even won their way into the House of Representatives and there, as a happy minority, they were having a whale of a time. Thakin Kyaw Nyein, working as an appraiser in the customs department, was prevented by service rules and penal laws from openly associating with the party, but he was doing vital work. During the day he worked and earned for his parents and for his comrades and himself; during the nights they met and dreamed and planned together. It was irksome for Thakin Kyaw Nyein to have to be working in the service of a government which he was set upon overthrowing; but if the days

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were irksome and restless the nights were long, fortunately, and their kind of work was better done while the police slept. Among the Thakins were different schools. One school, for example, would be content to make speeches at public meetings, fight at elections, go into the House and try to form a government one day, and advance by gradual steps. Thakin Aung San was the driving force of a school which did not believe in ‘constitutional methods’. The war in the West was already obvious on the horizon, and the time was ripe, it was thought, for the fight for freedom. Foreign military assistance must be sought, and the fight must begin to coincide with the advent of war to Asia, which also was beginning to be obvious. Thakin Kyaw Nyein belonged to this “Burma Revolutionary Party” which attracted most of the younger elements among the Thakins and young leaders of the RUSU and schools in the districts. The BRP was not, of course, a proper organisation with a formal constitution. It was a group of people who shared similar views and worked for common objectives and, therefore, an unspoken understanding and an unuttered pledge. The leaders of the BRP were Thakin Mya, Aung San, Ba Swe,5 Thakin Chit6 and Thakin Kyaw Nyein. When the British government issued a warrant for the arrest of Aung San, offering a prize of Rs. 5 to anyone who could give information leading to the arrest, Aung San had to go into hiding, and Kyaw Nyein took over the active organisation of the BRP from him. There was much to do. Contacts had been established with the Japanese: Thakin Hla Pe7 got his contacts through the Japanese ConsulGeneral in Rangoon, while Thakin Nu got his via Thailand. From some Chinese sources too there were offers of assistance. Foreign aid, so often dreamed of, now seemed within reach. Aung San, with the Rs. 5 reward hanging over his head, had to leave the country, and he was assigned the task of establishing firm contacts abroad. Thakin Kyaw Nyein and his friends organised the smuggling out, and the preparation at home to receive the expected aid. Units of “Steel Corps” were raised by the students unions and given some form of military training and discipline. Cadres of political and military leaders were gradually built up. It was an exciting conspiracy which gradually spread its net to cover the entire country. From the districts also, volunteers came to serve. Student leaders like Aung Gyi8 and Chit Maung9 were “put into” government departments where they worked as clerks and sent back valuable information to

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“headquarters”; RUSU leaders like Maung Maung10 who ran about in a small old Ford giving “military training” to the “Steel Corps” and other units, were up to the neck in the conspiracy and studies were entirely forgotten; young men had also been selected for military training abroad, and future leaders of the Burma Independence Army such as Thakin Shu Maung,11 Thakin Shwe12 and others were waiting to be smuggled out. There was much to do and Thakin Kyaw Nyein, at the headquarters, had a busy but exciting time. Fulfilment was near and Kyaw Nyein was happy, and when he said with some bravado to his colleagues at the customs department at a departmental dinner that times would soon be very changed and they would soon see what sort of a chap he really was, he was not boasting. Rather, he was making a sober promise. After the “thirty comrades” had been safely smuggled off, there were months of frenzic organisation. The British intelligence was now wise to what was going on, and Thakin Kyaw Nyein and his headquarters had to be constantly on the move to evade arrest: 101st. street to 125th., from a pongyi-kyaung in Yedashelan to Bauktaw, from the city’s bristling streets to the quiet suburbs, the mobile headquarters kept on moving with the police on the chase. Some of the police were sympathisers and the chase took unnecessarily long, and war came, and the bombings, and Rangoon soon became a desert in which it was quite safe to stay. The men were then brought into the city and housed in buildings which had been left empty by evacuees. Intensive courses of military training were given, and instructor Maung Maung and his old Ford had a busy time. The instructor would read up the British army weapons manuals and a few books on guerrilla warfare, and he would prepare his lectures and plan the “condensed courses”. There was yet nothing much in the way of arms and ammunition, but supplies were coming, so everyone expected, and when the ’planes came over to bomb everyone would look skywards for signals or messages rather than take shelter. Often the ’planes would drop leaflets, and Thakin Kyaw Nyein, the most eager and expectant of the lot, would rush out on his bicycle to get a copy. But the leaflets did not say arms were being dropped. There were no messages. Only propaganda, and the news that at that time of the year Mount Fiji in Japan was wearing a beautiful snow-cap, and the cherry flowers were in full bloom. x

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Events moved fast, however. Soon that group of the “thirty comrades” led by Bo Ne Win arrived after a hard march through Thailand and jungle country. The team brought some small arms — about 40 to 50 revolvers and pistols — and the morale of the BRP shot up. With 40 revolvers the BRP would redeem Burma for the Burmese. Alaungpaya’s soldiers had only swords and sticks to build their empire with, but then their foes had little better. The Burma Independence Army and the Japanese were expected any moment now, and the BRP and the Bo Ne Win group were assigned the task of raising havoc within British lines. Sabotage and fifth column activities, seducing soldiers of the British Burma Rifles away from their duty and loyalty (about 200 soldiers were thus won over in Rangoon), propaganda and organisation. Things were a little easier but a lot more dangerous now. Easier because material resources had improved. Motor cars had been acquired by pilferage and other means; there was plenty of petrol; food and rations were easier to come by, and with the kind but unwitting collaboration of the British army the BRP and BIA were living as well as British officers. More dangerous because it was time for open action and operational sorties. The British army was probably giving up Rangoon, but they were falling back in force to Tharrawaddy and Prome and building a strong line of defence in that sector. With a dash of melodrama Bo Ne Win and Thakin Kyaw Nyein decided to put up a show in Tharrawaddy, the grouping point of British troops. It was a dangerous mission, but the leaders were optimistic. With their men and the ex-Burma Rifles and an armoury of assorted arms they motored up to their destination. The return journey was not, however, as happy as the outward march. The British, the party found, were still awake and not kindly disposed towards such visits. The party was broken up and scattered, though there were no casualties. They lost some of their arms and most of their cars, and Bo Ne Win and Thakin Kyaw Nyein had to walk back most of their way to Rangoon. Revolution, they thought as they trudged on their hot and thirsty trek to Rangoon, had its disadvantages. x

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Then the BIA came in; and the Japanese were swarming all over the country, pouring in through every conceivable inlet. In Rangoon there

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was happy reunion. Aung San had come back as General “Teza” and commander-in-chief of the BIA. Colonel Minami or “Bo Mogyo” (General Lightning) was the principal adviser. All the way from Bangkok, recruits had come forward in hundreds to join the liberation army and when Rangoon was reached the BIA had grown into a full-sized army corps. Enthusiasm was high among the ranks but in the high command the first disillusionments had set in early. Even at Moulmein where the understanding was that the Japanese would hand over administrative power to the BIA and the Burmese. Then again in Rangoon where insistent demands by the BIA command and the Thakin leaders brought forth only evasive replies from the Japanese. It was not unexpected, of course. Nobody had been naive enough to think that Japan would fight and die for Burmese independence merely. Every thinking Thakin leader, Kyaw Nyein foremost among them, had anticipated trouble and foreseen that the revolution must be carried through to the end over a period of difficult years. Yet, all the foresight could not take away the bitterness of the early disillusionment. The British troops were swept back by the advancing tides of the BIA and the Japanese armies. The BIA divided itself into two main columns and marched up on each side of the Irrawaddy, under the command of Generals Aung San and Ne Win. But already it was obvious that all this fighting was only the prelude. More fighting would have to be done: in politics as much as in the field. To organise on the political side Thakin Kyaw Nyein went up ahead of the BIA troops to Mandalay where Thakin Thein Pe13 and Bo Khin Maung Gale14 the BRP representatives, were finding it hard to pull on with one another. Thein Pe was — and is — the arch-egotist. A romantic to the root of him, he liked to imagine mighty dramas in which he, inevitably and naturally, was the hero. A brilliant and lucid writer, his writings and novels had been popular and controversial, but they always laboured under the burden of the same great theme — himself. In Mandalay, therefore, Thein Pe took little time to imagine that he was on his own, the sole great organiser of a grand conspiracy. His colleague, Bo Khin Maung Gale, soon dwindled, in his view, to the size of an aide, and the movement that was sweeping up from Rangoon became, to him, only a ripple. The Japanese were coming in. Let them. The BIA were coming up, were they? The British troops were on the run. Of course. Let them all come on, let them all run. Thein Pe,

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could take the whole situation, take on all the foes alone by himself. He would fight the fascist Japanese. He would hurl them back into the sea or the hills from where they came. He would issue manifestoes, write letters, issue instructions, call upon the people to rise. When the people rose he would lead them because they would need him. When Thakin Kyaw Nyein arrived in Mandalay, therefore, he found Thein Pe in an imperious mood. Thein Pe talked of negotiating with the BRP for some sort of joint action in the future. He said he would consider giving the BRP some sort of recognition.… The situation in Mandalay was therefore confused and difficult. Thein Pe’s manifestoes had done their mischief and made the Japanese angry, so angry that Thein Pe himself began soon enough to plan his escape into China, into India, anywhere, anywhere in fact where the Japanese could not reach him. His grand design was forgotten. The people might need him but they would have to wait. There was Thakin Soe, the communist, also wanting to go to China from where he could organise resistance. He too wanted Kyaw Nyein to help. “Give me a certificate, a testimonial,” he pleaded with Kyaw Nyein, “so that Chiang’s men will know I’m a true anti-fascist.” In Mogok jail, Dr Ba Maw was abiding his time to come out as a conquering hero. The jail gates were open, and Kyaw Nyein made arrangements to bring Ba Maw out, but Ba Maw, with unerring sense for drama, would wait. Besides, he did not want to owe anything to the Thakins. Thakin Nu, Thakin Than Tun, the communist, and other politicians were also coming out from their respective jails, and Mandalay became the centre of political activity, and Kyaw Nyein was at the centre of things. x

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By May 1942 the war in Burma was over, and almost all the country had been overrun. The Japanese conveniently forgot their promise to hand over power to the Burmese, and instead set up Dr Ba Maw as Chief Administrator to advise and assist the Commander-in-Chief. The BIA were regrouped and disbanded. Only a skeleton force of some three battalions was kept, and the new force was called the Burma Defence Army. The men were unhappy. Those who were sent home in an ungraceful hurry were hurt. The Japanese, and Dr Ba Maw, were pleased to see the BIA

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broken up. Ba Maw as chief administrator was able to hand out prize jobs to the hangers-on of his party and his near relatives. The Thakins, except for a few outstanding leaders, were passed over, and in the first year of the occupation there were only about five Thakins in the civil service and they were only Township Officers, ranking lowest in the service. The young Thakin leaders had at first sincerely supported Ba Maw. Thakin Nu, writing his book, “Three Years under the Japanese”, in 1945 gave a highly subjective account of the occupation period in which the dictator emerged a near-hero. Thakin Than Tun, given a cabinet job by Ba Maw, became a grateful and devoted follower. Kyaw Nyein, as Secretary to Ba Maw and the cabinet, wanted to cooperate and build a united front against the Japanese. Ba Maw thus had a great opportunity to get the young leaders solidly and loyally behind him and raise himself to the level of a national leader. But Ba Maw was always the politician and in the old politics that he played so well honesty and sincerity were not great assets. Ba Maw never learned to believe in the young Thakin leaders. Always it was party above everything with him, and he was so taken up with political tactics and strategy that he could not transcend to the level of the national cause. Thus he gradually lost the confidence of the dedicated young men around him. One by one they drifted away. Aung San was fed up and stayed aloof. Thakin Nu who had to be dragged into political office decided to keep out as much as possible. Kyaw Nyein, close to Ba Maw, remained one of the few links between the dictator and the young men. Kyaw Nyein was patient and tactful but when need arose he stood up to the dictator. He did not like his job but he carried on because he knew he had to, for a complete severance of relations between the Thakins and the dictator would have been disastrous for the country. x

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government did not give the leadership. Kyaw Nyein with his mercurial temperament and active intellect might well have found the period too trying if a stabilising element had not entered his life. When the fighting was done and Rangoon was occupied, Thakins installed themselves in Golden Valley in the beautiful houses they had eyed with longing not so very long ago. Everyone had a beautiful house to himself. There was little to do but talk and discuss and drink, and a good many of the young men fell into bad ways. Kyaw Nyein knew himself and his needs, and he did a typical thing: he slipped off to Moulmein and married Nwe Nwe Yi. When he brought back the bride, all his friends teased him. Home life was happy and fruitful — the current credit balance: six children — and friends like to come in at all times and share a meal or stay a few days. x

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As time went on under the occupation, the idea of the resistance movement began to grow and harden. At Moulmein in 1942 when the Japanese first broke their solemn pledge, at Mandalay where the BIA were disarmed and sent home, at Pyinmana where the few lonely battalions of the BDA trained and patiently waited, in the towns and villages where the brutal Kempetai15 beat up innocent people on the slightest suspicion of spying or non-co-operation — here and there and everywhere, the people’s will to fight had been growing strong. When, therefore, in 1944 the Anti-Fascist Organisation was formed at a stealthy meeting held at Thakin Nu’s house, the young leaders were only giving expression to the national will and providing leadership and direction to a national movement. At the meeting was Thakin Soe, who had been organising in the Delta and had come to Rangoon disguised as a Burma National Army officer; Thakin Than Tun, who had stood rather aloof from the early preparations, but now came in, having shrewdly noticed where the winds were blowing; the old BRP group consisting of Thakin Kyaw Nyein, Thakin Mya and Ba Swe; and the Army command represented by General Aung San, and Colonel Ne Win. There, at that meeting, the decision was made and plans for the resistance were drawn. Army leaders and “partisans” began to meet at Kyaw Nyein’s house or Ne Win’s and gradually the organisation grew and reached

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the remote villages. The army was to disperse into the country at the appointed hour, and the fight was to begin. There were to seven “zones” of resistance, each zone under a military commander and a political commissar. Kyaw Nyein was to go with Ye Htut to take charge of the Pyinmana zone where the heaviest fighting was expected and the first contact with the Allied forces. All was set late in 1944. The country was ready. The army was poised. The leaders were eager and spoiling for a fight. Some younger leaders were so eager and fond of show that they were going about thinly disguised, carrying files of “secret” papers under their arms, stopping their friends in the streets and telling them they were on a dangerous and extremely secret mission but “Don’t tell anybody.” Mountbatten at his South East Asia Command, knew about the movement in Burma and supported it. Thein Pe who had managed to escape and eventually reach India was sought out in his hiding place and used by the Allied intelligence and Force 136 as a liaison man. Thein Pe was happy. He passed on messages, received messengers from Aung San and Kyaw Nyein in Rangoon. Once more the two contemporaries worked at opposite ends for a common cause. Thein Pe in Calcutta, issuing his “directives”, calling on the Burmese people to rise, conferring with junior officers of the British army and planning the future of Burma, the future of the universe. Kyaw Nyein in Rangoon, officially Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs now as the Adipadi (Head of State, Dictator) Dr Baw Maw considered it too dangerous to have him as secretary to the cabinet, in grips with practical problems such as funds and supplies, arms and contacts, while the Japanese prowled in the streets outside. And the curtain lifted and the resistance began on March 27, 1945. Kyaw Nyein could not go to Pyinmana. Last moment circumstances compelled him to stay in Rangoon and take charge. The Japanese had arrested Ba Swe who was to have remained in Rangoon, and Kyaw Nyein and Hla Maung16 who was even then a diplomat and a much-employed mediator and trouble-shooter — took on the task of getting Ba Swe out from the Japanese lock-up and the Japanese out from Rangoon. Almost all the Burma army had gone out into the country, and only one anti-aircraft battery, commanded by Capt. Khin Nyo,17 was left. With that handful Kyaw Nyein had to organise activities in Rangoon and later hold it, after the Japanese were cleared out. Later, Bo Ne Win arrived from the Delta, and together the leaders drafted a declaration of

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war on the “fascist Japanese”, and Bo Ne Win broadcast the declaration on the 7th of May, 1945. History repeats, or does nearly. When the British came back the one thing they wanted to do urgently was disband the Patriot Burmese Forces, as the guerrillas were called. The PBF had extended full cooperation in the final campaigns around Toungoo and Pegu where the Japanese, broken but undefeated, were breaking through on their way into Thailand. But Japan surrendered, and the war came to an unexpected sudden end. SEAC therefore sought means to demobilise the PBF, even as the Japanese had sought, in 1942, to disgrace and dismiss the BIA. The PBF thus became the first great question on which the Anti-Fascist Organisation (which later grew into the massive national organisation, the AFPFL) and the SEAC joined issue. Kyaw Nyein, in the supreme council of the AFO, was one of the leading brains that tackled the issue. The now-famous “Naythuyein” convention was held, and parties and the people unanimously decided that the PBF should form the nucleus of a Burma Army which the new and independent Burma would need. A delegation led by General Aung San18 was sent to Kandy, Ceylon, to discuss the future of the resistance forces with Lord. Mountbatten and General Stofford, commanding the XIIth. army. The delegation went out fully briefed, and Kyaw Nyein had his part to play in the briefing and the making of policy. The results of the Kandy negotiations were not good, but not too bad either. The PBF were to be paid off. In the re-formed Burma Army 200 officers and some 5000 men would be drawn from the PBF. x

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The students strike of 1936, the national struggle that closed one chapter with the advent of war to Burma, and the Japanese occupation had all seasoned Kyaw Nyein and trained him and got him ready for the bigger trials that were to follow. The training had been good and varied, the student had been apt and eager, so that the leader who emerged was ready to take on whatever came. After the Japanese were gone, the British came back with their white papers and Governors like Dorman-Smith, and old and obsolete Burmese opportunists like Sir Paw Tun, all resurrected from the dead. It was easy to tackle them all. The AFPFL was strong. Never was the nation so solidly

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united behind such a representative body. Never had the country had so inspiring a leader as Aung San. So, Kyaw Nyein and the supreme council of the AFPFL found the British and their hangers-on easy to handle. With the British came in the communists. Thakin Than Tun, always shrewd, vigilantly opportunistic, had set up open headquarters in Rangoon. The bold, red nameboard at the headquarters and the communist flag with its hammer and sickle were things that compelled attention. PBF men, released from service, and drifting through Rangoon were easily caught. They came in their hundred and attended short indoctrination courses. In a fortnight they became communists, more communist than Stalin. The British military administration did not do anything to curb the growth of the communist party. Than Tun was preaching full cooperation with the Allies. “Give up your arms,” his messages to the PBF read, “the fighting is over.” The communist menace was, therefore more difficult to meet than Dorman-Smith and his crowd. Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe set about urgently to organise the Socialise party to counteract the communists. Thakin Nu gave his blessing to the venture, but decided to be a friendly lookeron and a big brother. Thakin Nu was then intent on a life of religious meditation and writing aspiring perhaps to be a mixture of Burma’s Bernard Shaw and Gandhi. Kyaw Nyein, assured that he had Kogyi Nu’s blessing and prayers, went ahead with his colleagues to build the Socialist party. And just in time was the party launched, for soon waves of banditry and terrorism swept over the country, and the desperate fight for bare survival began. x

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What happened is recent history. The communists wanted to capture control of the AFPFL, and they went at this objective by propaganda and intrigue from within the League. They even tried to displace Aung San as leader. Thein Pe came back from Calcutta, a hero — at least to his eyes. The communist newspaper cried for Socialist blood, made fun of Aung San. At last, at long last, the communists had to be expelled from the League, and Kyaw Nyein took over from Than Tun as Secretary-General. The British Labour government soon became wise to what was happening in Burma: Dorman-Smith’s authority remained only in the

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statute book and ran only through the Governor’s House; in the country it was either the AFPFL or, in the remote reaches, the armed bandits. Thus, Mr Attlee recalled Dorman-Smith and sent back Major-General Hubert Rance, an old friend of Aung San, as Governor. The AFPFL joined the Governor’s Executive Council; then, Aung San led the Burmese delegation to London for talks with the Labour government in January, 1947, and U Kyaw Nyein was adviser and secretary to the delegation. The talks were successful. Aung San-Attlee agreement was signed. Independence within one year became not a promise but a reality. U Kyaw Nyein was appointed Minister for Home affairs in February that year. The Home portfolio is always a coveted one. It is a senior portfolio. With it goes the control of the police and a great number of other security forces and many other privileges and powers. But at the time the crown was conferred upon U Kyaw Nyein it was thick with thorns. Few of his colleagues sought it. It was given to him not as a favour but as a tough assignment to handle. x

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As Home Minister U Kyaw Nyein had to suppress the terrorism and banditry that was running wild in Shwebo, Pyinmana and other parts of the country.19 And then, even as the situation was gradually beginning to submit to control, the assassinations took to control, the assassinations took place on July 19, 1947, when U Kyaw Nyein, who had been touring Europe after accompanying U Nu on a goodwill mission to England, had to rush back to Rangoon from Zurich. The situation was desperate. Some 400 bren-guns had been smuggled out from the army with the aid of a few British adventurers, and what had been planned was a general rising after the murders. U Saw had thought that he had only to wipe out Aung San and his cabinet, and the Governor would call upon him to form a government. The 400 bren-guns would have lent persuasive force if the Governor was in any doubts. But once again there was Attlee in London to give his decision with sober judgment, and Kyaw Nyein in Rangoon to handle the desperate law and order situation. U Nu formed his government; Kyaw Nyein rounded up the killers, brought in the bren-guns, rallied the security forces. The breathless crisis was got over.

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Then the Communist rising in March, 1948, soon after independence, and the rebellion of KNDO,19 and the defection of some Karen forces in the army and a few Burma Rifles units. It was a gloomy scene. Town after town fell to the insurgents. Even Rangoon was threatened. Foreign observers looked on at the situation in Burma, some anxious because they felt friendly to the country and her people, some jubilant because they were unfriendly. “Rangoon Government”, foreigners dubbed the Burmese government, and it was cruel, but it was true. Through all the trying years, U Kyaw Nyein was Home Minister. He had to take extreme measures. He took personal responsibility for the drastic High Treason Act and other preventive or suppressive laws. He had to delegate large powers to the police and the district officers for preventive detention of suspects. The powers were indeed large, but the use of them in the districts was not often wise. Some officers used the emergency laws in dealing with ordinary dacoits and criminals. Some put people into custody who had offended their wives. Some found in the powers a great chance to make illegal money. All these mistakes and abuses were laid at U Kyaw Nyein’s door. He was the man, the communists shouted, who was setting out to be dictator, a ruthless man, an oppressor. Kyaw Nyein took all this calmly and went about his unpleasant work as cheerfully as he could. “The communists were killing people, blowing up railway trains in the name of a holy revolution. But if we, the government, put a few people in custody — and remember, habeas corpus was never suspended — it was suppression and ruthless dictatorship. And, of course, I was the dictator,” U Kyaw Nyein would say today when he remembers those unhappy years. But at that time when he was the target of most of the communist propaganda and vile abuse, he said nothing. x

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young colleagues and U Kyaw Nyein took charge of the Cooperatives Ministry for about two years. Then the elections were held, region by region, in 1952 — a great act of faith in a country bled white with insurrection. U Kyaw Nyein, as Secretary-General of the AFPFL worked as one of the keymen in organising s victory which was massive. After the elections U Kyaw Nyein, as ambassador at large, led a large observation mission, with Thakin Chit Maung and Brigadier Kyaw Zaw as his deputies, to Yugoslavia, other European countries, and Israel. In Germany U Kyaw Nyein met and had a long discussion with that brave Socialist warrior, Dr Schumacher. The ailing German leader posed for a picture with his visitor. That was perhaps the last picture of the leader for he died a few days after the meeting. x

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“A revolutionary at twenty, a reactionary at 40, that’s what I am, I suppose”, U Kyaw Nyein remarked chucklingly to me at an interview which by an optimistic estimate I had put down as good for 30 minutes but had somehow actually lasted over 3 hours. But power brought responsibility, and the fight against ruling power was much easier, U Kyaw Nyein himself had had to tackle unpalatable tasks. He had not shirked. He had not sought more innocuous and more popular jobs which could have made him the darling of the people, the darling even of the communists. Even his recent assignment as negotiator for Japanese reparations was not a popular task. He went to Tokyo as Minister for Industries. It was a task foredoomed, in a way. However large the reparations, the opposition parties at home would not be satisfied, and even the people might consider themselves cheated of their rightful compensation. Japan, on the other hand, would not want to pay, and with America behind her would be in a position to refuse to pay. But U Kyaw Nyein went, with U Soe Tin of the Foreign Office giving him principal help. The negotiations were conducted on a two-men-across-the table basis. They were friendly but tough. It was thought at first that three meetings would be enough to lead to agreement. In fact it was only at the thirteenth meeting that agreement was reached. The weeks of negotiation were long, but U Kyaw Nyein waited. Many factors contributed to the success of the talks. For example, old Yoshida, acutely aware of his precarious position, wanted

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to show some achievement to his country. But the success was largely due to U Kyaw Nyein — his tact and patience and humour, his true appreciation of the situation. x

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U Kyaw Nyein’s exposure of the “new imperialism” which he made at the Kalaw conference of the Anti-Colonial Bureau of the Asian Socialists hit the headlines of the world press and is still frequently quoted. He said the old idea of imperialism is obsolete. Socialists today must do a bit of re-thinking and re-evaluation of world forces. Soviet imperialism is more ruthless, well organised, and blatantly justified in the name of socialism. U Kyaw Nyein, when he thought aloud on Soviet imperialism, was being intellectually honest. But his statement has been pounced upon eagerly by anti-communist propagandists of the West, for it was a frank statement by an Asian leader of considerable stature. The propagandists like to tear that bit about Soviet imperialism from the whole speech and exploit it fully. Even at the recent Asian “cultural conference” held in Rangoon, anti-communist delegates would fondly and frequently quote the piece. Yet, U Kyaw Nyein himself believes in positive neutrality and is opposed — not on sentimental, but on realistic grounds — to any alignment with either of the power blocs. x

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Without doubt a future Prime Minister of Burma, U Kyaw Nyein himself has no nagging ambitions, his friends are certain, to reach and occupy that pinnacle of political power. Shy and reticent, fond of reading and thinking, he would perhaps be happy to be where he is — in his quiet house with a pleasing lake view, in his library well-stocked with books on all subjects, in the prefabricated hut on the grounds of his house where he could read and think in peace, or as Minister for Industries, planning and building the light and heavy industries that form an important feature of the pyidawtha development programmes. Modest — he recently refused his permission to name an industrial estate as “Kyaw Nyein Myo” — he has not sought the limelight, but limelight has searched and exposed him to public praise or blame. He is loyal to friends almost to a fault. He has courage — he stood up to Dr Ba Maw,

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the wartime dictator; when he was Home Minister in 1947, he gently and firmly told Sir Hubert Rance, Governor and ex-officio Chairman of the Executive Council to stay away from the meetings of the Council. He has his weaknesses and his faults — a man without faults is a freak of nature. But he is a true ahnyatha, and no less a true Burman. U Kyaw Nyein is a man of peace, a believer in democracy. In the defence of democracy at the desperate hour, he had had to take drastic measures. But when danger was over, he was among those who would encourage democratic processes — the latest example: the Rangoon municipal elections which gave the AFPFL a 33-2 majority. It is well and reassuring for Burma’s future that in these days when democracy has not yet percolated deeply into the broad masses, the few thinkers, prophets, preachers and doers on whom the destiny of the country rests believe in democracy. And U Kyaw Nyein stands prominent among those few. Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

(ahnyatha — Upper Burman). Now Ambassador in Moscow. Now Director of Procurement, War Office. Inya is a ladies’ hostel of the University. Now Defence Minister. Now a communist. Now Bo Let Ya, ex-Minister. Now Col. Aung Gyi, GSO (1), Burma Army. Now Minister for Housing. Now Col. Maung Maung, Director Military Training. Bogyoke Ne Win, Supreme Commander. Brigadier Kyaw Zaw. The communist intellectual, writer. Now Home Minister. Kempetai — Japanese Military Police. Now Ambassador to Peking. Brother of Bo Khin Maung Gale, now a Colonel in the Burma Army. Other members of the delegation: Bo Ne Win; Bo Let Ya; Bo Zeyya (now a communist commander); Bo Zawmin (now Brig. Kyaw Winn); Bo Kyaw Zaw; Bo Maung Maung; U Ba Pe (then a respected adviser to AFPFL): Saw Ba U Gyi, Karen leader who lost his life in the Karen insurrection; U Nyo Tun, Arakanese resistance leader, one-time Minister of Information. 19. KNDO — Karen National Defence Organisation, led by Saw Ba U Gyi, forming a small section of the Karen population.

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Section III, I, Profile

U HLA MAUNG

H

e sat and smoked his Burmese cheroot and talked to me, enjoying both the cheroot and the talking. He wore a Burmese, cotton longyi and an American bush shirt with the flashy design of a Burmese htamein which American males particularly seem to relish. Everything was incongruous and yet the incongruity was becoming: the garden with its well laid out lawn, the modern European furniture out under the porch which was richly adorned with Chinese decorations; the tea brought in by a neatly dressed Indian butler, and the Burmese cheroot breathing out curls of smoke and the Hawaiian bush shirt clad U Hla Maung looking very Burmese in his dark and Upper Burman features. Perhaps the happy mixture of things East and West, modern and ancient, was in itself the expression of diplomacy, and U Hla Maung, himself a born diplomat, radiates diplomacy. Patience and good cheer, the knowledge of men and the ability to keep them happy together, the genius to compromise — these have been the supreme qualities which have made him indispensable

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Hla Maung” in The Guardian II, no. 9 (July 1955): 9–15, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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in organising students strikes and underground nationalist movements; in maintaining risky liaison between his friends and their sweethearts and organising elopements as much as in negotiations for wedlock by consent of parents. For himself and his friends for the many movements in which he has taken leading part, U Hla Maung’s diplomacy has been a tremendous asset. So much are his qualities as a diplomat valued that it is widely reported he is being kept in Peking much longer than the usual term of accreditation because Premier Nu and the younger colleagues of U Hla Maung in the Cabinet consider Burmo-Chinese relations to be of such vital importance that they cannot consider Peking without U Hla Maung in it. x

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Young Hla Maung was born at Meiktila on September 20, 1911. His father U San was a forest ranger and a native of Tharrawaddy. His mother, Daw Ma Ma, still living in good health, came from Mandalay. Hla Maung, who carried the nickname of “Pe Pu” until he was able to shake it off when he was around six years of age, had in him the rebellious blood of Tharrawaddy and the true Burmese blood of Mandalay. The parents travelled much on tours of duty, and Hla Maung spent his boyhood in various camps all over the country. In 1920 when the first students strike broke out, Hla Maung took enthusiastic part as a student of the primary classes in the Wesleyan High School, Mandalay. The strike was the first organised act of defiance against alien authority, and it was a bold affair. Mandalay loved it, and loved the strikers for whom the Zeygyo Bazaar was a free market. Young Hla Maung, striker, had a whale of a time going round the sweetmeat stalls in the market and eating full and free. He dreamed of more strikes without which life would be dull and his belly might be empty. His dreams were to come true. Ko Hla Maung finished school in Meiktila and at the school he had the pleasure of organising its first Union. One anna per month was the membership fee, and students saved to pay, and when the funds swelled they decided to celebrate National Day in real style. It was great fun, but it was also an adventure for time was still premature for show of spirit, and the aspiration of young people was not for freedom but for

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prize jobs. From Meiktila to Mandalay Intermediate College, and more pioneering work on wider planes. Hla Maung met and made fast friends with Kyaw Nyein,1 Thein Aung,2 Thein Pe,3 and others and together the young men made College politics a lively affair. The group had a chance to test their strength when the authorities proposed to close down the College, giving financial stringency as the reason. Actually, however, the British had decided that Mandalay with its living memories of the Burmese kings and Burmese independence was not a good place to grow up young Burmese intellectuals in. Hla Maung and his friends fought. They organised, they made representations, they reported to the people, and Hla Maung who had had a free eating run in the Zegyo market during 1920 had a happy time playing a more responsible part in an equally appreciative city. And they won, the young men won, and the authorities let the Mandalay College live on. x

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From physics and chemistry and mathematics, from fighting for renewed life of the Intermediate College, to Rangoon and Judson College went Ko Hla Maung in 1935 with a firm resolve to take a degree in philosophy. Judson was run by a Christian mission and rather an odd place for a striker and nationalist to go, but Ko Hla Maung had his reason: he had become enamoured of philosophy and tired of science and Newton’s laws of motion and chemical formulae about what water is made of. He dreamed for the snowy summits of high and abstract thinking, and philosophy was offered only by Judson College. But Judson did not keep him out of politics; rather, it made him more conspicuous in students politics because Judson politicians were so few. It was either coincidence or a plain result of the law of cause and effect that wherever Hla Maung, Kyaw Nyein and their contemporaries went strike and rebellion flared up. Before they arrived University campus was calm enough, and the students Union was a favourite of the authorities. Sons of big officers crowded the Union executive, and they played tennis with professors, or rowed and swam, and all went well between the Union leaders and the University authorities — like an unending honeymoon. But the Mandalay crowd arrived, and the University woke up one morning to find trouble in its midst.

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The 1936 strike which threw up young student leaders into national prominence happened, and Ko Hla Maung represented Judson College on the strikers council. Judson participation in the movement was negligible, but the one man representative was effective, a man worth an army. The strike was the beginning of a continuous and sustained movement for independence, and it started many of its leaders — Aung San, Nu, Kyaw Nyein, and others — on a political career. For Ko Hla Maung also it was the beginning of a long divorce from legitimate studies. He was sucked into a whirlpool of social and political activity: executive member for international affairs in the Rangoon University Students Union; president of the Burmese Association; hall secretary in Wellington hall; a volunteer on the rural reconstruction team that was groping with a mass education movement in Tantabin; vice-president of the Buddhist association; not to mention the heavy responsibility of being a corporal in the University Training Corps. He regularly failed in his final examinations, and his father who had received stern warnings from the British government that the son should stop playing politics or else …, wrote desperate letters urging Ko Hla Maung to work up and take his degree first. The son accepted that the father’s counsels were wise, but just couldn’t act on them. The circumstances were overwhelming. He couldn’t leave his comrades. He was so necessary and he was a soldiers and not a deserter. The angered father at last discarded him and stopped his allowance, hoping this would bring a white flag from the son’s front. x

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Hla Maung did not surrender. He left the hostels because he couldn’t pay for board and lodging and went to “keep house” for his friend Kyaw Nyein who had taken his third class English honours degree in his fourth year and was now occupying the dignified and — which was more important — reasonably paid position of customs appraiser. Kyaw Nyein stood by his friend with utmost loyalty. He handed over all his salary to Hla Maung at the beginning of the month, and the two would live on careful budgeting. Every small anna was spent after careful calculation. Hla Maung could not pay his course fees, and went to attend classes in stealth, sitting in the backrows to avoid discovery and shooting out from the room as soon as lectures ended. Kyaw Nyein went to office by the

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cheapest bus routes to save an anna or two. All went well until Kyaw Nyein’s aunt turned up from the district, expecting to find his nephew installed in the state that became an officer of the government. To save her from disappointment, the two had to move from the shabby shack in Kamayut — their neighbours were a sweetmeat shop and a food stall — into a reasonably respectable house. The rent was high and the rooms had to be furnished and the two friends considered it almost criminal to spend so much on things that mattered so little to them. But the aunt was coming, and she must be pleased. She came and it was hard to please her. She took over the duties of housekeeper and gave Kyaw Nyein just enough every day to pay his bus fares and buy his cup of tea, and nothing for Hla Maung. The result was that Kyaw Nyein had to walk part of the way of office to the luxury of a cup of midday tea in order to provide his friend with something like two annas per day. Out of that Hla Maung would give one piece to the old beggar who seemed to wait for him at the turning to the college halls. x

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In 1938, the year that young Aunt Gyaw was killed in a police charge on student picketters near the Secretariat, Ko Hla Maung passed his exams. At once, the proud father telegraphed him an invitation to come home, and the son saw in the invitation a chance to make some money and redeem some of the articles he had pawned. He telegraphed back asking for two hundred rupees and the money came by reply telegram. All was well. Honour was redeemed, and the wristlet watch from the pawnshop round the corner, and Ko Hla Maung returned home in triumph. That was about the last time that he saw his father and his home at some leisure. Soon the nationalist movement claimed him. Aung Gyaw had become a martyr and the nation was up in arms. Donations flowed into the funds being raised by the Funeral Committee of which Ko Hla Maung was president. The students movement was becoming the spearhead of a wider movement which involved the oilfield workers and the peasants, the people and the sangha. The University was becoming the centre of political activity, and Ko Hla Maung, when he became president of the RUSU, could not possibly stay aloof. He had other things to do to earn his keep. He worked for an insurance company as

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commission agent; he reported to the New Light of Burma; he served as a hall tutor in Tagaung hall whereby he received free board and lodging for little work in return. He managed to keep himself, and when his ageing father, afflicted with diabetes, offered to support him through his laws course, he could happily decline. August 2, 1939, was the day when U Hla Maung was installed in ceremony as the president of the RUSU. Dr Ba Maw was the principal guest speaker. The Union hall was full, for the Union was united and strong then, and, Dr Ba Maw was a popular figure. Dr Ba Maw had spoken and the echoes of his melodious voice were fading. U Hla Maung was to reply and give his inaugural speech, and just as he was about to rise darkness clapped down on his mind. It was a complete blackout for maybe a few seconds, maybe a minute or two. Nobody noticed for U Hla Maung could hold himself together and put up a normal exterior. When the blackness cleared he rose and said what he had to say and sat down in gratitude that it was over. It was his great day but he could not enjoy it. He could not remember what he said, he only hoped he did not say anything wrong. Next day a telegram from home came with the news that his father was dead; died about the time when the son suffered the momentary mental blackout; died of acute diabetes to relieve which the son had bought peniccillin which he had forgotten to send on. The son was sorry, but in a way it was a release. The father gone, the son could go his own way. Politics, the demanding mistress, now had him all for her own. x

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1939 marked the climax of the nationalist movement. The resolution passed by the Thakin conference at Tharrawaddy called, in effect, for open rebellion against the British, and this hurt the government deeply. A warrant of arrest was issued by the British police superintendent Webster of Prome, who offered a reward of five rupees to anyone who could bring information leading to the arrest of Thakin Aung San. Hla Maung was angry, not with the warrant but with the smallness of the reward and wrote to the editor of the Rangoon Gazette saying that Aung San, a self-sacrificing patriot, was worth a dozen ICS officers and police superintendents. The letter was published, and nationalist elements

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in the country were pleased. Meanwhile Aung San, always practical, decided he had no time to waste in jail, and went into hiding and soon managed to slip out of the country in a Chinese boat bound for Amoy. The conspiracy to smuggle Aung San and the comrades out, the search for “foreign contacts”, the evasion of the police and the detectives, the midnight trysts in the houses of friends or tea-shops, the keeping up of illegal liaison with rebellious groups all over the country, all these thrilled the young leaders. They were poor and hungry and lonesome, for only the extreme nationalists helped them while the mild politicians of the old school considered them too “hot”, but they enjoyed their adventure. Aung San reached Amoy and wandered round for a few months, often writing to his fellow conspirators in Rangoon for money. He wrote as a poor Chinese relative to a more fortunate friend T.K. Boon4 and the letter would pass the censor and give the friends a job to do. Everything was fluid, but hopes were high. First it was thought the Chinese would help; later hopes shifted to the Japanese. Even Thailand was sounded, and the slightest encouragement from the most flimsy sources was enough to send hopes soaring. Hla Maung and Hla Pe5 were chosen to establish contacts in Thailand, and they travelled dangerously over the border, narrowing escaping capture by the British government’s soldiers and detectives. They spent nights at dacoit dens or stopped at the camp of suspicious friends who thought they were British spies and once or twice even considered getting rid of them the quick way. The two friends reached Thailand at last, only to be turned back into Burma by an undecided and unready Thai government. The Thai police had the courtesy of giving them a lift home on elephants, and their friends on this side of the border thought for a time that they had returned in triumph with Thai aid assured. Once safely back in Rangoon, the police got news that Hla Maung and Hla Pe had been to Thailand, and it was a task establishing an alibi. U Myint, law lecturer and a brilliant criminal lawyer, advised Hla Maung, then one of his irregular students, on how to set about building an alibi, and U Tin6 proprietor of the New Light of Burma newspaper, helped by carefully prepared newspaper reports to successfully mislead the police. x

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Aung San returned to take with him some batches of the “30 comrades” to Japan for military training. Hla Maung, Kyaw Nyein and friends of the nebulous “Burma Revolutionary Party” had plenty to do at home. Hla Maung was still, officially, a law student and president of the All Burma Students Union (having handed the presidency of the RUSU to Ba Swe who was specially imported from Tavoy to hold that office), and it helped in his work to have some sort of official, and innocentlooking, identity to go by. It was not a happy thing to be president of the ABSU at that time. The Aung Gyaw Memorial funds, flowing in from eager and generous donors, had been used in the movement, and when the announced time came to “open” the Aung Gyaw bronze statute, there was no statue to show, and provisionally it had to be a wooden bust thinly smeared with some brass. If we are exposed, Hla Maung kept on thinking, if the accusation of misappropriation of funds should be fixed upon us, I shall commit suicide. He could see no other way of escape from shame. Yet life was not dark and suicidal thoughts alone. It had its saving factors. There was love, for example, and Ko Hla Maung loved loving and being loved. In his work for the students union he came into close contact with admiring young female students, and their admiration nourished him. He wrote letters, paid regular visits to admirers, he was a hit at the ladies’ halls. There is talk among his friends even today that he once attempted to climb over the iron fencing around a ladies’ hall to keep a date in the forbidden land. This might well be an exaggeration, but if the story was true it may be presumed that Ko Hla Maung got himself out of the unusual and dangerous situation by using his diplomacy on the night watchman. Apart from the casual affairs, Ko Hla Maung was also in love with his young cousin in Pyapon. He had occasion to meet her closely and like her when he went to her home town during the 1936 students strike as a representative of the strikers council. She was a striker from her school and they met and formed a friendship that grew. x

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The Burma Independence Army came at last, and the awaited hour arrived. Hla Maung and Thakin Mya travelled over the borders into

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Thailand again and joined Aung San’s headquarters and the “Hiraoka Commission” — the Japanese military intelligence. From Bangkok, therefore, to Rangoon again, this time in real triumph, riding high on the waves of popular enthusiasm. At Moulmein, however, there was a set-back. The Japanese had promised to declare Burma’s independence on liberation of Moulmein, but then they had expected that their entry into Burma would be bitterly contested by the British. Now when things were so easy, they were reluctant to hand over the prize to the BIA. So promises were broken, and there was bitterness. General Aung San, Thakin Mya and Thakin Hla Maung decided to alert their friends in Rangoon about the real situation, and they sent two young couriers carrying a message to Kyaw Nyein. The brave young couriers penetrated through fighting zones and got to Pegu. There one was shot by an Indian sepoy but he swam through the Pegu river and dragged himself to a village to pass the message on to a villager before he died. The message reached its destination. x

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The occupation period began for U Hla Maung in a season of happiness. The first thing he did when he got settled in Rangoon was to slip off to Pyapon and marry the girl who had waited for him through all those uncertain years. On April 4, 1942, he was married, and Bo Let Ya was his best man. The worst man was General Aung San in Rangoon who, when he heard about what he considered to be a great betrayal, threatened to send the bride back to Pyapon by force. Distractions such as wives were bad for the morale of the men, the severe General said, and U Hla Maung had to defend himself before the BIA high command. Fortunately, however, General Aung San himself fell in love, deeply, desperately, urgently, and he was soon going round preaching that marriage was a wonderful thing. Thus, both the General and his friend kept their families with them and raised their many children. Apart from home life, the occupation was a dismal affair. The Japanese were arrogant and overbearing, and friction between them and the Burmese army was frequent, often critical, and the relations between the Japanese and the people were also bad. U Hla Maung, attached to the Hiraoka Commission had a busy time running round and keeping

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things smooth and happy. The Japanese had to be kept happy, Burmese sensitiveness and national pride satisfied, and it was not easy to achieve those two opposite ends. There were cases in which “Hiraoka Hla Maung’s” intervention alone saved a Burmese army officer from death in a Japanese military police cell or averted a crisis that was threatened. For example the Japanese were suspicious of Thakin Nu who had openly shown great reluctance to accept cabinet office. Thakin Nu had been to China on a goodwill mission; he was reluctant to serve under the Japanese; as two plus two made five to the Japanese military, the answer became plain to them that Thakin Nu was a British spy. U Hla Maung had to help to satisfy the Japanese that Thakin Nu was only a patriot with deep moral convictions against violence and war; that Nu was the idol of Burmese youth, “in fact a near god”, and the Japanese would find that any harm they did to Nu evoked a prompt and angry response from Burmese youth. The Japanese let Nu alone. x

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From those dismal years the diplomat emerged. From keeping the Japanese happy, from keeping Thakin comrades happily humming together, from negotiating with communist leaders like Thakin Soe to forge a united resistance front in the Anti-Fascist Organisation, from all these trials, U Hla Maung the diplomat emerged. He had to be sharp and quick, patient and possessed of an unfailing sense of humour. The communists were sharp too, and when the resistance zones were organised, they saw to it that Pyinmana and Toungoo, the vital areas, were allotted to the Burmese army units and communist political commissars. Kyaw Nyein and Hla Maung were to have gone out there as advisers, but things were so engineered by the communists that they had to stay behind to look after Rangoon. Hla Maung was also compelled, finally, to go to Moulmein with Thakin Nu, and the Dr Ba Maw entourage as hostages for the Japanese. Either, the communists calculated, Hla Maung and Nu and the younger leaders would be killed, or they would come out of the war with the indelible taint of collaboration and their political careers doomed. x

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The rest is recent history. The return from Moulmein in a fisherman’s canoe, the lean years of 1945 and 1946 when the AFPFL strived to assert itself, the endless meetings and walking the streets, eviction suits by angry landlords whom they could not pay, Thakin Hla Maung, Thakin Mya and their colleagues, going through it all over again, like in 1938 and 1939, like that daily trek to University classes, like that forlorn journey into Thailand sustained only by hope — and hope is good but it is not food to eat, it is not money to buy the little comforts with. But the tide turned, and the AFPFL came into power. Thakin Hla Maung stayed out of the Constituent Assembly elections because there were so many people who wanted to get jobs, people who came forward now that good times had come saying they had been doing this and that during the resistance, and no one could check. Thakin Hla Maung stayed out until his friend Aung San was murdered, until Thakin Mya with whom he had trekked out to Thailand, Thakin Mya the kind, the good, was struck down by the assassin’s bullet. Then, he came in again. He went to the Assembly, became Parliamentary Secretary, first to Pyawbwe U Mya, later to U Kyaw Nyein. He went abroad to attend international meetings, to represent Burma at the United Nations. When the insurrections broke out and the Burma Army, decimated by mutiny, was handicapped for shortage of arms and ammunition, U Hla Maung and U Kyaw Nyein went round the world under some pretext or other and bought arms. London for example, was cautious then about selling arms to Burma. The situation was fluid and London, the careful, wanted to wait and see; besides, the Karens, for whom some Englishmen had sentiments akin to those that they have for their pets, were involved. So, when London was so difficult, U Hla Maung got diplomatically drunk at one dinner and declared to one who was high up in Whitehall that if Britain did not help Burma, the Burmese would only drift away from Britain into the “other camp.” Next day, Whitehall approved the purchase of a considerable amount of Oerlikon ammunition by the Burmese, and even arranged special shipment. x

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U Hla Maung has now been in diplomacy for some years now and he has learned methods and techniques which show more finesse than

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the drunken outburst in London. Ambassador U Hla Maung has travelled far from the Kamayut barracks which gave him a shabby home while struggling through College; Bangkok and Peking, London, surely, when he can be spared from Peking; and Washington … and in the end will his journey turn full circle and arrive back among his colleagues of the 1936 strike — in the Cabinet, organising politics, fighting elections, or just keeping friends working harmoniously together? Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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Now Minister of Industries; Secretary General of AFPFL. Died as a BIA officer. Now Thein Pe Myint, a leftist intellectual and writer. Now an Advocate in Rangoon. Bo Let Ya, one of the 30 comrades. Now Finance Minister.

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Section III, J, Profile

U THEIN MAUNG, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNION

F

oreign observers once laughed at young, independent Burma, and enjoyed the laughing. In 1949 when the Burmese government was confined more or less in embattled Rangoon, the foreign cynics cleverly dubbed it as the “Rangoon Government.” Prophets of doom foretold an early end to the career of the young Republic. Things did indeed look dark and danger was always desperately near. The Burma Army was sending its handful of loyal men hopping about from place to place saving a town here or expelling rebels from entrenched positions there, fighting at Insein and halting the columns which were thrusting down from the north on the outskirts of Pegu; fighting on the road from Prome; fighting in the blue hills of the Shan state; fighting in the streets of Mandalay. The political leaders and the government were busy building and bolstering the will to fight, to resist, to hold on. The nation had to be roused to extinguish the fires and to restore

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union” in The Guardian II, no. 11 (September 1955): 25–29, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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peace and calm within one year. The task was huge and everyone was busy, going about the business by regular and irregular methods. Only Justice was calm and unflustered, standing like a rock in troubled seas. From the Supreme Court and the High Court came the calm judicial decisions, unswayed by the emotions and passions of the hour. The highest traditions of democratic justice were studiously upheld. Unhurried, uninfluenced, independent Judges were keeping true only to the vows that they made when they first accepted the State’s trust for administering justice, setting men free whom the harassed Executive had taken into preventive custody, protecting the liberties and rights of the citizen the judicial way — while all the time the guns boomed in anger outs de Rangoon. Even the murderer of the country’s hero, Aung San, was given a patient hearing at the trial and on successive appeals to the highest tribunals. Foreign observers who laughed at the “Rangoon Government” never made bold to laugh at the Union Judiciary. The Judiciary was a mighty pillar on which democracy leaned in those precarious times, an asset to the Union, a great widowdressing for Burma to the outside world. And U Thein Maung, then Chief Justice of the High Court, now Chief Justice of the Union, has always been a major part of that Judiciary. x

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The man born to be Chief Justice might well have ended up as a taikthugyi1 had not a dacoity saved him from the fate. U Po San and Daw Thaung, the parents, were hereditary taikthugyis in Kyaunggone, Paungde township, and young Thein Maung (born July 17, 1890) seemed destined to inherit the family position. But fortunately, the family was visited and plundered by a gang of dacoits, and the parents decided to move into town and make a break with the village. Thein Maung thus went to school in Paungde and commenced his brilliant career as a student. He allowed himself no distractions. He learned and read, always thorough and studious, unrelenting. Scholarships and success showered upon him. He passed the Calcutta University entrance examinations as the only Burman placed in the first division and won a scholarship for the University where he took a first class honours degree in Pali. He refused an offer of the

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Post-Graduate Jubilee scholarship to take a research degree in Pali at the Calcutta University, to go to Downing’s College in Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn to prepare himself for the Bar. At the College and Lincoln’s Inn, he kept himself down to a rigid course of study, spending most of his time in the libraries. His contemporaries were discovering England and life and finding it exciting; Thein Maung was discovering the laws and finding their magic and their drama equally exciting. His contemporaries were sending home for money and consistently failing their exams; Thein Maung was passing consistently with brilliance. He finished the Law Tripos and the Bar Finals in two years, getting a first class in the Bar Finals, and the coveted £50 award and the Certificate of Honour — a rare achievement indeed. He was called to the Bar in 1913; called with him on the same night were Dr Ba U, now President of the Union, U Ba Kya now chairman of the board for registration of importers, and U Ba Kyin, a practising lawyer. x

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U Thein Maung, Barrister, returned promptly to Rangoon to set up a practice and earn enough to pay off his chettyar debts. He joined the chambers of U Khin, later Sir Maung Khin, but he had to move to Prome after a few months because Rangoon, crowded with all the great men of the Bar, offered little to the beginner, and U Thein Maung had to begin earning quickly and the debts weighed heavily on his conscience. Once he had settled in at Prome, U Thein Maung began going round and introducing himself to the elders of the city and the sangha. “Go and offer your respects to the elders wherever you go”, U May Oung had advised him, “Don’t wait to be introduced. Don’t be proud.” U Thein Maung took the advice, and at Prome, he called on the leading citizens, wrote to civic organisations, introducing himself, offering his services in professional and other capacities should they be wanted. He was not just trying to win friends and much needed briefs; he was sincere, and Prome took him to its heart. Here was an “England-returned” Barrister — and barristers had their value those days, especially in the matrimonial markets — who went round making friends and did not stand aloof high and mighty, did not spend his time at the club sipping whisky

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and soda in the company of memories of England. He built a steady practice, and when he got his briefs he worked on them studiously and conscientiously, and sometimes the lawyer was even more anxious than the clients, even more cautious and painstaking. He would not take a case unless he was sure it was a good case and an honest one. Once he had accepted the brief, he would devote all the time he could to studying it and looking up the latest law and preparing notes and drafting and re-drafting or polishing his arguments. His clients trusted him, and their numbers gradually grew. But Prome set him on a broader path than the practice of law alone. Prome was, in fact, his rendezvous with destiny. x

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In those early days, the pagodas in Burma used to show warnings at their gates: “Footwearing prohibited except to Europeans and Americans.” The Shwesandaw pagoda in Prome was no exception in granting the exemption to Europeans and Americans. People had all along taken this unfair exemption for granted, as part of the humiliation that conquered peoples must bear, but U Thein Maung did not cherish the sight of English soldiers and tourists, stamping all over the sacred precincts in heavy muddy boots and thought of a simple way to stop all the nonsense, an amendment of the notice to put a fullstop after “prohibited” and to delete the rest. Thus “Footwearing Prohibited” went up in bold defiant letters on the gates of the Shwesandaw, and the citizens of Prome were happy that their young Barrister and pagoda trustee had thought up such a simple and effective way of putting an end to the disgrace. The English and the Europeans and the Americans did not like it, but being men who came from civilised countries they took the hint. The British government in Rangoon however tried to use some pressure when the Viceroy of India (Burma was a province of India at the time) wanted to pay an official visit and it was planned to include a visit to Shwesandaw in the itinerary. Could the notice be removed just for the occasion? Could the Viceroy enter the pagoda and go round with his shoes on so that his viceregal feet might not get soiled or sore? U Thein Maung and the pagoda trustees were determined that all men, viceroys and governors, princes or paupers, all men of all races and ranks, should

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enter the sacred grounds humble and equal in the Presence. The notice did not go down and the Viceroy by-passed the Shwesandaw when he made his tour of the country. x

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The shoe question which had caused so much unhappiness in BurmoBritish relations at the Court of Ava, now took a different form, but basically it was a fight between nationalism and foreign rule. Resurgent nationalism demanded that Burmans and Westerners be treated on equal footing, even in the matter of taking off footwear on entering pagodas. The shoe question catapulated U Thein Maung to national fame though, in taking it up, he did not seek the fame. Even when he left Prome in March 1918 to build a practice in Rangoon, the shoe question claimed so much of him that he soon became known as “Shoe Thein Maung”, a nickname which he bore in good grace. His services as a warrior in the shoe battle were in great demand. There was the time when Sir Reginald Craddock, the Governor, went to Pegu to visit the Shwemawdaw pagoda brought down by earthquake. The Governor would not take off his shoes in the fallen temple, and the pagoda trustees reported the matter to the Young Men’s Buddhist Association of which U Thein Maung had become Secretary. The YMBA at once convened a national meeting at Jubilee Hall in Rangoon, and U Thein Maung mustered all his powers of advocacy, marshalled all his arguments and made a brilliant case. That Jubilee Hall conference practically put an end to the shoe controversy; no more did the British Governors and their underlings venture to go into pagodas with their shoes on. The conference also marked the beginning of a new era in Burmese politics. The religious issue was an eye-opener to Burmese nationalists and the general public; even the mighty British ruler with all his guns and his hired soldiers must bow down to the popular will if that will was shown clearly and unequivocally enough. The power of the popular will was thus seen, and power once discovered and tasted is an intoxicating thing and whets appetite for more. The YMBA, originally started as a counterpart of the YMCA, had no political ambitions at first. But it was about the only organised body of intelligent Burmese opinion at that time and the Government itself used to seek its views by way of sounding the people in general

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on new laws to be introduced or new constitutional measures. Thus a political role was gradually thrust on the YMBA, and U Thein Maung, its young and able Secretary, woke up one morning to find himself not a successful lawyer only, not a devout religious leader merely, but a politician as well. He did not grumble. x

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Politics in those days was a reasonably calm affair. It attracted Barristers like Dr Ba Maw, U Pu, and Sir Paw Tun, professional men and men of means. Political debates were enlightened and politics with its learned debates, its brilliant personalities and their devoted followers, was a gentleman’s delight. One of the personalities of the time who drew followers like a magnet was U Thein Maung. He was slow of speech and did not allow himself to be brilliant by flashes. He was simple and did not employ the usual tricks that pleased. But people appreciated his patent sincerity and his strict adherence to Burmese ways of living and traditions — an adherence without effort, as of second nature, and nothing put on for the benefit of audiences. U Thein Maung fought elections and won them easily. He never spent money to win, for he had decided as a matter of principle that he who had dedicated himself to service need not woo votes; and he was right, for votes sought him. U Thein Maung was thus sought out by politics. When in 1919 a Burmese delegation composed of U Ba Pe, U Pu, and U Tun Shein went to London to ask for constitutional reforms, U Thein Maung at the tender age of twenty-nine was already a national leader of stature; so much so that when U Tun Shein died in 1920 and another delegation was sent to London, U Thein Maung became the natural choice of the people as substitute. Those talks in London paved the way for introduction of dyarchy into Burma; it was a cautious step forward in Burma’s constitutional advancement, but it was still a decisive step. In Whitehall and Westminster the voice of Burma began to be heard and listened to. In the House of Commons questions relating to Burma were proposed due to the tireless lobbying of the Burmese delegation, and on the appointed day U Thein Maung and his friends crowded into the guests gallery of the House expecting an exciting

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time. But Burma was far away, and an unknown province of a vast Indian empire, and British M.P.s were busy. There was no quorum in the House, and the Burma questions died a still-born death on the lists of starred questions. U Thein Maung and his friends turned sadly away into Whitehall and the cold streets of London which seemed colder than usual that forlorn day. x

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Dyarchy split the ranks of Burmese politics. The Hlaing-Pu-Gyaw faction, rejectors of dyarchy, broke away, and U Thein Maung and others, while anxious for more reforms, were willing to give dyarchy a trial, and formed the “21-Party”. From then on it was a series of triumphs and trials for U Thein Maung. Councillor of the Rangoon Corporation (1922–31), Chairman of the Rangoon Education Board (1922–25), President of the Corporation — or Mayor, in modern parlance — in 1931, the ascendancy was uninterrupted. In 1933, there was another visit — this time on an official delegation — to London for Round Table talks on the future constitution of Burma. It was a high-powered delegation, a galaxy of political stars. The talks proceeded on the assumption that Burma would be separated from India, and the anti-separationists had little, therefore, to say and U Thein Maung became the spokesman for the Burmese. Then, there were the elections to the three seats allotted to Burma in the Central Legislative Assembly at New Delhi, and U Thein Maung, U Ba Si, and Dr Theing Maung were elected. In India, the trio joined the Congress as an organisation that shared their ideals, and U Thein Maung met and worked closely with men like Pandit Punt and Sri Prakash (now Governor of Madras), Mr Jinnah and others who were later to shape the destiny of the Indian sub-continent. One legislation that they tried to push through the Assembly was for the restoration of the Maha Bodhi to Burma. The trio lobbied and drafted a bill, and found some support, but later Burma parted company constitutionally with India and lost its three seats in the Assembly and the bill was dropped.2 In 1936 U Thein Maung became Education Minister, and as in preparing his legal briefs so in running his ministry he was thorough and discerning. Not a file went past the Minister which was unread by him or un-noted, and staff who had always been able to impress Ministers with their lengthy notes

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couched in technical terms and officialese found in U Thein Maung a master who could cut through the stuffing and rip open a case to its bare bones. Then, the elections to the new House of Representatives under the new constitution, and the new alignment of parties in the House, with the Europeans and the Indian minorities forming a vital bloc at whose tender mercies the government of the day lay. The fight for office on the floor of the House, the shifting loyalties, the intrigues and the raw greeds, saddened and disgusted U Thein Maung who resigned saying that politics was an ounce of good mingled with a pound of evil.3 x

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Member of the Public Service Commission in 1937, the first Burman Advocate-General4 in 1938, U Thein Maung, continued to serve. As Advocate-General he once again found himself in the midst of political skirmishes that endlessly went on in the House of Representatives but now he was neutral, an advisor to the Speaker, an expert on constitutional procedures. A non-combatant in the House, his task was comparatively calmer but he had to be quick for the Members were sharp and took delight in springing awkward questions of procedure at unexpected moments. Often, when Members could not find a ready target for attack, they would direct their fire at the Advocate-General himself, and once a Member challenged that it was irregular for U Thein Maung to be Advocate-General because as such he had to exercise his discretion in trust matters and he was a Shwedagon Pagoda trustee and an interested party in the event of disputes relating to the Pagoda trust arising. Members knew their Civil Procedure Code and used their knowledge intelligently in their tactics in the House. However, the Advocate-General too knew his law and all the authorities on parliamentary practice and procedure were always at his elbow, and rarely did he find the need to ask for time to seek an answer to a question of order or procedure. Those were great and stormy days in the House, and many great debates and battles were fought, many great speeches heard, in which Shakespeare and Omar Khyam were liberally quoted. x

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War and death, times when the vultures fly and are merry. Burma became the battlefield, and people died or lost their homes and their life’s savings, their loved ones. The mass evacuations of the cities began and some of the town-dwellers found happy shelter in friendly villages, some had less fortunate times. Yet, even when the world seemed to be collapsing all around, and today was an uncertainty and tomorrow a larger question mark, some of U Thein Maung’s colleagues wanted to seize his job when he had evacuated to Paungde, and made reports to the British Governor that the Advocate-General was afraid and should be replaced. Fortunately or unfortunately, the British Governor, and the gallant British generals who came one after another into Burma declaring on their arrival that the Japanese would be stopped on the fringe of the country and then disappearing after a few days, were afraid too and could sympathise. In fact, the Governor and his staff and the Ministers evacuated Rangoon soon, and U Thein Maung met them at Mandalay. The Governor and Sir Paw Tun persuaded U Thein Maung to fly out to India but that he refused, for he did not owe the British all that allegiance; he was a Burman and his place was in his homeland. Thus, the storm raged but U Thein Maung in Mingun had a peaceful time. He was unembittered by what people did to him, by those who tried to rob him of his job when the world was becoming a graveyard. In adversity he was great. He and his wife fed the monks daily, bathed in the Irrawaddy in the evenings; when the day was hot U Thein Maung would go to the cool shades of his favourite monastery and discuss religion with respected pongyis. His family included some of his faithful staff and their families: U Chan Tun, superintendent of the Attorney-General’s Office, and a few others. It was a happy family knit closely together by love and trust while a few miles outside war raged angrily and Chiang Kai Shek’s soldiers sent to fight the Japanese were making fortunes by loot and plunder. War touched the family not; it restrained its fury when it passed by the monasteries and zayats which were sheltering U Thein Maung and family, and then rolled relentlessly, ruthlessly on. When the summons came from Rangoon after things had settled down for U Thein Maung to join the “Independence Preparatory Committee” he was reluctant to forsake his life of peace and study and meditation; but duty beckoned, and he came. x

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He who feared war and violence and cruelty, did not fear the Japanese. He who fled from the war faced the Japanese conquerors with outstanding moral courage. In the Committee, U Thein Maung was the most vocal and persistent. He did not believe that the Japanese granted independence would amount to anything, but he wanted to have his laugh. “Are speeches in the Council privileged?” he asked and when the Japanese military command, putting on the pretence of liberalism, answered, “Of course”, U Thein Maung and friends began to ask awkward questions and carry on lengthy debates. What sort of constitution should Burma have? A republican, or should the ancient monarchy be restored — if not, why not, for after all, the Japanese made much of their Emperor? What sort of constitution, it was debated learnedly, untiringly, endlessly, to the annoyance of the Japanese who watched and listened; a rigid constitution, or flexible, a unitary state, or a federal? For fourteen days the Council debated, and U Thein Maung and Sir Mya Bu, expert and impish, delighted while the Japanese writhed in agony. At last the Japanese Commander-in-Chief summoned the learned Members into his presence, and gave them a good talking to. The Japanese Imperial Government was resolved to make Burma independent soon, they were told, and a constitution must be produced, and a decision made urgently. It did not really matter what Burma called itself, and whether it was King or President, it did not really matter who was appointed or elected. Call him “Head of State”, the Commander ordered, and go ahead quickly with drafting the Constitution. Get through it, do it, and think afterwards. The Members came away laughing up their sleeves, and U Thein Maung enjoyed himself immensely. He also enjoyed putting off a Japanese “adviser” which the military wanted to plant on him when he became Minister of Justice after independence. The adviser was a young fellow, obviously from the secret service, but he posed as a legal man, and U Thein Maung asked him to make a comparative study of Burmese and Japanese laws and compile notes and collect Japanese statutes and textbooks which might be of use to Burmese lawyers. The “advisers” promised to deliver the goods and disappeared, never to return again. U Thein Maung, wearing his great-coat and spending much of his time in quiet contemplation in air-raid shelters in the winters, would occasionally remember his “adviser” and chuckle. x

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Came at last the time to say goodbye to the “Japan masters”. The tide of war was decisively turning. The Allies were coming back; the resistance movement had started; the Japanese were being badly mauled. Rangoon was to be evacuated and Colonel Hiraoka wanted the Burmese Cabinet to go along with them as hostages though he put it diplomatically and said the Japanese wanted to offer protection to their allies and colleagues. U Thein Maung spoke up at the fateful conference, and said if Ministers fled for safety their history would be covered with shame. People would panic if no government was left at Rangoon, and things would be bad. The Japanese tried to press, saying they would fight back, consolidating their forces at some strategic point, and Rangoon would probably take the brunt of the battle. U Thein Maung remained firm and stayed behind. And then the last Japanese troops left the city under cover of a silent night. Dr Ba Maw and some Ministers went along. Next day Rangoon was empty. For many days and weeks Rangoon remained bewildered and barren. Then, one day, U Thein Maung, U Ba U, and a few other leaders were invited by one Bo Gamani to a meeting for the purpose of forming a “Peace Preservation Committee”. Bo Gamani was the gallant and dashing soldier. He had many plans. But while the conference was in process, bombing ’planes came over, and Bo Gamani dived under the tables and stayed there till danger flew past. The meeting broke and people went home, and Bo Gamani, like the good old soldier that he was, just faded away. Then the British arrived, looking very serious, looking very important, trying very hard to look like the liberators that they proclaimed themselves to be. Many of them had the airs of Bo Gamani. x

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The story, happily, goes on. For his learning, for his integrity, for his leadership and sincerity, U Thein Maung has, without thrusting himself forward, always reached and held with quiet dignity the foremost positions in our national life. Not that opposition has been absent. When the British came back, rivals wanted to fix on him the tant of collaborator and destroy his career for good; but he was too clean and the taint would not stick. He was not bitter, and when he was under a brief cloud, he took it with calm courage. Then Bogyoke Aung San

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came and sought U Thein Maung’s support in the national movement; and the preparations for independence once again. Chief Justice of the High Court when Burma became free, and, in 1952 when his illustrious predecessor became President of the Union, Chief Justice of the Union — the highest job that a lawyer can aspire to: the boy from Kyaunggon, son of a taikthugyi, has come far. x

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A cynical journalist once observed that the Chief Justice of the Union and his Lady dine out most days of the week at parties and embassy functions, and must therefore save a lot for their dinners. Social functions may be a duty but the Chief Justice is a man of simple ways, and his favourite dress is still the coarse pinni jacket and the taungshe pasoe. At home, he likes to take Burmese food, and even for delicacies he would look to Burmese fruits — is there not an abundance of them, both in quantity and variety? Like a true Burmese he respects his elders; remembers with gratitude those who have done him a good turn. Thus for Sir Maung Khin, whose chambers he joined as a young barrister, and who as Judge of the High Court of Judicature encouraged him to move back from Prome to Rangoon: “I shall give you may one month’s salary if you should still be unestablished after 3 months”; for U May Oung, who advised him to go out and meet the fathers of the city and the sangha wherever he went to build a practice: “But for him, I might never have started on my fight in the shoe controversy, and I might have ended as a small town lawyer, happy, comfortably off, and obscure.”; for all these benefactors who have done him a good turn, however small or big its magnitude, U Thein Maung has grateful thoughts always. A devout Buddhist, his services in the cause of religion, have been immeasurable. The shoe question — of course — and the clearing of the Shwedagon of those scattered graveyards of British soldiers who fell when the British came to conquer Burma; the removal of a British garrison from the Pagoda; the sangayana; the Buddhist missionary work that is now gathering some strength and resolve; Buddhist education in schools and the University … a dedicated life is his. Milestones, many many outstanding milestones behind him: the Codification of Buddhist Law Committee appointed by Sir Guy Rutlege, Chief Justice,

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which U Thein Maung served as an active member, but those were days when people had time to think and debate at leisure and academic pursuits were not always tied tightly to utilitarian ends; the Vinasaya Council Act; the Pali University Act; the Buddha Sasana Council; many philanthropic organisations such as the T.B. and Leprosy Relief Association. It has indeed been a life of service, fulfilment and achievement, and the country has shown its appreciation of U Thein Maung by amending the Union Judiciary Act specially to enable him to continue to serve as Chief Justice of the Union after he has reached his retirement age. Maybe he will still climb the only one step that remains to reach the summit of public life in the country — the Presidency — or maybe the country will keep him as Chief Justice for many a year more. Whichever way it may be, the country stands only to gain. Notes 1. Head man of a group of villages. 2. Now the Maha Bodhi is under the joint control of Hindus and Buddhists. 3. 4. His predecessor was Sir Arthur Eggar.

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Section III, K, Profile

U TUN WIN

O

f what stuff are Burma’s leaders in the Government made of ? From what backgrounds do they spring? What form of training, what kind of experience do they share; what struggles, what sacrifices have they gone through or made together? The answers are that most of the leaders have done much together, shared much together, suffered and struggled together since the students strike of 1936 in which most of them have led or actively participated. The blood bond of the strike has not worn thin with the passage of time. After the strike, the fire of nationalism that burned in their hearts grew fiercer instead of feebling, and the strike was for most of the leaders the beginning of a journey, not its end. After the strike there was no substitute for politics for the young men. Some had some ambition still for joining the coveted Indian Civil Service, later the Burma Civil Service, but the ambition was not the deep yearning and the irrepressible urge that drove them in the strike

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Tun Win” in The Guardian II, no. 12 (October 1955): 21–26; 26A, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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and the political struggles later; it was tame, it was formal, it was only a feeble reflection of the fond wishes of parents or sweethearts, or the dying echo of a tradition. They took their degrees at the University or drifted away without taking any. They wore pinni jackets and Gandhi caps, read big political books and talked endlessly; they were trying and tiresome for those who did not share their enthusiasm for politics, and even a little funny. They were Thakins or Thakin sympathisers; they went about carrying Burma on their backs, serious important, urgent. When the Burma Independence Army came, they flocked to its irresistible banner and joined the northward march. When resistance came, they went out again into the jungle, carrying manifestoes and duplicated political literature under their arms and slinging rifles across the shoulder. They have shouted slogans with relish, worn wooden slippers with pride, done their deeds with conviction. When the “better born” were only anxious to get invitations to the Governor’s tea parties or to fetch good prices in the marriage markets, the young leaders had spent hours reading unlikely books, dreaming big dreams and organising plots big and small. Whether they were right or wrong, far-visioned or short-sighted, politically naive or shrewd, they were dedicated and they did what they did without any doubts at all, while others did not do what they were doing or laughed at them, and thus they have got to positions of leadership today while others are where they are. From that political school of 1936 U Tun Win graduated of that stuff is he made. That in brief is a preview of U Tun Win’s story. x

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Young Tun Win was born in Tavoy on December 31, 1917. His father, still living, is U Pein a merchant and a rice-miller. The mother, Daw Lan, died when the boy was one, and he did not see much of her. The only son of that wife, the boy became a favourite of the father. Young Tun Win went to school at Ngathainggyaung. After doing his primary at the National school, he went to the National High School at Bassein. A bright and steady lad he made the high school final without much difficulty and joined the University College, Rangoon, as an arts student. The first hurdle, the Intermediate of Arts, was done in one easy leap in one short year, for Tun Win was a “Special class” student. With

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an exhibition scholarship in his pocket he went on to his bachelor’s course, and was offered a place in the honours class. The road to a good honours degree and the I.C.S. seemed smooth and open, but times were changing, and so was the crowd at the University. Students were still working hard with eyes fixed firmly on the I.C.S., and drawing necessary inspiration from Inya hall; but in the new crowd were such firebrands as Kyaw Nyein, Khin Maung Gale, and Hla Maung, all, incidentally, migrants from Mandalay. The exhibition scholar found the times too turbulent for pursuing a diligent honours course, and his companions were both attractions and distractions. The strike of 1936 decided the destiny of Ko Tun Win. “I had great respect for U Ka, the Warden of my hall, and I loved my studies. But the call could not be ignored. The University Act, and the arrogance of some of the European lecturers were more than we could swallow. So to the strikers camp I went.” There, at the camp, Ko Tun Win met Ko Nu and the “new set” of young men. There at the camp began his journey in politics. In 1937, Ko Tun Win took a pass degree, forsaking his honours course, and abandoning all ambition for the ICS. He knew his destiny lay elsewhere. Besides, he knew himself. The distractions were too much; taking examinations and degrees had come easily to him, but now he had changed; he could not concentrate on his books; his mind wandered over large exciting fields — politics, and life itself. He had gone to the law classes for a few faltering terms, but he soon gave it up. He married for love, without inviting bids at the usual marriage auction mart. He wanted to have a home and build a life. He had served the Rangoon University Students Union as treasurer in 1937, having been elected uncontested, with Ko Hla Maung1 as president of the Union. But the University was too narrow for him now; he wanted to go out and seek in the wider world. And typically he chose the poorly paid profession of the teacher. He had no two minds about what he wanted to be; he did not fall upon the profession as a last resort. He went to Pantanaw and served as a senior master in the Buddhist High School; his neighbour and friend was U Thant at the National High School where U Nu had also served until he went back to the University to study law and lead the 1936 strike. Only a few months did he last at the Buddhist High School, however, for soon the “Aung Gyaw” incident and the students struggles of 1938 happened, and students of the School went on strike, and blame was put

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on U Tun Win as the instigator. There were departmental enquiries and confidential reports, and U Tun Win left and went back to Rangoon. x

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Happy months they were for U Tun Win at the Meiktila National High School where he had gone on from Rangoon with friends U Soe Thein2 and U Ba Shan3 and a few others to take over and run the School. Happy months snatched from the whirlwind of time. The young teachers had a free run of the School; they could shape and mould; there were no restrictions; they worked like missionaries and the School prospered under their care and guidance, and students were happy and examination percentages soared. But the happy months were brief — as happy moments are apt to be. Soon, dark, angry clouds of war gathered, and the politics of the strikers camp rolled up assuming bigger and more serious proportions, to search out and absorb the young teachers. Khin Maung Gale, himself also a teacher at the National High School, Mandalay and Ba Zan4 a footballer and a University student, came up from Rangoon with instructions to organise the people’s revolution. Students who had made noise with their slogans and the clatter of their wooden slippers were aiming higher now; rebellion and revolution were now their business. Teacher Tun Win became a willing party in the grand conspiracy, and soon it was farewell to Meiktila and the School, and back to Kanaung, where his father was, for a brief stay at home before he went to the war. U Tun Win reported to the Burma Independence Army headquarters at Rangoon, and General Aung San made him a general staff officer with responsibility for transport and ordnance. Staff work and organisation appealed to Officer Tun Win; fighting and war, especially the unnecessary cruelties and raw passions, did not. He went about collecting odd buses and bullock carts, double-barrel guns and discarded rifles, and organising the northward march of the BIA happily enough, but the swaggering of some of the soldiers, and their sadistic behaviours made him sick. The teacher was slightly ill at ease in the ruthless scene. Up to Tanyaung village up north on the Irrawaddy, Bo Tun Win was on the staff of General Aung San. It was a long, motley column, composed of college students, schoolboys, teachers, politicians, farmers, and men of all sorts pushed on by all sorts of motives. Behind, in the

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dusty trail of the column, heavy and quite useless Japanese cannons were dragged. Ordnance officer Bo Tun Win collected a better armoury than the cannons as the column pushed up, but “higher orders” said the cannons must be taken, and the BIA, bursting with martial spirit, would rather die than disobey the orders — not until it became painfully evident that the orders were not wisely given, that is, for when it became evident after the Irrawaddy was crossed and the cannons proved they were worth their weight only in trouble, the column decided sadly to say goodbye to the old relics. x

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The march with the BIA was an education in itself for Bo Tun Win; it was a revelation. He discovered, for example, that some Thakins in the districts were more eager to be appointed administrators and presidents of peace committees than to carry a rifle and join the march. Everywhere the BIA column passed through, the local Thakins would generally ask for power and authority to rule, to reign, to strut and swagger with pearl-handled pistols dangling from their puny waists, to settle their old personal scores, to set up their own mean little kingdoms. General Aung San and his lieutenants had started to think that the march of the BIA was not going to be the end of the story, that men would have to march again and fight again for Burma’s freedom. Aung San and Tun Win therefore wanted their friends and local Thakins to leave their homes and come along, getting a taste of war and some training in the use of weapons, but some of the Thakins who came had literally to be dragged along — rather like the old and useless Japanese cannons that the column had left behind near the Minwun mountain. Not only the local politicians and the men who had become “Thakins” overnight for the special purpose of welcoming the BIA, but the Japanese themselves, the much advertised liberators, showed their true colours soon enough. The Japanese military were cunning and mean, and clever at “divide and rule”, at least as clever as the British who, it was thought once, were the past masters. When Bo Tun Win, commanding an independent BIA group, reached Mandalay by way of Nyaung-Oo, he found that political intrigues and the scramble for power had already started in earnest between Burmese politicians among themselves, between them and the

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young Army, between the BIA and the Japanese, … It was a bewildering scene and Bo Tun Win was hastily packed off to Bhamo. Passing through Maymyo, Bo Tun Win and his men sought out General Aung San and marched past him in salute, much to the annoyance of the politicians who were there gathered in that hill station waiting to receive their destiny handed out by the Japanese Commander-in-Chief. Then, once more on the march. It was desolation all along the way. Villages had been ransacked or burnt by Chiang Kai-Shek’s fleeing soldiers, and people had fled into the hills. Cholera was also very much abroad, and ugly death lay strewn on the roads where its icy hand had fallen. It was a march through nightmare. Bo Tun Win looked after his men well, kept strict discipline, and saw that they got clean hot food and drank clean boiled water. Not a man was lost in that trek to Bhamo. On the road to Bhamo, Bo Tun Win met his friend of the University and the strike and the law classes, Kyaw Nyein, for a brief moment. Kyaw Nyein, leader for Upper Burma of the Burma Revolutionary Party had gone on ahead to Bhamo and was returning to Maymyo to discuss the future with Aung San and the leaders. x

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The war had ended. Or at least hostilities had ceased. So, farewell to the Army, farewell to Mandalay and Maymyo, the battlefields for power politics and job hunting; the duty was done, and back to his fathers home in Kanaung, Tun Win, having shaken himself free of the “Bo”, canoed back. He had returned with the BIA from Bhamo and a tonkin load of assorted arms; if the Japanese must be fought he and his men and the arms might be wanted. But time was not yet ripe. War does not follow war, only the sharing of spoils. So to Kanaung it was where, for the period of the war, U Tun Win lived happily in peace. For the first time in his life, he was able to assist his father in his business. It was a simple economy during the war. Buy a thing and stock it, and its price rose; take a thing from one place to another and a handsome margin of profit was made. Trader U Tun Win plied his bauk-tu from Kanaung to Yezagyo selling rice and his was a happy life. The “buffaloes”, Royal Air Force bomber-fighter ’planes, which came in inseparable couples to search the river and the roads and shoot up any moving thing, were

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the only worry. But the answer to the buffaloes was simple: keep a vigilant watch for the sky, and jump overboard into the waters when the ’planes came sweeping along, dive deep under the waters and stay there for a judicious period, and all would be well; all it cost was loss of breath. The buffaloes, U Tun Win found, were better companions than the Japanese. Throughout the occupation, U Tun Win remained at home or plied the river in his rice boats; he did not stir much into politics. People came to get him into the government, for Thakins and “Sinyethas” were jealously sharing the spoils and the Thakins were only too willing to adopt their own “educated” friends as candidates for jobs. Everyone was either a Thakin at that time, it seemed, or wore the beret of the Dahma party and went to Rangoon and returned wearing badges with arrows or stars in green or blue or gold. U Tun Win just stayed at home, amused a little, but no objector, no obstructionist. U Tun Win was selected by Rangoon as a district officer and when he showed disinterest, someone went in his place bearing his name. x

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Resistance, however, was a different matter. It was a national endeavour, a necessary step in a worthy cause, and U Tun Win emerged again. He took command in Kanaung area, raised the guerrillas, smuggled arms, and in the neighbouring section, Thakin Chit Maung, a friend, played a similar role with similar success. Thakin Chit Maung was the political commissar and Captain Aung Min from the Army was the military leader for the district. Aung Min was a Communist and like a true Communist he did not say he was one. Only, he went up the hills and built himself a safe fortress. He took all available fighting men with him so that they could be his bodyguards; he was important and must be preserved for posterity; he must not take undue risks for greater destinies awaited him; the Republic would rise, and he, Comrade Aung Min would be needed by the people, his people. Thus the resistance in Henzada was left to isolated bands of guerrillas who fought and worked without support. Aung Min would send communist literature out from his jungle hideout to the fighting guerrillas; and he would occasionally notify that he had changed his name from Min Naung to

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Mo Nyo and so on. I was with the guerrillas in Henzada district and shared their feelings of disgust when those high and mighty letters came to announce that the gallant commander-in-chief had taken on a new fancy name. We did not care whether he called himself Joseph Stalin or Winston Churchill; we wanted guns and food and operational notes, and of those, none came. Lemyethna was taken without Aung Min, Kanaung was taken by U Tun Win without Aung Min, Myanaung was captured by Thakin Chit Maung without Aung Min. When Aung Min returned in triumph to Henzada, riding a lame elephant, he looked more like a circus clown than a conquering hero. But thanks are owed to Aung Min for what he did not do. Because from cowardice he hid himself in the hills, communist organisation in Henzada was negligible, and later, when the insurrections happened Communist strength in the district was only a feeble spurt. x

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After resistance, the AFPFL, and U Tun Win threw himself into League activities with all the strength and energy that he had preserved during the war. The British had returned, and most of the politicians were lying low. Only the AFPFL was organising in open defiance with independence as their avowed goal. The Communists had welcomed the British with open arms, and had set up their headquarters in Sanchaung enjoying the protection afforded by British friendship. The Communists would seize the leadership of the AFPFL if they could, but they could’nt; they would wreck the AFPFL if they could, but they could’nt. Bogyoke Aung San and his small group of young leaders were too well organised, and the country was behind them; and in the country, organising down to the villages were such men as U Tun Win. The rest is recent history. The elections to the Constituent Assembly to which U Tun Win went as representative for Henzada Central (as usual at his elections, he was uncontested); the AFPFL convention where he served on the constitution drafting committee; the 111 member constitution committee of the Constituent Assembly in which he played his part. Then the terrible crimes which shook the country, assassinations of Bogyoke Aung San and his colleagues. U Tun Win had come to Rangoon from his constituency to attend some committee meetings and

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he was staying at the home of U Kyaw Nyein when the news of the assassinations came through on the ‘phone from a much shaken Thakin Tha Khin. From then on it was work and work. U Kyaw Nyein flew back to Rangoon from Zurich when he heard about the murders, and he got U Tun Win to work with him. There were so many things to do. U Saw and his gang were rounded up quickly enough, and damning evidence against them was collected easily enough, but U Saw was not a common criminal and he had his contacts and influence, he had his schemes and his hopes and some strong grounds for hope. The trial of the criminals was conducted without a breath of suspicion of unfairness; even the murderers of the Bogyoke must be tried by due process of law, in calm and soberness, without anger, without impatience. On the other hand no irregularities could be allowed, no plots must succeed; justice must be done. In the doing of justice, U Tun Win had much to contribute, running from Insein jail to Tharrawaddy jail and Rangoon jail; getting security at the jails tightened — some trusty high officials had to take on turns of sentry duty at night — and generally getting things done. In the end U Saw and the men he had seduced to murder were hanged, but U Tun Win was not there that dawn at Insein jail to see the condemned taken out to pay the final price for their crimes. He had done his duty, and death was a thing he would rather not see. x

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U Kyaw Nyein found U Tun Win an indispensable aide. When he was Home Minister in 1947, he had U Tun Win as his Political Secretary; when he went to the Foreign Office he took U Tun Win there. When he went to India to represent Burma at the Asian Conference where Dutch police action in Indonesia was condemned, U Tun Win was with him. This happy partnership was briefly terminated when the insurrections began and U Tun Win was sent out as a “Special District Superintendent of Police” to Henzada. The PVO had risen, and the rebels were on the skirts of the town, and with only a handful of loyal men U Tun Win held. Times were desperate and the “Shwepyi-Aye” peace mission came to Henzada to plead for peace. Let the rebels come and go, was the message, let there be love. The rebels came and went, swaggering, swinging their guns, making big noise in the tea shops, packing their

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pockets with money they had looted, throwing money about spending like princes. The boys in the loyal government troops were much disturbed by the sight of the rebels enjoying themselves, and the morale of the troops sank into their boots. The Shwepyi Aye mission no doubt meant well, but in times of rebellion it is strength and not helpless love that commands respect. U Tun Win left Henzada frustrated and unhappy. Going out of office with the Socialists in 1949, U Tun Win founded the “Mandaing” Burmese daily newspaper as the organ of the AFPFL in May 1951. It was a daring adventure to start a paper openly calling it a party organ. Many such adventures had been undertaken before, and had failed. For one thing, people do not like propaganda in Burma. For another politicians have little idea of how to run a newspaper and how to conduct subtle propaganda. “Mandaing” succeeded because the founder had the good sense to see that the paper must entertain and give value for money, that it must be run on sound business principles like any other business. U Tun Win as managing editor, sought controversial subjects and wrote boldly, as U Tun Win, the Information Minister probably still does under discreet pen-names. “Mandaing” has established itself, and it stands as a tribute to the skill and enterprise of its founder. x

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Since his return in 1952 from a visit, as representative of the Burma Socialist party, to the Indonesian Socialists conference U Tun Win has been Minister of Information. Nothing spectacular has happened in the ministry during his time, but steady progress has been made towards limited objectives. U Tun Win does not believe in scattering available resources. Emphasis, he has maintained, should be on intelligent publicity at home, on educating the people for an enlightened democracy. He has strived to improve relations between the Government and the people, and one of the measures is the appointment of more public relations officers in the districts, and press officers in the Secretariat departments. He has tried to improve the standards of the Burmese film, and has instituted academy awards for actors and actresses, directors and best produced pictures. He has given some protection to the local films by sponsoring

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a law which makes it compulsory for cinemas to take local films at least 60 days per year; thus it is sure that Miss Marilyn Monroe of Hollywood will have a holiday from the screen in Burma at least 60 days in the year. He has, at the current session of Parliament, piloted a bill for the creation of a Films Promotion Board, an autonomous body which the Government has provided with modern studio and amenities, for the purpose of hiring its services to the film makers on reasonable terms, and of aiding and encouraging better film production by different means. For objective dissemination of foreign news, U Tun Win has sponsored the International News Board which takes Reuters news and distributes them fairly to the local clients. The new broadcasting station which will put on programmes for the international public is also rising steadily on Prome Road within sight from U Tun Win’s home. x

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Politics, teaching, soldiering, journalism, it has been a varied and fruitful career, and it has meant hard work and tireless plodding. U Tun Win has been blunt and brusque at times; and he is addicted to expressing himself freely. He has been heard to say that journalists in Burma are of poor stuff, which is largely true, but some truths are unpalatable. He has been heard to say that he dislikes this newspaper or that, that he would do all he could to destroy the paper he disliked — and he would add with a twinkle of humour, “I cannot destroy a paper if I wanted, I cannot build a paper if I wished.” Yet the words that he uttered so freely often proved to be more hard than his heart, for he is approachable to all pressmen with their many requests; he is friendly and full of good intentions. He dislikes censorship and stimulates a “free flow of news”. He believes in democracy and supported it in no uncertain terms when he went to Stockholm as Burmese fraternal delegate to the Socialist International and strongly urged that the Socialist friends from Morocco be given voice. He succeeded, and the voice of Morocco was heard for the first time at the International. At home U Tun Win lives simply and is poor. His wealth consists of some dozen young ex-soldiers, his boys of the BIA days or later, whom he offers a home and education and opportunities to build happy lives.

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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

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U Hla Maung, Burmese Ambassador to Peking. U Soe Thein, B.A., B.L., teacher. Now Chairman of the I.W.T. Now Lt. Col. Bo Win, Burma Army.

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Section III, L, Profile

HTAIN LIN, A YOUNG PVO INSURGENT

W

hen I hear about the new, liberal amnesty terms which have been offered to insurgents, PVO and KNDO, Communist Red Flag and White Flag, army mutineer and police deserter and “independent” insurgent alike, when I read in the papers brief and compulsive notices calling out to insurgents: “It is later than you think; come in now,” I think of Htain Lin. I wonder whether Htain Lin knows about the amnesty offers, whether the invitation to emerge into the light has reached him, and if so what he thinks about it all. I wonder where he is now, what he is; whether he is dead and has, therefore become a “was”; whether he is alive and secure in the higher hierarchy of the PVO — a general, perhaps, or even a field-marshal. But wherever he may be, whatever he may have become, I want him to know that I remember him and wish him well. Htain Lin is, in fact, a little weight on my conscience, for in a way I was responsible for his going underground and becoming

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Htain Lin, a Young PVO Insurgent” in The Guardian III, no. 2 (December 1955): 21–23, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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an insurgent PVO. I meant it is a joke when I promoted him, when we were together in the Patriot Burmese Forces on the eve of disbandment, and I meant well. I wanted him to go home, not as a medical sergeant that he was, but as a lieutenant of infantry, and so I filled the forms, and wrote out his discharge certificate which carried the rubber-stamped signature of General Aung San. Thousands of those certificates had arrived only a few days before our disbandment from Rangoon, and as a staff officer I took a hand in writing out hundreds. I wrote them correctly, faithfully, but Htain Lin was special. So I promoted him, and that, I think how with the wisdom of hindsight, was his undoing. But, to begin at the beginning… x

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The beginning was not long ago, only ten years ago, in fact. We were at Penwegon, the Patriot Burmese Forces, they called us, wet and worn out in the mud. The Japanese armies, battered but unbeaten, were rolling down from the Pegu Yomas in their breakthrough to the Sittang and eastwards into Thai territory and the regrouping centres. The PBF were deployed on all the main routes of the Japanese armies, and the boys were having a wonderful time. Arms and ammunition were plenty now, even though the British liaison officers attached to the Zone One headquarters of the PBF were instructed to see that the boys got just enough to shoot the Japs and not enough to shoot back at the British and Indian troops. Rations were plentiful: rum flowed. After the austerity of the resistance months all this abundance was enjoyable and the boys were happy. Zone One had established its headquarters in a pongyi-kyaung just outside Penwegon; by the side of the railway line, just north of the village, just a call away from the village cemetry. I arrived there from Henzada via Minhla via Pegu, with a troop of boys, all very young, all very keen. The Zone commander, Major Maung Maung, mumbled and grumbled when I reported our unexpected arrival to him but after a while he accepted us if not with warmth at least philosophically. Most of the boys were sent out to the battalions all scattered from Kanyuthkwin in the north to Daik-U in the south. Being considered a little literate, having been to college before the war and all that, I was given a staff job. In

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other words I became a glorified clerk, filling forms, tracing out locations on maps to prepare “sitreps”, and generally moving about in the zayat that had been converted into an office, looking busy and important as if the fate of the war hung from my pencil. I met Htain Lin at Penwegon. He was virtually in charge of the medical corps. Captain Tun Win, the medical officer, was rather eccentric and though he had a good heart his habits were irregular. Sergeant Htain Lin was therefore supreme. He administered the mixtures that he had compounded, he gave injections; he ran an “in-patient ward” in a partially sheltered zayat. He was doctor, compounder, nurse, all in one. And, of course, he also cooked for his in-patients for he was a great believer in good food as an unfailing restorer of health. British army rations, special rations at that, lay piled up in his store-room. Nobody could accuse Htain Lin of impartiality. Those men who gave him the respect that he considered to be his due received kind treatment, such as mixtures which did not taste too bad, and food and restoratives including rum. Those men who looked upon medical men as something less than soldier were bound to get it. To them Htain Lin would administer not only medicine but a severe lesson. I caught him once or twice giving an injection of innocent water with a specially big needle to a soldier who had forgotten the courtesy of saluting him. If the soldier was made to swallow medicine particularly nasty it was not Htain Lin’s fault, it was part of the procedure of making people learn the decencies of life. x

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I stumbled into Htain Lin’s “in-patient ward” in my search for somewhere to deposit a bag that held all my worldly belongings and to sleep at night. All the zayats were occupied by officers and men and those pongyis who were staying on just to assert their ownership. I even wandered into the temple thinking I might like to establish my camp under the watchful eye of the sitting Buddha, but I decided it was too uncomfortable to be in the Presence all the time. So, at last, I ventured into the territory where Sergeant Htain Lin reigned. Htain Lin sized me up quickly with one drastic sweep of his eyes, and he probably decided that I was a harmless enough fellow, and he

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took me in. He gave me a little room which led to his store-room, and told me with a confidential wink that I was welcome to the rations and the rum too. Outside, in a hall-like affair, the sick men, and the not so sick whom Htain Lin had allowed to stay on as a special favour, groaned, moaned, vomitted, made noise all day and night. In the small room which gave us just the privacy that thin, bamboo walls riddled with holes could afford. Htain Lin and I lived for four happy months. Htain Lin fed me well with porridge and cheese and plums for breakfast, a special lunch of bacon and eggs and pudding; dinner was a feast. When darkness came down and the birds sang as they flew to their homes in the hills, Htain Lin would produce a mug or two of rum. I lived like a lord. I never went to the mess, had no need to. When we felt a little bored with the rations, Htain Lin and I would walk off to the village and visit our many friends who would provide us with a delightful meal of curry and rice. I used to introduce Htain Lin as the “doctor” to my friends in the village, and Htain Lin liked this courtesy, and he would politely, sweetly smile as the awed villagers looked at him with due respect. I thought he rose an inch or two above his natural height of five feet on those occasions. x

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No mere doctor was Htain Lin, though. He was among other things, a poet. After a mug of fiery rum, he would pour his molten heart into verse, and the price I had to pay for his hospitality was having to listen to his impassioned verse. He wrote in large, bold letters rather unusual for a poet, but his poems were sweet and sad and almost invariably about love. Htain Lin had serious thoughts about writing in prose too, and I encouraged him. He found, however, that prose was not his medium. It was too colourless, too insipid and tame. Nor was Htain Lin a poet only, he was philosopher as well. When one of our fighting patrols went out and go shot at by the Japanese, and a boy was carried back mortally hurt, Htain Lin did his best to save the boy, but when he lost the battle he just shrugged his unconcerned shoulders, and the episode dropped off him like water off a duck’s back. I couldn’t forget the boy’s last cries for his mother; I couldn’t turn away the haunting mental image of the boy torn with mortal anguish.

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I kept awake and kept on telling Htain Lin that it was his fault. He should have given that medicine instead of this, that injection instead of this. Sergeant Htain Lin merely shrugged his shoulder, and told me what I already knew that man was mortal and his day must come. His philosophy and his rum soothed me a little. x

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When the time came for the troops to disperse, Htain Lin and I swore to work together forever. He would go home for a while and look up a few people, hinting boastfully that there were the girls waiting in their dozens for his return. But he would not be long. He would come back straight away, or almost, and we could do something together. Burma needed us. We had plenty of ideas, and many dreams. We would start a publishing house, for we had many messages to deliver. As the publishing business does not pay, as we knew, we could buy a farm somewhere outside Rangoon and raise poultry and pigs and grow vegetables. Thus we would live dedicated, purposeful, happy. And as a parting gift to Htain Lin I wrote out his discharge certificate and made him a lieutenant. After all, dozens of girls were waiting for him, if I must believe him, and it was better that he returned as an infantry lieutenant than as a medical sergeant. Htain Lin was grateful for the promotion, and took it quite seriously. I told him that General Aung San had approved it, and Htain Lin thought that at last the long overdue recognition for his services in the cause of the country (and mankind) had come. I was pleased to see Lieutenant Htain Lin so happy, and I sent him off at the railway station. He gave me a wide grin and a grand salute and the train whisked him off to his waiting girls. x

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Htain Lin did not come back. Politics caught him. The fever of the times, the nationalist fever of the times, and the exaggerated patriotisms of the times, caught him. Back at his hometown Htain Lin found himself, as senior infantry lieutenant with a brilliant war record (which he made up from imagination), the leader of the local ex-servicemen. All were drifting, leaderless, lost. So Htain Lin, despite his five feet of height,

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became the leader of all the ex-servicemen in the locality. They chose him their leader, for the men had just returned from the wars, and rank meant something still. He had Second-Lieutenants as his deputies, sergeants for his office clerks; Lt. Htain Lin was the commander. Then came the PVO which, naturally, Htain Lin led. He made his speeches at the public places, he played a role, and gradually he became the role itself. Bo Htain Lin as he became known in his district, wrote to me fairly regularly. Our poultry farm must wait; he said, and the publishing business too, for he was leading a great mass movement for the freedom of the country, and that was the urgent mission. Once or twice he sent me a cutting from a newspaper which reported a PVO meeting at which Bo Htain Lin unburdened himself of a mighty speech. Later, the letters became fewer and more far between. Then the AFPFL took office, and independence within one year was a dream no more. Them all the national leaders had to take office in the government, and the PVO became an embarrassment. In the districts, the PVO were restive, and once more they were adrift, leaderless. Their mighty speeches were listened to no more; their mass meetings were empty; people began to look on them as something near a nuisance. The police, especially, were quick to smell the change of political climate, and like the colonial police that they then were, they were quick to press down upon the PVO about whom government policy was uncertain. So Htain Lin was worried and confused, and in his last letter to me he said he was being shadowed by the police and that he might have to be going “underground” soon. Just as the PVO elevated Htain Lin to the status of a leader in the district, so the police and the silly opportunist people raised him, in his own eyes, to the status of a hero, wanted and hunted. Htain Lin liked it. The crisis in the battle for freedom was over, and he couldn’t live without a crisis, and the police were offering him one. It might not even be true that he was shadowed. He probably imagined it. But he was bent on going “underground” for there lay adventure and mystery, conspiracy and romance, Htain Lin had no ideology, no political affiliations. He was a simple and innocent chap, and he had the best of intentions. If only he could be usefully employed, if only he could be given a purpose in life, if only politics had not given him wild dreams. x

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I do not know where Htain Lin is now. I hope the amnesty offer reaches him. I hope he will relent and return. I should like to have him with me, for together we can dream our dreams; and I may even put up with his poetry. Our poultry farm has still to be raised, and our pigs and vegetables. And Htain Lin can work with me in my law office, or with the “Guardian” publishing house I have helped to build. I cannot, of course make Bo Htain Lin a field-marshal or a general, but I can give him a job to do, and a home. I hope Htain Lin will come back.

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Section III, M, Profile

VUM KO HAU OF SIYIN

I

t was autumn in London, 1947. The dead leaves rode the wind past the windows of the Dorchester Hotel. Across the Street, Hyde Park was gold with fallen leaves. Autumn in London is sad, mellow, mild, but for the Burmese delegation occupying some suites in the Hotel in that autumn of 1947, it was not sad. Thakin Nu had come to sign the Burma Independence Treaty with Mr Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister of the British Labour Government. The Burmese had come to meet their destiny in London. Kinwunmingyi had come to London in 1872 to seek recognition of the independence of the Burmese Kingdom, and to get an agreement for the exchange of diplomatic relations between Queen Victoria and King Mindon. Kinwunmingyi failed in both missions, for the fate of the Burmese kingdom was already sealed, and his mission was already doomed, his mission was already too late. Later, after a few decades, many Burmese missions had come

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Vum Ko Hau of Siyin” in The Guardian III, no. 4 (February 1956): 29–34, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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to London, to plead for Burma’s “Home Rule”, or Dominion Status, or even for Dyarchy — that very diluted form of self-government. Those missions met with only varying degrees of success, but this mission of 1947 was the crowning mission of them all. This mission was to negotiate on equal terms with the British Government and by solemn treaty declare the independence of Burma, and her withdrawal from the Commonwealth. With the mission of 1947 was a young Chin, shy, and a little unsure, but serious and eager, always hovering in the discreet background, but always there when the vital discussions were held and the vital decisions were made. For him the journey had been long: from Thuklai, Fort White in the Chin hills to the Dorchester in distant London; it had been a long and rough journey but the main thing was that he made it, and he was there. There at the signing of the treaty of Burma’s independence, of the Chins’ independence, there at the culmination of the struggle in which his grandfather Thuk Kham had taken distinguished part, in which his granduncle had taken part, and being a modest person he would mention this last in which he himself had taken such active part. Now at the signing of the treaty in London’s Whitehall, in a conference hall which had served centuries of history, the young Chin leader saw not the bald-headed, bespectacled Mr Attlee who was delivering his speech of congratulations, not the inspired and dedicated face of Premier Nu swathed in silk gaungbaung, not the flashlights of the press cameras, not the bustle of the historic moment…but the Chin hills, and the resistance in those grey hills through the grey ages, his father and grandfather and those of his Siyin tribe, fighting with primitive weapons, dying their patriotic deaths as they were mown down by the civilized guns of the British. Now it was all over. The fight was won, victory was theirs. And that day after the treaty was signed, Vum Ko Hau, the Chin leader in U Nu’s delegation, quietly slipped off to his usual London haunt: Foyle’s bookshop off Leicester Square, where he had been spending most of his jealously snatched leisure hours. At Foyle’s bookshop there were books, he had discovered. Books, millions of them. Books on politics and government, war and history, the arts and the sciences. Vum Ko Hau found Foyle’s the most exciting place of all in London, even more so than the Follies where he did go once just to polish his modern education. He browsed among the books and read them; he bought what he could.

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There was so much to learn, and his hunger was such he wanted to do all the learning while he was in London, while Foyle’s was there at his elbow. But he had to go back home and help with building Burma, for he was not a mere student but a leader of the Chins, and a Deputy Counsellor in the Governor’s Executive Council. He wished he were a student, free to roam in fields of learning a few more years. x

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Vum Ko Hau was born on March 17, 1917, eldest son of Saya Za Khup of the Siyin Chins. His boyhood name was Hau Vum Ko Hau, the first “Hau” being taken from the last name of his granduncle according to the custom of the Siyin. Fort White, where he was born, was the area which Field-Marshal Sir George White subdued after three years of fighting continuously from the reduction of Mandalay and the seizure of King Thibaw by the British invading armies. The Chins had stood firm against the invaders, and Fort White was one of the areas which saw the heaviest fighting. In that atmosphere, laden with memories of the resistance, littered with symbols of Chin defiance, Vum Ko Hau grew up. He was a sturdy lad. The hard life of the hills hardened him. He was keen on sports, and good in his studies. He went to the Koset village school first, winning a medal at the end of his primary course for “exemplary conduct”. Then he graduated into the middle school 20 miles away from his home. School meant, apart from other hardships, getting up early in the morning to start on his 20 mile journey on foot. He cooked his hasty breakfast, and on holidays he helped the family by bringing in firewood from the forests or by working on the farm. The life gave young Vum strength and determination, qualities which were to serve him well in his later career. After middle school Vum Ko Hau migrated to Sagaing, where the nearest high school was. At Sagaing he made many friends among his classmates: Khin Maung Gale, now Home Minister, Tha Khin, now also a Minister of the Union Cabinet, and any number of friends who were later to distinguish themselves in military service: Colonels Tun Sein, Saw Myint, Chit Myaing, Thein Toke, Ba Byu, and a host of them, all among the Burma Army brass today. Vum was sociable, “sporty”, studious. He was popular with his friends who liked his unassuming ways, and with

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the teachers who appreciated his first class record in class. In 1937 Vum matriculated, and bagged a record number of distinctions. He would have liked to pursue higher studies, but the family was poor and needed him, and so he went back to the Chin hills to work. Those were the days when competition for jobs was keen, and Vum had to start as an apprentice clerk in the Deputy Commissioner’s office. That meant that he worked hard, as hard as anybody else in the office, took all the unpleasant work which everybody else dumped on him, and did not get paid. However, it was a foothold in government service, and times were such that even such slender footholds were held precious. While working as an unpaid clerk, Vum taught himself typewriting and Pitman’s shorthand from books and by the ruthless use of the office typewriter, and when the job of shorthand typist fell vacant, Vum was ready to step in. Work at the office was heavy, for Vum wanted to excel, but he had other voluntary work too, such as being secretary of the Chin Hills Educational Uplift Society. The British looked upon education in the hills as a dangerous disease which might spread, and when the Chins wanted not only to learn, but to learn Burmese, the authorities were visibly disturbed. They tried to close down schools, and threaten the teachers with dismissal if they did not dismiss the new ideas from their heads. It was once more a fight between the Chins and the British, a trial of strength, a test of wills. The Deputy Commissioner, red-faced Mr Naylor in whose veins rich blue blood ran, was angry, and shouted at his staff and at Chin chiefs alike; the desire of the Chins to learn Burmese made him mad. But war came, and even Mr Naylor sweetened. He had to woo Chin support, for without it, the vital pass into India was unsafe. Chin levies were raised, at first, as part of the Burma levies, but later as a distinct and separate force. The British needed the levies, but looked upon them as inferior beings, as “native” soldiers, good for cannon fodder perhaps, but no good for fighting for which more refined art one needed a white skin to do well. Mr Naylor held that view firmly, and one day he quarrelled with a Chin officer. The situation was so desperate then that the British authorities, instead of risking a clash with the Chins, replaced Mr Naylor, and Colonel Noel Stevenson came upon the scene. Vum Ko Hau was adjutant and quartermaster to the chief of the levies, and after Falam fell to the Japanese, he organised a guerrilla

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organisation which later became famous as the “Chinwags”. A mixed crowd the Chinwags were: regular soldiers, men from the Burma Frontier Force, village school teachers, clerks and police constables. Officially, the Chinwags were under the command of Col. Stevenson and the British Army, but Vum Ko Hau was the effective commander with Stevenson so often away for so long periods in India. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith was to say this of the Chinwags and the guerrillas: “The Chins and Kachins, as well as the Nagas, have come into the limelight as the result of the Japanese invasion of Burma. They have shown themselves to be sturdy guerrilla fighters, as the Japanese have very good reason to know.” x

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The Chinwags fought bravely in the Falam-Lumbang-Siyin valley and held off the Japanese advance by many valuable weeks. Vum’s wife and family, his father and his men were waging their guerrilla war in the hills. He could have made a fighting withdrawal into India, and at moments he thought he would. But the people decided he should stay behind and organise. Japanese occupation, they foresaw, was not going to be an easy period, and they would be wanting a leader whom they could trust and follow, and Vum satisfied the rather strict requirements of such a leader. So Vum Ko Hau stayed behind, to see the war through in the very frontline of battle. The Japanese respected him as a brave foe, and wooed his support. The Chin hills was the strategic area, the spring-board from which to launch an invasion of India — which the Japanese hoped they would be able to do one day — or the very first area to take the shock of Allied offensive — which the Japanese also expected to come one day. Vum Ko Hau was put in charge of the administration of the Chin hills and the levies or the defence army. The job was big and responsible and the holder of it was always exposed to the risk of being slapped by Japanese army officers and soldiers alike, for slapping was the favourite method by which the Japanese military expressed their displeasure. However, Vum Ko Hau put on a bold front and a poker face, and worked through the trying times unharmed and unmolested. The Chinwags and the Chin guerrillas were not idle in those days. They kept on cutting telephone wires and raiding Japanese supply dumps.

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The raids and the sorties grew in number and seriousness as time went on, and the Japanese were angry. Reprisal raids by the Japanese wiped out entire villages. People were arrested and tortured on suspicion, and it soon became the law to shoot first and sort things out afterwards. In the Chin hills the private war began as early as the early part of 1944. Vum Ko Hau, playing the double role of commissioner and leader of the guerrillas, was in danger all the time. But danger nourished him. x

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The Japanese launched their invasion of India through Imphal. For a few weeks they pressed on and gained a few miles of ground. Then, the Allies hit back with all they had — which was considerable — and the retreat began, later developing into a rout. The Japanese columns were torn and scattered, their supply lines were shreds, their air force was blown out of the skies. All that they were left with was their dauntless, deathless spirit. The Japanese rolled back in their thousands, but they did not surrender. They were sick and did not surrender. They no longer possessed the means to fight, but the fight was not yet gone from them. They could not get on into India, but that did not mean they were done. They were wounded tigers, desperate, wild. The Chinwags and Vum Ko Hau pounced merrily on the tigers, and the tigers did not receive them in a friendly spirit either. The private war grew in a matter of breathtaking weeks into a big and decisive campaign. When the Allies at last came in the Chinwags had cleared the area for them with typical Chin thoroughness. x

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Vum Ko Hau had emerged from the war an acknowledged leader of the Chins. He had organised the resistance movement. He was president of the Chin Leaders League. He was respected and trusted by the peoples. The Japanese had respected him not because he was a collaborator — the Japanese were straight people and did not respect, but only “used” collaborators — but because he was strong, and he worked hard. The Allies respected him as a resistance leader. “It will always be a matter of great pride to you

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and your sons to know that this great victory has been achieved to a considerable extent by your own warlike efforts in defence of your homes and driving out the Japanese forever from your country.” So wrote General Messervy, about Vum Ko Hau and the Chinwags and the Chin guerrillas. The war had made Vum Ko Hau a leader. Only the opportunity was wanting for him to lead actively. For a few months after the war, Vum fumbled about organising the people, making a living from trading in war surplus material, helping Col. Stevenson in the administration and in experiments with democracy in the hills. Vum had vague ideas about going into the army to take a commission, or the Frontier Force, or the Police — even. Those months were rather restless months of waiting for something, he knew not what, of travelling widely all over the Chin hills buying and selling, meeting people and discussing. Things were vague and nebulous, and he often waited for the army commission for which he had applied. However, the army was slow; it did not get him. Aung San and the AFPFL were quicker, and they did. x

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Faint news of the national struggle for independence that was being waged in Burma proper under a leader called Aung San (or was it “Aung Zan”, the Chins did not know), filtered through different sieves of British censorship into the hills. Vum heard the news and got excited. But all was vague, and Rangoon was far away. Once Thakin Nu came up and visited the main towns in the hills, but the British arranged things so that he could meet only the “safe” leaders, the hereditary chiefs and only those among them whom the British approved. Vum Ko Hau and the peoples did not get near Thakin Nu. In 1947, the year of Panglong, however the Chins would not have the chiefs speak for them at the conference of the peoples of the frontier areas. They elected Vum Ko Hau and sent him to speak for them; his, they declared, was their voice; the voice of the chiefs chosen by the British were only “His Master’s Voice”. Vum went, and at the conference found his opportunity to lead, and to join in the wider partnership of the peoples. Brave times opened for him. At Panglong, Vum Ko Hau spoke for the Chins. They had given him just one mandate; to associate with Burma proper, and to get for the

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Chin hills more roads and schools, better facilities for a healthier, happier life. No high-falutin ideas about a separate state. They did not want big jobs or to be ministers or presidents. They wanted a good clean life for themselves. Vum Ko Hau was to see if the Burmese were in earnest about Union, the Burmese leaders could be trusted. If he decided they could be, then he was to cast the lot of the Chins with the Burmese Union, it was to be, firm and sure and close, a Union forever for better or for worse. With that responsible mandate, Vum went to Panglong and met Bogyoke Aung San and Thakin Nu, and talked with them and decided after one meeting that they were good and sincere. Vum then made his decision. It was to be Union, and the Chins would be a part of it. They only wanted to form a special administrative division, no separate state. Would Aung San promise to help develop the Chin hills if the Chins came in a special division? Aung San’s nod of assent was quick and emphatic. The decision of the Chins to enter into a close and unreserved association with the Union helped to convince the other minorities that that way lay wisdom. The Panglong agreement was therefore promoted to a very large extent by the Chins and Vum Ko Hau. x

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Ninety per cent of the voters in the Chin hills voted for Vum Ko Hau at the constituent assembly elections, and thus he became a member of that historic body and a deputy counsellor, in effect a cabinet member, in Bogyoke Aung San’s government. There was plenty of work to do, and the Hon’ble U Vum Ko Hau of Siyin was untiring. He was on every imaginable committee, he helped to draft the constitution, he flew to his native hills whenever he could, and pushed forward development projects to show the peoples by vivid example the wisdom of their choice to enter the Union. He was a member of the Frontier Areas Commission of Enquiry which Mr Rees-Williams, now Lord Ogmore and recipient of one of the highest titles of the Union, led. He worked closely with Aung San throughout, for Aung San held the happiness and harmony of the peoples of the Union very dear. “You were one of the closest and most trusted associates of Bogyoke,” Daw Khin Kyi, the widow of Aung San, has written to Vum, and no compliment could be sweeter to him than this.

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Then, U Nu’s government, and the mission to London that autumn of 1947, the historic mission; only the architect of independence, Aung San was missing. Vum Ko Hau went his rounds of social functions in London, and spent most of his leisure hours at Foyles. The gap between Sagaing high school and his high office was hard to fill, but he was decided he would do his best. He was not a Chin for nothing, not a resistance leader for nothing. What he had lacked for want of opportunity, now his dogged determination would make good. x

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And make good he did. Not in politics, for he was not a politician. After the first wave of struggle was over, he lost his political office because he was not good in manoeuvre. U Nu, anxious to retain Vum Ko Hau in the service of the Union Government, made him a deputy secretary in the Foreign Office, but politics was no more for him. However, he did make good in other respects. He read and wrote a good deal, so that today he writes fluently and easily, and intellectually he is superior to many an honours graduate of the Rangoon University. At the Foreign Office he had opportunity to meet the top-ranking leaders in the Union, and distinguished visitors from abroad. That experience helped him to blossom. He went to international conferences and carried himself with poise and polish. At the United Nations, he was a popular national delegate and during the long session he took time off to lecture at American universities and learned institutes. He spoke on the radio, wrote for magazines, and in Rangoon he contributed valuable articles of historical interest to the Guardian. On Union Days his voice was heard on the Rangoon radio, easy, pleasing, friendly. Of the shy young man from the Chin hills, diffident with the awareness of his deficiencies in formal education, there is little left in Vum Ko Hau today. x

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At home, Vum Ko Hau liked to maintain his large family in natural comfort, without pose. His wife is an unaffected young lady who has borne his many children. His drawing room was a collection of old furniture on which books lay piled up in precarious heaps, or children

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sprawled in luxurious ease. During vacations, the Chin boys in the Rangoon schools and colleges would come and stop by, and at nights the home was like a crowded army camp; all available floor space was taken up by the boys. It was a happy home. On Sundays there were the inevitable cocktails or other parties where Vum Ko Hau was a consistent and essential feature. There was nobody he did not know, nobody who did not like him. With the press he was on drinking terms, and his musical name, his photogenic features, and his flair for publicity helped to keep him constantly in the news. If a Burmese newspaperman, dropping in at Paris, hailed His Excellency U Vum Ko Hau with an irreverent, “Hey, Chinboke!” it might not be proper, but Vum would appreciate it. U Vum Ko Hau will serve the Union well as its Minister in France and the Netherlands. Actually, by deserved right, U Vum Ko Hau should be an ambassador in one of the principal diplomatic stations, but his seven or eight years in the permanent civil service made it difficult for him to begin his foreign assignment with ambassadorial status which is generally reserved for distinguished politicians. However, he can wait. Paris will polish and prepare him for bigger assignments, or maybe when he has done his tour of duty abroad, he will come back to Rangoon and work with us on the editorial board of the Guardian. We have jobs for His Excellency Sithu U Vum Ko Hau.

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Section III, N, Profile

U BA SWE

W

hen will U Ba Swe, Defence Minister, Socialist leader, president of the Trade Unions, the strong silent man whom his comrades call — with a touch of affection — “Tiger”, become Prime Minister of Burma? He has often been named as successor. He has, in the recent past, officiated as Prime Minister. In the normal course of events, U Ba Swe seems destined for that high office; but when? After the next elections when there is bound to be reshuffles in the high places even though AFPFL victory is certain? Or not so soon? Who knows? Who can fathom the depths of destiny in which these secrets lie securely hidden? Not I. But when I went to meet U Ba Swe and his family at their home some time ago, when I saw them, a loving couple surrounded by their eight children, laughing and living like any other loving couple in this country, the feeling came to me that U Ba Swe and Daw Nu Nu, the Tiger and his Mate, would be quite happy to play in their lair and let politics and ambition alone. Uncage him, and

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Ba Swe” in The Guardian III, no. 5 (March 1956): 27–31, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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the Tiger would gladly run back into the free wild Nature from which he came, and his Mate would follow without a backward glance to the golden cage. That was what I thought after two or three hours of talking with U Ba Swe, after a late breakfast eaten at two in the afternoon. All the time that we talked, two gentle tigers looked down sweetly from the walls, and the Mate, waxing the floor like any ordinary maid, occasionally joined in the talks while panting for breath. x

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Ba Swe was born on October 7, 1915, at Onbinkwin village, 50 miles away from Tavoy. His father was U Tun Hlaing, and his mother Daw Pe Lay. There was a mineral boom in Tavoy and Onbinkwin about the time Ba Swe was born. Everyone was getting rich quick, and there was the mineral rush, and Onbinkwin was one of the converging points of the get-rich-quick seekers. The boom was on, but only for the privileged few. Those who were white, or those who had the blessing of the British ruler, they were the ones on whom fortune smiled. Others, like U Tun Hlaing, were the clerks, the coolies and such lowly things. The boom gave them employment, yes, but not wealth. The treasures of their soil were taken by foreigners, and they had to facilitate the taking. That was the way of politics where power ruled. Young Ba Swe grew up to get the injustice of it all imprinted indelibly on his young mind. He did not have to read Marx to become a socialist: all he needed to do was to look at the mines, and live his life in that boom town. The village monastery kept and contained young Ba Swe for a few years; then, he was launched into the lay world via the primary school at Tavoy where boys were allowed up to a reasonable age. With Ba Swe that reasonable age came quickly. He was growing fast into a big-made boy, and he felt a little shy to be with the girls at school, many of whom were already showing their natural fondness and preference for big-made boys. From the girls primary, Ba Swe went to the National Middle School, and after that he had to go to the one and only high school in Tavoy which was, much to his distaste, the government school. Ba Swe showed promise at school. He had literary tastes and he began to write articles for the papers and magazines quite early. But he was no mere poet and visionary. He was good in arithmatic and algebra, and he was

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highly practical. His teachers liked him and placed hopes in him. If he ploughed a steady path, high academic honours were bound to fall in his lap, and he could easily end up as an Indian Civil Servant, and marry the richest girls in Burma. And what more could a man want? But Ba Swe was not made that way. Politics was in his blood. The injustices of the social order of the times vexed him. He felt that foreign exploitation must be shaken off, so that the natives could get their chance. If the foreigners were there, highly organised in their monopolistic combines, strongly backed, when or where would the native get his chance. So young Ba Swe and his fiery friends organised their “Kala-Hto-Thin”, the secret and sworn society for the fisting of Indians at night when such attacks were reasonably safe. Many an ill-starred Indian got fisted and beaten in the streets of Tavoy in those days by the dedicated young men, but the victims of the young men’s wrath were mostly coolies, and fisting coolies did not help much to overthrow economic imperialism. One by one, the members of the Kala-Hto-Thin drifted away after the first excitement of their mission had faded, and at last, Ba Swe and the last few members solemnly disbanded the society. On a higher and more intelligent level, Ba Swe and his comrades tried to fight imperialism by setting up students’ cooperatives to sell newspapers, books, tea and food, and such. Economic imperialism, they thought, must be fought by economic measures. Which was right, but the efforts could not be sustained, and imperialism was too well organised to be even shaken by the youthful measures initiated by the boys in Tavoy. The time was not yet ripe. The nation must rise. Not Tavoy alone, not Rangoon alone, not Ba Swe alone. Let the nation rise, but before that, there was nothing to do but wait. x

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It was not a long wait. The 1936 students strike happened. Students of the University leaped into leadership of the nation. Nu, Aung San, Kyaw Nyein, Raschid, … such names held the headlines of the national press and swayed the hearts of the peoples. Ba Swe, leading the strike in Tavoy, was thrilled. Now his kala-hto-thin could operate on broader planes on more refined and imaginative lines. Now the nation was rising,

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or at least beginning to wake. As strike leader of his high school, Ba Swe established contacts with the national strike leaders and they directed him to come to the University to work in their politics. To get to the University there was one hurdle; the high school final exams. Well, jump it! There must be no flaggings, no excuses, no faint hearts, no failures. The hurdle must be jumped because the high students command said so, ordered so. It was just like that. Ba Swe jumped and cleared the hurdle, and went to the University, and from then on national politics claimed him. The University became his operational head-quarters. He lived and worked there, but not in studies. He went to classes at first just from curiosity, then stayed away. He took an exam. or two just for the fun of it, failed, and did not try again. At the University he turned occasionally to his young love — literature. He wrote for the magazines under different pennames — “High School Than Than,” and “Myint Swe” being some of them. He wrote in prose and poetry expressing himself well in both. At soft moments, he thought he would dedicate himself to a career of writing. He would starve as a writer, he knew, for hunger was the fate of all writers in Burma, but he could be happy. Politics was too harsh, too stern; it demanded and consumed too much. His satirical stories and essays were particularly successful; they stung, but not in ill humour. His “Kathleen Gwethtaw”, for example, was a roaring success; Kathleen made her bow to a delighted public through the pages of the “Oway” magazine; Kathleen was pretty and impulsive and had an irresistible love for rank and riches. She always fell for young English tutors who were preparing for the ICS examinations, and they, they responded warmly, passionately, but they always went away after failing their exams, or winning through to that heaven-born service and the heaven-bestowed rich brides. Ba Swe also made his acquaintance with Marx at the College. Marxism dazzled and attracted him; but Marxism was no poetry, and the new love compelled him to abandon the old — writing and literature. “I had to make a choice,” said U Ba Swe, “for I was finding that politics and poetry did not match. Poetry made me soft and yearning. Politics wanted me hard and relentless.” Thus the choice was made, and Ba Swe did not write his fiction anymore, nor his poetry; many Kathleens were thus saved from his sharp pen, many a poignant love story remained unwritten. Marx, Lenin and Stalin, with their stern matter-of-factness,

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their harsh realisms, took possession of him. “Let us respect and revere Stalin,” wrote the young disciple in a gush of eulogism in 1938, “let us pay our homage to him, for to pay homage to him to whom homage is due is a good deed.” Even Stalin’s old comrades do not feel so sure today about Stalin’s infallibility; even they are now thinking aloud (and for the benefit of the world) that Stalin had perhaps been wrong in certain theories and doctrines and in establishing his own personal dictatorship. But then 1956 is not 1938; a lot of things have happened in the period in-between. x

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The Rangoon University Students Union took up much of Ba Swe’s time, and what was left of it he gave to the Nagani leftist bookclub. Ba Swe and Tun Shwe wrote up most of the Nagani periodical journal, and used different pen-names. Sometimes, for prestige purposes they would write and publish under the names of wellknown authors, getting those authors to agree to be thus used after the publication. 1938 was the fateful year, the beginning of the general upheaval. Aung Gyaw became a martyr; in Mandalay 17 martyrs were made in a matter of minutes. It was the year of martyrs, of mourning and national anger. The oilfield workers from Yenangyaung marched to Rangoon, shouting their slogans, carrying their banners. Thousands of them came marching over the burning sands, relentless and resolved. Ba Swe, and his comrade Ba Hein who was by that time a complete convert to communism, let the marchers. The two names and the march leapt into the headlines of the national press. From that time on it was endless struggle. Ba Swe “retired” to Tavoy in 1939 to work and earn so that he could support Ba Hein and Tun Shein (Bo Yan Naing) in College. Later he was recalled by his comrades in Rangoon to the University to take the presidency of the Students Union. The beginnings of the “Burma Revolutionary Party” were already there, and at dead of nights student leaders were already gathering in secret places to discuss and plan the revolution. Many of them were convinced that only rebellion could other-throw the British, and to rise in arms, arms and aid were needed. The BRP would seek foreign aid; give us the arms, was the cry in their hearts, and we shall hurl

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the British into the sea. Students’ volunteer corps were built up and “Steel Corps” became the rallying point of young patriots: some of them were made of steel, some of iron, some of wood and some of wax, but the bamboo-helmeted Corps in green uniforms became very much evident. The BRP was led by Thakin Mya, Kyaw Nyein, Thakin Chit and Ba Swe who took charge of organisation and military operations. Among the most promising of Ba Swe’s lieutenants were Maung Maung who was secretary of the Students’ Union (now Colonel, Burma Army), and Aung Gyi who worked in some government office during the day and for the BRP at nights (now Colonel, General Staff, Burma Army). x

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Ba Swe was the mighty man in charge of military operations, but he needed men and arms to launch the operations, and there were none. His whole armoury just before the advent of war to Burma included a revolver which did not fire; it mattered little that it did not, for there was no ammunition anyway. Even the British could not be frightened away by a dead revolver and so Ba Swe tried to turn it to good use in laying an ambush on a man who was reportedly returning from the bank laden with cash. The reports were wrong; the man was as poor as Ba Swe and the BRP, and Ba Swe and his gang had to offer their apologies and let the man go. Evil did not pay, and after that attempted dacoity Ba Swe did not turn his hand again to such methods. Instead he tried to manage with what he had, which was little. He was ordered by the BRP to take a group of young men across the borders into Thailand, which he did with forty rupees, or nearly did, for the borders were sealed, and the party had to turn back, with the police and the detectives hot on their acent. It was a grand time, very exciting, very risky, very much worthwhile. When at last the Burma Independence Army came in, Ba Swe was appointed military governor in Tenasserim, and he both reigned and ruled for nearly one whole year. Nobody disturbed his reign, not even the Japanese who were only small border garrisons. But the Japanese broke faith with the BIA, and the promised independence receded as the armies advanced north. Ba Swe and his comrades in Tenasserim were

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angry, and they organised for resistance, and went about openly preaching it. The Japanese heard, and marked Ba Swe as their enemy, and he had once more to disappear “underground”. From military governor to outlaw was but a step, he noted philosophically. x

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If the Japanese broke their promise to declare Burma’s independence as soon as the first border outposts were taken, Ba Swe too broke faith with himself. He had vowed that he would not fall in love or marry until Burma’s independence was won. But he did in Tavoy. The military governor’s roaming eyes one day fell on Ma Nu Nu, young, smiling, virile student of the Convent School, and the eyes liked what they saw. For governor Ba Swe the dilemma was great. He could stick to his vow and lose the girl, for those were uncertain times and if he waited till the war was over or independence was won, the girl might not be anymore unattached. Or he could offer his apology to his vow, and make his explanation — a valid one, that independence, though still unwon, was in sight and as good as won — and grab the girl. A man of action, he decided on the latter course, and invited Ma Nu Nu to a conference. He loved her, he said, and he would invite her to take him. But he wanted to be quite honest. He was not one Ba Swe, but two. One Ba Swe was the patriot, the leader, the fighter for freedom. That was an attractive Ba Swe. The other was not so attractive. He lived a life of indulgence and indiscipline; a loveless political life has made him embrace sin with relish. Now the truth was out, would she have him? He gave her a little time to think, a few hours. The woman in her responded to the honest and forthright approach, but Ma Nu Nu wanted time, oceans of time. Time in which she could enjoy being torn by doubt and anxiety; time in which she could think during sleepless nights, about her future with this raw and rough man whose heart was so true, so true. Time during which she could travel over devious paths to the inevitable, obvious, and foregone Yes. But that time was not allowed, and so the bride-to-be had to say Yes in a few short hours. If it was not love at first sight, then it was at least love after the first conference. x

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Disappearing underground, Ba Swe turned up at Rangoon, and concerned friends made him take charge of the Keibotai or the volunteer civil defence corps. Keibotai provided the needed disguise and alibi. It demanded little. Ba Swe, the Chief, lived happily in his Kandawgyi camp. He needed no money, for he ate but one meal, and that meal was easily found. A non-official organisation, the Keibotai had the cooperation of the Police who assigned some officers to work under Ba Swe, and the Fire Brigade which did likewise. A few training courses were conducted and some 40 to 50 trainees were always in camp. The Keibotai camp became one of the important headquarters of the resistance. Soon out of the turmoil of war in Burma the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) emerged. General Aung San, Bo Let Ya, and Bo Ne Win of the Army, U Kyaw Nyein, U Ba Swe, and Thakin Chit from the BRP, and Thakin Soe, Thakin Than Tun, and Ba Hein from the Communist party, became the leaders of the AFO The Communists contributed their ideology and their grand talks, but when cadre leaders were called for to organize in the districts they could produce only 26. The remaining 800 came from the Army and the BRP. But numbers, the Communists calculated, were not important. Let the Army and the BRP fight and die. Those that did not, they could destroy later after the war was over, so that they, the few, could rule, after the many had been used and put away. The Communists faithfully adhered to that strategy and it worked to a great extent, with tragic effects which will extend over the generations. x

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When the forces of the resistance were deployed U Ba Swe was given charge of the hot Rangoon zone. Kyaw Nyein, assigned to Pyinmana, would be taken care of by the Communist military commander, Yet Htut, and Ba Swe in Rangoon would be destroyed by the Japanese. So went the scheme of the Communists. However, fate intervened. Ba Swe was arrested, as expected, by the Japanese, but Kyaw Nyein and Hla Maung (now Ambassador to Peking) stayed behind to get him out. In Kempetai custody, Ba Swe remained his usual cool self and utterly baffled the Japanese. Threats did not frighten him, nor did promises tempt him. “I’m dead,” he told his questioners, “for the British decreed my death before they ran away from Burma. I’m legally dead, and you can’t kill a dead

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man, frighten him even less.” The few weeks in the Kempetai dungeons were a period of repose for U Ba Swe. He was able to think, and write — finding with the thrill of a new discovery that the art of writing was not lost to him. He played cards, and ate and rested well. There was a deep calm within him, and the Japanese were so impressed and awed they did not touch him in anger. At last on April 24 the Japanese, thoroughly convinced that Ba Swe was a genuine nationalist leader who would fight the returning British with all he had, released him. Rangoon was in a state of confusion when Ba Swe emerged into it. The Japanese retreated one night, and in the morning the city became a deserted no man’s land. There were the soldiers of Subhas Chandra Bose who were left behind bewildered and leaderless. There were the Allied prisoners of war in the Rangoon jail who were arrogant and liked to be treated as the victors. There were broken groups of guerrillas and soldiers who had to be collected under one command and given aim and purpose. There was much to do, and U Ba Swe, establishing himself in a pongyikyaung applied himself to the tasks. The Indian soldiers were quartered in Thingangyun and supplied with food and told to behave; the prisoners of war were similarly supplied and told to keep their place. The oncoming Allies had to be informed that Rangoon was safe for their entry, and that the planned carpet-bombing of the city would be such a waste. Peace had to be kept, and plans for the future had to be thought of. One little incident marred the harmony of the transition period. When the first British troops arrived the commander asked that he might inspect and pay tribute to the Burmese guerrillas. U Ba Swe felt a little uneasy about it, but courtesy demanded a response, and he sent a small contingent to be reviewed by the British in their grounds. The contingent was disarmed and dismissed. That was the time when anger nearly drove Ba Swe to fight. But he took time to cool down, and thought it would be foolish to go down into history as the man who messed things up by running away after his anger. He kept his peace. x

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The rest is recent history. The AFPFL, the national front which U Ba Swe served as General Secretary, and now as Vice-President. The betrayal by the Communists who had at first agreed not to start their

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own party but merge their identity in the national front. The belated organisation of the Socialist Party as a counter to the Communist Party; Aung San gave his blessing to the Socialist Party and Comrade Ba Swe has been General Secretary from its inception. The turbulent, troubled years, when the AFPFL government stood precariously on the brink of doom, and the Communists laughed and jeered. All along, in the resolute defence, and the massive offensive that was gradually mounted, Comrade Ba Swe was recognised as the strong man and the untiring organizer. He did not speak much; but he was present everywhere — at Cabinet meetings, at AFPFL Supreme Council meetings — and his presence and power were always felt. Foreign journalists who came to uncertain Burma to dig beneath the surface and discover the repositories of real power inevitably found Comrade Ba Swe, among a few others. In the years of stress U Ba Swe learned to accomplish much with little obvious effort. Always relaxed, he could enjoy his game of poker and give his decisions and directions on vital matters after the game. Many a weighty decision was thus made at the card table or a billiards; but the decision would usually be the right one. U Ba Swe read little, but he had staunch intellectual friends who read up all the latest on Marxism, and from them he could pick the cream of contemporary thought. It is a nice way of informing oneself. Comrade Ba Swe did not seek office. When, at the last elections the AFPFL Supreme Council decided, while he was out on tour, that he must go into Parliament, he was wild. Only party discipline made him accept adoption as a parliamentary candidate. Also when he was made Defence Minister it was rather to organize the military offensive in conjunction with General Ne Win and the younger military leaders who could work in harmony with him, than to take high office, that he accepted. Now the Premiership is within easy reach, but he is undazzled, untempted. He is a tiger not a lamb; the soft comfortable places do not attract him. The most thought-provoking theory advanced by Comrade Ba Swe is the one that draws a close analogy between Buddhism and Marxism. Not an analogy, but near identity, in fact. He puts forth attractive arguments, and if he is right, then he will have established himself as one of the greatest theoretician-philosophers of his times. If he is right, the Great Sixth Buddhist Synod may yet be re-named by future historians as the Great Seminar on Marxism.

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Section III, O, Profile

U THANT

B

e it U Nu. Be it U Ba Swe. Be it U Kyaw Nyein or Thakin Tin. Whoever may occupy the Prime Minister’s residence in the Windermere compound behind those tall iron bars, beyond that sentry post, U Thant, it seems will be there at Prome Court deputing for the Premier, or in his house in Windermere Crescent outside the bars and away from the sentry but within call from the Premier’s residence. Night and day he will be there, at his home working on the English translations of the Premier’s speeches, or drafting personal letters to go out to Pandit Nebru or Gamal Nasser, or receiving visitors at the office on behalf of the Prime Minister. “My dear Panditji.” U Nu had written, with a big sigh of relief, one can imagine, on being able to relinquish office at last, “dear Panditji, I am so tired and I want to rest. The sigh was certainly U Nu’s. The soft words were probably U Thant’s. But the words and the thoughts, the sighs and the feelings and the words, they are all one and together, not

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Thant” in The Guardian III, no. 10 (August 1956): 25–29, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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separate, not an artificial blend, for U Thant is not a ghost writer or a translator merely. He is the confidant, he thinks for and with his Chief into whose personality he merges himself. He is loyal, he is discreet, he is truthful, and he is modest. At all times, he is tranquil. He has an enormous fund of patience, suffering fools and hangers-on with his wonted smile. He is thus the ideal eye and ear of the Premier, and at the same time his necessary shield. Whoever is Premier will be glad to have U Thant as his deputy. I was in Paris when I read in the French evening paper Le Monde of June 4 that U Nu had resigned. It was a small, boxed item in the paper, and my feeble French helped me to gather that U Nu had informed the AFPFL supreme council of his intention to give up office so that he might concentrate on the reorganization of the League. The news caused great excitement at the Burmese Legation. The Minister and the Secretaries, and I huddled together and discussed it, sent out the messenger boy to buy the different newspapers available to check and compare and enlarge the news. The news was so scanty and we felt a great hunger for more. That night at the Legation I wrote my letter to U Thant and said that if the news was true, perhaps he too would be giving up office to devote himself to writing, his first love. I know how dearly he would have loved it. But U Thant has become indispensable, a prisoner of his own ability and his qualities. So he is still there, as securely as if his home was in that fenced-in Ministers’ compound beyond the sentry posts. x

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Young Maung Thant was born in January, 1909, into a literary family. His father U Po Hnit, a landowner, was a lover and collector of books. U Po Hnit received his education in Calcutta, spent his life as an educationist and an enjoyer of books. Daw Nan Thaung, Maung Thant’s mother, encouraged her sons in their young literary pursuits. Four sons were born; after Maung Thant, Maung Khant (one-time editor of the World of Books, Ex-MP); Maung Thaung (now Secretary, Ministry of Democratisation of Local Administration); Maung Tin Maung (now Deputy Commissioner, Moulmein). All loved books; all were steady in their progress in the right directions; all loved and served their parents and their country.

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Maung Thant was the journalist and writer. And, of course, his medium was, from the very start, English. He read Shakespeare and the usual English authors and poets. He began thinking in English even at an early age. Not that he was Anglophile, not by a long shot. But to express himself in English was an achievement, a challenge; and he loved literature for its sake, and English literature was rich. Maung Thant’s first article in English was published in the November, 1925, issue of the “Burma Boy”, the organ of the Boy Scouts Association. The author of the mighty article was only 15 then. At that tender age Maung Thant had arrived in Burma’s world of letters. From National High School, Pantanaw, Maung Thant graduated to the University College. Rangoon brought him deeper into the world of letters, nearer to the press which he began to bombard with many letters and articles. He applied his mind to all subjects, found solutions to all problems, passed down his sermons to political leaders and sages alike, commented on everything. It was a fertile mind served by a facile pen. A specimen of one of his early writings is revealing. Here he was writing to the editor of the Rangoon Times (January 3, 1928) about the Simon Commission. He was then wise 19. “The Statutory Commission is coming to Burma and the feeling of indignation that is being manufactured against it will undoubtedly stand in the way of its successful working. To avoid sitting at an examination speaks of the ignorance of the examinee; to avoid a battle denotes the weakness of the combatant; and to try to boycott an enquiry as to the fitness or otherwise of the ruled to hold the reins of the government shows either the prejudice of the ruled against the rulers or their incapacity of undergoing an enquiry. It is not to our advantage to refuse to make the best use of what is given to us and to blame the rulers for not giving us more. It is earnestly expected that better sense will prevail among our so-called leaders and that they will give up their unwise attitude towards the Commission. They will then prove to the entire satisfaction of the Commission that Burmans are fit to govern their own country.”

Brave words indeed, and wise beyond the writer’s years, and permeated with the sense of fair play which was to grow steadily with his personality. And what cheek for a lad of 19 to say that when the mighty political giants of his time were crying out for a boycott of the

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Commission, when the England-returned barristers (many of them quite scatter-brained) were towering over the scene in their tails and bow-ties striking poses, speaking bad English at political meetings to people who understood no English and therefore liked the speeches very much. The mighty leaders thundered in public, took off their shoes when they bowed their way into the presence of the English masters when they went to ask for jobs or favours in private. And there was young Maung Thant telling the leaders in effect, “Don’t be fools about the Simon Commission, You are only afraid”. x

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“The formation of parties, leagues and associations are rather the order of the day. Not long ago the National Parliamentary Organization saw the light of day under the leadership of U Ni. Besides this, there are the People’s Party, Home Rulers, Swarajists, Independents and so on and so forth. That in the domain of politics parties have got their value is admitted on all hands. They unmistakably demonstrate a healthy current in the political life of a people. But a multiple party system, instead of doing anything good, spoils the onward march of progress in a nation just as much as too many cooks spoil the dinner. It is all the more true in the case of a dependent country like Burma. Parties there must be, but what we want to lay stress upon is that they should not make water-tight compartments among themselves. They should, in the midst of manifold diversities, stick to a common ideal…Japan offers us an illustration of the fact that a whole people can be impregnated in the space of a few years with a consuming passion for the national weal. Let national unity be not a dream, but a realisation, and other things will be added unto us: economic and political emancipation, religious and social progress.”

That was Maung Thant, aged 20, in the World of Books of February 1929. What he said 27 years ago still holds good, is still new to Burma. x

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Given his chance Maung Thant would have taken an honours degree at the University, and then become a don. Today he would be a Professor of English, maybe, or history; but certainly a professor. That would have

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become him. He would not be a Professor who spends his time absentmindedly among books, for that would be irksome and lonely. Professor Thant would be like one of those Professors in England who write letters to the Times and participate in public movements and causes; but not a Professor Tha Hla who is very public spirited and pugilistic, who always comes out with fists flying, fights, and thinks afterwards; not a Laski either, for Laski was perhaps too much the theoretician, too wedded to ideology and party; but, well, just Professor Thant. But the chance was not for Maung Thant. He left College to work and earn and support his mother, and give his younger brothers the chance he could not have. Pinya hall was thus deprived of its moon; for Ko Thant was like the moon, handsome, always neat and well-dressed, tranquil and radiating tranquillity. His friends liked to call him “MoonFace”, with affection no doubt; and Ko Thant did, with a discreet use of Ponds cream and face powder, look like the moon. Back at Pantanaw, U Thant served his School as a senior master. Verging on 20 he was already a teacher and an educationist, and a writer and a journalist. It was a full life. He won the All Burma Translation competition organised by the Burma Education Extension Association with his translation of the “Pied Piper of Hamelin”. He received his teachership certificate, being at the top in the examinations in all Burma. He published his first book in Burmese. “Cities and their Stories”, about Rome and Athens and such cities of world history. All between the age of 20 and 21. It was at the Pantanaw High School that U Thant met and became life-long friends with U Nu. The latter joined the School as Superintendent, and U Thant became Headmaster. It was a happy partnership. Both loved the same things — fortunately not the same woman, or maybe they did. Both loved to write, both were nationalists in their own ways. Both shared the same ideals. A picture taken in 1929, when under the leadership of Superintendent U Nu and Headmaster Thant, the Pantanaw National High School celebrated National Day is published on these pages. It is an interesting picture. U Nu is there, a young man of 22, in full Burmese dress, and, of course, with his walking stick. U Thant, similarly fully costumed. All looking intent, very serious. The plumed peacock in the picture is not by any means a work of art, but the peacock symbolises Burmese nationalism, and so it was there, a little sad and lonely, but

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there all the same, and that was what mattered. It was a small crowd, but beginnings are always made by small crowds or lonely men. x

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U Nu fell in love with Daw Mya Yee, the daughter of the Chairman of the School Committee. It is widely believed that U Thant acted as the go-between. When U Nu fell in love he wrote poetry aflame with emotion and dedicated them, one and all, to the dear lady. When U Thant fell in love he wrote letters to the editor, and articles, and a new book (“League of Nations”, 1933). U Nu’s romance had a fitting culmination. With the co-operation of the lady, and no doubt U Thant, U Nu hired a bauktu boat and eloped with Daw Mya Yee, across the happy Irrawaddy over which doubtless to his poetic heart everything was song and beauty and pyidawtha, to Rangoon where they honeymooned at the house of friends. Thus began the partnership between U Nu and Daw Mya Yee that was to win through hardships and trials, lean hungry years and jail and war and danger to the apex of public life: the Premiership and the leadership of the nation. x

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In Pantanaw, U Thant took on dual charge of the School as Superintendent and Headmaster. He led an active life. He was member of the Text Book Committee for Burma schools, of the Council of National Education, of the Burma Research Society, and Executive Committee Member of the Heads of Schools Association. In 1935 U Thant had the first contact with Aung San. A wordy war was waged between them in the columns of the World of Books. Aung San was up and coming, and also having a facile pen like U Thant and a restless brain unlike U Thant, he was writing articles for the press and letters to the editors. One of his many ideas was that there should be some sort of uniform prescribed for University students; wearing the same uniform they would acquire a feeling of oneness, of unity, and even nationalism, U Thant replied to this. Ever the individualist, U Thant thought uniforms would stifle individualism, and encourage regimentation. Aung San, reading the reply, was pleased that someone

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at least had read him and taken him seriously enough to reply. In the wordy duel a lasting friendship was struck between young Aung San and U Thant. x

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During the war U Thant served for a time as Secretary of the Education Reorganization Committee. But it was a frustrating job. The whole country lay under war terror. Night and day the bombers came. Everyone was busy running away or trading, earning a living; young people were in the army, fighting; government servants were busy working part-time and selling part-time to supplement their meagre income. U Thant returned to Pantanaw to build his school; it was a more fulfilling task. After the war, the call came from his friend U Nu, and Bogyoke Aung San, to U Thant in Pantanaw to come to Rangoon and take charge of AFPFL publicity. U Nu had himself been forced out of his “retirement” by his younger friend Aung San; when U Nu emerged as Vice-President of the League, he decided to conscript U Thant. x

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Thus back to Rangoon with high hopes, with a definite plan to start a monthly English magazine called “Burma”, U Thant came. But the magazine did not appear. U Thant could not stay at the League for long. He was sent off to the Information Department to take charge of the press section. Times were critical then, and it was thought that the Information Department, up till then manned by British ICS and British newsmen imported from England on princely salaries, needed good Burmese writers with a flair for publicity and public relations, with sympathy and understanding. Such men were rare, and U Thant was obviously one, and so he went. He was an immediate success in his new role. He wrote well and profusely, objectively and with sympathy. The reporters and foreign correspondents adored him. He worked hard, often writing into the late hours of the night. He was infinitely patient. It was not an easy job, but he handled it with poise and grace and unruffled calm. He rose rapidly in the Department, becoming Director, then Director of Broadcasting and

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Deputy Secretary in the Ministry, and later Secretary. There have, so far been only two people who have been admitted from “outside” into the higher ranks of the Civil Service: U Thant, and U Vum Ko Hau who has now become Minister to France and Holland. Otherwise the way to the top in the Civil Service lies through entry by competitive examination and working up on seniority and merit (and a little political pull, these days, they say) or by rising from the ranks. One of the first things that U Thant did when he became Press Director in September 1947 was to seek me out at the University where I was adrift as a tutor in English and offer me the editorship of the “New Times of Burma” then published by the Information Department. I thought he showed good taste in choosing me, and I accepted. I am glad I did. I had a wonderful time for a few months, until the paper was sold, working with U Thant and “Tawtha” U Khin Maung. x

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One sweet thing about U Thant is that he develops and matures and rises in his career without apparently changing. He takes things in his stride. He keeps his modesty and soberness. He has now been Secretary to the Prime Minister for over two years. He has been everywhere at the side of U Nu: in Colombo at the Colombo Power meetings, in Bandung, in Moscow, Peking, Washington, and most of the world capitals. He has served on goodwill missions to Thailand and Indonesia, on Burmese delegations to the UN. The last few years, he has lived in a suitcase. His original purpose of going to the Prime Minister’s Office was to undertake the task set to him by the full Cabinet of writing on Burma’s freedom movement: he applied himself to the task conscientiously, but more and more being called upon to depute for the Premier, he found it less and less easy to write. Up to now he has only done two volumes which will be published by the Government soon, but he does not feel happy that he has been able to accomplish so little — by his exacting standards. Doubtless U Thant would love to retire from government office and devote himself to writing, and to just being with his family. His wife Daw Thein Tin, daughter Aye Aye Thant, and son Maung Tin Maung Thant, have seen so little of him the last few years; they have a claim.

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Doubtless U Thant would better enjoy being with his family than attending official receptions in Rangoon or other capitals of the world. He would like to write, and publish, and it has always been his fond wish to edit a literary weekly paper. Yet, it seems, for some more years, those claims and those personal wishes must wait. Public demands are there and for U Thant they take priority over the private.

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Section III, P, Profile

THAKIN THAN TUN

E

ight years in the jungle, at least four of them spent on constant flight from pursuing government troops, eight years of hope and ambition, promise and frustration, eight years of fighting the “people’s war” as willed by the comrades abroad. Eight years, he knew now — in fact he has always known in his shrewd, innermost heart — of utter folly. Those eight years have done much to Thakin Than Tun, leader of the White Flag Communists, or the Burma Communist Party, the Stalinist faction (perhaps now Thakin Than Tun, to keep abreast with movements in Moscow, is calling himself a Leninist) of the Burma communists. In the eight years, Thakin Than Tun, leader of the White Flags, hero of the revolution, Marshal of the Grand Army, has developed in the wrong way for a communist, even as his plans and programmes have gone the wrong way. Eight years ago when the “revolution” began hopes of its early success were good. The Government had not firmly established itself. The Armed forces were weak and rent with internal differences

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Thakin Than Tun” in The Guardian III, no. 12 (October 1956): 33–36, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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and conflicting loyalties. His war was the spark which set off the general blaze. He only had to begin. Then the People’s Volunteer Organization, which he held in supreme contempt, followed. The disloyal elements in the Armed Forces followed. And the impatient Karen nationalist organisation under the mercurial Saw Ba U Gyi. All looked well in 1948 and 1949. There was hardly any vital part of the country which was not affected by insurrection. It was indeed a free country. Armed bands roamed, sacking cities, plundering government treasuries, and rich people, in the name of the masses. All roads led to Rangoon where the Government lay besieged. Yet, the plans did go wrong. The besieged Government did fight back and rally the nation. All roads did not enter Rangoon, after all. The Grand Army fell back, was routed. The KNDO fell back, were routed. The PVO — well, they did not count, never did. Gathering all the broken inconsistent and incompatible elements round him, Thakin Than Tun built his fortress in Prome and Magwe areas, to plan for and promise complete victory of the “liberation forces” in 2 years. He was an impatient man, but a man possessed. His hunger for power was only sharpened by denial. He had waited long, been thwarted many times. He must not miss this time. x

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Than Tun was born in 1911 at Kanyutkwin as a son of a timber merchant. People say he has some Indian blood in him, but he himself rarely spoke about his parents and people: he was not the soft or sentimental type. He grew to be a tough young man, good in his studies in school, ambitious and possessed of what people call the “one track mind”. He passed his high school final examination from Pyinmana, and went to the Teachers’ Training School in Rangoon for a diploma in teaching. He read a good deal, could write lucid and forceful English and Burmese. After taking his diploma, he took a teaching job at the Indian high school in Kandawglay, Rangoon. It was as a school-teacher that Than Tun met his young contemporaries who were destined to play such prominent roles in Burma’s future. He met Aung San at the University, and U Nu. He liked to wander round at the University where Nyo Mya, editor of the “Oway” magazine published

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by the Students Union, made him welcome, for he was a good willing, and prolific writer, the kind of man that a magazine editor cannot do without. Under different pen-names, some of them feminine such as “Ma Khin Than”, Than Tun wrote in both languages, on many subjects His favourite subjects were, of course, the nationalist movement, the old but ever topical anti-colonial theme. In his articles he also gave advice to young politicians: how to gain popularity (without which a politician cannot make much headway); the need to publish articles, commentaries, analyses, etc. in every paper that would publish them, because that was a means of gaining popularity as well as influence; the need to be shameless and unabashed, to persevere until one gained the seats of power. One or two days every week Than Tun would go to the University and talk with editor Nyo Mya, or politician Aung San, and share their hostel meal at the Central Dining Hall. The company gave him intellectual nourishment, and was a welcome change from teaching boys at his Chettyar school. There, at the University he also met and made friends with Ba Hein who had come from the Mandalay College. It was a gathering of young men, fired by some ideals, excited with Marxism and Fabianism and the liberal ideas which they received from books and Penguin publications. Ba Hein and Thakin Soe, already deep in communism, were the closer friends of Than Tun. They often ate and slept at the house of their writer-humorist friend “Zawana” in 37th. Street, Rangoon. Than Tun would talk endlessly, burning with ambition. Thakin So would read, prowling about the Bernard Free Library all the time, or the bookshops, where, unable to buy, he would just stand and read a book page by page, day by day. Ba Hein later remembered his two companions with some affection: “Both were very much alike: in their ugliness, in their slovenly way of dressing. Both were darkish, dwarfish, square-jawed, broad-browed. Both looked common, as if they had sprung from the streets. They were my constant companions at the house of Zawana, uninvited guests, until at last Zawana got quite fed up with us, and to rid himself of us, had to take himself a wife. Then Than Tun rented a room of his own and we moved camp there.”1 Than Tun joined the Dobama Asiayone, became a Thakin, and an Executive Committee member in charge of agriculture. That meant

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he had to organize the peasants, and take an interest in their affairs, which he did thoroughly and successfully. He and the new young leaders — Nu, and Aung San — got the old Thakins out and built a new and dynamic Dobama Asiayone. Thakin Ba Sein, Thakin Tun Ok, and the old founder-Thakins got shoved off; for Thakin Than Tun it was his first chance to use his genius for shoving people off to make way for himself. x

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Thakin Than Tun was at that time a nationalist more than a Marxist. He dabbled in the politics of the University Students Union (as a plotter behind the screen, rather than participant, for he was never a student of the University). He helped to run the “Nagani”, Red Dragon book club. He was an organizing talent in the Dobama Asiayone. But Than Tun was not a confirmed or dogmatic communist. In 1940 he went as one of a delegation from the Asiyone to the Ramgarh conference of the All India Congress, and like Aung San who was also in the delegation, he came back inspired. He admired Nehru, whom he casually met, and whom he regarded as one of the great leaders of Asia. He regarded himself, after Ramgarh as one of Nehru’s friends in Burma. So much so that when, in June, 1942, after the Japanese had overrun Burma, Than Tun met Thein Pe who was trying to slip out to India to keep the flame of resistance burning from there, Than Tun advised his friend to look up Nehru and seek help. “Go and see Nehru,” he said grandly, “do not hesitate to ask for help from him, including loans of money should you need them. He is my personal friend.” Thein Pe asked for a letter of introduction, and Than Tun gently refused saying: “There’s no need for it. You only have to mention my name”.2 Thein Pe did not say whether he went to see Pandit Nehru, and whether the mention of Than Tun’s name worked the promised magic. Anti-British activities landed Than Tun in jail in 1940, as it did many of the Thakins. Thakin Soe, Ba Hein, and U Nu were gradually moved to the Mandalay jail, as the Japanese invasion columns pushed up from the south. Dr Ba Maw, leader of the Freedom Bloc, got moved to Mogok. Thakin Than Tun finally found himself in Monywa jail. In Mandalay jail, the Chinese generals negotiated with U Nu for a pact to

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rally Burma’s politicians against the advancing Japanese. Thakin Soe volunteered to get out and rally the people and, in the last resort, to go to China and carry on from there. Than Tun in Monywa jail had no strong opinions about the Chinese, the Japanese, or the British. He waited for his time to come, and it came. x

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What Thakin Than Tun had done in politics — his achievements, his sacrifices — could be counted on the fingers when the time for his greatness came. He had been active in the Youth Improvement Service; he had helped the Nagani Book-club; he was secretary of the peasants organisation, and executive for the organisation in the Dobama Asiayone; he had read and written; he had made anti-British speeches at Myaungmya in 1940 for which he was jailed. He had but made his debut; yet, when the time came, and some form of national government was to be formed, Thakin Than Tun, short and square-jawed, towered among his Thakin contemporaries, and he was a natural choice for a Cabinet appointment. He was in the Administration Executive, led by Dr Ba Maw, which was an advisory body to the Japanese commanderin-chief; he was made Minister for Agriculture on August 1, 1943, when Burma was declared to be “independent”. When the hour of triumph came, Thakin Than Tun was ready. He felt no qualms of embarrassment. He did not lack confidence. He wore his European dress, complete with flashy tie, and liked to speak English. He enjoyed being a Minister and proved that he was a good one. His agricultural reforms were intelligent and well-meaning. He got on well. In the early part of the occupation, he did not lose sleep over thinking about the ills of occupation. He did not get hot under the collar, planning for resistance. The Hon’ble Thakin Than Tun — destined to be an Hon’ble for the first and last time for many a long year — married Daw Khin Gyi, sister of Daw Khin Kyi (Mrs Aung San), during the war. Aung San and Than Tun, sharing similar romantic experience, became by a whim of fate, brothers by marriage. The father-in-law is a Christian pastor, devout and true. Aung San managed to win his wife to Buddhism. Than Tun had no strong feelings; he was later to live the godless life of communism, and it hardly mattered.

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The Japanese Emperor awarded the Order of the Rising Sun to the Hon’ble Thakin Than Tun, who, as, Minister of Agriculture, and later Minister of Commodities Distribution, and Chairman of the Co-operation Commission of the Burmese Government and the Japanese, had rendered outstanding service. Only later in 1944 was Thakin Than Tun converted to the resistance movement which was primarily one initiated by young officers of the Army. Only when he saw the expediency of the movement did he decide to associate with it. The Anti-Fascist Organization thus came into vague being in the middle of 1944, with nine leaders representing the Army, the “Burma Revolutionary Party” which was the ancestor of the Socialists, and the Communists. Thakin Soe who was wandering in the Delta proclaiming resistance but doing nothing, was brought to Rangoon, and the final plans were laid for the resistance. “Fight the Fascist Marauders!” cried out the manifesto, and the Army carried the message all over the land, and helped to organise pockets of resistance. The BRP also lent “cadre leaders”. The Communists lent ideology to the movement; they supplied political commissars who were to do all the reaping of results after all the fighting was done by the Army and lesser breeds. x

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The ruthless plotter in Thakin Than Tun came out again when the resistance was planned. The idea was to send a commissar to every resistance zone and Than Tun planned to send people like U Kyaw Nyein whom he early recognised as a future rival, to Pyinmana where the communists were strong, so that the liquidation of U Kyaw Nyein in the confusion of the war should conveniently take place. Similarly U Ba Swe was to remain behind in Rangoon and hold the fort; if he survived he could be conveniently killed politically by branding him a collaborator. Thus, the ruthless plan went, and it was by accident that the plan went wrong. Ba Swe was arrested by the Japanese, and Kyaw Nyein decided to remain behind in Rangoon to organise and try to get his friend out. Than Tun himself escaped to Toungoo and comrade Ba Hein also went in the same direction. Thakin Soe went to the Delta as a supreme commissar, and the military zone commander and a leader of the military operations was General Ne Win.

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After the liberation, the communists were conspicuous on Burma’s political scene. Thakin Soe and Thakin Than Tun set up their communist headquarters in Sanchaung, gave classes to soldiers returning from the field. Girls and boys lived in the same headquarters, took lessons, ate together, lived freely together. It was a wonderful time. Young soldiers especially, returning from the war, were aimlessly wandering, looking for a cause, and something to do. The party welcomed them. The ideology was nourishing. The communist phraseology was like meat to the tongue, potent, tasty, satisfying. The party won many recruits. The Socialists, faithful to an earlier AFO pact not to start separate parties but to fight for freedom under one flag, were lagging and had lost much time when they started to join the race. Only the overwhelming support won by the AFPFL and Aung San saved the country from Communist party rule. x

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But wherever the seats of power were, there was Thakin Than Tun. When the AFPFL became a national front, Thakin Than Tun was there as General-Secretary. But his brother-by-marriage Aung San was the national hero. In the Communist Party too, it was Thein Pe who had returned from Calcutta, the “representative of the AFO in India”, the chief liaison with the Allies, who was the hero. Than Tun, a tenderfoot-communist, was in the Central Committee of the Party, not by right, but on merits — which meant push and manoeuvre. When the AFPFL nominated its leaders for eleven vacancies in Governor Sir Dorman-Smith’s Executive Council, Thein Pe was included, and Than Tun left out. The Governor objected to Thein Pe, and would not, in any case, give the AFPFL 11 seats in his Council of 15. The talks broke down, and it was only in September 1946 that the AFPFL got to form the Government. Then also, it was Thein Pe who became an Executive Councillor, Thein Pe who could swank about in the Austin Saloon then enjoyed only by Councillors and the very high-ups. Daw Khin Gyi, the wife of Thakin Than Tun, it was said, shed bitter tears, because her husband had missed being Minister. Once the wife of an Hon’ble, it was difficult to be the wife of a not so Hon’ble, especially when people like Thein Pe had become the Hon’bles. And the Austin Saloon. And the glamour and the good life of an Executive Councillor.

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There was cause for tears. Only, there was one consolation. Thein Pe did not enjoy the Saloon, and the salary, and the title, and the glamour for very long. The Communist Party was expelled from the AFPFL, and Thein Pe was forced to resign as Councillor. x

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Much of what happened later is more or less well known. How Thakin Than Tun, in anger and bitterness, went about, after the Communists were expelled from the AFPFL, to excite and gather strength for rebellion. How, in the twilight that fell on Burma with the murder of Aung San, the Communist forces grew, and became aggressive. How, as a final strategem, admission to the League and nearly succeeded, but how, in the end, blindly obeying foreign instructions and plans, he led his men into rebellion. How he gradually, surely, and cunningly liquidated opposition to himself, and cleared his progress to Party leader, Thakin Soe was branded the Trotskyite and turned out into the wilderness. Thein Pe was brought crashing down from the hero’s pedestal, and reduced to diminutive size, stripped of Central Committee membership, sent away on six months’ leave of absence for “education”, and finally discarded. Even Goshal, the Indian master mind, found himself, once the Communists had taken to the jungle, being cut down to the size that Thakin Than Tun would allow to comrades who peopled his inner circle. It was a case of submission, or else … and Goshal submitted, as Bo Zeyya did, and Bo Yan Aung did, and Bo Po Kun, the baffled old leader of the baffled young PVO, did. In the jungle, which was first friendly, then neutral, and now hostile, Thakin Than Tun reigned supreme. First it was victory in two years, and death to the “Nga Nu Asoya”. Those were the years of victory when Thakin Than Tun could haughtily preach stern measures even to force the submission of the people he professed to love. “On March 12, 1950, Than Tun at Prome conference of the Democratic Front declared that it was not necessary to ask the people whether it would be good if such and such a thing was done. Do it right away if you think it is good, … He chided the party cadres for being shy in taxing the people and said in brilliant Burmese. You have become ‘min’ (official, bureaucrat, administrator, etc.) and you must behave like min.”3

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Then, the lean years. His forces falling apart. His arms and ammunition getting old and useless. The people getting sick of one min after another. And most of all, no foreign aid from Red China, nothing from Moscow, nothing but kind words, and propaganda about his people’s war, nothing but a kind word on the radio or a few lines in the state-controlled press. And he wanted guns, money, food, equipment; he wanted more forceful, more tangible aid, of which there was none … Worse still, Chou-En-Lai came to Rangoon, and smiled and shook hands with U Nu and the AFPFL leaders, in public, IN PUBLIC! Even worse still, Bulganin and Khruschev came to Rangoon, and did the same. Every time Chou-En-Lai smiled his well-trained smile to U Nu, Than Tun had to call a party conference, and reassure his comrades that things were still good, and nothing was amiss, and if Chou-En-Lai’s smile was dialectically dissected, they would find the real meaning etc. Every time Bulganin and Khrushchev said something kind about Burma, the same had to be done over again. x

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It is a crumbling world for Than Tun. The Union Defence Forces hunt him and hound him down. He is a frightened fox. His men have started to criticise him. More and more of them are giving up to the Government, confessing past errors. Those who remain with him are restive. In a document dated March 17, 1955, circulated by nine front-rank young Communist leaders in the Communist world, criticism against their once infallible leader was frank and bitter. Than Tun’s errors were recounted as ruthlessly as he himself had the errors of his comrades. He had erred in going into rebellion without adequate preparations, and at the bidding of foreign parties. He had erred in supporting the Nu-Attlee agreement at first, and welcoming the independence. He had erred on the side of optimism in promising victory in 2 years. He had erred in thinking he could fight his way towards China, and have a communist state, and springboard, in the hills under the protective umbrella of Red China. He had erred in alienating the PVO and other brethren-insurgents. He had erred in exploiting racialism to make use of the KNDO. x

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Minus the errors, minus the blinding ambition, Thakin Than Tun is a great leader. Without his abilities, without his political wisdom and cunning, without all the stuff that he has in him, he could not have led a movement and kept it alive for so long against such odds. No-one will deny that he is an abler politician and leader than many of the leaders who lead Burma today. No-one will dispute that should he be operating within the framework of law, he would be a formidable politician to contend with, and a candidate for the premiership. Yet, the ways of the world work strangely. Thakin Than Tun still continues to flee from the law, with a prize af k. 1 lakh on his head (which means his value has gone up 40 times since May, 1948, when the prize offered was k. 2,500). Some say he is the victim of cruel, creeping paralysis, and he is a spent man. Maybe that is true. Maybe that is part truth, and part wishful thinking on the part of the Government. But Thakin Than Tun has made enough history for Burma in the postindependence period. Or rather, he has broken enough history. It is time he comes out and help to repair the damage done. Notes 1. In an introduction to “Burma’s Revolution” by Thakin Soe, published in 1939. 2. In “Traveller in War-time”, by Thein Pe Myint. Shumawa publication 1953. 3. “Political Memoirs” by Thein Pe Myint, Shwepyidan Press, 1956.

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Section III, Q, Profile

M.A. RASCHID1

B

urma is a young country in which young men rule. For good or ill these times in this country are the times of the young. When, therefore, the rise of Burma from colonial servitude to independent nationhood is traced, the University Students Strike of 1936 is usually seen as the decisive turn of the tide. The Strike struck the clarion call to the nation, it is said, and the nation woke to the call. The strike hurled up the young student leaders from leadership on the college campus to the larger leadership of the nation, it is said. The strike discovered Ko Nu, later Thakin Nu, now U Nu; Aung San, later Thakin Aung San, General Aung San, now deathlessly Bogyoke Aung San; and a galaxy of young leaders who now, collectively contribute the leadership of the country. Young historians, too full of the achievements and exploits of youth, too eager to extol the young rulers, like to see the Strike of 1936 as the beginning of Burma’s history. That would be a rather wrong view to

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “M.A. Raschid” in The Guardian III, no. 14 (December 1956): 27–34, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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take, for in Burmese history there have been such figures as Anawrahta and Kyansittha, Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung, Alaungpaya and Mindon, U Ottama and U Ba Pe, Dr Ba Maw and U Pu, U Saw…even U Saw. For history, like a great river, flows on, fed by little creeks and canals, streams and rivulets, itself ultimately flowing into larger seas and oceans, mingling with the waters of other rivers, flowing endlessly on into broader lands. But the Strike of 1936 was a landmark in the nationalist movement in Burma, a distinct milestone. Student leaders who led the Strike were unaware, though they dreamed of, greater destines for themselves. Many who belong to the generation of the strikers now like to claim to have actively participated in the strike, or even to have led it. Many who did not make names in the strike, like to say today they were “behind the scene” workers. Many of such claims are true, many untrue. Yet, there is not a soul to deny that if Ko Nu was the cause, in part, of the strike, and the inspirer and dreamer in the strike, it was M.A. Raschid who organized it and gave meaning and life to it. If it was Ko Nu who delivered the speeches, stars shining in his eyes, and moved the masses to anger or to tears, it was Raschid who organized the day to day affairs of the strike and gave sustenance to it after the early emotions and passions had cooled. If it was Ko Nu who thundered mightily against the University Act, which was, he said, the very symbol of tyranny under which the students, nay, the peoples of Burma, writhed in mortal agony, it was Raschid who read up the Act at midnight while the strikers slept on the Shwedagon after a good full meal and a game of cards and Ko Nu slept in the peace of the sincere who had unburdened himself of his thoughts and his speeches, Raschid who read the Act — for someone must read it sometime — to find some good points to prove it was bad. Let the historians therefore value the Strike as they wish. Let them extol it to the moon. Or let them reduce it to near zero. Let them call it the movement, or a movement; let them call it the beginning, or the culmination, or let them say it was neither, but only a ripple in the ocean of the national struggle. Let the historians, say what they wish, and argue wisely and hotly forever. But on one point they must concur: that Raschid was the soul of the Strike. x

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Young Raschid was born of Indian parents who were domiciled in and dedicated to Burma. His father was Mr M.A. Shakur, a businessman, whose father came to Burma in 1885. Mr Shakur therefore looked upon Burma as his country — which was true legalistically for both India and Burma were part of the British empire — but his tie to the country was more of love than of law. The first son, Rauf,2 was born in 1901 in Rangoon. The second son, Raschid was born in 1912, by chance in Allahabad where his mother went for a brief sojourn. Raschid came back to Rangoon with his mother when he was a 3-year-old. Mr Shakur was a progressive businessman who encouraged education and the arts, loved music — he introduced gramophone records to Burma, and the “Great” Po Sein, who was not so great at that time, to records. He was public spirited. When World War I broke out, his loyalty was to Turkey, a Muslim nation, and he expressed his loyalties aloud and in public places. The Government heard him, and placed him under house arrest for over two years (Turkey was Germany’s ally, and Britain’s enemy). Mr Shakur thus had the honour of being one of the early political detainees in Burma. Young Raschid visited his father in Taunggyi, a young boy who could not quite understand why the Government was angry with his father, and why his father was being kept away from Mama and the family. The young Raschid knew enough, though, to feel angry with the Government which was angry with his father. x

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At school, young M.A. Raschid was brilliant. He won the middle school scholarship and stood first in the high school final exams, bagging five distinctions. Randeria High School was proud of her son. Not in the academic studies alone was Raschid outstanding. He was a brilliant and keen debater, a tireless organizer, one who wanted to be doing things all the time. He won elocution contests, served many clubs and societies as secretary or executive committee member; he was ever expanding into broader horizons; he could not be contained. When he got to the University, Raschid was already an accomplished speaker and an experienced organizer. It was natural, therefore, that when Mahatma Gandhi visited Burma in 1928 Raschid should be on the organizing committee arranging the rousing receptions, and the lecture

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meetings. Natural that when Sen Gupta came the next year, Raschid should again be a prominent member of the reception committee; the reception was so successful that riots broke out; Sen Gupta was prosecuted for uttering sedition at a public meeting which was presided over by Maung Maung Ji, with Raschid as secretary. Those were historic events. A bigger historic event awaited. That was the founding of the Rangoon University Students Union on September 20, 1930. A mass meeting of students made the decision to have a Union, on the lines of the Unions in Oxford and Cambridge, for debating, for sports, for encouraging the arts and drama and extra-mural activities. Politics was far away from the minds of the students who met that fateful day of September, 1930. Times were tranquil. The move to organize the Union was supported by the Principal and the University authorities, and an allocation was made to raise the present Union Building. A constitution committee to which Kyaw Khin, Ba Gyan, Tint Swe,3 and a few others were elected, was charged with drafting a constitution for final submission to the students in general assembly, and Raschid, then in the senior intermediate of science class, was co-opted to the committee. The draft was finished, submitted, and adopted in 1931, and Kyaw Khin was elected the first President of the RUSU, Po Ku, the Vice-President, and Raschid the Secretary. The first skirmish that the Union Executive had to fight with the “authorities” was over the handing over of the Union Building when it was completed. The authorities wanted to bargain and put down terms, and the Executive would not accept any, and there were negotiations, but not fierce or angry ones, and ultimately the building was delivered up and the Union was well installed. The following year, when Po Ku retired from the Vice-Presidency of the Union, Raschid was, by an earlier understanding, to have moved up, ultimately serving for a year as President. But Kyaw Khin was a Muslim and Raschid, and some narrow-minded sections of the students began to murmur that the Union must not be dominated by the “Kalah”. It was an idle and irresponsible condemnation, for “kalah” was a loose term indiscriminately used to describe Indians or the British, or any foreigner, a term that was more correctly applied to aliens. And Raschid was no alien. His father and mother, were rooted in Burma (the father died in Rangoon in 1939, and the mother in 1952, in Rangoon), and he

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was brought up in Burma. He had helped to draft the constitution of the RUSU, helped to create it. The wild whispers therefore hurt Raschid, but he did not fight back as the University authorities urged him to. He simply withdrew, and did not seek election to the RUSU Executive until 1935. That year, an earnest, reformist group had met at the University; Kyaw Nyein had come from Mandalay, Ko Nu was there returned from his district teaching to read law, Aung San, Thein Pe and others. The group decided to storm and capture the RUSU, and invited Raschid to come on in. The expedition was a success: the fortress fell. Ko Nu became President, Raschid Vice-President, and Thi Han Secretary. Among the Executive Committee members were Aung San, Kyaw Nyein, Tun On, and Ko Ohn. It was a harmonious committee, “the most harmonious I have ever worked with,” as Aung San was to remember later. “The most successful” was Premier U Nu’s comment. The RUSU led by the committee organized debates getting political and intellectual giants of the time as Dr Ba Maw and U Saw to participate; literary competitions; sports events which discovered hairy-chested strong man of the campus, Khin Maung Latt, (now Judicial Minister) weight-lifter and all round sportsman. 1935 thus drew to its close; for the RUSU it was a year of fulfilment, and the Executive could say, with pride and happiness, that their ideal of the Oxford or Cambridge Union was nearly fully achieved. The examinations hoved on the horizon. To all visible outward appearances nothing untoward lay between them. But appearances were deceptive. Towards the end of the year, President Ko Nu made a speech in which he said Principal Sloss was unfair to students in many ways. The Principal did not like the speech, and dismissed Ko Nu. The incident caused murmurs among the students, but the storm was yet to break, and it was only the beginning. Two months later, the first issue the RUSU magazine “Oway” (The Peacock) came out. In the letters to the editor section, a letter entitled “Hell Hound at Large” leapt at the reader with fierceness, even as the hell hound, the subject of it, must have. The letter exposed and condemned a “pimping knave with avuncular pretensions to some weakling wenches of a well-known ladies’ hall”. The pimping knave was easily identified as a member of the staff who had a weakness for wenches and a name as a mischief-maker. The letter won applause and

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approval, even from the wenches of the well-known hall themselves. All over the college campus, the letter spread like fire. Principal Sloss came to hear about it, read it, and did not like it. He called upon Aung San, the editor of the “OWAY” to reveal the identity of the writer and Aung San, conforming strictly to journalise ethics and etiquette, refused. Angry Sloss dismissed Aung San from the college for three years. This time, the RUSU committee decided they should not take things lying down. The dismissal of Ko Nu had been tolerated; in fact Ko Nu himself did not bother much, and was latter to return his B.A. degree to the University. But the dismissal of Aung San must be protested. The committee members unanimously decided to forgo the approaching examinations as a gesture of protest, and to convene a mass meeting of the students to report. Raschid presided over the meeting. Ko Nu, being a concerned party, felt he should sit by and not influence the students. Raschid merely reported the situation calmly, and announced the committee’s decision to forgo the examinations. At that fateful meeting he was calm itself. But the students demanded action. “Strike”, “Declare a Strike”, cried they. This reaction was largely spontaneous, though certain pools of students placed in the hall by more determined RUSU leaders helped to fan the fire. The placed students started, and the mass followed, but the anger and the indignation were already there, only seeking outlet. Raschid cautioned the comrades to think carefully, to keep cool, and think again. But his words of caution were swept away in the storm that arose, as he himself was swept off and carried bodily to the buses which were already lined up outside the Union Hall to take the students to the strikers camp. The buses were not spontaneous; they were planned; but the students who jumped into buses did not suffer from doubt. One of the students, Thein Tin by name and Nyo Mya as he called his pen was perhaps the most enthusiastic of them all. He felt they were on the right path for a just cause. He went round in buses, stopped outside Inya and called out to the girls to come out and join the crusade. His sister, Ma Ma Gyi was there, and he aimed his clarion call at her primarily, and as she came out, so did a heartening few. Ma Ah Mar, and Ma Khin Mya, Ma Khin Si and Ma Yi Yi, and others. Nyo Mya shouted till he was hoarse, till his dark skin reddened with his patriotic endeavours. He was in his elements. Besides he ought to be enthusiastic

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about the strike, for he it was who wrote that fatal letter about that now notorious hell hound. Nyo Mya, the brother of an ICS, the favourite of the Professors, particularly the Professor of English, Rhodes who was always to remember with fondness what he called Nyo Mya’s “dying lizard look”. Nyo Mya, the impish and unpredictable. When Sloss was told that Nyo Mya wrote the offending letter, he would not believe it, reasoning that Nyo Mya could not have used the big words because he did not know them… What Sloss believed or disbelieved did not matter. The strike was on. To the Shwedagon the buses streamed their way, emitting heir lusty slogans. For nearly three months, the Shwedagon became the centre of all eyes in Burma. x

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The Strike stirred the peoples. From the very first moment, it became a national affair. The press gave their whole heart to the cause, and every day for as long as the Strike lasted, Strike news were front-page news blown up in the biggest, blackest headlines. The very day that the strikers arrived on the Shwedagon camp, newspaper reporters gathered round the leaders, eager, thoroughly partisan, anxious to serve. The first press conference, however, could not draw forth from Ko Nu or any one of the leaders any definite statement of the causes and the aims of the Strike. The reason was that no careful thought had yet been given to those matters. Students had risen from their assembly and launched upon their movement largely on impulse. It was an explosion of long pent-up feelings, mixed feelings wounded by many injustices. But a war could not be fought on wounded feelings alone; there had to be some defined objectives, and a plan for their attainment. The leaders, on the advice of more experienced editors, decided to stall, and keep their announcement of plans and policies till the next day. And that night, through the night, and till the dawn came up and the little birds started chirping on the trees, Raschid worked: reading up the University Act, finding the flaws; thinking up demands to make; setting goals for the strike and planning the details of the advance to them. Raschid one of the principal drafters of the RUSU constitution, once again became a principal giver of meaning and purpose to the strike.

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Students on the Shwedagon were mightily sustained. Dr Ba Maw, then Education Minister, was openly sympathetic. The press were allies. Leading citizens of Rangoon helped. Deedok U Ba Choe and U Kyaw Myint, now eminent barrister, professor of law, and ex-Supreme Court Judge, were among those who personally saw to the welfare and needs of the young warriors. Food was no problem. There were more food parcels coming in every day than could be consumed. Many men students and women students who camped on the Shwedagon gained weight. The people gave unquestioning support. Parents sent telegrams to their daughters at the camp: “We are proud of you. Carry on!”, and the telegrams were stuck on the notice boards and all read and were cheered. Ko Nu stood out as the leader of the strike. He was the impassioned speaker, the inspirer. He specialised in speaking, after having daily practised the gestures of Mussolini and Hitler, and all the leaders of the world they had then heard or read about. One pleasant pastime on the Shwedagon among the leaders was to strike different poses and get photographed. They were practising, they said, half-jokingly, half seriously, for the time when they would lead the nation; today, most of them are leading and most of their Shwedagon gestures remain with them, having become parts of them. But gestures were not enough, speeches were not enough. For daily sustenance there must be substance, and Raschid was one of the greatest providers of it. He worked hard, and when he reported every day — speaking invariably in calm, precise English which he had probably crystallised in the chemical laboratory while reading for his science degree — he gave new life and new hope, “Without him”, one of the leaders of the Strike now remembers, “we would have been lost.” Ko Nu travelled a lot in the country, making speeches, rousing students in the districts. Once, in Henzada, touring with Raschid, he made speeches all day and held conferences with local leaders all night. After a tiring day, Raschid had retired to bed when Ko Nu came in, excited, and woke him. Ko Nu was in an awkward situation: he had told the local leaders that the Strike was against the University Act which was all wrong, and they had wanted to know where the Act was wrong, and what could be done about it. Ko Nu, not having read the Act, could not answer. He owned that he did not know the answers, and

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would get Raschid “who knew everything” to answer for him. Raschid shook off his sleep and went to the job, doing it well. Later he grumbled that Ko Nu could have given some satisfactory answer to the local leaders, and need not have confessed his ignorance of what he was fighting for. But Ko Nu only smiled; “We must be honest”, he said. x

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The three months of the Strike were a period of activity and fulfilment for Raschid and his colleagues. For Raschid, triumph was not unmixed with embittering experience. While the mass of the students gladly followed him and placed their hopes for the movement on him, malicious tongues went at him. He was a “Kalah” it was whispered again, and he should not be trusted with top leadership. Some die-hard “Thakins” went round trying to poison the minds of some students against him. Without his knowing it, brawls broke out behind his back: once, for example, Tha Hla, now Dr Tha Hla, professor of geology, offered to fight in defence of Raschid; the professor was prompt with his fists even then. There were also rumours that Raschid was scheming to oust Ko Nu from the top leadership, that the two had fallen out. To kill the rumours, the two had to pose, eating together, for the press. However, rumours and whispers could not touch Raschid anymore; his was tested and proven quality. When the strike was called off, and the students dispersed to prepare for their examinations (there was no effort to evade exams or get concessions in them, no thought of demanding easier standards or compartmental concessions), Raschid had emerged with a solid reputation. More, he had won good and loyal friends. “I love all those who love Burma; I love all those who are honourable…I’ve loved, respected and followed you,” wrote Ko Nu in Raschid’s autograph book on May 14, 1936. Even a future communist could not help admiring him. “I understand you — that’s all,“ wrote Ba Hein. Thinking in broader terms of unity in the national movement, Kyaw Nyein saw the strikers camp as a meeting ground of like minds, the big military base from which the battalions would march forth together. “The strikers camp — where Kalah meets Bamah”, he wrote.

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From Aung San, always sparing in compliments, who had been moody and eccentric all through the strike and left much of the organization to Raschid and other friends came this comment: “No M.A. after our names. This is one point of resemblance between us, but many others too which you know of course. We too have served together on the Union E.C., and perhaps will have to do so till our death.” And he signed it, with a rare flash of smile, “M.A. San”. U Kyaw Myint welcomed the advent of Raschid warmly: “Let me welcome you now as a brother and a comrade in arms”. Their families were friends, but now the young friend was also a comrade. Nyo Mya who had mercilessly torn the “hell hound” to shreds with his pen and provoked the Strike, was in ecstasy about Raschid: finding prose inadequate he burst into poetry, and though the poetry was copied from some poet he had read somewhere it was still some poetry: “And I love Raschid as a comrade. I reverence Raschid as a leader… If I forget thee, O Raschid, let my right hand forget her cunning…” Nyo Mya’s right hand has not forgotten her cunning; presumably he has not forgotten his hero. x

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The Strike was a success. The dismissals were rescinded, conditions at the University were much improved. Enquiry commissions went over existing problems with impartiality, and Student leaders such as Ko Nu and Raschid were either on the commissions or invited by them to make their case. A representative of the RUSU was also given a seat on the supreme governing body of the University — the Council — and Raschid became the first Councillor nominated by the Union. Further demonstrations of confidence in him were shown by his friends to Raschid. Soon after the Strike, the All Burma Students Union was formed, and it was Raschid who was unanimously elected its first President. Raschid again, the next session, who was elected President of the RUSU, so that that year he was President of both the organizations — a unique situation. Aung San was Vice-President of the RUSU, and the following year became President of the ABSU.

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About the time that Aung San was to be installed as President of the ABSU, Pandit Nehru came on a visit to Burma, and Raschid was elected Secretary of the Reception Committee. That was his first meeting with the Pandit, the beginning of a friendship that has grown closer with the passage of all these years. An amusing incident happened in Mandalay at an assembly of students which Nehru addressed. The assembly was also to install Aung San as the new President. After Raschid, the retiring President, had installed his successor, Aung San got up and spoke, waving his hands, brandishing his first, using all the gestures he had practised on the Shwedagon and in the privacy of his room. The gestures were perhaps a little too much on the violent side, for his clumsily tied “longyi” could not bear the strain too long, and slipped and sagged down. For a moment, the new valiant President was fully exposed, except for a brief underwear. Students saw the crisis and were dismayed. But Pandit Nehru took it in calmly; did not laugh. Nor did his daughter Indira. Perhaps they both thought it was part of the ceremony and the ritual, and Aung San was only laying bare his soul, or trying to prove he was every inch a patriot. x

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The College years were thus full and fruitful for Raschid. A good science degree, a law degree — which he took in 1937 winning distinctions, falling short of standing first by just one mark — a historic Strike. And more, a pretty, well-matched wife. All were wonderful. Organizing the RUSU and its many healthy and wholesome activities, leading in the Strike, and such things provided the challenges to which Raschid could respond with all his faculties. Courting at Inya hall where his future wife lived — she took her B.A. later — provided an even greater challenge and deeper joys. The courtship was successful; Miss Fatima was his, or he was Miss Fatima’s and both, though Muslims and devout ones too, had liberal views, met frequently in the corridors, and talked endlessly on many subjects. It was a novelty in those days for a man student to talk to a lady student in the corridor, while people and time flowed by. The Raschi–Fatima romance was therefore noticed — especially also because they were both well-known people — and talked about and envied. In 1934, they married, with the blessings of the parents who

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looked kindly upon the love-match. The family have been happy; two sons arrived and have grown into brilliant young men, both of them now in England, one studying architecture, and one medicine. Time has passed, for one of the sons has even married, and soon the Raschid family will be blessed with grand-children. x

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If Mr Raschid’s story must be fully told — and that would not be possible for it is still unfolding — this is where it begins. The Strike was a big event and he was a vital part of it; but that is not all his story. The Strike drew him forth, maybe, and launched him, maybe, but a career does not end with its launching — at least not in Mr Raschid’s case. After taking his law degree, he went into practice, first as a junior to and then as a partner of his brother Dr Rauf who was then one of the brilliant young barristers of Rangoon. The law attracted Mr Raschid, and he did well, earning, in the very first year, a taxable income. But the law could not contain him; broader fields of public service lured him. Labour organizations were his first interest, then the social services which both he and his wife actively rendered. Party politics he avoided, though his old politics he avoided, though his old friends Aung San, Ko Nu and others “Thakins” and “revolutionaries” by then, continued to meet him to discuss and to depend on him, as “an earning member of the family” for funds. War came, and the Raschid family, gradually evacuating to Myitkyina were eventually and almost against their will, pushed across the border to India. The war years were a period of waiting in India for the day of their return home to Burma. Then back again in Rangoon, back again with Aung San (who sent for Mr Raschid, and interrupted a Cabinet meeting to talk about the past and the future), back at work. Aung San wanted to make his friend a Labour Minister or a Labour Adviser to the Cabinet, but Mr Raschid chose to serve as a non-official. Revision of labour laws, the industrial court, the trade unions and other labour matters made increasing claim on his time, but it was time well spent. Aung San fell, and Raschid carried on, giving prophetic meaning to Aung San’s message in his autograph book that they would serve on together till death stopped or parted them.

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U Nu, as good a scout for talent as any, brought Mr Raschid into the Cabinet, giving him the portfolio of Labour. As Minister, Mr Raschid has worked hard and accomplished much. Here and there, now and then, he came up against criticism that being a “Kalah” he favoured the “Kalah” or simply that being a “Kalah” he should not be in the Cabinet. Fortunately U Nu and his colleagues, and the country too, have been great enough to ignore those criticisms. In the Union Cabinet today there are people of “Kalah” blood and Chinese blood and members representing different racial groups, and sad would be the day which sees Burma’s affairs handled only by the narrow and limited circle of “pure Burman” — if ever there is such an animal. The rest is a catalogue. Labour affairs and ILO; housing and building projects; trade development and the exclusion of political privilege, the weeding out of corruption, and the introduction of method and system into the issue of import and export licenses (which gave rise to squeals of protest from these who were stripped of their privilege, and the racketeers); the frequent flights to India to negotiate for sale of rice (even the rock-like Indian Food Minister was moved by Mr Raschid to sign a contract for buying Burma rice, and Hindustan Standard editorially commented: Raschid was Right; he said he would get a contract, and he has!), the Indian loan; the recently elections to the Nationalities, which he won by massive majority in Rangoon; now the ministry of mines and the visits to mining areas in Tavoy and Mawchi, Kalewa and other faraway places which have rarely received visits from Ministers. Where ability and hard work can succeed, Mr Raschid will, for of those he has endless stock and capacity; where “politics”, narrow party considerations, and prejudice fling themselves in his path, he may only partially succeed or altogether fail. U Nu, with enthusiasm for Burmanization, wanted to rename his friend Mr Raschid as “U Yanshin” (Mr Immune-from-Harm). But Raschid was faithful to his birth and his name and would not have it, though he willingly made a concession about prefixing his name with “U”. And in his faithfulness to his origins, which only sharpens his loyalty to the homeland he has chosen, in his being a devout Muslim, in his being truthful and courageous, lie his values as one of Burma’s outstanding leaders.

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Notes 1. U Raschid now Minister for Mines, will be the last one to feel embarrassed for being referred to by his original name and initials as Mr M.A. Raschid. 2. Dr Rauf, doctor of civil law, barrister, practised successfully for many years before the war at the Rangoon bar. After the war, he came back and was appointed Indian Representative, later High Commissioner, and finally the first Indian Ambassador to Burma. After an exceptionally long tour of duty in Rangoon, he was transferred as Ambassador to Tokyo, and is now Indian Ambassador in Ottawa. 3. Now: U Kyaw Khin, B.Sc. B.L., Advocate, ex-M.P. U Ba Gyan, B.A., B.L., Advocate, ex-Judicial Minister. Major Tint Swe, Union Defence Forces.

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Section III, R, Profile

DR E MAUNG

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olitics is a demanding mistress. She draws irresistibly, destroys ruthlessly, loves recklessly. Once caught by her one cannot escape, and, more often than not, one does not even try. Dr E Maung got caught rather late in life. He had already left behind him a long career as lawyer and scholar and was already a Judge of the Supreme Court, the pinnacle of a Bar career, when out of nowhere politics came and seduced him. Being a scholar, he wanted to learn; being a perpetual experimenter he was curious; he allowed himself to be seduced, making mental notes, all the time, perhaps for a future book. By the time he had learnt enough, his Bench career was doomed, and he was hurled, apparently, into the wilderness. Politics, the ruthless destroyer, become the reckless, ardent lover again, wept over the ashes of his Bench career, resurrected him and made him a hero, sent him to Parliament, a fighter for “Justice”. Maybe the mistress has turned faithful and she will help him on to greater glories. Maybe the destroyer in her will one day turn upon him, one

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Dr E Maung” in The Guardian IV, no. 3 (March 1957): 25–30, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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day when she gets tired of loving and wants to do a little weeping and beating her breasts. But just now those breasts are his happy home. x

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Born in January 1898 in Monywa, E Maung was cut out from the start for a brilliant scholastic career. At the age of 20, he graduated from the Rangoon College with first class honours in Mathematics. He went on to Cambridge and took a double Tripos in Mathematics and Law in 1921. In the Law Tripos he stood fourth in the whole University; one of his contemporaries, A.T. Harris who stood second, later became Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. After he was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1922, he returned to Rangoon to practise. He rose quickly in those golden times for Barristers. Had he entered politics then, he could easily and quickly have attained leadership of national status; had he wanted to enter government service, the top posts were within reach; for those were happy, mellow years, during which to be a Barrister, of merely to have returned from England even, was to hold the key to the best that Burma had to offer, including moneyed brides. U E Maung chose learning and the law, spending his exuberance on writing books and the usual outlets of healthy, well-placed young men. U E Maung wrote his first treatise on Burmese Buddhist Law soon after his return to Rangoon. It was typical of him to write a learned study rather than a readable textbook. For him writing the book was an intellectual exercise. He posed problems and tried to solve them, or left them to wait for answers. His mathematical training gave him precision, his legal training gave him a quick mind which has ability to cut through to the essentials of a problem. His treatises, therefore, did not content themselves with making definitions or describing established principles; he tried to cut new paths and stimulate thinking. His first book was therefore not a best-seller, but it was profound. In a country in which mediocrity is comfortable, U E Maung spurned comfort and tried to excel, and two or three years after he had started practice, he had established himself quite a reputation as a scholar in Burmese Buddhist Law. In 1924 he was named, at the age of 26, Secretary to the Burmese Buddhist Law Codification Committee on which

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such people as Sir J.A. Maung Gyee, later to become the first Burmese Governor of Burma, U Theing Maung, now Chief Justice of the Union, U Tha Gywe, a Barrister from Mandalay and a well-known scholar in Buddhist Law, served as members. The Committee worked on a Code for six years, finished a draft which was later shelved. In 1923, U E Maung became Law Reporter, Indian Law Reports. Rangoon Series. The Reporter gets to read all the judgments passed by the High Court, and sifts them for publication in the Law Reports. In the process of ploughing through all the judicial pronouncements of the highest Court, the Reporter absorbs a lot of law, and for one with scholarly bent the job of Reporter — which is a part-time one that brings in little remuneration — provides marvellous opportunities. When I myself was appointed Law Reporter 32 years after U E Maung first took it, my inspiration was to learn the way U E Maung did, and U Kyaw Myint1 did, and build myself into a not too unworthy successor to them at the Bar. I am still learning. At the age of 28 U E Maung took on the job as part-time Lecturer in Law at the University College. The professor was Sir Arthur Eggar, a rower, a confirmed bachelor, a brilliant lawyer who had a zest for life. With Sir Arthur Eggar, Sir William Carr, and other lawyers and officials, U E Maung served on a Committee which investigated the problem of juvenile delinquency and drafted what later became the Prevention of Crimes Act. All through the years U E Maung built himself a reputation as a specialist in Burmese Buddhist Law, and a scholar and educationist. He did not need to venture into politics or other fields for outlets to his talent and energy, Educational movements attracted him, and he joined the “Nagani” (Red Dragon) leftist publishing house, as chairman of the board of directors; not because the book club promised to lend such great impetus to the nationalist movement but because it was primarily educational. His colleagues on the board of directors of the club were U Tin, now Minister for Trade Development, Tetpongyi Thein Pe now a fellow M.P. and of the same political camp, and U Nu. Similarly, when U E Maung appeared for the students before the Students Enquiry Commission which was formed in 1939 after the incident in which Aung Gyaw was killed, it was a legal challenge that he took rather than political. Thus U E Maung resisted politics, the temptress, while his colleagues

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at the Bar were either going after her in hot full-time pursuit or having exciting flirtations with her. x

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Should Burmese Buddhists be allowed to write wills? The legislature wanted to know, a few years before the War broke out. There were those who thought that the freedom to dispose of one’s earned wealth in any way one pleased should belong to the Burman Buddhists as much as to the Christians; some thought that the customs and traditions of the Burmese society in which the woman is no inferior being but an equal mate of the husband, inheriting his property and taking on his leadership in the family on his death should be preserved. The legislature referred the question to a Committee of experts of which Sir Ba U was chairman, and U Tun Aung2 a member; U E Maung was secretary. The Committee reported that the Burmese Buddhist should not be competent to write wills, and the Legislature accepted their recommendation. Thus, U E Maung has been associated with almost every distinct development of laws in Burma, especially the customary laws, ever since he returned from England as a young Barrister at the age of 24. He did not care much about criminal practice, but research interested him, and in Buddhist law he was not satisfied with reading the standard textbooks, but studied the original dhammathats and casebooks some of them in their original palm-leaf form. In 1940 U E Maung was appointed Government Advocate, a position that carried handsome emoluments and great prestige in those days. War came soon after, and U E Maung retired to a village in Thaton district, where he had three quiet years of reading and resting. In 1945 when the British came back, he rejoined service, to become Advocate-General. In April that year he was put on the United Kingdom team of top lawyers who went to Tokyo to conduct the prosecution in the war crimes trials. India sent her own team of prosecutors, as did the Dominions of the Commonwealth, but Burma was not invited to send her’s. U E Maung and a few others — of which Christmas Humphreys, Q.C., was one — composed the U.K. team. U E Maung gave a good performance as a prosecutor, and earned handsome fees in the bargain. He could not work with the team till the end of the trials, however, for in November

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he was appointed Judge of the High Court, and he came home to be sworn in. x

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Months of activity followed, and Justice E Maung could spend little time on the Bench. In January 1947 he represented Burma at the conference held in London on Commonwealth Nationality Laws. In July he went with U Tin Tut, Mahn Win Maung,3 U Ko Ko Gyi,4 Sao Hkun Khio and Vum Ko Hau,5 on an advance mission to London to prepare for the Nu — Attlee Agreement. Immediately after the Agreement was signed, U Nu decided that he and his top advisers should fly home to lay the Agreement before the people and explain it and get it accepted before the Communists denounced it. Thus U Nu, U E Maung, U Tin Tut, and U Nu’s Secretary, Bo Htun Lin came back, arriving in Rangoon on October 24, and going into a press conference at U Nu’s residence on Prome Road (now occupied by the Soviet Russian Embassy). U Nu said that all was well and his mission was 90 per cent successful, and it was a smooth and happy conference. The only survivor in office of those who met the press that day is U Nu, U Tin Tut died the following year, victim of a bomb attack. Bo Htun Lin, after occupying the high office of member of the Public Service Commission, went underground to lend his leadership to the confused PVO rebellion. U E Maung was to leave the Bench for high political positions, only later to wake up and find his Bench career destroyed and himself in the wide open spaces of the political field. x

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The temptress who had wooed him persistently began to win him by late 1947. After having helped to prepare the Nu-Attlee Agreement in London, after having taken a hand in building a new nation hood for Burma out of war and revolution, the Bench looked dull and unsatisfying. Yet the Bench, like the Bar, was his first and abiding love, and politics was the glamorous seducer; but who is ever warned against the seducer in time? As Judge of the High Court, U E Maung worked close to the political leaders, helping to draft the

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new constitution — a brother Judge, and his uncle by blood relation, Sir Ba U, also worked on the drafting committees. It was harder work than on the Bench, but it was Committees sat in interminable sessions, often late into the night, and talked endlessly, but amidst the talk and the heated debates the building of new Burma proceeded. The Constitution-drafting went ahead with speed. Here and there, there had to be some soul-searching for what the farmers wanted but the rest was routine. It was more or less a “cut and paste” affair, cutting out attractive sections from the Yugoslav constitution, may be, or the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, and pasting them on the draft of the Burma constitution: all that was wanted for those parts was a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue. But there were basic principles which had to be formulated, and which could not be borrowed, and over those the framers of the constitution were enlightened and far-visioned. Aung San particularly was impatient with non-essentials, but over basic principles he was sure and patient, fair and true to national interests. One vital question which Aung San could not help decide was whether Burma should be a Buddhist state. Deedok U Ba Choe was strongly in favour of writing it into the constitution that Burma was. U Pe Khin, a Muslim representative, was equally strongly against such a declaration. U Ba Choe used all his influence and eloquence to plead for his cause, and ultimately threatened to resign if the Burma for whose freedom he and his comrades had fought for was not to be proclaimed Buddhist. Bogyoke Aung San intervened, and put off the question till the next day for further and cooler discussion, and that next day was July 19, 1947, the day Aung San and Deedok U Ba Choe, and some of the best leaders Burma had, were mown down by the assassins’ guns. And thus Burma did not become a “Buddhist state” after all, and thus the question was left on the pages of the constitution partly answered, but not emphatically. x

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When Burma became independent U E Maung was elevated from the High court to the Supreme Court. Sir Ba U become Chief Justice of the Union, and U Kyaw Myint, who, as Judge of the High Court, had presided most ably over the Tribunal which tried U Saw, killer of

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Aung San, rose with U E Maung to the Supreme Court. It was strong Bench. And then the insurrections came, and soon refugees were crowding into Rangoon from the troubled districts. Refugee problem became urgent and ugly, and Justice E Maung was asked by the Government to collect donations — for the Government was bankrupt and could not provide him with funds — and look after the refugees. Once more thus, it was work among the people and with the people, work which was nearer politics than calm, sober, and aloof work on the Bench. U E Maung liked it and gradually, subconsciously, he was becoming ready for the excitement and fulfilment of a political career. Attracted by the glamour, he lost sight of the fact that what could fulfil, could also, just by the slightest twist, turn into frustration. The call came on Sunday, April 3rd 1949, when Justice E Maung was at the Turf Club waiting to collect a cheque promised by the Club for refugee welfare. An aide came from U Nu with an urgent summon. U E Maung made the usual gesture of grumbling. If it was a legal opinion the Premier sought, he told the aide, he would offer it later, after the cheque was safely in his pocket. Sir Ba U, sitting nearby, heard, and told U E Maung to go along, promising to look after the cheque himself. U E Maung went to see U Nu at the residence, and was invited into the Cabinet, to take charge of half a dozen departments including the judicial, health, rehabilitation, and foreign affairs. It is not known whether U E Maung hesitated long on whether to accept the invitation or not. Perhaps he was only waiting for it, and when it came took it gladly. Perhaps he was reluctant, and U Nu’s persuasiveness made the decision for him. But that evening, the news was announced over the radio that U E Maung was joining U Nu’s new Cabinet. He was sworn in the next day. x

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Much has been publicly said about U E Maung’s performance as a Minister. Some have said he was too straight and true, some said he was not true enough, but too clever. Some of his colleagues could not take his intellectual pride — even arrogance — while some respected him for it. Some said he did a fine job of work abroad, on his travels

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as Foreign Minister, to win back world confidence in Burma which was then severely shaken by the insurrections and the Government’s policy of appeasement towards the Communists. Some said that was not the whole story, but that deeper things lay beneath his doings which did not catch the casual eye. Who are right, and who are wrong, it is difficult to say, for in politics, it seems, truth is not an absolute, but a many-sided thing. U E Maung did bend to meet political expediency, the neutral observers said, but often, not knowing the ways of politics, he bent the wrong way. And U E Maung took his role as Minister perhaps too seriously. He was brought into the Cabinet to lend prestige and an element of stability to the much-shaken Government, and when he himself wanted to ride rough-shod to carry out reforms, disturbing alignments and values, then he became an embarrassment. U E Maung was not famous for his tact and diplomacy; he has often uttered indiscreet things, often enjoying seeing the shock he gave by so doing. Politics has her own rules of the game, and those who play the game must abide by the rules; no exemptions are allowed. When U E Maung returned to the Supreme Court in December, 1949, to officiate as Acting Chief Justice of the Union during the absence of Sir Ba U who was ill in England, there had already arisen bitterness and misunderstandings between him and some of the political leaders. Few things that happened later helped to ease or erase those feelings. Between 1949 and 1952 he also served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Rangoon, earning respect for his unstinted support for academic freedom, but making enemies too. In December, 1952, when he retired as Vice-Chancellor, the University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of his services. In 1953 he was asked by U Nu to go to Pegu and build the Shwemawdaw pagoda which had been brought down by earthquake in the early 1930’s. Justice E Maung went, and organized the labour, got together the carpenters, the masons, and the engineers, whipped up enthusiasm, collected donations, — the total cost of building the pagoda was over K. 50 lakhs of which the Government provided K. 30 lakhs — and in a record time of one year and 3 months the Pagoda was built and the ceremonial opening was made. In December 1954, Justice E Maung “retired” from the Supreme court, to resume private legal practice. He promptly set up the “Justice

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Party” became a leader of the Opposition, and one of the sponsors of the All opposition Alliance which was practically a still-born child. Dr E Maung won his seat in the Chamber of Deputies from Prome, and he is one of the leaders of the opposition National United Front, a coalition of convenience, which he actively leads though differing openly with the Burma Peasants and Workers’ Party — commonly called the “Red Socialists” — on foreign policy. In Parliament, Dr E Maung is vocal, and on legal questions, authoritative, being heard with respect by the Government also. Once when the structure of a Bill was called into question, Dr E Maung rose to explain and support it, and thereby prompted Minister U Tin to thank him warmly for the unusal but courteous behaviour. “I had been wrong before,” “Dr E Maung said on the occasion, “but we grow wiser and mend our ways.” x

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The future of Dr E Maung is a large question-mark. Though he is in politics now, his cause, his Party, and himself do not appear to have much future. Victory on the scale of a triumphal march into office, can be visible only in the dreams of Dr E Maung and his comrades. Fortunately, Parliament and Party do not take all his time, and Dr E Maung is able to conduct the big cases in the Courts, marshalling his experience and learning, exercising his wits and sharp mind to the very full. Maybe he should have kept himself strictly within the Bar after he had left the Bench. Maybe he was right in letting himself be swayed by Mistress Politics. Maybe he is living a fuller life now than is possible as a lawyer only, and is not a full life more worth living than a steady life? Whatever may lie before him, behind him lies a long life of learning and scholarship, and service. The Bar and education; the Bench and the many learned rulings he has passed on to posterity; social welfare; even the negotiations that he helped to conduct with Karen rebel leader Saw Ba U Gyi in March 1949, the initialled Agreement that was later broken; the constitution-making, the Treaty-making; the University; and the Pagodas — how many are there, one, two, three…; it is a life which is packed with stories to tell his grandchildren who may arrive one day.

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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Dr Kyaw Myint, Dean of Law ex-Supreme Court Judge. A Minister in Dr Ba Maw’s Cabinet during the war, now an advocate. The new President of the Union. Former Commerce Minister who disappeared with 40 lakhs of public money. Chin Member of Aung San’s Cabinet, now Ambassador to France.

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Section III, S, Profile

U MYINT THEIN, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNION

W

hen Parliament in joint session last month unanimously resolved to recommend to the President the confirmation of U Myint Thein in his appointment as Chief Justice of the Union, it did more than choose a man: it further upheld the democratic tradition of the independence of the Judiciary, and of entrusting the charge of that Judiciary to a man who is not only learned in the laws but has a liberal background and has the broad and basic principles of democratic justice woven into his being. That may not appear as a remarkable feature, but it is. For Burma, now only ten years old as an independent state, may have chosen democracy as her way of life, but choosing is only the beginning. There have happened much in the ten years which have nearly shaken the democratic faith and provoked great impatience in the Government and the policymakers with the apparently slow and cumbrous processes of the Judiciary. The independence of the Judiciary, which necessarily calls for certain

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Myint Thein, Chief Justice of the Union” in The Guardian IV, no. 10 (October 1957): 9–16, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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immunities and privileges for the Judges, has often aroused feelings of envy in politicians who have of needs to move and work in a fast and shifting world. Yet, so far, the independence of the Judiciary and the respect shown to it, are not a mere window-dressing; they have been real, even though that reality can only be relative and not absolute, for human beings have still to attain absolute perfection. And the appointment of U Myint Thein, lawyer, soldier, diplomat, Judge, to the top post in that Judiciary, is a further gesture of faith made by Parliament which, means ultimately, the people, in the essential and eternal goodness of democracy. x

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Chief Justice U Myint Thein is rather touchy about his age. The Roll of Advocates shows his age as 27 at the time the Bar Councils Act came into force on January 1st., 1929. That would make him 55 in 1957, and it would appear to be correct. But he looks about forty and maybe he feels much younger. With his irrepressible buoyancy, his innumerable anecdotes and jokes, and his great “human-ness”, he makes people around him feel young also. On the Bench buoyancy has to be a little curbed, and dignity and decorum must hold sway, but they are livened with kindness and good humour. U Myint Thein is the third of four famous brothers in Burma. Each one of them excelled and reached the top in his chosen profession. The eldest, U Tin Tut was the first Burman to enter the Indian Civil Service; later he became an associate of Aung San in the freedom struggle, and as Finance Minister, Foreign Minister in Aung San’s Cabinet, played a large part in the negotiations in London with Mr Attlee’s Government for Burma’s freedom. U Kyaw Myint, the second eldest brother, practised law and had excursions into politics, rose to be High Court Judge and Supreme Court Justice, is now a leader of the Bar in the country. The fourth brother, who came after U Myint Thein, is Dr Htin Aung, the Rector of the University of Rangoon, scholar and foremost educationist. If the brothers have been brilliant, so was the father, U Pein, K.S.M., A.T.M., who retired as a Deputy Commissioner at a time when Burmese Deputy Commissioners could be counted on one hand. x

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U Myint Thein remembers that he was overshadowed by his two brilliant elder brothers who stood first in every examination that they took. But he did manage to stand first in Burma, as all his brothers did, in the Seventh Standard Examination — which in those days was quite a hurdle — but unlike his brothers he did not bag the “Governor of Renaung prize”, nor did he stand first in the High School Final Examination even if he managed to get a scholarship like they did. He went to Cambridge where he joined Queen’s. For the first two years he behaved as a young gentleman of leisure, enjoying life, but doing little in the way of serious study. Even Cambridge could not allow this to continue much longer, and young Myint Thein was threatened with expulsion, if he did not apply himself to his studies more seriously and keep off from the misdemeanours and mischiefs that seemed to be his main occupation. The threat served to wake him up, and he worked, and did all the Bar examinations in one year, and also took his Cambridge degree — which was a remarkable feat. After passing his Bar Finals, he had to wait round for his call for eight more months, during which time he took his Cambridge LL.B, which is a post-graduate degree, and collected College colours in athletics, excelling in pole jumping of all things. At the Inns of Court he first met his future wife, Daw Phwar Hmi, who was a fellow student reading for the Bar. It was a dull winter’s day, and students kept indoors at the Stone Buildings common room of the Inns of Court. Daw Phwar Hmi had come, severely chaperoned as was proper, to collect her study notes and material to get ready for her examinations. Some leaves of the note books flew off, and the gallant young Mr Myint Thsein picked them up for the lady, and finding they were his elder brother Mr Kyaw Myint’s own notes, started turning them over, and scrutinising them. Miss Hmi thought the gallant young man was being a little too free and forward, and she put on a stern face to show that this behaviour was not approved. But the introductions were soon made, and the unusual behaviour was forgiven, and the beginning of a friendship that was to ripen was made. Back in Rangoon, Daw Phwar Hmi practised for a time, the only Burmese lady to have been called to the English Bar, and one of the very few who practised with any success in those days. U Myint Thein had also returned to practise, and they met at the Bar Library often, and

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worked together over cases, helping each other. When they married, it was a happy match and, more, it made the family more unique with four brothers who were all called to the English Bar, and the only Burmese lady Barrister in Burma to add to the lustrous collection of legal luminaries! x

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U Myint Thein did not lose much time on his return in setting out on a career of many parts. He served as Superintendent of the Myanmar National School that symbol of defiance against alien rule — and built a practice, returning his monthly k. 300 salary from the School into its grateful funds. In 1925, he was conscripted as a parliamentary candidate by the Nationalist Party, and won from the Pakokku East constituency, which was Yezagyi, Myaing, Myitche and Seikpyu, the home of most of the insurgents now plaguing the country.1 He stood again in 1928, and though he obtained the larger number of votes, the Presiding Officer, acting under the direct orders of the Home Ministry unscrewed two ballot boxes and generously poured them into the boxes of his rival. Thus he lost that free election, where his votes freely went to his rival. (The AFPFL or the Opposition can draw a few lessons from this.) Perhaps it was well that U Myint Thein lost that election; if he had gone deeper into party politics, Burma might have lost a future Chief Justice. Now, however, a conscience-stricken Home Minister offered him the post of Assistant Public Prosecutor, Rangoon Town, and he accepted. It was a part-time position, and he could continue working in the law firm of E Maung, Kyaw Myint, Myint Thein and Soe Nyunt.2 He had to leave the firm when he became full-time Public Prosecutor. Later, he became a Judge of the City Civil Court for a time, and later a Government Advocate — which, in those days, was a coveted post, being a real plum of a legal job. x

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Great changes were happening then. In the country there was the rising tide of nationalism. Outside, the gathering storm of global war. From the Law Office, U Myint Thein was called up for military service.

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He had been in the Officers’ Reserve, being a thoroughly trained holder of a senior King’s Commission. With the advent of war to Burma, and his return to the colours, Captain Myint Thein had wanted combat command, but the British Army was highly race-conscious, and Burmese officers of the rank of Captain were few; those few were discouraged and shelved. Thus Captain Myint Thein was assigned a job as Censor, as which he languished until the General Commanding Officer rescued him from that position, and made him a Liaison Officer on the Staff and later posted him as Deputy Chief of Civil Defence. Japan had entered the war then, and was sweeping up to Rangoon in relentless waves. Race feelings were forgotten in the hour of peril. The Civil Defence did a good job in Rangoon first, and through the country later when they were rushed out of the city. Rising to be Chief of the Corps, and the rank Colonel, U Myint Thein held his men together, saved civilian lives and property, organized guerrilla sorties into the enemy camp. Theirs is an untold tale of valour and determination. The guerrillas made their fighting withdrawal right up to Maymyo where the situation broke out of control, and the retreat became a rout. There the remaining 200 men of the Corps were honorably released. Colonel Myint Thein himself went up to the India borders, and obtained his release before he returned to look for his wife. Safety and advancement lay just across the borders in India, but he decided that his place was in Burma. He could see a life of hardship under the occupation, the haunted life of the refugee, of the eminent man and senior officer of the Army who would be noted and watched and, maybe, persecuted. But he came back. x

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The war years were not pleasant. In Kalaw where U Myint Thein and his wife made their camp, the Japanese had established their iron rule. They found that their unfinished house had been occupied by Japanese doctors, who took pity of them in their plight and allowed them to live in the servants’ quarters of their own home. This was perhaps fortunate, for the house was right in the centre of the military base, and the Japanese Military Police and others took the couple for servants and let them alone.

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The living was hard in those times. U Myint Thein tried to make it growing potatoes, selling firewood and occasionally getting conscripted for manual labour. He remembers, today, with some pride, that he earned as much as two rupees a day and an occasional Japanese cigarette as a labourer. War can make men mad, and the victims of the madness of the Japanese soldiers in those days in Kalaw were the internees. There were British, Danish, Indian and other people, who came from different walks of life — business, missionary work, government service — and who now found themselves in common plight and peril. They were collected together like herds, and shut away; they lived from day to day in shabbiness and shame and fear. To them U Myint Thein became a hope and a source of strength. The internees were never given enough to eat. U Myint Thein would carry bags of flour on his shoulder at the hour of dusk when the sentry soldiers were not watching, and smuggle them in, and give them to the hungry. Occasionally, he could even give them a few packets of precious cigarettes which he had earned as a labourer, or some sweets, and bottles of quinine pills. He brought them food and medicine, and he brought them cheer and hope, for he would tell his funny stories and stir up wells of forgotten laughter; his very defiance of the soldiers and his buoyancy impressed upon them, as nothing in those dark days could, that all was not lost and they would live again in freedom and happiness. When at last liberation came, and Colonel Myint Thein went back to duty, and moved on, the internees remembered him with gratitude. The Danish Sisters of the Convent, and the Reverend Brothers, and the businessmen who had been caught in the war, the British and the Indians, all wrote to their Governments to report that if U Myint Thein had not saved them, they would have died or suffered more than they could bear. And the Governments said their thanks. The Danish King honoured him with the Order of the Medal of Liberty; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, as Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in charge of Commonwealth Relations wrote him a personal letter of thanks “for saving many Indian lives” and said that if India had not suspended the award of honours and titles, U Myint Thein would certainly have been recommended for one of the highest of those; His Brittanic Majesty honoured him with the Order of the British Empire.

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His Japanese Majesty, had he known, might also have decorated him. Perhaps his bravest, and maybe the most foolhardy act was giving sanctuary to a Japanese at the time of their retreat. The man was hid in U Myint Thein’s house for six weeks while the Kempetai searched high and low for him. He eventually surrendered to the British forces. x

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“I should have died during the occupation, I am not dead,” became U Myint Thein’s logical philosophy, “every new day is therefore a gift, a new lease of life and a blessing.” He could have died on any of his trips into the internees’ camp; discovery by the soldiers would have brought upon him summary death. He could have died when in 1944 the Japanese at last discovered that the couple who lived in the servants’ quarters of the doctors’ camp were not servants but U Myint Thein, Colonel Myint Thein, brother of the U Tin Tut who was in India, and his wife. The Japanese Kempetai thought the safest thing was to do away with the couple, and discussed this, fortunately, with Thakin Tha Khin3 who had himself come as a refugee from the Kempetai in Shwebo where he had been found active in the resistance. Thakin Tha Khin was the Burmese Police Chief in Kanbawza after the Shan State was returned to the Burmese by the Japanese military, and the job of Chief was as good a disguise and protection for him as any. Chief Tha Khin promised the Japanese Kempetai that U Myint Thein would be most carefully watched by himself, and done away with at the proper time. That satisfied the Kempetai and saved U Myint Thein. Colonel Myint Thein was able to repay the compliment to Thakin Tha Khin when the British liberators returned and wanted to do away with the latter who occupied a very high position in their blacklist. The plot came to the knowledge of the Colonel who raised hell and demanded that his friend’s arrest be properly recorded, followed by a fair trial. Which was much more reasonable than being dragged out and shot. During the occupation General Aung San thought of getting U Myint Thein into the Burma National Army. Once the idea was to send him as Burmese Military Attache to Tokyo. Later when the Army received authority to conscript doctors, engineers, lawyers and such professional

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men into its services there was again a suggestion that U Myint Thein be given charge of the newly established Judge Advocate-General’s Department. However, Aung San tactfully decided to leave U Myint Thein well alone. x

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After the war and the release from military service U Myint Thein went back to the law. Late in 1945 he became Sessions Judge, Meiktila Sessions Division, but was soon posted as Chief Judge of the Rangoon City Civil Court which he set up on its present footing. In 1947 he was to have gone up to the High Court Bench, but with the transfer of power impending, His Majesty’s Government decided not to nominate any more Judges. The hillsmen then asked for his services, and he served as their Constitutional Advisor and Additional Secretary for the Frontier Areas. This brought him closer still to the people who had given him sanctuary during the war years and whom he was able to help and save from the clutches of the unscrupulous elements of the British Military Intelligence on liberation. As Constitutional Advisor to the hillsmen, U Myint Thein sat on the main committee and on many of the sub-committees which drafted the Constitution of the Union of Burma; his tact and wisdom and diplomacy helped much to strengthen the hillsmen’s belief that their future lay in the Union. Independent Burma came into being, and U Myint Thein was asked to be Ambassador in one of the most important capitals, as far as Burma was concerned, which was Nanking where Chiang Kai-Shek’s regime was beginning to crack up. He went and saw the regime totter and collapse, and the new regime rise. He saw, and studied and analysed, and came home to report and recommend an early recognition of the new People’s Republic. When diplomatic relations were established with the new Government U Myint Thein was again accredited to Peking, and there he was able to do much good work, his sympathy and understanding and tact being great assets. K.M. Panikkar, in his book “In Two Chinas”, describes how he and U Myint Thein got Premier Chou En-Lai to dinner and an informal and frank discussion, and how U Myint Thein could gently persuade Chou to send missions abroad and invite missions to China to build better relations and greater goodwill with the outside

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world, rather than draw into a shell. Chou listened and responded, which was an achievement, for that was at the height of the Korean war, when United Nations forces were crossing the disputed parallel and in China there was fear and excitement and hate. x

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From Peking U Myint Thein went to Paris, leading the Burmese delegation to the 6th General Assembly of the United Nations. It was a fateful assembly for Burma for there the question of Kuomintang troops in Burma was raised by the Soviet and Polish delegates and wielded mightily as a club against America and Britain and the Western bloc. It fell to U Myint Thein to make a reply on the spot, and this he did with brilliance. Without instructions from Rangoon, he had to assume what the Government would have liked him to say, and then say it with force and clarity. He did that, and those who heard him said that it was a masterly exposition of the situation. Burma, he said, was trying to cope with the situation herself, because she did not want to add tens on to an already tense world by ventilating her grievances and supplying fodder to the cold war between the giants. He did say, though, that the time might come when a complaint would have to be lodged. That debate in the General Assembly hit the headlines in the world’s press, and U Myint Thein became internationally famous. It again fell to him in 1953, when he had already left regular diplomacy to become Judge of the Supreme Court, to lead the Burmese delegation in a resumed session of the Seventh General Assembly of the United Nations, when Burma made her complaint against the Kuomintang aggression. Ambassador James Barrington was to have taken charge, but he fell ill, and Justice Myint Thein was specially sent out to make Burma’s case. He was to have gone for a vacation with his wife, but he did not hesitate to respond to the call, and an understanding Foreign Minister told him to take the wife to New York instead, which was done. Justice Myint Thein had to open the debate and present the case within a few hours of his arrival in New York. The exposition, it was said, was brilliant, to say the least, and to this day recall the debate as one that was a landmark in the U.N. history. A senior U.N. official regrets that nobody had written a book about this episode. Justice Myint Thein

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by his dignity, his turn of phrases, his singular lack of acrimony and his charm won the debate with a unanimous vote (barring, of course, “China’s”) in favour of Burma. Justice Myint Thein who was already an international figure had established his international reputation. x

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There have been other things, for in diplomacy or on the Bench, U Myint Thein has had no rest. Leading delegations, such as the one to Indonesia in 1950, to attend the ceremonies marking the transfer of power; or the one of Sawbwas to India in January 1953 to study the question of their surrender of power and compensation. Or that mission in 1950 to Paris for that abortive referendum on French possessions in India. Or advising the Prime Minister at the Colombo Powers conferences, at Bandung, or in Peking where the most delicate and involved negotiations on the border demarcation were conducted. Or the Asian Legal Conference in New Delhi this year, where he was elected Chairman. These are only some of those things. x

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Born lucky? Not exactly. It may not look it, but it is been a life of struggle and achievement, of hope and disappointments. He had wanted to be a doctor, U Myint Thein sometimes remembers — when he has the leisure for reminiscences — but that was denied him. He could have been a Sessions Judge in 1935, but a non-Burman was appointed on the curious ground that the last incumbent was a non-Burman. He would have been a High Court Judge in 1947, but no appointments were made because of the impending changeover. From Nanking he could have moved on as Ambassador to the Court of St. James’; in fact, he was asked to go there, but he requested that he may be allowed to see the end of an epoch in China, and so U Ohn went instead. Later on, while he was Ambassador in Peking he was asked to go to Washington. He felt he should remain in Peking until the Korean war had subsided, and Mr James Barrington went instead. Then the Government earmarked him again for the Court of St. James’ as U Ohn was to move to Moscow, but later it was felt that the need of an Ambassador at the Court of

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St. James’ was urgent, and U Ka Si was posted. Actually U Myint Thein came back before U Ka Si could leave Rangoon, but by then the commitment had already been made. Posted out as Permanent Representative to the UNO, U Myint Thein went first to Paris to lead the delegation to the 6th Assembly at Paris, and after that he was sworn in as a Judge of the Supreme Court much against his own inclination and to his great disappointment. And as Justice of the Supreme Court he was sent out again, and several times, on vital diplomatic missions! That was not all irony and ill fortune. When his time came for elevation to the Chief Justiceship of the Union, U Thein Maung, the retiring incumbent, was given extension, yearly, twice, which required a special amendment of the Union Judiciary Act. Thus, for two years, he had to wait, before, last month, he was finally nominated to be the Chief Justice of the Union by Parliament, and appointed and duly sworn in by his friend and riding companion, Mr President U Win Maung. But if the Chief Justice of the Union has been unlucky, there must be many in Burma who would like to have been unlucky like him. A brilliant family to come from; a brilliant academic career, Cambridge, the Inns of Court; a rich and varied experience in life’s most abundant fields — the law, the Army, diplomacy, the Judiciary; and to crown it all, a happy home which is a haven kept by loving hands, a home blessed with great love and devotion and the children of other people, such as the driver and the cook, who prowl and play about without inhibitions; few are destined to get all these. Maurice Collis in his “Trials in Burma” has described the young U Myint Thein he knew as of “mild and gentlemanly demeanour”; Panikkar in his “In Two Chinas” sees him as a diplomat of remarkable personal charm, with a wife, an able and educated lady, popular in all circles, with a gift for looking at the bright side of things and an irresistible sense of humour. U Kyaw Din who has just celebrated his golden jubilee at the Bar described him as moody in his young days. His contemporaries in school and college remember him as meek and mild but they say he was totally changed by the war. His brother officers in the Army said he was normally wild but cool in crisis. x

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Much has gone into the making of the new Chief Justice of the Union; much that makes a man not only wise but humane; much that gives a man not only knowledge but understanding. That much, it is good to know, will play a big part in upholding democracy and the rule of law in Burma’s future. Notes 1. But U Myint Thein disclams any contribution to their frame of mind; he says they were a bad lot even then. 2. Dr E Maung, ex-Supreme Court Judge, now a senior member of the Bar, and Opposition M.P.; Dr Kyaw Myint elder brother, and the late U Soe Nyun, Burma’s first Ambassador to Washington. 3. Now Home Minister.

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Section III, T, Profile

SAYA ZA KHUP OF SIYIN

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rom Fort White at the gate of the Northern Chin Hills one goes up north along the winding, rocky road, and soon one is on the crest of the hills. On that crest there is a small cemetery, neatly kept, fresh with flowers and grass, and some eight crosses mark the burial places of British soldiers who fell way back in 1892 when they first came to the hills as invaders, and also those who fell in 1945 when they came back to liberate the country from the Japanese. But, pass on. Walk a little on to the edge of the crest and look northwards. One must be careful, though, and be firm of feet on that blowy edge, or else be blown off. Look north, and there on the very ribs of the hills squarely squat three biggish villages. They are Thuklai, Bweman, and Khausak. All the houses in the villages are big and wellbuilt, boasting of zinc roofs. Those are the proudest villages in the Siyin valley, where the Siyin Chins, proudest and most advanced of all Chin clans, have lived through the centuries.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Saya Za Khup of Siyin” in The Guardian V, no. 2 (February 1958): 33–34, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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U Lun Pum1 and I went on to Tiddim in April last year, where we had parliamentary elections cases to fight. Standing on that crest of mountains, that heaving crest that very vividly reminded me of Marilyn Monroe, I decided I must visit the villages on our return. And that was easily arranged, for U Lu Pum comes from Khausak, and wanted to visit his mother there if all went well at Tiddim. By the beginning of May we were back and in the Siyin villages. We walked in the burning heat of the afternoon from the crest to Thuklai, a matter of ten or twelve miles. Our jeep had broken down, and very heroically U Lu Pum and I started off on foot. We plodded on, with many a backward glance to see if the jeep had picked up life and come on to pick us up, but there was no jeep, and we plodded on, till at last we passed the wooden images of the village nats and dragged our tired feet into Thuklai. Then, of course, the jeep rolled in. We were resting at the headmaster’s house drinking pots of tea to allay our thirst, when, down the hill came a distinguished looking Chin gentleman, who wore nylon white shirt which had been dyed yellow with sweat and dust, and a longyi but no hat and no slippers. On his back he carried a basket which was overflowing with large oranges. He saw us and bellowed his greetings. He came into the house and shook hands, introducing himself to me as “Za Khup”. U Lu Pum elaborated the introduction and said he was Saya Za Khup who had once been his own teacher, father of Vum Ko Hau, Burma’s Ambassador in Paris and The Hague, in short he was Za Khup of Siyin. Then I knew and recognized the resemblance between father and the son whom I had met in Paris less than a month before in rather in different surroundings. Saya Za Khup, when I met him, was 70. He had been 70 for some years. He did not like counting his age, for he was always youthful, and besides he had no time for he was always busy on his plantation growing the young orange trees and experimenting with dates and apples and his coffee plants. When we met he was most excited about the dates, for he thought they would grow all right and in a few years’ time bear fruit, and he was sure he would be there to personally pluck the harvests. I loved talking to Saya Za Khup and I asked him to take me to his plantation so that I might look at his trees and pluck and eat their fruits. He first promised he would take me, but then began to have his doubts, and gently put me off because, he said, the journey over the hills might

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be tiring for my civilized legs, though it was all right for his which were doing the journey once or twice a day. But Saya Za Khup talked a lot to me in his sing-song tone and faultless, rather classical, Burmese. He recited Burmese proverbs and poems that he had learnt as a boy in school at Sagaing and Mandalay, and which he had taught to generations of Chin boys who grew up in the Siyin valley. As a young man he became a teacher in Burmese in Khausak, and a preacher of the Baptist Mission. In all he earned about twenty rupees a month for his dual duties, but that was a sizeable sum of money in those days, and he could live and bring up his family, and give the best education to his large brood of sons and daughters. He worked hard, rising before the sun to put in a few hours on the farm before school and the sermons and church meetings. Often he had to travel from one Mission house to another, going up and down the steep hills, arriving back home only when night had fallen and the birds of the jungle had gone to sleep. Saya Za Khup tried to supplement his income by working on his tours from village to village as salesman for E.M. de Souza, the biggest pharmacy in Rangoon, and the Letwa Tazeik Saydaik of Mandalay, thus spreading good health among his primitive peoples and earning a little too. He wrote petitions in Burmese and charged his little fee, and thus became a near-lawyer, but not quite, for the Chin Hills’ peoples were honest and simple and had no need for lawyers. There was nothing that Saya Za Khup did not do, and whatever he did, he did well, for he had endless energy and tact and good humour. The British administrators stopped the teaching of Burmese in school, and Saya Za Khup lost his job officially, and his pay, but he just carried on being pastor, farmer, medicine man, and teacher of Burmese and educator in general. He learned as he taught, and he picked up Burmese shorthand and acquired a typewriter, he read widely and had thoughts of writing the history of the Chins when he got the time to spare. He played football, and 40 or 45 years ago when he was a young man he played in the Tiddim First Eleven. We went to visit him at his house, a two-storeyed teak building which he himself built with his hands, starting with felling trees and trimming them, carrying the posts and the planks up the mountains. There we sat together and talked, sipping red juice of grapes which came from his

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vineyards, and breaking and eating home-made bread. Saya Za Khup’s wife, a sturdy lady, fed the goats in the garden. The daughter, a school teacher, was back on vacation, and she worked in the kitchen preparing the food for us. Our conversation wandered. Saya Za Khup was full of memories. He remembered how, as a very young boy, he saw the Burmese armies march on Manipur over the hills that hung over the Siyin valley. There was excitement in Khausak and Thuklai, and the villagers sent their women into the woods and watched the armies at their camps. The Chins were generally friendly with the Burmese and acknowledged their allegiance to the King at Mandalay. But that did not stop them from sending an occasional raiding party into Kalemyo and the plains, to plunder and kidnap for ransom. That was part of the game of living, and no ill will was involved. So when young Za Khup watched the Burmese armies gather mightily on the hills he though reprisals for the kidnappings were imminent. But the armies moved on, leaving behind a few useless cannon (some of which still stand rusting in Khausak) and a few deserters who married Chin girls and settled down in that peaceful valley which was just nicely off the path of war. Saya Za Khup, teacher, pastor, grower of trees and man of peace, became a soldier once. That was during the Japanese occupation when the Chins rose in arms. The Chin Hills were right in the frontline for many years, and the Japanese occupied the area only for a brief period. But that brief period was bitter, and the Chins, deprived of their scanty food and their mules and cattle by the soldiers who lived on the poor land, soon decided to fight back. In the Siyin valley, the guerrilla leader was Vum Ko Hau, who had served as adjutant in the famous Chin Levies, and also had leadership qualities. Every Chin knows how to shoot, and to shoot straight for he had to kill the running stag or rabbit for his food. Rifles, guns and muskets were abundant, and volunteers for the guerilla units came forth in great numbers and soon it was an army. They dug trenches on the commanding slopes of hills, and shot up Japanese convoys and patrols. While the men served in the trenches and slits, women carried water and food up the hills to their men. Saya Za Khup served in various capacities as carrier of food, courier, adviser, pastor and priest who laid many of the boys to their eternal rest.

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When war was over commander Vum Ko Hau gave certificates to the men who served under him for the Chin Hills and Burma. He gave one to his father which the old man kept and treasured and showed to me at Thuklai. The certificate described him simply as “pastor”, but what a pastor! I asked him if he would not like to go to Paris to visit his son, Paris where the world is gay and glittering, and all the good things of civilized life are available to those who can pay for them. Paris where his rustic son whom he raised and sent to school is now His Excellency the Ambassador for Burma. Saya Za Khup laughed in answer; carefree, happy laughter which can never come from the lips of Paris. Note 1. Chairman, Chin Affairs Council, M.P. for Tiddim.

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Section III, U, Profile

U NYO MYA, OR “MAUNG THUMANA”

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he other day U Nyo Mya, editor of the “Oway” newspaper, flew to Monywa on his way to Ahmyint, his hometown. He will be away for a few weeks, but his is not a journalist mission, but a political one. He had, since the last few months, been a member of the “Clean AFPFL”, and he is an aspirant to the Chamber of Deputies which will assemble anew. He has all these many years wielded a sharp and witty pen in the service of the country in the light that is given him. Now he feels that Burma needs more of him, the whole of him. Thus, he is going into Parliament, to raise his voice on that broader platform, to fight for justice and democracy, to be protector of the common man. Yes, if he is elected, (and he is confident he will be), he will serve not the “Clean AFPFL” only, but will see, he promised me, that the Opposition “Swe-Nyein” and others were not suppressed or persecuted. He would go into Parliament, therefore, in

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “U Nyo Mya, or ‘Maung Thumana’” in The Guardian V, no. 10 (October 1958): 31–34; 52–53, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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the dual role of “Nu-Tin” supporter and “Swe-Nyein” protector. So, let both factions rejoice on the emergence of Nyo Mya the politician, the knight in shining armour. And more important still for the immediate and practical purposes, let them both vote for him and send him by a landslide victory into Parliament. x

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Ahmyint, in Chaung-U township, has a proud history. It was the playground of the Burmese kings and princes, the womb of many famous men. “Minletwa”, the minister who earned, by merits, the favoured recognition of Kings, Mindon and Thibaw, was the Myosa of Ahmyint. A physically strong man, an able governor, Minletwa was intensely nationalist, and he was one of the few Burmese leaders who resisted British invasion to the last. The British offered him a pension of 1000 good silver rupees per month in hoping to buy his allegiance; he spurned the offer and retired to Ahmyint to live to the end of his days as a simple, but happy, farmer. Nyo Mya is a descendant of Minletwa from the father’s side, and though one may have to look very hard these days to find traces of Minletwa in him, he promises that they are there and will reveal themselves very soon. U Wisara who gave up in life in hunger strike that gave in defiance of British rule, was related to Nyo Mya from his mother’s side. It is unlikely that U Nyo Mya, the politician, will ever go on hunger strike to the death to prove a point or register a disapproval, but then that will not be because he lacks the spirit; he is full of spirit, all right, but he has a more powerful weapon than the hunger strike, and that is his pen. U Tha Zan, Nyo Mya’s father, was an influential headman whom the villagers loved and respected, and he was a Member of the Legislative Council for several years before the war. A big, voluble, generous man, U Tha Zan gave away his wealth in many public charities; burned it away largely in alchemy, at one time buying a hill on the pagoda-studded Sagaing hills, to devote himself freely and entirely to the search for the philosopher’s stone. U Tha Zan had a huge appetite for life, and for food, and even in his old age he could eat with enjoyment twenty platefuls of the famous Ahmyint chop-suey. Nyo Mya is relying to a very large

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extent on the reputation of the father, and his influence, in Ahmyint and Chaung-U, in campaigning for the elections. But not the father alone, other relatives also, up and down the line, from the father’s and the mother’s sides, are many, and distinguished in their own ways. One cousin sister eloped with a farm labourer when she was young; now she and her family have a flourishing business in Ahmyint, and, what is even more important for Nyo Mya, many friends which means many votes. One other elder cousin sister is a Buddhist nun, and who can say that a nun, though voteless herself, cannot get votes for the brother who has come home from his wanderings abroad and in faraway Rangoon? One old uncle is a drunkard, and drunkards having drinking companions and they have the vote, and Nyo Mya, the Clean AFPFL candidate has been quick to explain that he does not frown upon drinking as such, so long as the man who drinks stays clean in the heart; in fact, he said, he himself, in his weaker days, or up to three years, four months and twenty days ago to be exact, had indulged in a little alcoholic nourishment at times, but on one fateful day he decided to drink no more. The main thing was to be clean, candidate Nyo Mya pointed out; if those of his voters were a little doubtful about their past cleanliness, let them not have any uneasiness about it. Let them vow and pledge to be clean, for the past was gone and it had been whitewashed, what matters is the present and the future. Vote for Nyo Mya, one and all! x

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Nyo Mya was born as Thein Tin during Thingyan, 1914. His mother, Daw Shwe Ant, brought forth four children, all sons, of whom two of the youngest died in infancy. The eldest, Soe Tint, and the second, Thein Tin, were the sole survivors. Ahmyint had a deep and great influence on young Thein Tin. The sweeping valleys strewn with pagodas, and leisurely monasteries, the Burmese pwes and the nat pews still celebrated regularly in the traditional way (his father the headman, had to organize and lead the nat pwes), the very Burmese-ness of the scene, the sounds, the life, they pressed their deep imprint upon his young and impressionable mind. It was then that he acquired his strong ambition to be just a boy in one of the Buddhist monasteries, a “Maung Thumana” living among the monks, living off

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them. Ahmyint was the playground of Kyanzittha, and the princes from Pagan who came because the girls were pretty and the toddy of the palm trees was potent. The governorship of Ahmyint was one of the plums that officials at the Burmese court eagerly sought. Thein Tin first went to the Buddhist High School, Monywa, where a cousin was headmaster, and later migrated to Mandalay to study in the Kelly High School. Mandalay was where his days were wild and happy. The elder brother Soe Tint was the brilliant student, pocketing scholarships all the way, be-medalled, and beloved by the mother. She sent him more than enough for his pocket money, while Thein Tin had to survive on what he considered to be a pittance, which was Rs. 25 per month. In Mandalay, Thein Tin went to the cinema every week, played truant regularly partly in defiance of a “meaningless boarding master” who used the cane too freely. The first modern Burmese novels were appearing then, and one of his pleasures used to be to take a novel, and go up the Mandalay Hill to spend the day reading it in the cool and quiet of the big zayats perched on those rugged rocks. He became literary at that early age. Words and images excited him. The medium did not matter: be it Burmese, be it English. What mattered to him was the beauty of structure, the symmetry, the sweetness and the sound of words and expressions. And he liked to laugh, and satire in writing became his joy and ambition. Maung Thumana, the monk’s boy would be immune from punishment for his satire, his pulling people’s legs. Nobody would throw stones at Maung Thumana lest they should hit the monks. And on those cool heights of Mandalay Hill Maung Thumana, reading his Burmese and English novels, began to weave his own tales, blended with English education. When an expression that he had invented pleased him he would chuckle and let himself be soaked for hours with the joy of creation. Whatever achievements Maung Thumana, the politician, may win in the future, that joy of creation will not be for him as politician for it is for writers and artists alone. In the harder realities of life at school in Mandalay, Thein Tin was always broke, though never broken. He needed money, and as his mother would not send him enough, he went out to earn it. He took small commissions from the older students who sent him to the pawnshop round the corner, being too shy to do the deed themselves. The commissions were a handsome and regular source of income every month. It also

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taught Thein Tin the commission agent’s instinct for profit: thus many many years later, when he had become the famed Nyo Mya, he got a biggish commission on the printing of the portrait of Mr President Win Maung, but he spent the money on a speculative venture and lost most of it so that he is back where he was. Thein Tin passed his matriculation exams without difficulty but without shining honours. His father, by that time, had burned away all the wealth in alchemy and politics, so that the two sons could not be maintained in college together. It was, therefore, the brilliant Soe Tint with his bagful of academic honours who stayed on to take his degree and win his way, eventually, into the coveted Indian Civil Service. Thein Tin remained in Ahmyint for one year, the idle unemployed, a role which he thoroughly relished. In 1933, he went to the University College, Rangoon, supported by teachers and friends. “Maung Thumana” of the remote monastery had burst into the big bright world at last. x

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Adopting the pen-name of “Nyo Mya”, a name which has stuck and replaced the original “Thein Tin”, the young man from Ahmyint began exploring the world and writing about it. He did not lose the Burmeseness of his origins in the new modern surroundings; yet he was far from aloof. He delighted in the new things, indeed soaked them in, but remained unspoiled. His writings thus possessed freshness and originality; his native wit and satire which he had sharpened in those delightful days on Mandalay Hill now found full play, hurting many without making them hate. “Nyo Mya, damning his ancestors, their ‘gaungbaungs’ and dignity, has written to please himself,” Professor Rhodes of the English department who became his friend and admirer had written, “and has succeeded in pleasing others as well — myself among them.”1 And Rhodes described his first meeting with Nyo Mya thus: “I remember clearly the day in 1933 when the author was first introduced to me and to Rangoon by his distinguished cousin Tet Htoot.2 As a polite anyatha he parked his large cigar on the verandah and surveyed me with the impassivity of a dying lizard. His remarks I do not remember, though had I known then what I know now, that in general he uses his mouth only for the passage of food, I might have paid more attention.”

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At the University, Nyo Mya was always deeply in love. He had cousins at the ladies’ Inya Hall, and that was a big help in his amorous pursuits which were in most cases one-sided. The girls were friendly to him partly because he looked so harmless. He on his part thought that every girl who spoke more than twice to him had fallen madly for him. But I am not cheap, he kept telling himself, I am unattainable, and that thought kept him happy in his lonely walks along Inya lake, or in the privacy of his cubicle. He wrote endless love letters and thereby polished his prose, and he even ventured into poetry in moments of ecstasy. Like many young Romeos of his times, he kept love letters in his pocket all the time, so that any unexpected opportunity might not find him unprepared. He went for girls with large eyes, “liquid eyes”, he sighed, and one with specially large and specially liquid eyes, kept him sighing for many months. In fact his famous article in the “Oway” magazine which set off the fire of the 1936 students strike was, it is said, inspired by such a pair of eyes. In the magazine for the year 1935–36, Nyo Mya had written about the “Hell Hound at Large”, a staff member who was supposed to be over-friendly with the girls. If they were just girls it did not matter so much, but one of them was the beloved possessor of the liquid eyes. He thus got angry, and noble, decided to defend all girls — after all, they could all be his cousins — and defy tyranny (and privilege) symbolised by the particularly successful staff member. Aung San who was editor of the “Oway”, the annual magazine of the Rangoon University Students Union, passed the article without even looking at it; the magazine was published, and Aung San and Nyo Mya, carrying back the copies from the printers’, took the first copy to Professor Rhodes and presented it with their compliments. A few days later, the distribution of the magazines was done, and the fire started. For the historical record therefore it should be said that behind that fire was a pair of liquid eyes. x

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Aung San, the revolutionary, was also a lover of literature, and a Nyo Mya fan. He asked Nyo Mya to be editor of the “Oway”, but the latter modestly declined, pointed out that he was only a “fresher” in college, and the editorship should go to a senior student. “Seniority

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be blowed!” was the typical Aung San retort, but a compromise was reached whereby Aung San served as editor and member of the executive of the RUSU, while Nyo Mya was co-opted as associate editor. Thus Nyo Mya found himself among a galaxy of young contemporaries who were to make their marks on the country’s history in their several ways. In the literary sphere, there were U Thein Han, (“Zawgyi”), and U Wun, (“Minthuwun”), who shared a dining table with Aung San and Nyo Mya. One of their regular visitors was Thakin Than Tun, now the communist leader, who came at weekends and shared their meals uninvited. Thakin Than Tun was then a teacher at a school in Rangoon run by a Muslim Trust, and he was fond of writing, and, of course, politics. Aung San and Nyo Mya found him useful as a provider of copy for the “Oway” magazine, and Than Tun wrote under the pen-name of “My Khin Than”. Among those who were to make their names in politics, there were U Nu, the president of the RUSU, M.A. Raschid, Thein Pe, U Ohn, U Kyaw Nyein, Khin Maung Gale, Ba Nyein and others. Nyo Mya, however, was not the fire-brand politician. Loyalty for his friends and love of the fun led him to join the strike — which surprised many of his fellow students, and his teachers, because he was destined, it looked, for the ICS, like his own brother, and joining the strike could well have spoiled his chances. But he liked the noise and the fun, the slogan-shouting; besides, it was his article which led to the expulsion of Aung San which led to the strike, and he was therefore a sort of star performer in the whole show, and he could not very well stay behind. The strike is a chapter in itself of the country’s history. It lent great impetus to the nationalist movement which was then fast gaining momentum. It caused widespread awakening. On the Shwedagon Pagoda, the strikers’ camp, there was fun and frolic, serious politics and lighthearted play-acting. The student leaders enjoyed the publicity, and posed for pictures for the benefit of the press and posterity. Some posed making the Hitler salute; Khin Maung Gale posed reading a book by Mussolini; U Nu posed brandishing his now-famous admonishing finger. A group of young ladies of Inya Hall had joined the strikers and had their own “out of bound” quarters at the camp, and their very presence was a great tonic for morale Elders and leaders of the city, such as Deedok U Ba Choe and U Kyaw Myint, the barrister, came to the camp to look after

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the needs of the strikers, and Nyo Mya’s watchful eyes noticed that the elders came often when the girls were there, but dropped off a little after the girls had gone home. But he could be mistaken. The organizer and brain of the strike was Mr Raschid who, Nyo Mya remembers, worked quietly and efficiently behind the scenes, and made his daily situation report in the evening. “Without that report,” Nyo Mya says, “we all felt restive. When we see Raschid, our hopes rise.” After the 1936 strike, politics tried to invade the University. Aung San, Nu and others who left to join the Dobama Asiayone, wanted students to give them their entire support. More and more the RUSU became political, and Nyo Mya did his best to prevent this happening, but his was a lone voice. The political student leaders and the young thakin leaders wanted to forge the student strike as a political weapon, and they talked glibly of the eternal strike, a strike till independence was won, or the death. Nyo Mya was disgusted, and at one mass meeting organized by the RUSU, with Aung San in chair, he rose to remonstrate, but Aung San shouted him down, and he walked out, his anyatha wooden slippers clattering their loud protest along the cement floor. Aung San later saw that as chairman he should have allowed a member to ask for the floor, and that what he had done to Nyo Mya was unjust; he therefore wrote a letter of apology, copies of which he had put up on the notice boards of the halls. “Oway” was a name which Nyo Mya chose for the RUSU magazine, and Aung San recorded in his diary that the name belonged to Nyo Mya, and one day when Nyo Mya became a big journalist he would be free to give that name to any newspaper that he might choose to publish. And “Oway” called all the time, sweetly, irresistibly; even the liquid eyes were nothing compared to the call to writing and journalism; even Hnin Nu on 8th mile Prome Road who provided love and solace to Nyo Mya in his lonely, moody hours — for a small fee — was nothing to that call. In 1939, on the eve of his mighty fall as Prime Minister, Dr Ba Maw decided to send a state scholar for journalism to London, and Nyo Mya who had just taken his honours examination, applied and competed with Thakin Thein Pe, and U Tin Maung (New Burma weekly). He was the novice and the other two were the veterans, but he stood first in the written exams, U Tin Maung second, and Thakin Thein Pe trailed along an easy third. U Tharrawaddy Maung Maung, the Education Minister,

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decided to do justice, which was quite a bold thing for a politician to do, and chose Nyo Mya for the scholarship. Thus, after the many farewell parties, at one of which Aung San spoke and declared that Nyo Mya was a genius, Nyo Mya set sail for London. His ship had to change route and go round the Cape, when war was declared in Europe, and he and his friends were several months at sea. In London, King’s College which was the only college which offered courses in journalism, had to evacuate and cut down its curricula, and Nyo Mya finally decided to move on to America for his studies. Thus it was that the boy from the monastery in Ahmyint found his way to the Northwestern University to study the glittering art of journalism and earn, as the first Burman to do so, a university degree in the art. x

x

x

x

x

Nyo Mya was much desired during the war. The American State Department, getting involved in the war, was looking for experts on Burma; Yale University was starting a Burmese department and looking for one who could teach and omit the authentic Burmese sounds. And who was more qualified than Nyo Mya, the anyatha? With distinguished colleagues and old friends such as Professor John Cady, Prof. Andrus, and Virginia Thompson, Nyo Mya set to work on winning the war for the Allies. He worked really hard, and for good or ill, the Burmese department at Yale still bears his mark. Nyo Mya advised the policy-makers in the State Department that they should not “antagonise” the Burmese leaders of occupied Burma; they were patriots, he explained, and not Quislings; Dr Ba Maw was able, he explained, and Aung San was true, and the future of Burma could not be dissociated from the two. The American experts agreed and relaxed in their attitude to the Burmese leaders. There were sweet memories of the happy and fruitful years, rich with memories not only of achievements but also of warm-hearted girls who loved the lonely-looking young man from Burma. But all the good things had their end, and at last Nyo Mya set sail as an officer of the Officer of War Information for the perilous fields of battle in India and Burma. He wore uniform and a gold-braided peaked cap, and hoped that he looked a formidable and heroic figure. From India he bombarded the Japanese with pamphlets and newspapers; he met his friends Thein Pe

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and his group of resistance men who included a young officer named Win Maung (now President of the Union); he met U Tin Tut, and the high officials of the Burmese government in exile, pleaded with U Tin Tut for re-employment of his old saya, Prof. Rhodes at the Rangoon University after liberation, and U Tin Tut complied; he met “K” at the All India Radio; he mooched around. After liberation, there was one unexpected visitor for Nyo Mya, and he was Thakin Soe who had slipped out of Burma to make a pilgrimage to the Communist Party of India, and wanted to fly back un-noticed. “Take me as your batman”, Thakin Soe pleaded, “or your cook. Just take me along.” Nyo Mya had to explain that he was not a General of the United States Army, and he did not have a special aeroplane to himself, and he was not allowed to take cooks and batmen with him. x

x

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x

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The rest is recent history. Nyo Mya returned, still wearing his uniform, to Rangoon to serve a year with the USIS. Much had changed in Burma during his years in foreign lands. The independence which was attained during the occupation — and which he and a few friends had celebrated in Washington, intoxicated with the joy of hearing the very word “independence”, and several bottles of whisky — had meant much to the people of Burma. They were undernourished, shabbily dressed, and poor, but they were proud and self-confident. Aung San went to see Nyo Mya at the USIS which then had its headquarters at the E.M. de Souza building on Dalhousie Street. Aung San too was poor, but he was rising as the national leader, and a happy family man. Nyo Mya gave his friend five hundred rupees, purchasing copyright for Aung San’s speeches and writings which he hoped to publish in book form. Aung San invited him to dinner at his house on Tower Lane, and at the dinner Daw Khin Kyi smilingly served. Not politics alone was discussed at that happy dinner, for Aung San kept prodding Nyo Mya about his successes with girls, and Nyo Mya told his tales with relish, improving upon them with his imagination, and Aung San listened, awed and envious, and remarked: “I too need a little variety, old boy, I really do,” and thereby got a good-natured pout from Daw Khin Kyi.

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Then, of course, the “Oway” came, as it had to come, and a wife for Nyo Mya. He had seen a portrait of his future wife, Khin Than Nwe, being painted by an artist friend, and the moment he saw the half-finished picture he felt a queer feeling stir somewhere in his inside (his stomach or his breast, he did not know which), and a moment later he knew this was IT. Nyo Mya was in love. When he discovered the fact, he made haste to communicate with the young lady, through friends, and after mutual inspection which was arranged one auspicious morning chosen by the astrologers, the decision was made, and the die was cast. Political leaders of all hues, including Aung San, came to the wedding, and for Nyo Mya that was the moment of supreme achievement: Maung Thumana from Ahmyint, had come home, and the “Oway” was alive and kicking, and he had wooed and won Khin Than Nwe, winner of the Miss University title, a beautiful armful to have and to hold. There were the troubles of the last ten years, insurrections, the raids on the press committed by one of the ruling parties in which the “Oway” suffered but became stronger still. Aung San had said once that Nyo Mya could never be forced to do what he did not want to do, or to refrain from what he felt he must do. The raids on the press did not stop him. The demands for security imposed by the Government did not stop him: in fact he and his colleague Zawana went round the town with a music troupe, raising money to pay off the security, and the people responded, and gave them more than they needed. So, they asked the people what they should do with the surplus, and the answer was use the money to initiate novice monks; it was sound advice, and Nyo Mya and Zawana entered the meditation centre on Kokine, and one day U Nu discovered them in their yellow robes, looking serene. U Nyo Mya was president of the Burma Journalists Association last year, and during his time the foundation of a new building for the Association and Writers was laid by the President Dr Ba U. During his time he invited U Kyaw Nyein, and Thakin Tin, in turn, to attend functions and meet the press on informal terms. He was also active in the organization of a school for journalists. He nearly became professor of journalism in a new department started at the University, but U Tun Win, then Information Minister, intervened and killed the infant department, advancing the theory that journalists must be born and must grow up

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naturally, and a school for a short term of years would only give them incomplete ideas or eventually be indoctrination courses. There are many unfinished things that Nyo Mya has done, but he has done them all meaning well. Maybe he will win his way into parliament and do a good job there, staying, whatever party badge he may choose to wear, as the tireless seeker after the truth, impartial and upright. Or maybe party loyalties will prevail at last, and he will sink to the status of a party propagandist. Even as Burma stands today Nyo Mya stands at the crossroads. Notes 1. From an introduction to a book of Nyo Mya’s writings, brought out by friends in 1939 on the eve of his departure for England. 2. Now with the BBC, London. Tet Htoot went to study oriental literature, and has so far forgotten to return to Burma.

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Section III, V.

A BOUNDLESS FAITH IN BURMA

W

hile big and rapid changes are taking place around us Dr J.S. Furnivall calmly, taps away at his old, faithful typewriter, at the T.T. Luce’s Home for Boys. He has been doing this for many years, and, these days, he breaks this persistent activity during the day only to attend to the basic needs of the body and to make music for the boys in the evening. He is working on the economic history of Burma, and already the material he has dug up has piled up into mountains. It is not research for pay or gain. It is an expedition of joy; every new fact excites Furnivall even as a new toy delights a child. His mind is fresh and keen and curious; he has seen new Burma grow; he has helped to nourish the minds of young Burmans. Through these generations, his faith in Burma has remained boundless and unflagging. Dr Furnivall and I attended a conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Lahore in Pakistan last year. There were some very good

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “A Boundless Faith in Burma” in The Guardian VI, no. 6 (June 1959): 26–27, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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scholars from different countries, and S.E. Asia was discussed from different angles. We discussed politics, of course, and colonialism and alignments; economics and education; we even dared to peep into the future. Furnivall arrived one or two days after the conference started, because he had to take a train from Delhi to Lahore while I managed to fly. His arrival created a stir at the conference. He was a celebrity, and from the day he came he was in demand. He was treated with respect for his intellect, and also for his age; his authority was unchallenged. I had a little fun at one of the discussion groups by differing with him. He had said, if I remember rightly, that in Burma we were going a little too fast with industrialization for its own sake, and that we were probably exceeding our natural capacity for it. I said I disagreed, and I thought the “saturation point” for industrialization was still unreached in Burma. It was, of course, a reckless thing to debate with Furnivall on a subject I knew so little about, but I thought I would pull his leg a little, and I hoped that the expression “saturation point” which I had picked up in my college chemistry would carry some learned meaning in economics also. Now we are having to go slow with our industrialization programmes, Dr Furnivall is probably proved right. At Lahore I took Dr Furnivall to a dinner with Dennis and Mrs Stephenson of the Burma Railways. Dennis was a U.N. expert with the international railway school, a big man making big money but retaining his ancient modesty. Dennis and Gladys were pleased to receive Dr Furnivall, and I heard Gladys’ whisper to the ladies who came that he was the Furnivall about whom everyone knew in Burma and the world. One Pakistani film star who was making a considerable name for her Monroesque proportions and, incidentally, her dancing too, was invited — Dennis told me — but she could not make it, and that was rather a pity. I cannot to this day make out quite how Dennis, a railway man got to know film stars in Lahore; perhaps it was his U.N. status which made him feel that the world was his home and everyone, specially film stars, were part of his family. But that is by the way; I do not think Furnivall knew the film star was expected at the party; I am sure he did not miss her when she did not turn up. After the party we took a tonga ride into the cold night, and in sending Furnivall home we lost our way and it took us round and round the fringes of Lahore before we finally got where we wanted to go.

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We flew back together to New Delhi, and were guests of U Maung Maung Soe at the Embassy residence. Dr Furnivall stayed one night, during which his spirits rose so high that he sang in his bath, and the next morning I sent him off to the airport where he took his delayed BOAC plane for Rangoon. On the way out to the airport he shyly asked me to look through the manuscript of his study of the “Governance of Modern Burma”1 though, he said modestly, he was not sure he could find a publisher for the book. There is now more interest in the world in S.E. Asia, and in the last few years several good books on Burma have appeared. Yet the market for the books is relatively small, and publishers are unwilling to take risks about new and serious books. I felt highly complimented by Dr Furnivall’s suggestion that I should go through the manuscript of his book if it was to be published. He had written the book first as a paper for the State Department of the United States, with the prior approval of the Burmese Government. Later on, the idea of making the paper more widely available occurred to him, and he had brought the paper up to date. Mr William Holland, secretarygeneral of the Institute of Pacific Relations, was at Lahore with us, and he stopped over in Rangoon on his way home. Holland heard about the manuscript, and he made a grab for it, and before many months were gone Furnivall received his first author’s copy of the book “THE GOVERNANCE OF MODERN BURMA”, autographed affectionately for him by U Thant in New York, Dr Frank Trager, and Bill Holland the publisher. It was probably a good thing for me that I did not see the manuscript, for it would have dampened my enthusiasm for my book, “BURMA’S CONSTITUTION” which I took some three years to compile and write, and which was nearly completed when Dr Furnivall told me about his book. His is analytical and thoughtful, while mine is a narrative. He wrote as an authority on the subject, with feeling and sympathy but as a critical observer. I am no expert; if I write, it is because by doing so I learn more. He wrote as a judge writes his judgment, weighing the facts, and handing out justice. I tried to be objective, but probably remained a party before the judge, very much caught up in the events and moods of contemporary times. But I am glad the two books of ours are out at about the same time, because with my remnants of conceit I like to think that they are companion volumes which the reader should

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read to get a better-rounded picture of the government and constitution of modern Burma. Dr Furnivall’s book demands careful study, and picking out a few passages from it from here and there will not do justice to it. But I am tempted to refer to certain passages, partly because I agree so much with what the author says there, and partly also because they carry such important messages to us in these shifting days. We are inclined to condemn everything today. Old politicians are condemned; the old regimes are condemned. Condemnation is easy, but history is a continuous flow, and one cannot chop up a piece of it and say this is good, and the other pieces are bad. Every piece is both a consequence and a cause. Furnivall’s appraisal of the Japanese occupation and the war-time independence is calm and objective. We like to ridicule the “Tokyo-made” independence, and say that nothing that happened during the Japanese interlude was good. But that is wrong. The Burma Independence Army, Bogyoke Aung San, and the AFPFL grew to manhood during that interlude, and Burma regained her pride and confidence as a nation. That was a point I tried to make in my book, and I was glad to find Dr Furnivall in agreement. He describes the wartime situation: “The Europeans and Indians had gone away and such Chinese as remained were lying low; this created a vacuum in the sphere of industry and commerce, and it was filled, even if tenuously, by Burmans. For the first time Burmans found openings in industry and commerce, and among them were officials who had formerly looked down on business but preferred it to serving a Government under Japanese control. Also for the first time Burmans had an army which they could use against foreign rulers. The environment endowed them with the rudiments of economic and military power without which votes have no value and talk of self-government is a mockery.” For the AFPFL which now stands condemned by the mud-slinging of its two factions, Dr Furnivall has kind words. He attributed its strength at the beginning to “the fact that it inherited and has consolidated the political organization of the resistance movement.” Some would-be national leaders “such as Dr Ba Maw were reluctant to join the AFPFL or any other organization in any position except the highest” and it was only Thakin Than Tun who could collect a following of any number, “and almost the only effectively organized opposition is controlled by

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the communists and their fellow travellers who did not join Than Tun in open rebellion.” Thus the AFPFL could reign for ten years without serious challenge, and its leaders had their “human frailties, but they were faced with a super-human task; and the optimism and enthusiasm, which were their sole assets, tempted them to go ahead too fast and too far … Yet they held their country for ten years, and it is difficult to believe that any group of men, in the same circumstances and with the same limitations, would have done better.” Dr Furnivall felt sad about “the recriminations of the rival groups, each trying to blame the other; and the charges and counter-charges will reverberate with growing vehemence in the general election with which Burma is now faced. He hopes, however, that the rival leaders, “brought more closely face to face with the perilous consequences of discord, may invent a formula for reconciliation and that, in a common effort to repair the damage, a rejuvenated AFPFL may rise like a phoenix, from its ashes.” His hope of an AFPFL rising from the ashes is not a sentimental one, for Dr Furnivall, like most thinking observers, views the future with its promise of even more intensified political warfare only with misgiving. Academic political scientists who are enamoured of the British parliamentary system of democracy advance the theory that democracy needs a strong Government and a strong Opposition, and they are, of course right. But if that fine check and balance cannot be achieved, and the alternative is to be a weak Government always bothered by opposition splinter groups who combine only for gain and office, then a strong Government like the AFPFL was before its split is much to be preferred. “The absence of an organization capable of taking over the government is not without countervailing advantages,” Dr Furnivall writes. “The test of the Constitution on the English parliamentary model will come when there is an opposition strong enough to defeat the party in power but not sufficiently united to provide an effective substitute. This would tend to revive the corruption, intrigue and impotence characteristics of pre-war legislatures. It would seem then that, under present conditions in Burma, the single party government of the AFPFL not only provides a more representative and democratic type of government then two rival political machines, but is also as strong a government as in the present circumstances the country is able to produce.” Either the AFPFL must rise again from its ashes, rejuvenated and cleansed, or a new political

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organization must be born which has energy and ability and can command the confidence of the people. Those last remarks are unsaid in the book, but they would, I think, naturally occur to a reader. Just how the AFPFL will reunite and rise rejuvenated, or how a new and inspiring organization will appear in the urgent future would defy the richest imagination. Note 1. Published by IPR, New York, 1958.

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Section III, W.

DAW KHIN KYI (MADAME AUNG SAN) Daw Khin Kyi, Madame Aung San, is Burma’s first lady ambassador and she is at present in New Delhi.

A

fter the fighting had ended, the Burma Independence Army was regrouped in Pyinmana with Aung San as the commander, and his comrades in the army and the thakin party started marrying right and left, partly because they were the heroes and girls are willing to give their hearts to heroes, and partly because the privations and restrictions of the struggle were over, at least for the time being, and they felt hugely released. At the wedding ceremonies which he attended, Aung San, still alone, and very lonely, would growl that the bridegrooms had deserted, and were going soft. But in his growl there was more yearning for this own happiness than anger. Malaria or something or other gave Aung San his chance. He went into hospital in Rangoon and was cared for by a comely nurse. Malaria would ebb away at her touch and he would feel a deep peace. He soon began to refuse medicine from other hands but hers; at meals she must be around. He behaved like a big stubborn boy, but he knew what he wanted and needed, and as usual he concentrated all of himself on

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Daw Khin Kyi (Madame Aung San)” in The Guardian VII, no. 6 (June 1960): 33–36, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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achieving it. He did not pretend or employ wiles; he did not use the traditional go-between, and there was no need for any for his feelings were written large all over his face, and were revealed in all that he did. After a whirlwind courtship, they were married on the 6th. September, 1942, and Daw Khin Kyi, in marrying Aung San, married not a man only but a destiny. In all the war years Daw Khin Kyi remained quietly in the background, a wife, a housewife, and every year a mother anew. Theirs was a happy home, and Aung San looked better fed, and became more human. The soldiers in the army did not at first look upon the marriage with enthusiasm, and some of the young officers were vehemently opposed, for they wanted their young general all to themselves. A few of Aung San’s young lieutenants sulked for weeks, and went round saying that the general had deserted the cause and gone soft, but as time went on, they got used to it, and even grew to like it. A song was composed about the general who never loved before he fell in love with the nurse and then loved her with all his heart. The song became popular with the army and the people during the war, and soldiers and officers, after their general’s fashion, went after nurses religiously. Nursing became a desirable calling, and nurses were looked up to and sought after; the demand always exceeded the supply. Aung San was often emotional and overwrought. His sense of mission made him a difficult man at times, but Daw Khin Kyi provided the needed calm and warmth. They were not well off. The salary of a general was not princely, and Aung San did not dream of collecting riches by any of the many means that were open to him. Home life was simple but happy. Soldiers would drop in on them and they were always welcome to share the simple meals. The general’s rapid rise to national leadership did not alter the home life; its love and simplicity remained, and Daw Khin Kyi was content to remain a wife and mother. Perhaps it was the war and the common danger that suppressed the petty jealousies between wives of men in public leadership; perhaps the jealousies were not there at all in those days of united endeavour for one cherished goal for the country; perhaps it was because there were not the big functions and parties where wives would naturally compete for attention and the seats of honour; but there were no problems in those days and Daw Khin Kyi was content to be the general’s wife,

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and their children’s mother. The soldiers in the army also learned to call her ‘Mother’ even as they called Aung San their ‘Father’. No prouder title could a woman ever earn. On the eve of the resistance, in March 1945, Daw Khin Kyi took her three children, Aung San U, Aung San Lin, and Aung San Su Kyi, to a village in Pyapon district to quietly but anxiously wait for the time when the family could be together again. General Aung San commanded the resistance forces from Thayet. From then on it was a whirlwind that swept the family on. Aung San was elected by acclaim leader of the united front of the nationalist movement. There were the rallies and the resolutions, the demonstrations and the demands, the bargainings with the British Governor, the door to office that was left temptingly open, the deadlocks, the strikes, and suddenly all was over and Aung San was prime minister. Being prime minister was no fun. The tasks were huge, the responsibilities heavy, but there was not the power to make decisions and carry them through. The British Governor was in charge, and while being his chief minister, Aung San’s mission was to get rid of him; it was to the credit of both Sir Hubert Rance, the Governor, and Aung San, and the good old British sense of humour, that the main task was carried out without any hurt feelings on either side. After a trip to London for talks with the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Aung San returned to lead the AFPFL in general elections for the Constituent Assembly. He travelled widely through the country, speaking, thundering, sometimes threatening. He worked with a great sense of urgency, feeling perhaps that his own time was fast running out, and he had only a few more months to complete his mission. Daw Khin Kyi went with him on the campaign, and one stock joke of Aung San, at public meetings, was to have her sit by him and introduce her. ‘This is Ma Khin Kyi, my wife. She is a nurse, you know, or was, before she married me, ha, ha! These nurses, you know, are very snobbish. They never even looked at me before the war when I was a mere politician. Only when I became a general did Ma Khin Kyi condescend to look at me and marry me, ha, ha!’ Daw Khin Kyi would smile good-naturedly as her husband tried to get a laugh at her expense, and the people would laugh, not that it was very funny, but they felt that Bogyoke, with his ‘ha, ha’s’ wanted them to laugh, and

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they would do anything he wanted them to do, for they loved him and followed him. The elections were won. The Constitution was drafted. The Shans, the Chins, the Kachins, the Kayah, the Karens, all decided to join the Union, largely because of the trust they reposed in Aung San. He went everywhere, and as often as possible with Daw Khin Kyi by his side, and applied himself to every problem. Then when his task was about done, the assassins cut him down. Within an hour of the assassinations, Daw Khin Kyi was at the hospital where Aung San’s body lay, blood still oozing warm from the wounds. She took his head and rested it on her lap, and she sat silent thus for a long time. She did not weep; it was too big for tears. She would not weep; she would not give their enemies, their rivals, cause for further rejoicing. A soldier’s wife, she had been ready for this. Aung San’s wife, she had been ready for this all the time all the more. With her hands she cleaned the wounds and wiped away the blood, and then she took the fallen warrior home.

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Section III, X.

A BOOK FOR COLONEL BA THAN

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olonel Ba Than wrote to me in October, 1960, about the books we wanted to prepare and publish, on the war, the resistance, on Bogyoke Aung San, books that still wait to be written. There is so much creative work to do in Burma, and so few people to do it, and many of the few are on hot pursuits after idle things. It seemed, from his letter, that the books Colonel Ba Than and I wanted to work on together must be left to other hands, for, he wrote, he was relinquishing his commission in the service and devoting himself to the life of a lay missionary in the remote places of Burma where the high political “isms” and the mighty political schisms do not reach, and the peoples are in want for the simple things of a good clean life. Colonel Ba Than wrote then to say that I must keep the matter in utmost confidence, and that when time came he would like to quickly slip away from it all to the new calling. He asked me for books to

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “A Book for Colonel Ba Than” in The Guardian VIII, no. 7 (July 1961): 28, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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inspire him in his self-sought loneliness, books to show him the way and give him heart, when he feebled, to go on. Strength to win in great endeavours has always to spring from within oneself. Friends may help, and foes may hinder, but it is one’s inner self that ultimately wins or fails. And loneliness, I suppose, is one of the hardest things to suffer and survive in great endeavours. The politician out of office or in the wilderness, the scientist in some deep quest in his laboratory, the scholar in his research in the library, the missionary in the hills, they all alike must yearn for company, for comfort, for applause, for rewards and recognition; they all alike will win through and accomplish their missions if they can find the strength to overcome the yearning and the loneliness. I have found a book for Colonel Ba Than now, a book he will enjoy reading and occasionally draw inspiration from. It is a new book about Ann Hasseltine Judson, who sailed with her husband, Adoniram Judson, from the far-away shores of America in those early uncertain days to Burma to engage on Christian missionary work. The book is called Golden Boats from Burma, and is written by Gordon Langley Hall, and published by Macrae Smith of Philadelphia. There are many books about Christian missions to Burma or by the missionaries themselves, but this new book about Ann Judson is one of the good books, told simply and sweetly, unburdened with bias or religiosity, the story of a young husband and wife who decided they had to go to Burma and do a piece of good work, and did the job they had set out to do against even greater odds sometimes. Things were a little drastic in those days in Burma, and the Judsons suffered humiliation and hardship often, and later, after they had won the trust and love of the peoples they worked amongst, they received great kindness and high honours, and their work left permanent results in many ways. The book also gives glimpses of the Burmese kingdom where the Judsons served, and though the author has told a story which is enjoyable as such, the historic value of the book is also high. In his acknowledgements, Gordon Langley Hall mentions, among others, Dr Hla Bu and Daw E Tin, and U Tet Htoot whom he worked with in London. The mention of U Tet Htoot reminds me of my meeting with him in London in 1959 when we passed through on our way to the United Nations. There was the usual reception, the usual shaking of

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hands with people whom I cannot remember now, the usual speeches. At the end of it all, U Tet Htoot retrieved me from the ritual, and asked me anxiously if the Burma Translation Society was going on and if the publication of the Encyclopedia Burmanica, with the edition of which he was actively involved, would go on. There were so many changes in Burma, and he was unsure, but he was not worried about jobs and positions, titles and rewards, he was only concerned about the books, the work he was doing. I assured him that his work would go on, because it was good work, and good things go on, that changes in Burma were on the surface, and the heart remained unchanged and it was a good heart. So, reading Golden Boats from Burma, I feel reassured that that is so. While the many in many countries, not Burma alone, pursue the transient and the empty things, a few will always plod on at the important things, alone, and when the many have gone from the scene and their transient glories faded, it is the few who will be remembered, or even if their names be forgotten, their work will endure. So with the Judsons. So, I expect, with the Ba Thans and the Tet Htoots. New Haven May, 1961

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Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot by Robert H. Taylor (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg >

Section III, Y.

THE SECRETARYGENERAL’S ROLE IN THE U.N. U Thant, Burma’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, was appointed Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations by unanimous vote of the 103-member States on November 3, 1961. He will serve out the unexpired term of the late Mr Dag Hammarskjold up to April 10, 1963. U Thant’s election by the General Assembly followed also the unanimous recommendation of the Security Council. It ended the crisis brought about by the sudden death of Mr Hammarskjold in a plane crash on September 13, 1961.

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oon the General Assembly will disperse for Christmas, and delegates will go home. The great and burning political issues will have been discussed, the speeches and the gestures will have been made, hitting the headlines sometimes, missing them sometimes. Even more than the big newspapers of New York city, the small paper at home is important for the home-coming delegate. For its readers will judge him by his performance at the session as reported and appraised in its columns over the months since September. How strongly he denounced colonialism or capitalism, how greatly he contributed to making the

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “The Secretary-General’s Role in the U.N.” in The Guardian IX, no. 1 (January 1962): 15–17, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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cold war hot or the hot war cold, how eloquently he called upon the nations to disarm or arm now to disarm afterwards, and perhaps most important of all, how, in sweet and smiling diplomacy, he dealt nice blows at the fellows from you know where, without too obviously offending the points of order. By these hard tests, and many more, will he be judged. At the United Nations headquarters the staff will carry on with their work, somewhat relieved in mind that the Assembly has recessed, but their burdens unlightened, for there will be much tidying up to do in addition to their regular duties. The Secretary-General in his office on the 38th floor of the standing-match-box of a building, his principal advisers, the directors of divisions, and those who are most closely concerned with the translation of policy into action, will have on their desks a number of resolutions to read and interpret and apply through directives to their staff who are organized in layers of the Secretariat or scattered in agencies or teams or missions or alone as individuals all over the globe. Where the issues are sensitive and urgent as well, the resolutions are apt to be vague, for they can only embody just that much of substance on which nations which disagree on many basic problems that confront mankind can agree. The Secretary-General, the chief executive of the United Nations, in whose lap the members have left their hopes and expectations described in resolutions that sometimes defy the most effective rules of interpretation, must act. The U.N. police force put into the Congo must move and perform some mission; it needs to be fed and kept and directed. The U.N. “presence” that may have been established in some troubled country faraway needs to be fed and kept and directed. And these are just the explosive problems that burst upon the world scene now and then, like Korea and Suez, Laos and the Congo. There are many other areas, increasing every year in number and scope, in which the U.N. is at work, and these call for administration and the employment of a variety of resources. All these problems and tasks lie in the lap of the Secretary-General, and his only consolation perhaps is that it is a great cause that he serves and that he has on call the best talents and skills that the world possesses through his advisers, officers and experts. The world today is as close to the world community as we can hope for, and the United Nations is the closest approach to the world

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government that we all want and need. As membership of the world community spreads out towards universality, the problems and the pains of living together in the community increase. That is true of any unit of human society. He who lives alone — if that is possible — suffers few pains and faces few problems, though his existence may not be very fulfilling. In the family there is richer fulfilment, and more problems and pains. In the state, the fulfilment can be greater, and so the problems and the pains. Thus it goes on as man strives for better fulfilment and a higher life. In the state, it is simpler and, in some ways, easier to run a dictatorship than a democracy. It needs a lot of courage and endless patience and perseverance to build a democracy and keep it going. Even in strong democracies like the United States, the temptation to seek escape from responsibilities and solace in simple answers and solutions is always there. The Charter of the United Nations is the constitution of a free and hopeful world. It can be helpful to compare the Charter with the constitution of the United States which is a union of autonomous states which join together to achieve common aims and ends. The United States was not gently born. The travails of birth and growth were acute. Jealously independent states did not view with enthusiasm anything that looked like a detraction from their sovereignty. But the fathers of the constitution had some common goals and they could build a nation which preserves the diversities and the sovereignties while yet stressing the unities of nationhood. The founders of the United Nations had a more difficult task in that the unities were weaker and the diversities stronger. Nations are united in their desire for real peace; even the most ambitious nation does not want to die. That is the strongest unity in the United Nations. There are others, such as desire for happiness and prosperity, but these are weaker and what different nations mean by happiness, for example, and human dignity, can differ widely. While the one unity in the desire for peace is strong, the jealousies for sovereignty, the conflicts of interest, of ideology, and such divisive forces are also strong in the United Nations. The young entrants are sensitive, and emerging from decades of bondage, they are hurt and suspicious; they need time to relax. The older nations can also be snobbish and cynical; they sometimes miss the good old days when the destiny of the human race could be decided round the table in Vienna or Paris in golden rooms under the chandeliers.

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Just as the young nations are prompt to protest anything that looks like a slight or a detraction from their sovereignty, the older nations or the better-off ones jealously protect the privileges that they claim by virtue of their status or strength. The veto in the Security Council, for example, is a power that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union will agree to surrender. Bestowal of compulsory jurisdiction on the International Court of Justice is a matter in which both United States and the Soviet Union have shown equal reluctance. The United States has grown from similar circumstances to what is now a going concern. The United Nations should also be able to grow, given necessary nourishment and time. The framers of the United States constitution were able to define the structure of the state, and invest its essential organs with lifegiving power. The founders of the United Nations were less fortunate: they knew what they needed but lacked the power to have it. Nations wanted much but were prepared to give precious little in return for it. The result is a Charter which establishes the various organs of the world organization but leaves it to the future and the good sense and goodwill of the members to define the details of their powers and roles as they move along. The Charter in itself is not faulty. Its weaknesses do not flow from lack of drafting skills or legal expertness. The Charter embodies the readiness of the members to live together in friendly society, and its strength and effectiveness will increase as that readiness increases. A constitution cannot say everything and provide for all time. The United States constitution has to grow, as principles and precedents, understandings and customs gather round it. Some organs of the state, confronted with special situations, find they need powers about which the constitution is silent, and they have of needs to take the powers and use them. Thus, the powers of the President of the United States have developed, and the powers of the Supreme Court, and of the Congress. The United States had a better start as a going concern than the United Nations. The powers and functions of the President of the United States, for example, are more fully defined than those of the Secretary-General of the U.N.; yet in some respects, the two chiefs are in similar circumstances, for the President can no more move the United States to new frontiers if the people do not move with him, than

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the Secretary-General can operate the United Nations if the members do not give him the necessary tools and resources for doing so. U Thant, whom the Security Council and the General Assembly have unanimously chosen to take the seat left empty by his illustrious predecessor, Dag Hammarskjold, appreciates the difficulties of his sensitive and difficult job, the limitations under which he must work, and the high expectations of some members who would want him to attempt and achieve impossible tasks without calling on them for contributions. U Thant knows the United Nations, having served there on the delegation of Burma in 1952, and as Burma’s Permanent Representative from 1957 till his election as Secretary-General. His Buddhist philosophy, practised over the years with devotion but not fanaticism, has taught him how to be tranquil under stress. He taught high school for many years in a district town in Burma, was headmaster for two decades, and an educationist and political writer all along. He was never an academic writer, though. He had engaged in debate on current issues, discussed democracy versus dictatorship in the crucial years of resurgent Burmese nationalism, and beyond nationalism towards a One World in his writings. His ambition has always been to publish a weekly magazine of news and comments, and when the needs of new Burma compelled him to take public office, his lingering hope has always been to retire early and start his magazine. He was the right hand and confidant of Burma’s Prime Minister U Nu at whose side he travelled the world. He was friend and peace-maker in the ruling party, of which he was not a member, by virtue of his pleasing personality, unflustered efficiency and a limitless capacity for work. When in 1957, U Nu sent him to the United Nations as Burma’s Permanent Representative, the assignment was meant to be for only two years. The split in the party at home in 1958, and the changes that followed, kept U Thant at the United Nations somewhat longer. The measure of his personality and influence in Burma can be had from the general belief there that if he had been around in Rangoon to heal and harmonize, the split itself would not have happened. Observers are intrigued with the personality of the new SecretaryGeneral. Some think he will be soft; some, looking at his “neutral” background, suggest that he will be more neutral to the East than to the West. One distinguished columnist of the New York Times sighed, somewhat sadly, that “he is not our man”. U Thant himself has answered,

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by action, if not in so many words, some of the questions and removed some of the doubts. To the big powers which would impose conditions on his appointment in the number of advisers he must have and the relationships he must maintain with them, he said in effect that he would accept no conditions but assume the powers and the responsibilities as laid down by the Charter; if the big powers would not have him on his terms they could look elsewhere for a candidate. His conduct in the continuing crisis of the Congo has been firm, and it may be safely predicted that he will take an early opportunity to visit the scene and the U.N. mission in the field. He appreciates that so long as he occupies the present office, he is not “U Thant of Burma”, and the official policy of Burma as to neutrality, or towards the admission of Communist China, must not influence him; he is international civil servant number one, and his loyalty is to the U.N. and the Charter. Burma, honoured by his election, offered him a high title, and U Thant declined it, while accepting an honorary doctorate from the University of Rangoon, his alma mater. His Buddhist philosophy will no doubt make him look at conflicts as events which call for mediation, rather than judgment as to right and wrong. Just as in this nuclear world if a war is let loose there will be no victor but all stand to lose all, so in the clashes that occur in the U.N. there can be no victory in resolutions passed by mere majority votes, there can be no victory in numbers, which may seem like something but possess no substance unless all the members, big and small, consent and move along together. His background of public service in Burma will also, no doubt, reinforce U Thant’s loyalty to the Charter and its high ideals. In Burma, the constitution has come through many trials intact. There has been a decade of unchallenged power for the ruling party; there has been the split in the party, and a caretaker government led by the chief of staff of the armed forces. There have been many dangers and many temptations, but in times of doubt and confusion the people and the leaders have put their faith in the constitution and allowed themselves to be guided by its spirit. Thus it was that the chief of staff supervised the fairest of parliamentary elections in the history of the young republic and returned political power to U Nu who won a landslide victory. U Thant will no doubt feel the same way towards the Charter of the U.N.; that while the Charter cannot be stronger than the nations make it, the nations, big and

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small, must move together with unquestioning faith in the Charter and its principles. The bigger and stronger a member nation, the bigger and stronger must be its faith in the Charter, and the greater its willingness to act within its framework in the letter as well as the spirit. (This article also appeared in Christmas issue of the “Virginia Law Weekly” published by the University of Virginia.)

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Section III, Z.

AUNG SAN Hero of Burma’s Victory

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dulation of Aung San has almost become a habit in Burma, but will a calm assessment of him ever be attempted? Assessment cannot be easy when understanding him was itself so difficult. The one bronze monument raised to his memory in Rangoon shows him raising a hand of caution — or is it admonition? — and controversy has been raging as to whether that could be the real Aung San. For he neither cautioned nor admonished, some people say, but marched mightily on, a general leading his troops to victory. None, however, will challenge Aung San’s title of “architect of Burma’s freedom.” Every nation which has travelled the long and painful road of servitude and struggle to be free must have had its leaders and heroes, but when the moment of fulfilment rises there comes one leader, one hero, who concentrates in him the hopes and aspirations and sacrifices of the nation and reaches out to claim the cherished

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Aung San: Hero of Burma’s Victory” in The Guardian XVI, no. 2 (February 1969): 30–31, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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prize for all. That one man in Burma’s contemporary history was Aung San. Born in February 1916 in a small village of Natmauk of a family which had the tradition of resistance to British rule, Aung San grew up as an intelligent and honest boy. He loved to learn and went to school early. He was inclined to silent and morose, but was not incapable of flashes of wit and humour. He was determined, and would with deliberate effort, try to force himself to take part and excel in school social activities. He arrived at the Rangoon University when he was 16 and worked for an arts degree. He liked to read on serious subjects and political science had special fascination for him. He wrote many essays on politics which he managed to get published but few were read, and fewer registered. He lived simply, a self-sufficient student. Among his contemporaries were students like Thein Pe, Ko Ohn, Kyaw Nyein, and M.A. Raschid; Ko Nu was a senior student and a big brother. These few young men were to change the life at the University and stir up the politican life of the country. They discovered each other and teamed up; they easily captured the control of the hitherto tranquil and respectable club of the Students’ Union and made it a nerve centre of students’ extra-curricular activities. And there too by discussion and debate new thoughts were born and nourished, new values and goals were set. The group engineered the students’ strike of 1936 now looked upon as a distinct landmark on the road to independence. Ko Nu led and the rest organized. Aung San at the strikers’ camp on the Shwedagon Pagoda alternated between fits of energy and outbursts of temperament including tears. On the pagoda the future leaders of Burma spent their time organizing a movement which daily grew bigger than they ever dreamed, reading and talking politics, making poses to the camera for the benefit of posterity. Some loved and emulated Mussolini, some Hitler; some called themselves Fabian, some Socialists and Marxists; Aung San admired Mustapha Kemal of Turkey, Armstrong’s “Grey Wolf”. But they all loved Burma and yearned for her freedom. After the strike Aung San took his degree and read law for a year. But politics had already got him and soon he left to take a leading part in the young radical “Thakin” (Our Own Masters) movement. He soon became secretary of the Dobama Asiayone. He was always

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poor and hungry, shabby and uncouth, but in the shifting, sharp world of politics, his sincerity and dedication shone. When war broke out, the young Thakins decided that “Britain’s difficulty was Burma’s opportunity” and some of them played with the idea of inviting foreign military aid. Young students began to form “steel corps” and train and drill with bamboo staffs. Aung San was active also in the “Freedom Bloc” which strived to be a united front of nationalism. The British broke the Bloc by liberally jailing the leaders, and Aung San was soon in hiding with a reward of five kyats for his arrest. He decided he could not do much in jail and an emergency council of the “Burma Revolutionary Party” — the group of Thakins who wanted to fight the British — decided that he should slip out of the country and seek military aid abroad. Aung San smuggled himself out and reached Amoy in China. His objectives were vague, the available contacts were uncertain. Some of the BRP had wanted to contact the Communist Chinese Eighth Route Army of whose exploits they had dimly heard; some looked to the Japanese rising sun for hope. Aung San wandered about in Amoy for some time and was finally found by Japanese army officers who had received word from Rangoon. He was taken to Tokyo to meet the “Minami Kikan,” a semi-official group of Japanese militarists who were secretly preparing for war. Aung San was tested thoroughly. He was tempted with women and wealth: neither moved him. Tests were made to find out if he was a Communist, results were negative. He was asked to write a blueprint for free Burma, and that he did, writing forcefully, pouring out his heart, gathering together the dreams he had always dreamt. His plan for Burma’s government was an enlightened but absolute rule by one or a few for the good of the many; he had not much hopes for democracy. But he meant well, and the Japanese grew to believe in him and respect his patriotism and his truth. Aung San came back to Burma to smuggle out with him to Japan some young men who would train and lead a freedom army home. There were boys who went with him, and politicians; they were thirty odd; and these “thirty comrades” led back into Burma the Burma Independence Army which they gathered on the march from Thailand. The army swelled on its northward march. It was a revolutionary army in its typical form: patriots and bad hats, politicians and schoolboys, all joined under one

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banner, carrying assortments of weapons, dragging useless cannon over dusty roads for prestige. General Aung San was unexcited all along the march. He saw much and kept his silence. The Japanese had promised to launch the BIA into Burma and stay out; now they were behaving as conquerors. The Burmese themselves were confused. Most of the “Thakins” wanted jobs on the administration committees in order to show off and bully, to settle old scores and fill their pockets. Many of the politicians were prepared to wait on the Japanese hoping for small gifts. Here and there on the road Aung San broke out in anger to urge “Thakins” to march with him, to rough it and learn to fight, for the war for freedom was just begun. Some came, some stayed behind. Aung San himself was no brilliant or dashing field commander. War swept him along and he went, wearing the same dust-covered green tunic all through; he did not bathe sometimes for weeks on end. The Japanese cut the BIA to 3,000 strong, enamed it the “Burma Defence Army” and made Aung San its commander with the rank of colonel. Dr Ba Maw, the dashing ex-Premier, was brought out from Mogok jail and installed as chief administrator, later “Head of State”. Aung San went his way, building the army, raising a family. For he was now a respectable married man, having found his mate in a nurse, Daw Khin Kyi, who looked after him in hospital when he was sick. He loved, and could neither woo nor wait and proposed while he was yet half-recovered. The family was successful; children arrived yearly, and Aung San who had always flung the accusation off disloyalty to those of his comrades who chose to marry now went about recommending marriage to all. General Aung San gradually became a hero to the people without having to perform heroic deeds. People were looking for a hero on whom they could place their hopes in those gloomy war years, and Aung San with his patent sincerity and his utter lack of pomp was the ideal choice. But Aung San was the patient planner, not the bold and reckless hero who dashed about breathing fire and fury. He tried to forge unity among the peoples, bringing the suspicious and sulky Karens into the army. He tried to keep calm the young red-blooded officers who were crying out for a war against the Japanese. Sometimes, to keep those restless boys out, he had to lock his bedroom door

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and post a sign outside: “Do not disturb; husband and wife are in bed.” The resistance further enhanced Aung San’s prestige, but it was just the beginning of his glory. His era really began after the liberation. Then, impatient nationalism stood poised against the old regime which returned in the person of the old refugee British Governor who brandished the old formula of guided gradual steps to ultimate dominion status within the British Commonwealth. Just as the Governor personified the old regime, Aung San personified the new unity of the peoples and the resurgent nationalism. He rose to his full stature then, and the peoples united behind him. He became president of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League; he grew larger than that: he was “the” national leader. At tender 29, he was hero, leader, unifier, statesman. His fame spread into the remote hill areas which had always been kept apart from the Burmese; now the Kachins, Chins and Shans heard about Aung San, came to meet and believe in him and to pledge themselves to the Union of Burma. Older colleagues like U Nu willingly served as his lieutenants. Senior civil servants unreservedly gave him their allegiance. Rivals found it more profitable to go along behind him than to oppose him. Aung San was unique. People poured their wealth at his feet and at the great meetings where tens of thousands came to hear him drone endlessly on his pet political theories, girls took off their gold and gave them to him. Aung San rode the rising tide and swept everything that stood in the way including the British Governor and his ancient counsellors. Soon a new Governor came to work with Aung San and prepare for Burma’s freedom; soon Aung San as Burma’s Premier — in effect, though not yet his name — was in London to negotiate and sign a treaty with Labour Government’s Clement Attlee. Thus a young man of 30 unschooled in diplomacy and statecraft, did seal a solemn document which returned to his peoples their lost nationhood. With that the era ended. The rest could be but an anticlimax, and of that Aung San was mercifully spared. On July 19, 1947, assassins blasted for him a brave exit, and he went, his duty done.

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SECTION IV

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND TRAVEL

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Section IV

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND TRAVEL

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r Maung Maung was a keen observer of the world around him. He took great delight in the varieties of the human species and the differences in the environments in which they lived. His London Diary, published in 1952,1 immediately upon his return from his two year stint in London, was the first work in his many writings which evoked another place and the lessons he learned from the humanity that he observed there. But many of his writings that one would not necessarily classify as travel writing strongly evoke place and time. Equally, much of what one would describe as Dr Maung Maung’s travel writings also indicated his approach to life and learning. He was continually open to new ideas and new thoughts; until the end of his days he was always open to novel ways of looking at issues. His openness to life and change is nicely captured in this excerpt from the London Diary: I came to England prepared to find fault with everything English; curiosity brought me but it verged on the hostile. I could not help that because I came from a country which was under British rule for about a century.… The White Man enjoyed the privileges which were denied to their Asian colleagues; much higher pay than the Burmese — native 309

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— civil servant of the same status; and the Burmese who enjoyed equal status with Englishmen were few. The English civil servants and the executives of commercial firms gathered in the evenings in their exclusive clubs and played bridge and cards, or drank their beer, or, wearing their correct evening dress, danced in the sweltering heat of the Rangoon summer night. … In that unnatural atmosphere I grew up. In that world of privilege and class I learned to distrust and dislike the English who strutted and swaggered in their gymkhana sipping their gin and juice.2 The only Englishmen I could bring myself to like and respect was the principal of my college and my professors: I respected them because every young Burmese, at least in my days, were taught to revere his teachers. … Thus I came to England curious to find out about the people I did not like nor trust. I was curious but was resolved to go about my quest with my mind as open as I could have it: it was not easy to have an open mind, but I tried. My quest has, in a way, disappointed me. I have not found the English people I would have wanted to find, the people who could justify my unfriendly feelings toward them; who could give peace to my conscience by convincing me that my prejudices against them had been well-founded. I have discovered that the ordinary English man and woman are kind and eager to help, that although they are shy and reserved they always respond warmly to friendship, that they are always willing to befriend, that they are honest and can be trusted. The average Englishman is not over-fond of empire. He has been told that the backward peoples need looking after and that empire is the White Man’s burden which only his heart impels him to bear. Maybe there is some truth in that, but surely not the whole truth, but the Englishman was told the tale and he believed. It was not his fault.3

While the election atmosphere he observed in England in the early 1950s, and described in the London Diary,4 may no longer exist in our age of media saturation and declining standards of journalistic ethics, for his period Dr Maung Maung was able to evoke, as a good political scientist in the tradition of Montesquieu and de Tocqueville, the essence of the phenomenon he was describing in a comparative manner, thus making the unknown knowable to his readers. As we shall see later in the section of Dr Maung Maung’s constitutional writings, the comparative method was crucial not only in his travel writing, but also in his legal analyses.

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Despite Dr Maung Maung’s frequent trips around his beloved Myanmar, alluded to in a number of essays,5 the essay on Mandalay reprinted here6 is the only one of his writings dedicated to a town or city in the country. It is not surprising that he wrote about it, however. It is, as people in Myanmar say, his “native place”, or in Myanmar, he is a Mandalay-tha, a son of Mandalay. When he decided to stand for election in the Pyithu Hluttaw (People’s Assembly), it was not surprising that he chose a seat in Mandalay before eventually taking a seat for nearby Amarapura, an even older capital of Myanmar. Mandalay is now the country’s “second city” after the much larger Yangon. Much of the legacy of destruction wrought by the Second World War on the city is now replaced with new buildings and monuments. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Dr Maung Maung knew a great many foreigners in Myanmar and abroad. His early observations on the people of America, described in his little book Grim War against the KMT,7 with a very large tongue in cheek, are indicative of his equanimity as well as his sense of the absurd: Americans are a great people, friendly, warm-hearted, overflowing with generosity, sentimental. … Americans who have come out of the war a world power are still rather confused as to what to do about it, and cover that confusion they like to throw their weight about and indulge in big thoughts and big talk. Global strategy, defensive perimeters, world political alignments, and such things are what the Americans relish talking about. The average American is a planner. He chews his cigar, gulps down his coca-cola and plans the crusade that the world is waiting for. He thinks big, talks big, and feels big and bursting. He is always eagerly on the lookout for causes to crusade for, people to rescue — if they are damsels in distress, so much the better. He is well meaning, good natured fellow, and he is too innocent and simple to think of harming people. Only, he is the crusader. Once the crusade is over, once his “dooty” is done, he will, of course, slip quietly away and not talk about it at all except on nation-wide hookups of radio and television but publicity is not his desire. He just wants to feel good by doing good.8

At least two of Dr Maung Maung’s travel essays were generated as a consequence of his work with the Ford Foundation and the “Society for the Propagation of Democracy” as was the biography of Daw Pyu

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discussed above.9 Clearly, as expressed in “Vietnam (South)”,10 he was not yet convinced that the Americans were backing the right side in the political conflicts then taking place in Vietnam. His visit to Saigon and Phnom Penh in November 1954 merely seemed to have confirmed in him his scepticism about what was politically appropriate for that country. While his sharing of anti-Communist views with his American sponsors was obvious, his understanding of Southeast Asian nationalism made him see that perhaps the Americans and the French they were replacing did not fully understand the situation. Dr Maung Maung’s pen pictures of his acquaintances in Singapore during his brief visited there in 195411 is in the same light hearted and somewhat cynical, or perhaps skeptical, vein as his South Vietnam piece. And perhaps he was correct to have written so because one of the persons about whom he describes as a rather faint hearted anti-British nationalist did indeed get elected to the Singapore legislature, but not until May 1959, not in 1955. He eventually became a Minister in the People’s Action Party government of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew until in 1975 when he was fired as minister of state for the environment for corruption and sentenced to four years and six months in jail. Wee Toon Boon,12 Eric Wee to Dr Maung Maung, did eventually “continue to enjoy the pleasure of being possessed”. Dr Maung Maung spent the month of October 1958 clearly enjoying himself as well as perhaps doing a bit of conference attendance in Greece. His comparisons between Greece and the Chin hills of Myanmar is one of his many efforts to make his observations understandable to his Myanmar audience. Comparing the Parthenon to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda is another such touch. It is a pity that he did not have an opportunity to travel and describe more of the world. The account of the United Nations,13 written after he attended the 14th session of the General Assembly as part of the Myanmar official delegation, is highly descriptive. It also demonstrates how highly Myanmar and its permanent representative to the UN, U Thant, were regarded. Foreign Minister U Chan Tun Aung was elected VicePresident of the Assembly, and U Thant succeeded him on his return to Yangon. It was U Thant’s service in that role which led to his being recognized by the big powers, especially the United States and the then Soviet Union, as a potential Secretary-General. As Dr Maung

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Maung wrote, Myanmar people “can do much more if [they] have the staff and resources.” The final item is dramatically different in tone and circumstances. It is the only example of any writing by Dr Maung Maung known to deal with his experiences in the United States during his two years at Yale. It is about a visit he and his family made to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and its small liberal arts college, Antioch. Antioch at that time had a reputation as an experimental and perhaps even, in the American context, radical college. Antioch was unusual in a number of ways. As a private institution with a predominantly urban clientele but placed in rural Ohio, it often set uneasily in its conservative community. It had a pioneering attitude toward educational experimentation and attempted to live its philosophy. One aspect of that was the work-study programme that combined academic study with periods of on the job training and employment.14 As Antioch at that time also had a number of connections with Myanmar, Dr Maung Maung clearly felt at home there. In a box that appeared at the beginning of the article, which was written while he was at Yale, it is stated that “Dr Maung Maung thinks that this system [work-study] might well be adapted here in Burma.” The ideal of the Workers College that was set up in Yangon during the period of BSPP rule in part may have achieved that ambition. Notes 1. Maung Maung, London Diary (Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1952). 2. Dr Maung Maung was far too much a gentleman to point out that many British serving in empire were racists and when they chose to socialize with “natives” in Myanmar, like Flory in George Orwell’s novel Burmese Days, preferred the company of Anglophile Indians to Myanmars. 3. Ibid., pp. 70–72. 4. London Diary, pp. 28–31; see Section IV, A. 5. Such as Section III, T. and his trip to the remote but beautiful town of Tiddim. 6. Section IV, B. 7. As the United States Central Intelligence Agency was implicated in the KMT intervention in Myanmar’s Shan State, raising the possibility of the country being drawn into Asian Cold War politics if not handled carefully, the American role in the region was of particular interest to Myanmar people at that time. See Robert H. Taylor, Foreign and Domestic Consequences of the KMT Intervention in Burma (Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program, 1973).

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Grim War, ibid., pp. 3–4. Section III, G. Section IV, C. Section IV, D. See J. Victor Morais, ed., The Leaders of Malaya and Who’s Who 1959–60 (Kuala Lumpur: the editor, 1960), p. 417; and speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Kuala Lumpur, 28 April 2005, at the World Ethics and Integrity Forum 2005. 13. Section IV, F. 14. The author received his Masters degree from Antioch in 1967 having undertaken a hybrid teaching-and-learning programme that involved academic study over two summers and one year of part-time teaching and seminars in an inner city high school in Washington, D.C. He subsequently lived in Yellow Springs for two years (1967–69) while he taught at nearby Wilberforce University that also had a workstudy of the kind that Dr Maung Maung describes at Antioch.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

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Section IV, A.

ELECTIONS Burma and Britain The author was in Britain and had a close-up of the general elections of 1950 and 1951. In this article he contrasts the elections he saw there, and the elections in Burma which he knew as a boy. The article is an excerpt from his book, “London Diary”.

A

general election in England is not an exciting affair: it goes quietly and smoothly. I much prefer the elections in Burma which, at any rate in my younger days, never failed to be great fun. There would be the open air meetings in some football field or village monastery ground and people would turn up expecting to be kept amused for a good two or three hours. The meeting scheduled to start at eight in the evening would begin at nine-thirty but nobody would complain — it only prolonged the pleasure of the occasion. When the meeting was declared open with due ceremony the first minor speakers would ramble away on nothing in particular and the audience would tolerate them patiently because oriental philosophy accepts such inevitable bores as a part of life. The star speaker, in most cases the adopted candidate of a party, would make his appearance and applause would greet him.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Elections: Burma and Britain” in The Guardian III, no. 6 (April 1956): 34–35, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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When he started speaking with the conventional “Dear mothers and fathers of this celebrated town (or village)” his voice would be a mere whisper, for he had spoken at many meetings and lost his voice in the cause of the common man. But he would wax eloquent gradually and regain the lost voice if he was given time — and there was plenty of time, the night was young and cool, the moon was up and the bright stars were strewn all over the cloudless sky; it was nicer to be outdoors than in. The candidate would recount his past achievements, if any, and make his promises, which would invariably be quiet lavish. The people would care little about the alleged past achievements and less about the promises, but the speaker had a pleasant face, a pleasing voice, was witty, kept them amused for a good hour; he shall have the vote. There would, of course, be a proviso. He shall have the vote provided he could come and fetch the voter in a shining car and take him out to a free feast of curried chicken, preferably pork, and rice, before the visit to the polling station. Occasionally the candidate or his agents might even bring presents for the children. I remember the elections that took place in my home town with great fondness. The car would arrive on the great morning and smiling people would step out, and my father and mother in their shining silk would take me, similarly well-groomed, along for the joy ride. In those days the vote was given to the one in the family who paid the household tax, usually but not invariably, the father. So, thinking back now, I should imagine that my mother used to go with father to the polls just for the fun of the ride and the free feast, for in law she was as voteless as I was. It was possible, if one was clever enough, to get the gifts from one candidate, eat at the feast of another, go out in the car of yet another and vote for anyone he wanted, for the voting was by ballot; there is a lot of meaning in the saying that the secret vote is one of the essentials of democracy. It is possible, though I cannot be sure, that father practised the art of getting the most out of what, after all, was a rare occasion; it would be strange if he did not, for he is a lawyer, and lawyers, they say, are clever at such things. After the vote had been cast, the voter usually had to walk home, for the candidates would be busy getting the voters to the station and could not bother to send back those who had cast theirs. A bargain was

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a bargain, however, and that was fair enough. We had driven about swank, eaten well, I had my gifts, my father had voted, God and he alone knew how, and all in all it was a morning well spent. We would go home happy to have done our bit for democracy. In England, people do vote, but do not seem to me to think much about the whole business. They take it in their stride. The housewife drops in at the polling station when she can snatch time off from her shopping, and the baby patiently waits in the perambulator parked outside the station. Only one or two burly policemen browse lazily around. There is not much excitement. No canvassers await at the gates to shower their smiles on the incoming voter, no stealthy hand slips a half-crown piece into the voter’s hand to guide the destination of the vote. Election meetings are not always well-attended; only prominent leaders of the parties attract heartening crowds. At meetings hecklers may form little islands in the audience and disturb the proceedings with persistent question and noise. Communists, I have seen, make good hecklers; they seem to have the mental and physical equipment for this sort of work. Canvassers do go round from door to door before the election and then babies get kisses and candy, the parents get smiles and advice. Candidates, of course, address as many meetings as their agents can organise, while candidates’ wives — or husbands — not only help actively in the campaign, but also put up cheerfully with late homecomings and irregular meals. Election manifestoes are issued by the parties, but few people read them. Most people know how they are voting if not the reason for it, and the floating votes are few but decisive. One of the two major parties which captures the majority of those wavering votes gets in. Elections in England pass by like the English summer, unobtrusive, almost unseen. One may hear a party political broadcast occasionally or read in the paper the arguments put out by the parties; one may see some posters here and there telling him that England is at the crossroads and to put her on the right road he must cast his vote for So-and -so who represents the right party. The British Broadcasting Corporation is very careful during elections; apart from the party broadcasts which are allocated as the parties agree among themselves, no political party can get on the air in any way during the critical period. Important electioneering speeches may be reported as ordinary news items in the usual calm way of the B.B.C.

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news broadcasts, but a Labour M.P. who has been commissioned to do a poetry reading or a Conservative M.P. booked or a broadcast on shooting big game in Africa will probably have to wait till after election to go on the air; the scruples of the B.B.C. are immaculate. Government publicity and information departments also observe strict neutrality during the campaign. The Central Office of Information, for example, will heroically keep silent on any subject that may have the remotest connection with partisan warfare; a film on the nation’s health may thus be withdrawn from public circulation as it may be construed as or have the effect of indirect propaganda for the party in office. It is a good thing that politics and elections matter so very little in the life of the British nation. Politics has its place in the scheme of affairs, just as cricket has, but it is kept in its place and is by no manner of means all-pervading. There are debates and discussions in school and in societies, brain trusts on the radio or public meetings and lectures in election time or out, but politics does not dominate life in Britain. Parties and politics and Parliament, they are not everything; they are but some means to an end, a vehicle on which Britain rides onward on her adventures of life. And back in Burma, I shall miss the happy cheerful elections of old when men and women in their best silk sallied forth in hired cars to the festival of fun. Things did not go too badly then; Parliaments assembled and dispersed, coalitions of parties formed and broke, and generally some good and little ill was done. Now perhaps the people are a little too serious, too politically minded. They talk and live politics; perhaps they do not want but are forced to by the parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the rains. A man is dialectically dissected and found a deviationist, or an opportunist, or a fascist beast, or an imperialist stooge. Parties and people are suffering from ideological indigestion.

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Section IV, B, Profile

MANDALAY

I

saw this ancient city, my home, burn. April 23rd, 1942 it was, for I distinctly remember and the burning of Mandalay has burned itself into my memory. War was coming up fast from the south. Moulmein had fallen, Rangoon was falling. The Japanese “liberators” were coming in, led in some of the advancing columns by the Burma Independence Army. There was excitement in the city, and with the steady influx of refugees and routed British soldiers and Chiang Kai Shek’s Chinese troops the whole city was abristle. There was not much panic, however. Business in the city was good. The refugees brought plenty of money — the troops were throwing money about — and Mandalay, businesslike as always, decided that the war had its blessings. Rangoon had been bombed many times, it was true, but Rangoon was far away. Mandalay, the ancient city; would be spared; so the people of Mandalay thought. The city was spared even when the country was seized by the British; when Thibaw was taken away, all that the people of the city had to

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Mandalay” in The Guardian II, no. 4 (February 1955): 9–13, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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do was line up along the streets and shed a few tears as the bullock cart carrying the royal prisoners creaked slowly by. Even when the country was annexed by the British, there was good business, and some daring souls ventured into the royal palaces and sacked the treasures. It was great fun sharing the spoils with Colonel Sladen and the British. So in the April of 1942, Mandalay, busy with business, felt no forebodings of danger. The markets were full as usual and there was only a half-hearted evacuation by cautious families. The city was fat and full when the foul blow fell. Foul because the blow should not have been so heavy, so cruel. Wave upon wave of Japanese light bombers came over the city, and the people, inexperienced to war, ran out into the streets to look. Then the bombers released their deadly loads and as citizens, realizing too late the true mission of the ’planes ran for cover, fighter planes came over spraying the entire confused scene with machine-gun bullets. Then the bombers returned to drop incendiaries and the fighters to strafe again. For an hour there was this ruthless assault on the helpless city; after that hour the city lay dead in a bloody pool. One of the few thousand who escaped, I wandered, dazed and sad through the burning city. The dead lay littered in the streets and some bodies were charred with burning. The roads along the royal palace moats were avenues of death. Men and cattle, the high and the lowly, the old and the young, all struck down and humbled together. Thus, on April 23, 1942, I saw Mandalay, my home, die in great agony. x

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I did not see much of Mandalay after that and when I went home recently it was the first real visit in 12 years. Much has changed since I left the city a burning graveyard. The city has risen from the dead. Trade is brisk, the Zegyo bazaar is busier than ever before. Population has increased. A new city is being built, rather haphazardly for buildings are sprouting out from the scorched earth without much regard for planning. Much has changed, much remains unchanged. The people are still gay and carefree, still absorbed with money-making and the display of the money they have made. Rank and riches still carry their disproportionate weight with the people, but religion and education are

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becoming important. The girls still wear plenty of gold ornaments but now they like to build their bodies and show them well. People still ride bicycles and go about in trishaws, but the trishaws are carefully and even painfully designed so that they look different from those that run in the streets of Rangoon. For Mandalay is not Rangoon; Mandalay was the last seat of the Burmese kings, the last fortress of Burmese freedom. At least the trishaws in Mandalay must therefore be different from those in Rangoon. x

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One of the real achievements of Mandalay since the war is the University College. Though the city is now justly proud of the College which is giving degree courses in almost all subjects that are offered at Rangoon, it is to one man most of all that the credit for getting up the College is due. The man is U Ko Lay, a son of Sagaing, a product of the old Mandalay Intermediate College. U Ko Lay is a chemist by training — he took his M.Sc in agricultural chemistry from London — but he can, and has, filled many roles with outstanding ability. He has written books and done some journalism; he has been a public relations officer; he could easily switch at any time from Principal of the University College to Burma’s ambassador in any foreign capital. His qualities and his undefeatable determination to go back to Mandalay and build a University College which will ultimately become a University in its own right are producing visible results today. I went round the College campus feeling unashamedly nostalgic. Here in this little shed of a building I learned the first elements of physics from Mr Sohkey; here did that earnest and able lecturer, the formidable Mr B.K. Pal, shout and storm at those unfortunate students who would fumble with their apparatus. Mr Sohkey, alas, is no more; Mr Pal, fortunately is still with us and at the Rangoon University, though not so formidable as before. Here, in this yellow brick building, the best that we had for our pre-war classes, we took our lessons in English from Mr Marshall, the Principal, and Mr John Mooney, now head of the department and were initiated to the acrobatics of mathematics by a mumbling U Net who has now blossomed into a mature and competent head of department. The building that served as our main lecture halls is now a

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men’s hostel commanding a good view on the women’s halls across the red-earth lane. Many new halls have sprung up, towering above the “pyidawtha” shed in which the first men students of the new University College roughed it out and earned their degrees. There are tennis courts between the halls and as they are under some feet of water during the rains students can play tennis in summer and some sort of aquatic sport in the rains. Students at the College number about 1000 now, and last year a medical faculty, extension of the Rangoon Medical college, was started. Industrial chemistry, agriculture, applied science, these are some of the professional courses that are being offered at Mandalay, and more are being planned. There is shortage of qualified staff, but the Principal and his colleagues are undaunted. With great forethought, they have sent out young graduates to London and some American universities to take post-graduate courses in different subjects. When those students come back, qualified for university teaching, the College would be ready to become the University of Mandalay. “That goal will be reached in the not too distant future,” said Principal Ko Lay to me, “but we are in desperate hurry. What we are doing now is to give quality teaching and proper amenities and to develop our future academic staff. We are receiving every assistance, in our endeavours, from the Government, the Rangoon University and the citizens of Mandalay.” x

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King Thibaw’s palace is gone now, gone up in smoke in 1945 when the British came back. A handful of Japanese soldiers stayed behind in the palace grounds and had a grand time of it sniping and making a lot of noises and gestures which convinced the British Major-General Rees that the Japanese were putting up a determined fight. So the British troops were ordered to shell the palace and they did it thoroughly and fearlessly from the safety of the Mandalay hill. The Japanese were delighted. Their feints were producing results. The British gunners too were not, one might presume, unhappy, for here was a fitting return to the capital from which they had had to run in a rather ungraceful hurry. With the guns booming and fire and smoke rising in Thibaw’s palace, let the Burmese know that the victorious British were back. Thus, the

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palace went down to ashes after it had stood through three years of war and bombing. We went about in the palace grounds, artist M. Tin Aye and I, and felt a little sad to see cattle grazing lazily in the long grass that has grown on the palace platform. The cattle with contempt for history, were moving about where Thibaw had at one time dallied with his queens or held conference with his ministers. x

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Mandalay likes to be known not as the second capital of Burma nor needless to say, as the second largest city. It is the capital of Upper Burma — and Upper Burma has no official existence today. Or as the capital of ancient Burma which also, needless to say, does not exist today. To keep up its position therefore, Mandalay does things in a big way. Thus every officer arriving to do a tour of duty in Mandalay or the district is assured of a grand welcome, be he a township officer, be he anything at all so long as he wears the label of “officer”. The bigger the the officer, the heartier, of course, the welcome. A big officer may get a bouquet at the airport or railway station from Miss Mandalay or some other pretty girl. There will also be the elders of the city; the “leading citizens”, and the staff of his office, who will say those proper and fitting things which they have been saying to everyone who comes. When an officer is transferred from Mandalay, he will get a similarly grand send-off. A farewell dinner is the least that he will get. Depending on his rank, he could also expect to get a public pwe, and a large demonstration of love for him and sorrow, deep and abiding sorrow, at his parting. The elders, the leading citizens, his staff, Miss Mandalay or some other girl, the bouquet, the fitting words will all be there at the airport or station, and the officer will part in the happy illusion that he had made his mark, won hearts and, above all, that he is a very big and important fellow. When the ’plane has disappeared in the distant cloud, or the train has faded into a waggling tail in the distance, then the elders of the city, the leading citizens, the staff, Miss Mandalay or some other pretty prettilydressed-up girl, all will heave a big sigh, one duty done, and return home to prepare themselves for another welcome or another send-off. x

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M. Tin Aye and I went out to a pwe in the Setkyathiha pagoda one night and as was right for Mandalay, everything was big. Even the mohinga seller was no ordinary mohinga seller, but he called his little stall the “Universal Mohinga, the best in Burma”. There were rival anyeins playing to fluid audiences which jostled and flowed in a small area. There were marionette shows, getting so rare in modern Burma. There were modernised plays, dull, cracking crude jokes at which those who heard laughed dutifully. All those happened in the very limited spaces of the pagoda premises. The anyeins, of course, held our attention and we moved from one to another. It was difficult to see the dancer properly, leave alone hear her sing, because of the ceaseless flow of traffic in front. Most of the strategic places were occupied by the venerable sangha. That was nothing unusual for Mandalay where the number of sangha is disproportionately large so that discipline among some of the sangha is inevitably lax. The sangha to who go the pwes and the cinema, or go courting in the Zegyo, like to excuse themselves saying that they have to be in touch with life, that they are not contemplative monks but social monks. M. Tin Aye and I at last penetrated through the crowds and got very close to the stage of an anyein pwe. Now the stage is just an elevation from the ground, often improvised by a plank-floor supported by empty 44-gallon kerosene drums. It is open on all sides, and at one angle of the stage, the dancer-girls put on their make-up, change their dress, smoke their cheeroots and wait for their turn. The whole affair is very public, but the dancers are used to it, and they have a way of changing which, while giving hopes to those people who stand and stare close by, does not quite fully satisfy the hopes in the end. We got close to such an angle of the stage and saw such an operation in process and a good number of the venerable sangha standing and staring with the usual hopes. Staring at life and the Life Force, I thought. x

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There is no politics in Mandalay, or rather only AFPFL politics. Leading citizens whom we met were busy with religion. “We have given up politics for good, and turned to religion, and now we have found real happiness,” confided a former leader of a once-all-powerful party to me, and with that he launched straightaway into complaints against

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the Mandalay district AFPFL. The members of the League are mere “nobodys”, I was told, and even the AFPFL Members of Parliament were less than what a great city like Mandalay deserved. “What were they before the war?,” the gentlemen asked me, and answered the question himself “they were mere nothings. They were nowhere.” Yes, the roles have changed, for times have changed. Those who were everybody and everything before the war in politics or public life have now faded from the scene and a new generation has emerged. The older people who have had their golden times cannot get reconciled to the new order. “Look at that fellow,” somebody said to me in Mandalay, “that fellow who is now an AFPFL M.P. Do you know he used to be a mere clerk?” I did not know that that particular M.P. was a mere clerk, but I did know that these things have happened, and rightly too. Whether that particular clerk was fit to be an Member of Parliament or not was quite another matter, but why should not clerks enjoy equal opportunity in a democracy? Pre-war, we used to be disgusted because all the prize jobs were usually handed out by the powers-that-be to the sons of the “big families”. Why now, after we have been emancipated from alien rule should we still be slave to that class prejudice? The main thing is that good men should have their chance to play their rightful role in the country. Those who stand out, or sit by, and mumble and grumble are not contributing much to public life. Those who think they know should come out and say what they think they know; those who think they can do something should come out and do it. If that is done in Mandalay, political life in the city would be much more vigorous and healthy, not quiescent and resigned as it seems to be today. If it happens at the next elections that youth and age, the new order and the old, come out together in cooperation, or even in friendly, healthy competition, things would brighten up on the political scene. x

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Mandalay has suffered much since its burning. The war has hit it hard. What few buildings survived the burning were brought down by the bombings. Yet, Mandalay has taken it all in with stout heart. Do you know that the resistance against the Japanese armies began in Mandalay? Colonel Ba Htu of the National Army was the first to order his troops

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into battle. The Japanese in Mandalay, poised and ready to fight the oncoming Allies, were broken up in confusion by Ba Htu and his brave men, and when the XIVth army and Maj. General Rees arrived the backbone of Japanese defensive power had already been snapped. And after independence, there were the insurrections, and for a period in 1949 Mandalay lay helpless in many warring hands. The KNDO entered and defiled the city; the Communists sneaked in, in the wake of the KNDO; the PVO, joining in temporary alliance with the harassed Burma Army, later defected. And so, for many months, there was war in Mandalay’s streets. Many unfortunate people were killed. A wandering shell dropped on my home and killed Jathu, an old Indian who had been with our family even before I was born. Many brave soldiers died. Bo Kyin that fierce and famed Burma Army commander, fell in pursuing the KNDO into their hill hide-outs. “But, you know”, said an elderly friend, “all those insurgents were in the end destroyed. It was as though the nats were fighting in combination with the Burma Army. Not a single KNDO who came into Mandalay escaped destruction. Nor a single PVO.” He did not mention the Communists and the deletion was correct for pockets of the Communists still remained here and there outside Mandalay. They were still holding on tenaciously and cunningly. Perhaps the nats have not yet made up their minds about the Communists. x

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For me Mandalay was a happy home-coming. It was an opportunity to pay my respects to my father — and a fine man he is. To look up friends, to go round eating one dinner after another given by one fine friend after another. To just stay at home and browse among the books, pages of which have become crisp and yellow with age. To look at old pictures and revive old memories. It was a houseful of memories for me, that all too brief visit, and heartfuls of love. Both the memories and the love did me good.

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Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung: Gentleman, Scholar, Patriot by Robert H. Taylor (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg >

Section IV, C.

VIETNAM (SOUTH)

W

hat is the Vietnam equation? Is Vietnam equal to the young Foreign Office protocol officer, Vu Khae Thu who waited for us at the airport while we drove into Saigon from Pnom-Penh (Cambodia) by car? Pleasant, eager to be of service, quick to understand, ready with solutions. “I understand,” he responded to me with great warmth when I complained that we could’nt get proper hotel accommodation, “I shall write to Hotel Majestic straight away, and requisition a suite for you. As Foreign Office, we can do that, you know.” He wrote, he requisitioned, he said very important people from the Republic of the Union of Burma were in Saigon, and the Hotel must throw out some of its Americans or French occupants (not in so many words, but something hinting that) and provide room. He sent me a copy of the letter, properly certified it as “true copy”. But the Hotel was unimpressed by our importance. We did not get any rooms, leave alone a suite. I tried to console Vu Khae Thu, and encouraged him

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Vietnam (South)” in The Guardian II, no. 5 (March 1955): 29–31, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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to take the blow like a man, but he was unconsoled. “What will you think of Saigon and Vietnam,” he kept saying, “it was very bad of the Hotel Majestic, you know.” After a moment’s thinking, he got a bright idea. “You know,” he said, “I could try the Hotel Continental for you. I could write from the Foreign Office.” I knew he could. I knew he would. But I stopped him. I did not want to get him hurt again; I liked him too much for that. I knew, as V.K. probably knew too, that Saigon did not belong to the Vietnamese. x

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Or must Vietnam be equated to Tran-van-Tuyen, a sober nationalist of 40, writer, historian, publisher, one-time minister of information, now fighting for his country’s freedom as an “independent.” Tuyen is president of the board of governors of the Vietnam press agency. When I met him 1 he had almost just returned from the Geneva conference on Indo-China where he advised the Vietnamese delegation. Tuyen was keen, hopeful but sad. Saigon, he admitted was the city where the Vietnamese were foreigners. The French and the Americans were thick in intrigue. America had just sent General Lawton Collins as special ambassador with a special mission to make a special survey and report back specially and directly to President Eisenhower who would then make a special (and major) decision on how to save Vietnam from the Vietnamese. The French were indignant and impotent; their ardour was there but their performance was gone; but their very presence confused matters. In the midst of intrigue, the Vietnamese themselves were divided. There was crisis in the army. The young, dashing, popular General Hinh had openly defied Premier Diem, and rumours and speculation were wild in the streets. At last Hinh was packed off to Paris where Bao Dai dallied with the women. And Hinh was dismissed from the service, while Diem with the massive support of Collins became secure in power. Tuyen and I discussed the situation at length. He was hopeful that beneath all this layer of intrigue, foreign interference, apathy, there lay in the hearts of people a stubborn resistance, a passionate desire for freedom. The problem, he said, was to break through the layer and reach and stir the hearts of the people. How could that be done, I asked, and would

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he be a part of the new resurgence? Tuyen was yet uncertain how. He was still groping. But he was certain he would be a part of it. That was why he refused all offers of cabinet jobs and remained “independent”. He agreed with me that Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi would find the situation in Saigon a real blessing, a great chance to just march in and conquer without having to fight. “But there is time,” Tuyen kept on hoping, “and if we work fast enough, and rally our forces soon enough, we might throw back the foreigner and the communists and be masters of our own house.” Tran-van-Tuyen thought highly of Burma, as indeed did most of the progressive leaders in Saigon. x

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Or is Vietnam to be discovered in my great friend Monsieur Rene de Berval, a Frenchman who has fallen in love with Vietnam and having fought as a colonel in World War II had remained behind since then to edit and publish “Asia” quarterly magazines in English, in French and in Chinese. His editorial office was in an attic room not far from the Hotel Majestic. The room was spacious, tastefully furnished and decorated. Berval had for his secretary a young Vietnamese woman who, if I remember rightly, he said was also his wife and joy. The magazine did not pay, but Berval did not mind. It brought enough for him to live reasonably comfortably on. It was the only magazine of its kind in Vietnam, and he derived joy from publishing it. He met all the young Vietnamese writers, poets, journalists, thus, and they all liked and trusted him. Berval is a Buddhist and a philosopher. In the turbulent, fast changing world of Vietnam, Berval enjoyed peace. x

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Or is Vietnam the elderly doctor of medicine — a brilliant chemist he was too, I was later told — who invited me to a mysterious meeting in his laboratory one night and urged me to go to Hanoi and observe the new regime at work. The visit could easily be arranged he said, and there would be no trouble about visa or transport or money. Hanoi was the capital of Vietnamese culture, he told me, and the new era in

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Vietnam had dawned there and was spreading out to the south. The doctor was obviously sincere. He was not a doctrinnaire communist; in fact he probably did not even consider himself a communist. He was just one of the many intellectuals who were fascinated and dazzled by the advent of Ho Chi Minh. He was to them a nationalist, a hero, an austere-living dedicated being. I asked the doctor why he did not move up to Hanoi and practise there if he was so enamoured of the Ho Chi Minh regime, and he replied quite logically that there was not the need for him to move up when the regime was moving down. x

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“My aim and purpose in life is to make good wives of young Vietnamese ladies,” explained Madame Hoang-true-Mai, principal of the “Domestic Science School” bearing her name. There are a few other similar schools in Saigon, and they are popular among the girls. The students learn to cook and sew, to care for babies, to care for and improve their looks and poise and manners, to dance their national dances and to sing. The modern male is a demanding animal, Madame Mai said rather lovingly, and she cited her husband as an example. Her husband is fond of ball-room dancing, and Mai had to go along with him and dance, for otherwise he might be tempted by other women. To dance with him, she had to learn dancing. She had to care for her looks. She had to do so many things to please and keep her husband. From experience, therefore, she knew that the modern Vietnamese girl would have to work up to win and hold husbands. Especially in Vietnam where polygamy is popular. Thus, while the Americans and the French and the Vietnamese and Ho Chi Minh are engaged in bitter battle for political power, Madame Mai was helping the girls to win their equally tough fight to win men and keep them in their exclusive possession. I suggested to Madame Mai that a few of our Burmese girls might like to get her assistance and expert advice and she promised that if any of our girls should care to study at her school they would be happily welcomed. Is Madame Mai the personification of Vietnam? Is Vietnam the happy, vivacious, carefree but realistic being that Madame Mai is? x

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We met many people in Vietnam and they were all friendly and kind. I met Mr Vui van Thinh, the minister of justice, a young man of about 40, modest but able. Mr Nguyen van Day, the procureur general (attorney-general) and I wandered over the Palace of Justice, the higher tribunals of law, and met the Judges of the Supreme Court, and the Magistrates. The machinery of justice in Vietnam, copied from the French, is vastly different from that in Burma which we have inherited from the British, but the basic concepts and principles are the same: that the wrong-doer should be punished, the righteous should be protected. We met Mr Phau Xuan Thai, minister of information and psychological warfare, a young man with a ready smile who was most willing — indeed anxious — to discuss the “crisis over General Hinh” with us. “Burma has come through,” the minister said, more optimistically about us than we were, “but we still have to struggle.” We met Mr Mai Tho Truyen, director of cabinet of the prime minister, and president of the Mahayana Buddhist Society of Vietnam. We wandered round the camps which were crowded with refugees pouring in from the north. Whether Ho’s regime was not as popular in the north as it was with the intellectuals and some of the people in the south was an open question but the refugees gave their silent answer. We went to the slums and visited the gambling dens. We went to the theatres and the cinemas. We spent evenings, munching baked lobster at the eating stalls along the muddy river. We had as our host Daw Pyu,2 the daughter of Prince Myingoon whose tomb we visited in Saigon. We spent some ten days in Saigon and around, searching for the Vietnam equation, and not finding it. Only the Vietnamese must find it in the end. Notes 1. The author visited Cambodia and Vietnam in November, 1954. 2. See Profile Guardian Jan. 1955.

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Section IV, D, Profile

MALAYA

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expect Eric Wee is in the elected wing of the Singapore legislalature now. When I met him, a few months ago in a fashionable Singapore hotel in the company of the Burmese Consul U Ba Thaung, I knew that he was for that seat of power destined. Eric was young, may be under 30; he was a good speaker; he came of a good family which enjoyed excellent social connections; he was literally bursting with confidence. He had, when I met him, only recently been “elected” president of the world “Youth Assembly” at which balding British scouters and “social workers” had played a prominent part. At public meetings Eric was wanted. When Singapore welcomed Madame Pandit, it was Eric who thanked her in extravagant language, on behalf of Malayan youth, for being good enough to come to Singapore. Eric, a prominent leader of a political party which had campaign headquarters in fashionable hotels and banks, was just the type of politician that the British loved. Eric could wax eloquent and sentimental when

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Malaya” in The Guardian II, no. 8 (June 1955): 31–33, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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talking about freedom and democracy, but he was not a radical, he was not a fire-eating revolutionary. He believed in the slow and gradual development of nationhood, for look, Britain herself came up that way, without a written constitution, without any direction on deliberateness, just like a poem she grew. So, Eric wanted Singapore and the Federation of Malaya to grow, gently under the guidance of the British and sane and sober leaders like himself. Eric therefore fought for freedom under the British. He wanted more native Chinese and Malayans to get top government jobs. He wanted some elected councillors in the legislative assembly where men of education, of good lineage, could show a grateful nation how lucky they were to have such great leaders. There was no deep difference between the British and Eric; they both needed each other. The British needed Eric as a window-dressing for democracy. Eric needed the British as a sort of friendly sparring partner in the gentleman’s political boxing game. I talked with Eric Wee for over one hour and gradually the vision opened before me of the great future that awaited him: a knighthood, surely, and political posts, wealth and power and fame. When we rose to part and shook hands, I thought Eric gave me his hand kindly, condescendingly, as would a lord to his liege. x

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Singapore is thus soft. The Socialism that some “Socialists” in Singapore practise is of a very diluted kind. Even the British are impatient and revolutionary compared to the native Socialists. The British have been building new housing estates, new hospitals and clinics, new schools and welfare centres, and these welfare projects have gathered earnestness and speed since the emancipation of India and Burma. Britain wants to keep Malaya and to do so she must keep Malaya happy. Everything in Singapore is therefore pretty and well laid out; there is a little bit of London here in the city, a little bit of the English country there, and an English businessman or administrator who finds himself profitably stranded in Singapore should find everything available that he enjoys at home. The Socialists in Malaya are not unlike Eric Wee in political outlook. They like to talk and dream but they still want the British to plan their

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future and tackle their problems. And the Socialists have little to fight for. Singapore, for example, is luxury land and the rich find pleasure in the beautiful island, the poor get their measure of welfare. The Socialists may try to whet the people’s appetite for political freedom but what is that compared to bread and butter and the basic needs of life. Freedom of press and assembly, democracy and self-government, what do they matter to the few million Malayans and the Chinese of equal number whom the Malayans fear and hate. The law is kind; it does not bother the common man who is not involved in serious efforts to overthrow the British. Thus the Socialists and the politicians have no cause in that lux and luxuriant land. x

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I went to visit the University of Malaya and I met a few of the dons, some of whom were old friends I had known at the London School of Economics. I spent a day with Ungku Abdul Aziz, a pure Malayan, a most rare variety in Malaya, who teaches economics. Aziz is a progressive in the innocent but vigorous sense. He hates class distinctions and snobbery, alien bondage and foreign interference so that the Communists and the British alike incur his displeasure. Aziz had been in the service of the Federation in the Malayan Civil Service which has the glamour that the BCS used to enjoy but he had left in disgust. The University job gave him freedom to write and to roam. He questioned me closely about Burma and I told him about the civil strife and “Pyidawtha” and the Burma Translation Society which was, I told him, engaged upon producing a set of “Encyclopaedia Burmanica”. He was most impressed with what I told him about the Encyclopaedia and considered that as undeniable evidence of Burma’s being on the right path to a welfare state. Aziz was skeptical about the elections that were then about to take place in Singapore. I urged him to stand but he only laughed. What could we do in the Council; go to sleep listening to the great speeches?, he asked. x

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Just when I was in Singapore a new political party was formed with the usual fanfare on a Sunday at the City Hall. I was told that a very “distinguished scientist” was going to lead the party, and it later turned out that the scientist was a University lecturer, aged 25 or so, who had a doctorate in physics or something. I had not the slightest doubt that the young man was a brilliant student but to call him a distinguished scientist was, I thought, going ever further than we in Burma would go in calling our students who have received foreign degrees “experts” and “scholars”. But, I suppose we are both young countries, Malaya and Burma, and we become experts or gain distinction in our careers early. One thing I noted about that new party, in Singapore University teaching staff can take open part in politics, lead parties and fight elections. So long as their political life does not interfere with their work they are free. That, I thought was liberal, and I wondered what it would be like if the staff at our own University were allowed to take such active part in politics. Or is there far too much politics already at the University? x

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When I was in Singapore, Nanyang University was coming up and Dr Lin Yutang who had been invited to be its first Chancellor had just arrived from America. Dr Lin Yutang was the bright star of society in Malaya then. People listened when he spoke, and he spoke often and on many subjects. He spoke to women about men’s dressing habits and suggested that men should not wear ties even on formal occasions. When a woman in the audience got up and asked why he was wearing a tie at that meeting he wisecracked that it was because Mrs Lin wanted him to. Everyone laughed of course, and the speech was fully reported in the press. Reading it I could not decide whether Dr Lin was in fact the great philosopher he was reputed to be, or a clown. I met Dr Lin one morning after many ‘phone calls with many of his secretaries. Dr Lin was pleasant, lovable. He had great ideas about his University. Nanyang, the Chinese and Malayan national university inspired by similar ideals as our own national schools, would be the great centre of learning in the East. It will specialise in languages and culture but offer a wide range of other subjects. It will be an

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institute of learning striving for the highest academic ideals. Malaya certainly needs better facilities for higher learning for the University of Malaya is now taking only something like 1000 students, and the courses available are very limited. Law, for example, cannot be studied anywhere in Malaya. Those who want to be lawyers must go to England and get called to the Bar by one of the Inns of Court. The same is true with the teaching profession: the government has been sending batches of a few hundred students to England to train for teachership. Few people matter who have not studied in England or been to England. It is difficult to see how Malaya will ever shake herself psychologically free from British influence. x

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One of the pleasures of my Malayan visit was derived from meeting U Ba Thaung, the charming Burmese Consul, and U Pe Than, the Vice-Consul and other staff at the beautiful consulate. Burma is fortunate in getting that beautiful and intelligently designed building, complete with cool and refreshing lawn and garden and in having U Ba Thaung for Consul. I have met many Burmese diplomats at their foreign stations and not many of them have left happy impressions on my mind. A good many are only interested in wearing good clothes (“This suit cost me 40 guineas,” one diplomat had fondly boasted to me at one foreign capital) and going to cocktails where they can intelligently discuss only wine and women, golf and greyhound racing. Many are nearly hostile to visitors from Burma because they do not want their lives, public and private, to be discovered, or because they think they (the diplomats) are good enough to deal only with foreign underlings. It was, however, a pleasure to meet and get to know U Ba Thaung. He was charming, well-informed, tactful, and every inch a diplomat in the true sense of the term. U Ba Thaung is not the kind of man who goes by the book; his resourcefulness, I understand, has made for improved trade relations between Burma and the Federation of Malaya. x

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Malaya is a land of contrasts. There is peace and plenty and all modern amenities; there is poverty and want, emergency and war. In Singapore the sincere and unconventional Malcolm McDonald, the Commissioner-General, all smiles and no power; in Kuala Lumpur the ruthlessly efficient and tough General (“Tiger”) Templer who made suspected villages into concentration camps and denied food to villagers, old and young. There is law with all its trappings: magnificent law court buildings and the impressive hierarchy of Bench and a strong England trained Bar; yet is there justice in putting people suspected of subversive activities into concentration camps with the right to apply for habeas corpus suspended? The trains run, and the roads are open, yet the state of emergency hangs over the island like a dark cloud. Some cynics said to me that the British wanted the emergency to continue and did even exaggerate its magnitude so that they could justify a tightening of their hold on the luscious island with its profitable rubber and other resources. The local politicians make noises. There are political parties and parties, yet how effective are they? How inspired, how determined are they? x

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I flew home with a severe cold in a UBA plane. Unresting travels through Bangkok and Cambodia and Vietnam, and the ambitious programmes and the busy nights that ended only at dawn had started to take their toll. I had wanted to spend a few days with my friend of four London winters — Mr Parshad who was teaching at the Malay College in Perak — but I had to turn back. The UBA flight was comfortable. The flight was smooth and the service excellent. The air hostess was kind to me; in fact, probably seeing that I was sick, she took charge of me as soon as the flight began. I was not interested in food, but she insisted and I yielded; I found it sweet to yield. It was good to be possessed; in the young lady’s possessive care my headache and my fever slowly dissolved. Then, perhaps somewhat irrelevantly, I remembered Eric Wee whose big ambition was to see Malaya get some measure of self-government under the British, who wanted, in effect, to continue enjoying the pleasure of being possessed. During that UBA flight back to Rangoon, thus, I came somewhat near to understanding Eric Wee.

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Section IV, E, Letter from Greece

IN THE FABLED LAND OF APOLLO AND SOCRATES Dr Maung Maung was away in Europe almost the whole of October 1958, busy with various matters. From October 6 to 13, he participated in a seminar on the “Rule of Law in Democracies” held on the Isle of Rhodes, Greece. The following is part of a letter he wrote to us from there.

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thens: In Greece wherever you look round you find those straight marble corinthian columns standing erect, proud of their 2,500 years of history and art. They will continue to stand there after generations of puny men, with their loud slogans and their big bombs and guns, have passed on. The Greeks in the heyday of their civilization, strived for truth and beauty and learning, qualities which endure for all time. They did not try to invent the atom bomb — and looking at the remaining traces of their genius, I feel they could have if they had bent their genius on the manufacture of the bomb — but no atom bomb can ever destroy the art and learning and philosophy that they delighted in during the golden age of Greece, and handed on as a rich heritage to the world after the golden age had faded. Greek architecture is simple and austere: straight columns of marble support the marble roofs of their shrines. There was a period when Greek

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “In the Fabled Land of Apollo and Socrates” in The Guardian V, no. 12 (December 1958): 31–32, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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art and architecture came under the influence of the Egyptian, and they call that period the “dark age”. Then there were the Romans and the Turks who came to conquer and destroy their temples and plunder the “treasuries” of the temples. Under the heel of the conqueror, Greek art writhed, but it did not die. The Greeks have many gods, even as we in Burma have many nats. There is the goddess of love, the god of wine; there is the god of war; there are the guardian gods of the villages and the cities and at the entrance of every village there is a small wooden shrine in which a picture or a statuette of the guardian god is kept, and candles are lighted, and bottles of wine are offered — for their gods, like our nats, are fond of wine. The villages on the mountain are just clusters of brick houses, small and simply constructed, which are somehow planted into the ribs of the giant rocks. They remind me of the Chin hills particularly: only, the roads here are a little better. The Greek villager is like a Chin villager, and is similarly dressed. While the Chin would carry his basket of vegetables on his back and plod up the mountains, the Greek rides his small mule, riding astride and not sitting squarely on the back of the mule, perhaps a necessary precaution for possible falls from the edge of the rocky cliffs. Grapes grow everywhere in Greece: on the rocks, on the sparce and rocky earth, on the walls of the brick houses. Bunches hang down like so many flowers, and in the faraway valleys where the grapes grow wild, they go unpicked and die and dry on the vine. x

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The Greeks are very proud that theirs is the land of the Muses, the poets and the philosophers such as Socrates. You meet Socrates everywhere in Greece: you cannot escape him. And Apollo, the god of wisdom — I think. I went along with a party of tourists to the Apathenon in Athens — an ancient temple built on the highest rocks that tower over the city. The Apathenon is like a dream. Like the Shwedagon in Rangoon, it can be seen from any part of the city: it is there up in the clouds, calmly looking down on the modern life that whirls away below. The Apathenon and the Acropolis also have suffered war and plunder; the Turks blew up large parts of the temple, and one British Lord sold the temples to the British government in the early 19th century, so that

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many of the original treasures and architecture of the temples are now in the museums in London. “The British have been kind enough to let us have plastic copies of the facade, etc.” said our lady guide rather wryly. From the Apathenon you can see the white marble rock on which Saint Paul preached to the Athenians in the time of Christ; it was the time of the skeptic philosophers in Greece, and nobody turned up to listen, none except Dennis, who later became St. Dennis, the guardian saint of Athens. The temples are very like our own. There the ancient Greeks had the “oracles” who used to be young pretty girls. One could go to the oracle, bearing gifts, and then ask for what we would call a reading of one’s fortunes. One must wash and “purify” first before one approached the presence. The oracle then said what she had to say, couched in quaint and mystic words, so mystic and so vague that she could mean anything by that, so that whatever happened later on could be fitted into what she said. The gifts were kept in the “treasury” of the temple, and in the golden age the treasures of the temples were very rich. The Romans sacked the treasuries, brought down the statutes of the gods, and put up theirs instead. The Greeks also admired physical beauty and strength, and celebrated victories in sports over their neighbours such as Sparta by raising statues to their champions or their gods. Many of those statutes still exist, having survived over 2000 years of war and weather and destruction. The temple of Apollo on Mount Parnesse in Delphi, about 100 miles from Athens, has been preserved and partly reconstructed. What amused me was the practical way in which the Greeks used the towering cliffs of the mountain. The young Greek girl who acted as guide told me that those who stole from the treasury — they were the “sacrileges” — were just dragged up to the heights of the cliff and thrown down. Even the Greeks “of antiquity,” — an expression that my guide loved — were human, though. The oracles, pretty girls, fell in love and ran away with sportsmen or the “Muses”, and it was later found necessary to recruit oracles from among women of 50 or above. But since the Greeks and their Gods were fond of beauty and strength, and Gods especially do not like women of 50, the older oracles had to be nicely made up to look like girls of 20. How they did that “in antiquity” I would not know. I asked my guide, but she would not answer. x

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From Athens to Rhodes Island is about 2 hours by air, and the small island of Rhodes is at the present time the popular holiday resort of Germans who have become rich in their industrial boom, of American tourists, and other holiday-makers. Rhodes is just across a narrow channel from Turkey, which we can see fairly clearly from our hotel. The Greeks in Rhodes talk of themselves as Asians. The Governor of these islands, whom they call the Prefect, has given us a royal welcome. He laid on special folkdances, and a special festival one night when he said, in his emotional speech, that it was good to have an international gathering: “The Gods are now looking down on this island with tears of joy in their eyes; I know, because I can see them.” I don’t know whether the Greek Gods are really shedding tears with the joy of having me on their islands, but who am I to say that the Governor is not telling the truth? We were given a festival in the open air last night when several goats were slaughtered and roasted on the spit and then cut up into huge chunks and given to us to eat and wash down with wine. I felt sorry for the goats, but then I could really see no way of eating them without somebody slaughtering them first; and the dances were really good. The great thing I noticed about the Prefect and the Mayor was that in organizing the festivals they worked themselves very hard, picking up litter from the floor and the streets, arranging seats, keeping proper order. They were not high and mighty and above the people; they were very much a part of the people. It is a thing that our democratic and revolutionary leaders in Burma might well emulate with benefit.

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Section IV, F.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS Dr Maung Maung, the Assistant Attorney General to the Union of Burma, who has been a founder and a moving inspiration of the Guardian enterprises till he joined Government service about a year ago, sent us his impressions of the United Nations early in December 1959. As a member of the Burma Delegation, he has been attending the 14th Session of the United Nations General Assembly that held its meetings from the middle of September to the middle of December 1959. The account here, coming from the wellknown and lucid journalistic pen of a man of law, gives us a vivid picture of the U.N.O. HQs. at New York and how men there work and feel. Dr Maung Maung had left Burma on the 10th of September and returned home on December 24.

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he 14th session of the United Nations General Assembly which I have been attending as a member of our delegation is ending in a few days. It will then have been three months that we all have been meeting and working at the U.N. Three months can be long. Three months can be short. For us, they have had their long moments when debates seemed to drift on and on, and speeches seemed to have

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Impressions of the United Nations” in The Guardian VII, no. 1 (January 1960): 39–40, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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forgotten how to end. Three months have been short too, for there has been much to do, and many exciting and fulfilling moments. Life is like that, and we cannot expect the United Nations to be larger than life, or lesser, for the United Nations is the nations, the peoples, of the world, living together. I have come to know this U.N. building fairly well now: the committee rooms, the General Assembly Hall, the corridors, the lounge, the coffee bar where one can have a late breakfast at eleven in the morning on banana and coffee or tea, the bar where stouter men seek nourishment with a little something after a tiring morning or day. It is an interesting building, or group of buildings, the Secretariat standing like a matchbox, with its 38 stories of offices where busy international civil servants keep working on world problems. The Assembly Hall and the rest of the buildings, comparatively speaking, hug the earth. But everything is organized and artistically laid out. Efficiency is combined somehow with art and good taste. Modern and classic art, which do you prefer? You can find them both at the U.N. The grounds of the U.N. are beautiful too, and the walk along the East River can be refreshing, unless there is a biting wind blowing. It is, of course, in the lounge and the lobbies, at the bar and the dining room, that much business of the U.N. is done. There one finds clusters of delegates from different countries trying hard to find some compromise on some question or other. May be it is a draft resolution they have put up and are canvassing votes for. May be they are working up an amendment to a draft, or an amendment to an amendment. My favourite corner is the lounge of the Security Council. There I retire after a heavy meeting to take stock of the situation, or do a little reading or take a nap. Another quiet place I retire to often is the meditation room where men and women who profess their faith in many different religions can have a quiet moment with their God, or with themselves. It is a small, darkened room, saturated with silence. Only a single beam of light falls from the ceiling on a solid slab of steel. Whatever your religion may be this is your world, a world of silence and darkness, brightened by a shaft of light falling from the heavens. By that light, and for that light, we live. After a few days of plenary session, we divided ourselves into committees. The political committees are, of course, very important.

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There the burning issues of the world are dealt with and made cool. There the representatives of the nations talk about disarmament, or discuss colour bar in some country, or the fortunes of a people who are fighting to be free. There much heat is generated sometimes, and men rise to flights of eloquence. Then there are the somewhat more technical committees such as the trusteeship, guardians of peoples who are on the path to emancipation, the social and humanitarian committee which tries to define and protect the rights of women and children — one of these days, they will probably come to remember the rights of husbands; the economic committee which deals with problems of development and fair distribution of the world’s wealth; the budgetary committee, holder of the U.N. purse; and last but not least I hope, the legal committee where I have served. After the committees have given special thought to the problems and matters which have been referred to them their decisions go back to the plenary meetings where they are voted on and adopted or rejected. The General Assembly is where all the 82 member states of the U.N., big states, small states, are equal, each armed with a vote, each with an equal right to give voice to its mind. The Assembly is therefore the place where the problems of the world are freely debated. Sometimes a lot of steam and heat are emitted, but all feel better after that steam and heat have been let off. The Security Council is the smaller body where the big powers, armed with their veto, can make their final decision on any issue. The Council may, therefore, defy the majority will of the General Assembly, but that happens only in extreme cases, for in the U.N., as elsewhere, public opinion wields its compelling force. This 14th session of the U.N. General Assembly has been marked by great goodwill and the spirit of compromise among all. Premier Khrushchev in his address to the General Assembly at the very start of the session called for complete and total disarmament so that nations might really bend their resources and their genius towards building a happier world. That would be a big dream to dream; a world without murderous weapons. But it is a good dream; and one that has cast its magic spell on the proceedings of the U.N. this session. The Soviet Union and the United States agreed on resolution to study ways and means towards complete disarmament, and of course the remaining 80 states willingly joined them. So there you have a resolution moved by 82 states, and supported by them all. The Soviet Union and the United

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States have been getting together on several other questions too, and may be they will grow to like this, and getting together will grow into a habit. May be this session has marked the great big thaw in the world situation, the melting of the cold war and the return of sunshine. Burma has now been a member of the United Nations for some 12 years. Her role as a member may not have been sensational, but, looking back across the 12 years, I think she has played her part with quiet dignity and contributed her bit to the making of the United Nations. Burma’s role is obviously appreciated because, to take only one piece of evidence, she was elected to be Vice-President of this 14th Session by the largest number of votes, and it has been good to see Foreign Minister U Chan Tun Aung, who led the delegation at the start, and Ambassador U Thant who took over, playing their distinguished part as Vice-President. We can do much more if we have the staff and the resources. United Nations affairs have become highly specialized, and books and documents of the U.N. now fill large special collections in the universities here which I have visited. All the time, something or other is going on, in the U.N. Councils or the specialized agencies, and all over the world. We need more research and specialization on U.N. affairs and we must not hesitate to play our full part, for the United Nations is both a hope and a promise for the future of all of us.

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Section IV, G.

ANTIOCH COLLEGE, A LIVING DREAM Dr Maung Maung visited Antioch College and lectured there in August. He is impressed with the fascinating system whereby students have to go out and work for six months a year, to earn a living. Dr Maung Maung thinks that this system might well be adapted here in Burma.

A

merica is a big country and full of variety. Her peoples come from many lands in pursuit of many dreams. Some have settled, rooted to the soil, and yet linked with the faraway lands of their origin; thus one finds a little Holland here, a little Germany there, a bit of Poland, a hint even of Russia, a sprinkling of Irish, a corner of Chinatown. There is no simple answer, thus, to the question, What is America? It is even more difficult to provide a full and satisfactory answer to the question, Who is the typical American? America is the wide open spaces, the mountains, the rivers and the parks, all red and gold in the Autumn when trees get ready to shed their leaves, bare and austere and beautiful under snow in the winter. America is the bristling cities of the hurrying millions, the skyscrapers straining to reach the sky, steel and cement serving the god of efficiency, smoothly, ugly, weird shapes from another world.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Antioch College, a Living Dream” in The Guardian VIII, no. 11 (November 1961): 17–20, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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And who is the typical American? There is, of course, no such person. The American may be the ambitious pusher, organizer, goer, doer, a man full of ideas in his head, telephones on his table which ring all the time and he answers them all simultaneously somehow knowing not what they say, a man who survives in his rigorous routine on pills, a cigar-chewing, tranquillizer-swallowing man whose mission is no less than saving all mankind from communism. The American may be the modest, shy, kind, withdrawing man, who serves unobtrusively, gives generously shunning publicity, a man of ideal, creative but unaggressive, dreamer of good dreams. The American professor may be a public relations man who rightly belongs to the advertising trade, a man who manufactures papers which he places with the learned journals whose editors he knows on intimate drinking terms, a man who spends half his time cultivating the friendship of the Foundations and the other half travelling the world, giving unneeded advice to uninterested people, delivering lectures to which nobody listens. Or the American professor may be the profound scholar, the hermit, the poet, the lonely seeker after the truth, the courageous fighter for his own honest convictions, the learner, the teacher, the discoverer. But there is no typical American, no typical American professor, and every American, like every Burmese, is unique; one can only look at the wide range within which personalities fall; one can only notice the trends and the traits. One can spend a whole life-time seeking to discover the true America and the authentic American. In the end, I expect, or soon after the beginning even, one would find that America is just another chunk of the globe, and the Americans are people, human beings with human passions and emotions, human strengths and weaknesses. We can understand and appreciate them better if we ignore the superman image that some Americans seem to like to build. Not everything goes by size in America, not everything is super or giant or king size. Here and there one can find devoted Americans going about their chosen tasks with modest means, and the only thing that is big about what they do is their dream. Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is such a place where a dream has been brought to life by dedicated men. The College lies a little off the beaten track, and our Burmese visitors to America, journalists, writers, educationists and officials, seldom get there. Burmese visitors

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like to go where the Burmese are, and planners of their programmes at the State department, secure and snug in their routine ways, are often only too happy to let matters be. That is sad because there are so many places where the Burmese would feel quite at home in America, after their first shyness has worn off, and there are many people they should meet and talk to and exchange view with. Antioch College is one of the educational institutions most of the visitors would certainly like to visit and get the feel of. People at the College, teachers, administrators, students, would also be able to give the visitors, not in eloquent words, but from their own daily doing and living, a better meaning of America. They also would welcome opportunities to meet visitors from Burma, and learn, for they believe that education is not just book and papers, examinations and grades, but seeking, endlessly and joyfully, and working, devotedly and creatively. At Antioch, a student must go out for some months every year to work with his hands, to earn and learn. Miss Hunt, director of the extramural programme, and her associates, run a busy office which keeps in touch with employers all over the country, and organize the placement of students with them. Students can express their preferences, and it is often possible to send them to jobs they wish to take. But they are never white-collar jobs. Offices may need messenger boys, telephone operators, receptionists. The big stores may need janitors, labourers for their warehouses, sales-girls, waitresses, dish-washers and such. Farms may need labourers for the different seasons, pickers of fruits, milkers of cows, sowers of seeds. Employers like to have Antioch boys and girls because they show eagerness and serve in the right spirit, because, being college students, they have intelligence and learn their work quickly, and do it with imagination. There are some 1500 students at Antioch every year, and about half of them are on jobs each term of the year, while the other half live on campus and take their courses of study and training. The organization of the rotation, and the placement, are huge tasks, and some 500 teachers and administrative officials work together to make the Antioch community move. Many of the faculty members also take turns to teach and organize the community. Miss Hunt, for example, is also a lecturer in astronomy; the years she spent during the war in the U.S. Naval Reserve probably gave her practical training to know and go by the stars.

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Students participate in the running of the Antioch community. They operate their radio station, run their bookstore, take turns at the cafeteria — which was a thrill for my son, Lu Aye, who would queue with the students at meal times for food, and pay with tickets which he kept for our family — join in administration and faculty meetings, run their halls. They come from many parts of the country. Over a third of them are girls. They come in various shapes and colours. Some come from foreign lands. Sons of rich Indian industrialists come to Antioch, boys who were used to being served in their homes, who would never have dreamed of carrying a small parcel across the street; now they enjoy working at manual jobs, pleasantly surprised at finding a new power in themselves. I met a girl in the cafeteria who carried a Shan bag across her shoulder, and discovered that she had worked in New Haven at the Yale Co-operative, and had boarded with Daw Khin Set Yee who had taught her a few things Burmese and given her the Shan bag as a parting present. “Kye-zu-tin-ba-de” she said to me at the end of our conversation. There is an article on the co-operative system of education in the August issue of The Readers Digest, and Antioch College is held up as one of the good models of the system. Dr Boyd Alexander, dean of the faculty, and vice-president of the college, is quoted in the article, and he told me that for once he had been correctly quoted. Dr James P. Dixon, a doctor and health administrator by profession, is the 15th president of the College. Yellow Springs, the home of the College, is not a big place. Antioch men call it a village, and that was what it was, a small village with no promise, no viable economy. The young men and women of the village went away to seek their fortunes elsewhere, leaving the older people to their dreary life. Antioch College changed that. The work system sent its students out into the wider world, brightened their prospects and broadened their horizons. Small industries were set up in the village itself which could absorb some of the college graduates. The Antioch Press is one example. It is a small press, which serves as the College Press, and publishes the Antioch Review, and a few other national journals and books of its own. The College provides employment and purpose to many of the four or five thousand odd members of the Yellow Springs community of which it is an integral part. Things have not just grown that way, they have been built that way. And Mr Arthur

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Morgan, one of most distinguished presidents of the College, was a principal builder. Mr Morgan, whom I visited at Yellow Springs, has been a builder all his life. With very little formal education, he went into engineering, and was such a success that he became head of a firm of engineers whose network covered the entire country. He was interested in education from the start, and had many theories which he wanted to test. When he was elected president of Antioch College, there was little to preside over. The College was bankrupt. The small faculty was poorly paid, and there was only a handful of students. Young people left Yellow Springs in search of brighter hope elsewhere. Mr Morgan introduced the co-operative system in 1921, partly to save the College from bankruptcy — for the College could collect regular and higher fees from working students — and partly to inject life and purpose into Antioch. I asked him if the response was good from the start, and Mr Morgan said, “No, of course not. I had to run around finding students, and we did not have more than 25 or 30 in our first years of the co-operative system.” The entire annual budget of the College in those days was less than the salary of a professor today, and yet raising funds was always a problem. But the College grew. Devoted teachers, staff, and students gradually gathered, and the fame of Antioch spread out far and wide. Today Antioch’s expanding horizons reach out to Europe, Latin America, and to India; Antioch Abroad is a programme which sends out Antioch students to those countries to do their field work. Dr Alexander, the vice-president, is hopeful that Antioch Abroad will reach out to Burma and Southeast Asia, and will pave the way for exchanges of students and teachers as well. From Antioch, Mr Morgan went on to serve as the first chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a giant project undertaken under President Roosevelt to develop a vast area of the country Mr Morgan has continued to build and create, and, with the assistance of Mrs Morgan and a small staff, he runs an active Community Service Incorporated, publishing books and magazines, advising governments and educators in many countries on rural education and community service. He spent some years in India as a Ford consultant studying the needs of the country in rural education, and his recommendations to set up rural institutes have, to large extents, been acted upon. Mr Morgan reads widely, knows Fielding-Hall’s books on Burma, and thinks that rural education has the

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best chance in a country like Burma where spiritual and moral values are set high. He asked me if we in Burma had discovered a system of government which was in closest harmony with our own customs and traditions, our own moral values and our instincts. He was not interested in the forms, parliaments and courts and government machineries, but wanted to know if we have been able to invent our own way of living together, not a constitution on paper copied from the British or the American models, but a Burmese way of living a happy and fruitful life. I could only reply that our peoples are searching in increasing awareness of the need, and it would be a long search but we are at it. Antioch was an inspiring experience, and a happy one too for my wife and our children and for myself. Many friends of Burma are there. Paul Bixler, the librarian of the College, had spent two years at the University of Rangoon helping to set up the social sciences library, and Mrs Bixler had taught at the journalism classes; both had worked as journalists after their college years and it was while they were hunting for news that they found one another. Dr James Agna and wife were in Burma for some years, working in hospitals first in Rangoon and then in Akyab, and they brought back with them the happiest memories, and they want to go back some day. I said at the beginning that America is full of variety, and one can find a little Holland here, a little Germany there, and so on. Well, one can also find a little Burma at Antioch, and a lot of heart as well.

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SECTION V

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE TATMADAW

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Section V

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE TATMADAW

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espite Dr Maung Maung normally being identified in his later life as the pre-eminent civilian in the post-1962 governments of Myanmar, his four-year career in Myanmar’s armed forces, the tatmadaw, was a formative period in his life and one that he often recalled. He is not unusual in that, as many men look back on their military experiences as very significant in shaping their subsequent careers. But in the case of men who served in the Burma National Army, later renamed the Patriotic Burmese Forces (PBF), before becoming the eventual nucleus of the Myanmar national army, given their crucial roles in the achievement of the country’s rapid post-war independence as a consequence of their fighting first the British, and then the Japan, they have claimed to have assisted in the creation of the new independent Myanmar. In later years, indeed, the story of the army at independence became glossed with the founding of independence itself. The first of Dr Maung Maung’s publications in English is reprinted below. The Forgotten Army1 was published originally with a foreword by Dedok U Ba Cho, a famous Myanmar writer and the editor of The Dedok Weekly, dated 21 March 1946. It described the book “as a narrative told in an abrupt way as becomes a solider, by 2nd Lieutenant 355

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Maung Maung, a member of the P.B.F. in the recent resistance against the Japs.” It concluded with a short note written on 7 August 1945 by an anonymous British officer of the Indian Army’s Observer Corps who served in Myanmar. He wrote: On March of this year, 1945, the Burma Army, with the consent of the Nippon authorities who thought that they were going to fight against the Indian and British forces, deployed themselves in various areas across the country. The stage was set, and the curtain lost no time in going up on one of the most thrilling adventures of this war. The people’s League2 declared war on the Japs. Things began to happen so fast that it is difficult to place them in their correct chronological order. Jap lines of communications were constantly harassed. Villagers downed their tools and refused to do any more work for the Japs. Guards had to accompany all parties of troops who were on the move. Not a night passed but there was the crack of rifle shots and the chatter of hidden machine-guns. The Japanese began to panic. They dared not follow the guerrillas up into the hills and the jungle, for that way lay certain death. They did not know who or where the enemy were. And to add to their confusion the glorious Fourteenth Army was hacking its way through Burma with a frightening speed. It is no exaggeration, however, to say that the sweeping advance of the British and Indian troops owed more than a little to the valiant uprising of the Burma patriots. Like their counterparts in Europe they died willingly for their cause and their country. Future historians will rank their deeds with those of the legendary heroes of old Burma.

The Burma Army, which the British were then referring to as the Local Burma Forces, armed itself, as did its irregular indigenous colleagues, with arms taken from dead and captured Japanese. Then 2nd Lieutenant Maung Maung was initially stationed in the vicinity of Henzada in the delta and fought with troops under the command of then Colonel Maung Maung from there across to the Sittaung River there they established a base at Penwegon, about half way between Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw (Pyinmana) on the main road to Mandalay. They were there when the Japanese surrendered. This first hand account of the events from 27 March to 14 August 1945 is one of the few by a Myanmar written in English so soon after the events it describes. For that reason, it was very popular at the time it was published; it subsequently

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became a resource for English-language historians of Myanmar during last phases of the Second World War in Southeast Asia. “The Resistance Movement”,3 originally printed in Burma’s Teething Time, despite its title, provides an account more of the political circumstances that led to the formation of the resistance than to the fighting itself. It was preceded by this paragraph, added to the published version, under a pencil drawing of men dressed as peasants with swords, several other rather indistinct peasants in the background and four or five men in uniforms with the single star of the tatmadaw on their armbands: The struggle had been bitter. In jungle and hill the Burmese guerrillas, poorly-fed, ill-equipped and badly armed as they were, fought out the resistance movement to a victorious end. History will record the epic struggle and, the great victories but there were found to be many unrecorded events and characters. Sein Nu Aung who found that his love for a woman was stronger than his devotion to duty, the brothers who met at last but not in happy reunion, and the soldier who longs for his mother — they shall never get into the pages of history. Many many more such stories will remain untold.

Presented initially on 1 July 1947, just nineteen days prior to the assassination of General Aung San and other members of the Governor’s Executive Committee, these words and those that followed evoke a time when almost all of the people of Myanmar stood together in unity to fight for their independence. The post-independence civil war, which forms the backdrop to much of what Dr Maung Maung wrote in the 1940s and 1950s, was not yet advanced beyond the laying out of demands and the formation of eventually irreconcilable positions. Insein, once a railway town as well as the location of one of the many prisons the British built in colonial Myanmar and the location of the Baptist Theology School, was then often thought before the war to be a largely pro-British Kayin (Karen) enclave. During the civil war, following the revolt of the Karen National Defense Organisation (KNDO) and the many Kayin soldiers in the tatmadaw that joined them, it was the headquarters of the Kayin resistance as the government controlled little other than from a line around what was then Yangon proper. Fighting between the KNDO and the army had been particularly fierce and when the government forces recaptured the

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then separate town in May 1949, it was seen as an important turning point in the struggle to save the government of U Nu. “The Mighty Drama”4 is Dr Maung Maung’s account of some of what he found when he entered Insein just two days after it was taken by the tatmadaw and the KNDO were driven out. “Soldiers of Victory”,5 like “The Mighty Drama”, was not only broadcast over Myanmar Athan but also printed in the Burman newspaper. Written in June 1949, it tells the tale in breathtaking language of how the remaining 10,000 or so men, largely from the 4th and half of the 5th Burma Rifles, commanded by General Ne Win, were finally advancing against their opponents, their former brothers-in-arms who had joined with the Communists, PVOs, and KNDO against them during the previous year. Trying to see the positive side of what had been a disaster for the country so soon after independence, he described that victory would be won because the ranks of the armed forces had been “purged and purified of bad elements” as a result of their mutiny. From then on the army sought to ensure that the causes of those multiple mutinies — ideology, politics, and individual ambition — were not allowed to again drive a wedge in the unity of the tatmadaw. As the Myanmar tatmadaw regrouped its forces to take on the Communists and the KNDO in 1949 and the years after, it also faced another enemy, the so-called KMT, remnant troops of Chiang Kaishek’s defeated forces in the Chinese civil war which had made the northern and eastern Shan state a redoubt from which to re-enter China or to settle and eventually produce opium and heroin. More frightening for the government of Myanmar, as discussed above, their presence on Myanmar soil raised the prospect of the possibility that Myanmar could become embroiled in a new war between old China, backed by the United States, and new China in the growing Cold War in Asia. While diplomatic means were one of the ways in which the government of U Nu attempted to address this problem, the other was military. Faced with the danger posed by the KMT intervention, the Myanmar tatmadaw undertook a programme of rapid development and professionalization.6 Maung Maung was sent to cover the fighting against the KMT by another Yangon newspaper for which he occasionally wrote, The Nation. His dispatches were subsequently brought together

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as Grim War against the KMT, from which “Destination Monghsat” is extracted.7 Maung Maung’s profile of the “Burma Army” 8 tells the story of the formation and development of the tatmadaw from the founding of the thirty comrades through to the Grim War against the KMT. It is clearly an optimistic picture written in praise and admiration for the way the army was strengthening itself and further developing its professional competence. By the time this article had appeared, in November 1954, the army had advanced plans for founding the Defense Services Academy eventually at Pwin Oo Lwin (formerly Maymyo). The role of the War Office, where his former commander in the resistance at Penwegon, Brigadier Maung Maung, had a leading role, is strongly highlighted in this account of the growth of the armed forces. The next two articles are about women. Dr Maung Maung liked to write about women, as we have seen. These two lengthy articles reveal a pioneering development in the Myanmar tatmadaw in the 1950s. Now, as women in the tatmadaw are largely confined to clerical and nursing roles, this is an aspect of military life that is no longer. The first, “Women Officers of the Burma Army”,9 describes the recruitment and training of women in the tatmadaw kyi, the infantry. The second, “Women on the Wing”,10 discusses the same issues for the budding group of women who had been recruited as officers in the tatmadaw lei, the air force. The full story of the rise and fall of women in Myanmar’s armed forces remains to be written. The final profile in this section deals with a special unit in the armed forces, “106”,11 which had been raised and equipped, to hunt down and capture or kill Thakin Than Tun, the leader of the Communist Party of Burma (BCP). This was to be a challenge until 29 September 1968 when Than Tun was killed in an internal conflict within the senior leadership of the Communist Party. The army proved unable to drive the Communist forces from central Myanmar, especially in their fastnesses in the Bago Yomas until the end of the 1960s. Only in 1989, following the withdrawal of Chinese support for the BCP, was the armed communist resistance to the government finally ended. During the entirety of Dr Maung Maung’s career, fighting the BCP had been a top priority of the governments about which he wrote and in which he served.

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Notes 1. Section IV, A. 2. That is the Anti-Fascist Organisation, the predecessor to the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League, formed in 1943 by the leaders of the Burma National Army, the Communist Party of Burma, and the People’s Ayeidawbon (later Socialist) Party, which became the focus of the younger nationalists in post-war Myanmar and eventually, without the participation of the Communists, formed the government of independent Myanmar. 3. Section V, B. 4. Section V, C. 5. Section V, D. 6. See Mary P. Callahan, Making Enemies: War and State Building in Burma (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press; Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003). 7. Section V, E. 8. Section V, F. 9. Section V, G. 10. Section V, H. 11. Section V, I.

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Section V, A.

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Reminiscences

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arkness fell in gentle showers. The sun dug his head into the heaving bosom of the Pegu Yomas, and from the west, a soft gentle breeze sprang up. Away out east, the Shan hills began to fade into a blur of black, the paddy fields lying in-between being turned into a dark, ominous ocean with spots of light twinkling here and there. A slice of a moon drew aside a curtain of clouds and appeared upon the sky’s stage. Stars popped up to keep her company. Together the moon and the stars waded in the furry foams of the sky’s rippling clouds and found fun in dripping their snowy ankles. Silence helped to make the darkness of the whole scene more sharp, more pronounced. A few stray rifle-shots sang out of the silence, into the darkness of the night.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, The Forgotten Army (Rangoon: Khitsan Press, 1946), inclusive of an article “The Burmese Guerillas” by an Indian Army Observer, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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We did not worry about those shots. We had been used to worse things than that in our Penwegon Camp. For the last two months, the Jap 28th Army that had been taking refuge in the Pegu Yomas, had started rolling down the hills in a mad, suicidal rush to safety across the Sittaung River. Long, endless columns of tired men who had once been soldiers, tottered down the muddy hills, mad with fright, weak with malaria and hunger — down they came into the paddy fields that had turned into swamps under the rains, on to the car road between Toungoo and Rangoon, right into the arms of waiting Death. The break-out Jap Army blundered into a barrage of artillery fire, air attack, and last but not least, the deadly sting of the Patriotic Burmese Forces. Frenzic with fear, they came on. Mad with a thirst for revenge, we fought them back. And for those last two months, it was a hellish scene. Days vibrated with cannon fire, the bombers’ drone and the bomb bursts, the Bren-gun carriers’ noisy roll, the heavy tanks ploughing into the fields in hot pursuit. We could see Jap columns split up as shells ate away mouthfuls, leaving gaps in the long, forlorn lines. Or the Japs would rush our positions hoping to sweep us off before we could sweep them. Brief skirmishes at point-blank range would ensue, and the sons of the Mikado would inevitably flee, chased by shells and light tanks. Days were always pregnant with thrills. At short intervals, the alarm would go up, we would take our arms and rush to our posts. Sometimes, something would turn out, and sometimes nothing. We would then return to the H.Q. Office, take to the desk and chair and start work again. Intelligence reports, operation orders, instructions from the 19 Ind. Div. H.Q., supplies for troops east of the Sittaung… and then, that alarm again. We ate alert. Slept alert. We worked with the alarm in our heads. The firing-line complex was there, yet, we kept cool. We could not afford to be excited. We slept the nights in disturbed dozes. At least once or twice, Jap stragglers would filter into our camp and raise havoc. It was a sickly business. The dark night through which you could see only a few feet ahead. Our men rushing out with rifles cocked and fingers itching at the trigger. And the Japs inside the camp. Perhaps, the chap moving next to you might be a Jap? A lump rose to your throat and you tried

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to see the chap’s face and could not see. Wisely, you would move off to where safety might be, stopping short only when another thought came in questioning, “would you not bump into a Jap if you continue walking blindly on?” You would stop short and start shouting — names, instructions that were not needed, orders that would not be obeyed. You would continue the shouting until you could spot a Jap and shoot him, or somebody else did the shooting for you. And then, to bed. Dreams peopled by Japs of all sorts — Japs with beard and hair, or no beard and no hair, with grins showing dirty teeth short of one or two, with horn-rimmed spectacles gleaming — would march with you through the night. We soon got used to the life. Nights whose silence was split by only a few stray shots, were luxuries. Such nights were rare and very welcome. We would snatch some hours out of those nights, to write letters to the loved ones far away, to read or to think. Personally, I preferred to sail off into the shady land of the past, in my own beautiful canoe of thought. It was a pleasant affair. The present would slip back as the canoe swam slowly back the channel of life into the fairy world left some miles away. The oil lamp burning on the table so very weakly, the mosquitoes humming round your neck and ears singing their songs, the breeze that blew outside laden with the evil smell of swamps and uncleared corpses, Thein Mg and Htein Lin, who were there in that corner, deep in hot debates as to the quickest and surest way of wooing … all were forgotten. Slipping softly into the canoe of thought, I took my oars and rowed on … under a starry sky in which a slice of a moon danced solo. In Northern Burma 1944 saw the Japs launch their wholesale offensive on Kohima and Imphal — the gate to India. Battles roared on the hills and in the jungles. They met with a degree of success; Kohima fell and Jap troops closed in on Imphal. Divisions of them trekked through the jungles to pound their attack on the town. As General Slim C-in-C of the then 14th. Army admitted, the Allies made light of the Jap assault and almost paid for the miscalculation in dear terms. The Allies had to rush the big guns and the Air force to the rescue of Imphal, and slowly the tide turned. The

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rains began to fall, and the Japs whose supply lines were very feeble, had to give up and roll back through mud and malaria. Then came the Wingate expedition, and following it, the Invasion troops. Myitkyina, Katha, Naba, Shwebo had become battlefields. The Allies used infiltration tactics but did not hurry the operations, nor did they hold positions long — in order to avoid casualties. The Japs fought back with fury to the last man. It was an interesting scene in which man fought the materials. The Japs had hardly any Air Force to support, and their supplies were short. But they had the man, the living flesh and blood in which strong spirits burned. The Jap soldier fought to the last, obeyed without question. Their dying cry was “Banzai!” (Victory). On the other hand, there were the Allies. They had the artillery, the mechanized units, the automatic weapons and their Air Force. Supplies — arms, and ammunition, rations, little luxuries and the mails even, were dropped at every stage. Materially, the Japs were no equals with the Allies. But what they lacked in material strength, the Japs made up in the spiritual one. It was a war between man and materials. And who would win? The progress of the Allied troops was very slow indeed. The mechanized columns just crawled along with an umbrella of bombers above. They stopped when they smelled danger ahead; the artillery would throw tons of shell to clear the way, and then the columns would snail forward again. The Japs, those wiry wolves of the jungle, fought, withdrew, slipped off to the rear of the Allies, and fought again. It was a tiresome sort of war, and many painful months thus creaked along before the Allies could take Shwebo. While the fight went on around Shwebo, Colonel Ba Htu, Commander of Burma National Army troops in Upper Burma, was busy with his plans. It was time now to put the long-planned Anti-Fascist schemes into operation. Since 1943, secret organisations had been born with the object of driving out the Japs from Burma when the opportune moment arrived. Plans had been drawn in details… it only needed the spark to set off the blaze. All over Burma, the organisations going under the name of ‘AntiFascist Organisation’, had been working in secret. General Aung San, C-in-C of the B.N.A. headed the A.F.O. with leaders of all political parties in the leading roles of the organisation. All differences of political thought would be buried, and with a united front, the Anti-Jap Resistance Movement would be launched.

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Colonel Ba Htu was entrusted with the task of striking the hammer when he thought the anvil was hot. An able man, and a brilliant commander, he was given the weighty responsibility of B.N.A. troops in Upper Burma. He worked ceaselessly, planning with care; nothing must be forgotten, no slight detail missed. Working hard, he waited for the chance… “As General Rhys’ Punjabis and Gurkhas advanced on Mandalay, the commander of the B.N.A. in Mandalay ordered a general rising. After one battle with enormously superior Jap forces in Mandalay they retreated to the hills to sabotage the Jap communication lines.” Behind that simple communique rising out of the front line of battle, events moved with a whirl — events that made history. At Sagaing, Bo Thein Oo, an officer of the B.N.A., led his troops into action. Shoulder to shoulder with the Allies, they inched their way to victory. Their cooperation was of immense help to the Allies. They gathered valuable information about the enemy, and their intelligence reports decided the strategy of battle, besides point out to the Air Force and the artillery, their correct targets. The Japs, caught between two fires — the Allies and the B.N.A. — became confused and disheartened. The B.N.A. guerillas would penetrate into their lines and raised Caine, thereby shattering the morale of the Japs. In Mandalay, Colonel Ba Htu led the assault. The B.N.A. guerillas fought against immense odds, in the town of Mandalay. In the streets, and in the lanes, along the tram-tracks and in fallen pagodas, the B.N.A. battled against the Japs. And the Allies, who had taken months to reach Shwebo, now took Mandalay and rolled merrily on towards Meiktila, in a matter of days — the B.N.A. guerillas clearing the way for a smooth advance. Colonel Ba Htu is dead now. He led his troops from victory to victory, through grave difficulties. Under-fed, ill-equipped, and underarmed, he and his men fought their famous battles in Mandalay, and the Shan hills. The Jap divisions retreating towards Taunggyi, remembered Col. Ba Htu and his guerillas with bitterness and hate. He had blasted their schemes and ruined all remnants of hope for victory. Ba Htu had sealed their doom. Col. Ba Htu is dead now. He had beaten the Japs and malaria had beaten him. General Slim, admitted to the world that Col. Ba Htu and

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his troops were to be thanked for their invaluable contribution towards Allied victory. Col. Ba Htu had done his duty. He had died so that so many must live. Col. Ba Htu had done well. He is a Burman. And that is saying much. “The Curtain Lifts” The bubble of dawn broke over Shwedagon. It was a sunshine morn of March and the atmosphere was happy. In the broad playground at the foot of the majestic pagoda, a huge gathering of the B.N.A. was seen. It was a heartening sight — the boys in their green uniform, the swords stripped of the scabbards, the bayonets shining at the rifle heads. The drums beat with a drunken roll, and the Burmese National Flag danced in tune with the drum. High officials of the Burma Government and the Jap Army were there. They had come to cheer the B.N.A. off to the battle-fields of Northern Burma. They had come to say their goodbyes and give their last tributes. The B.N.A. was moving. Moving up north to meet enemy cannons. Moving into the mouth of waiting, gaping Death. War had come into Burma in long strides. It was time to strike. And as the B.N.A. troops marched past, there were sobs and tears among the mass of onlookers who pressed eagerly all along the narrow streets. Old women were crying — “Poor little sons, you all may never come back… you are going to die so that we may live.” Lasses searched for the loved faces eagerly… but could not find, because the thin film of tears embracing the eyes dimmed vision. He must be there… he was going, “Heavens help him. May he come back alive.” God was remembered again, in that hour of parting, and many tearful prayers were laid at His feet. “God, dear God, help him.” As days snailed along, a hush came down on Rangoon. Something seemed to be missing somewhere — life seemed so lifeless, so dull, so hopeless. People lived on because life was forced on them and living was their duty. The B.N.A. on whom all had relied so much, had gone out now, and it seemed so worthless to stay on without the boys in the picture. People, in their disappointment, sought shelter in prayers and

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hopes. On tip-toe of expectancy they waited for the News. What was happening where and how? In whispers they discussed the situation, talked the B.N.A., worked the B.N.A. and slept on it. And then, the News came. The B.N.A. in the name of the Burmese people had declared war on the Japs. When the people heard it, they looked at each other, nodded, and just said, “Ah”. They were not surprised, for they knew. That was on this memorable day of March 27, 1945. Today, a year ago, the curtain lifted on one of the most exciting whirl of historic plays ever enacted in Burma. “Those Three Months” April, May and June. Three months of guerilla activities, three months of underground movements, sabotage, hit-and-run fights, and sometimes, real frontal warfare. Disguished, the guerillas would steal into enemy positions, throw a grenade into the thick of the enemy and run back to shelter just in time to hear the dull roar of explosion mingled with groans, grunts and curses. Sometimes, guerilla men would post a machinegun at a key point and blaze off into moving columns of Japs until ammunition gave out, and they had to give up the game and retreat. Today, the ammunition dump at Prome was set fire to and the sky was lit with the light of exploding stuff. Yesterday it was the petrol reservoir of Tharawaddy. Tomorrow, what? Puzzled, and furious with the invisible enemy who was too quick for them, the Japs resigned themselves to curses. Tortured by a feeling of insecurity, they doubled the guards and sent out patrols into every direction. Result? The guards were killed and the patrols never returned. Danger and Death stalked hand in hand, ominous and threatening to the Japs. Day and night, the story repeated. Bullets and grenades from the blues, explosions, death, and when the Japs had recovered from surprise, the enemy was gone — leaving behind him a few Jap corpses to prove he had been there. Some Jap who could keep calm, would rush to the telephone to send out the alarm to outposts. But the wires were cut. The guerillas were well-organised. As a general rule, there would be about a company of the Burma Army operating under an able officer in

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each district. The company would be split into guerilla sections which were given responsible operational areas. Movements and accommodation would be arranged by partisan leaders and their trained scouts. The partisan members not only supplied information, food and other necessary help, but were also keen to join the active fighting bodies were recruits necessary. A net-work of communication cords would be firmly established between outposts which contributed much towards the success of operations. The strategy and organisations adopted by the guerillas differed very much, of course, according to the strength of the enemy and the lay of the ground. For example, in the hills north of Prome, a Brigade H.Q. of the Burma Army took the advantage of ground conditions to work openly with a Battalion attached to it. All along the car roads from Insein to Prome, sections and sometimes platoons sent out by the Brigade H.Q. were active. The Japs knowing where the source of all troubles was, did not dare to raid the nest. The organisations were good, and all buzzed along with the busy punctuality of troops engaged in open frontal warfare. In Henzada district, it was a different story. The Japs were holding the Arakan Yomas gates with Divisions. Their supplies were good and they had the artillery to support. In sharp contrast, our guerilla units were very weak, the actual number coming from the army being not more than fifty. But the partisan came to the rescue. The partisan arrangements were perfect — they had done things to the minutest details, besides which they had built up a strong army of ardent youths — a reservoir of manpower. We had to split up our sections and divide the operational area between us — to each section being attached a few of the partisan to act as couriers, guides and one partisan leader to advise us and do propaganda work. The Japs were very active and patrolled all the area, surrounding villages and raiding every house for suspicious characters. There were many narrow escapes — thanks to the loyalty of our hosts and the perfect propaganda spread by our partisan leaders. We often succeeded to pierce through the vigilance of Jap patrols and give them surprise attacks. x

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Night. There was no moon, and it was dark. We had moved our sections across sodden paddy fields to a rendezvous fixed with other parties. Ye Myint (2/Lt, Burma Army) and Mg Mg Gyi (of Henzada) would be there, with their men. And consolidating our strength, we would raid a Jap-guarded airfield six miles away. Our men were in high spirits. It was to be their first show, and they meant it to be a success. The smell of blood six miles away, had a tonic effect on them. Wild with excitement, their hearts pounded inside them in suppressed silence. And then. Out of the night. Piercing through the wall of darkness. Powerful headlights of an automobile came glaring on, from Attaung. The soft purr of running engine. Nearer and yet nearer. The Japs! No escape now. Our men were standing close to the car road and the on-coming headlights would pinpoint their light on them quite unmistakably. No time to beat an escape. There was only one thing to do, and that we did gladly. “Take cover by the road, and get ready to shoot that car!” Rifles clicked and fingers were waiting eagerly at the triggers. The car came on racing beautifully in the night. It was a saloon car, and inside must be some high Jap officers. No Burman could afford a saloon these days. On it came and on. The car, the light. Waiting hearts beat in harmony with the purring engine. “Fire!” All at once, shots rang out of the night. Sparks of fire danced through the darkness and entered the body of the car. More shots, more sparks, the silent night woke with a shock. Shouting madly, our men were firing. “Ouch! Hell!,” somebody cursed. His magazine had emptied and he was wild. The car stopped with a jerk. “Hit!” Someone shouted, and sprung forward. But before he could reach the road, the car changed gear, jerked forward, gathered momentum and speeded onwards. “Fire on!” Shots chasing, the car ran on… Half an hour later, from the thick, high elephant grass, some hundred yards off the road, we could see more cars arrive in haste to the spot we had evacuated a moment ago. Japs alighted, posted guards, and began a thorough search along the roads. They began firing wildly into all directions, hoping to scare us off.

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And as the Japs were busy with their wild-goose-chase, we sat there in the grass, tired but happy to have done our bit. Impatiently, we waited for dawn. News was brought to us later, that the occupants of that unfortunate saloon car were no other than Lt-Gen. Hanaya, Commander of Jap Forces in the Deltas, and his aides — two Captains and one Lieutenant, who all died of wounds received. The General however, was alleged to have escaped unhurt… x

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Guerilla activities moved on with a whirl. On April 15, we raided Laymyethna, smashed the Jap wireless station and left the key-outpost no longer serviceable to the Jap Divisions of the Arakan Yomas. The following days of April were packed with action. Hunting and hunted, we had daily skirmishes and guerilla battles. Yesterday, we shot the two Japs who came to a certain village to conscript labourers; today we smashed the transmitting station near Myawdaung in the Arkan Yomas. Tomorrow’s programme was proposed as a raid on the Jap ammunition dump at Kalargone, a foothill station… The month of May saw intensive battles raged in Myanaung Township. Reinforcements had arrived from zone 1, H.Q., Burma National Army, Paungde and they were risking frontal attacks even. In Myanaung town proper, street fights became a common affair. Jap motorboats playing up and down the river were sunk and they were fighting “on the sands and the beaches.” We were busy clearing the enemy from Ngathainggyaung, Yegyi, Attaung and Lemyethna. All was well and the success was like sweet wine — refreshing, encouraging, drunkening. The routed Jap army rolled down in a disorderly retreat. x

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Ashes and debris welcomed us as we entered Henzada town. Destruction had been thorough and the once-beautiful town stood out stark and desolate in the ruins. The Japs had fled leaving Henzada alone to lick her bleeding wounds of war.

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We met old friends who had been active in other operational sectors. They too had many stories to tell — stories packed tight with thrills, the disappointments of rebuffs, the ecstacy of victories, the chills of narrow show-downs. They too had suffered much, but their spirits were high. U Than Tin was there, tall, slim, and with that inevitable smile on his lips. He had been the distribution agent of intelligence reports and other communications, and was justly proud of what he had done. There was U Chan Aye, short and round-shaped, very much like a snow-ball. He had his usual jokes to crack, and his favourite topic, after weighty discussions, was women. But amidst the joys of reconstruction, the maddening delight of victory, tragedy loomed out supreme. The Jap Kenpeis had arrested many youths belonging to the Henzada Youth League together with other elders who had strongly supported the youth activities. They had been keeping watchful eyes on the Youth League, having long suspected them — someday, somehow but surely these fiery youngsters would give hell. Besides, it was simple logic to reason that in an armed general rising, the youths would naturally play leading roles. The Kenpeis had tortured their prisoners in the hope of squeezing out valuable information. For days, the cells groaned with the sufferings of the poor victims. For days, the Japs tried to make them speak, and all through out, the stubbon patriots sealed the secrets in their suffering hearts. Furious, the Japs would recruit the help of the rod, the whip, the boiling water, the red-hot steel, the electrifier… After tiring themselves out with torturing their victims they took them out one moonlight night into the suburban quarters of Kanhla. There, they had two large yawning pits waiting to swallow the bloody meals… It was a beautiful night proud of a full moon. A gentle breeze was whispering in the trees. And, out there, somewhere from Nyaungbinze, lonesome dogs howled to the moon… U Mya’s voice was trembling, as he rose to speak at the ‘Sunlaung Ceremony’ in memory of the dead. His eyes were moist with tears. It was a long list… U Thein Nyunt, Hlaing Oo, Ohn Mg, Mg Than and U Ba Thein who died in a plane-crash on his flight from Calcutta. It was a heavy toll and Henzada had sacrificed her youths unsparingly at the alter of Burma’s Freedom. The pearls of Henzada were gone. It

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would be hard to replace them — those spirited youths and those guiding brains, the elders. The Anti-Fascist Movement had robbed Henzada of all its riches… by God! “But it must be the same — oh yes, it is the same — elsewhere, all over Burma. Everywhere, the young and the old must have died together in this historic struggle. Everywhere too the Jap retreating armies must have struck hard and struck wild at all who happened to be within reach, in a deed of revenge.” x

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“You know, the duty of breaking the news about U Thein Nyunt to his family, fell on me,” U Than Tin told me one evening. “It was not a pleasant kind of duty, no, not with my soft sentiments, but still I had to do it. The family was still waiting for the father’s return, and rumours and false hopes were giving them more worries than would the true statement of cruel facts.” U Than Tin paused for breath. “So I went along one morning, feeling very uncertain of how to start telling the tale. It was a fine morning, and the cheer of life was wildly playing in the weather. It was a sharp contrast, — the life in the day, and the news of death that I was to break.” “When I entered the compound of the house, I heard the baby crying. It was U Thein Nyunt’s youngest son. His elder sister had him in her arms, as she tried to soothe him. She was trying all the tactics she knew — she sang, whistled some tune, switched off to a lullaby,… all to no effect.” “The boy continued to swim in his tears.” A pause again, as if U Than Tin was searching for words to stretch the story. “At last, the sister decided to appeal for help. She alone could not manage him. So she called out to… To whom do you think she called out?” “Her mother, of course.” “No. She crooned, ‘Father, come, Oh! Father. The crows are cawing in three trees…’” U Than Tin swallowed, and continued, “Well, that was all. I could no longer bear it, and left the girl calling out to her father who would never come…”

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“Ohn Mg gave away all his clothes to the poor before we evacuated Henzada,” confided Ohn Mg’s sister to her friend. “He even advised me to follow suit, telling me ‘who knows one may die without warning, these days of sudden death.’” Her fingers busy with the sewing, she continued, “Well, he gave away all his, but I kept mine. He had a hard time in the village we went to, with no spare clothes to change into.” She smiled as her memory played on those dear, tearful days of the past. “But he was cheerful, and went about bare-back quite pleased. The day the Kenpeis came for him, he was wearing the only longyi and shirt he brought with him.” The sewing stopped. Her voice broke. Tears welled up in her eyes, flooded over, and tumbled down. “O, they must have been cruel to him. People say my young brother is dead — that the Kenpeis killed him…” “It is false, False! I know! He is alive. My brother is alive. Ohn Mg is yet alive. I am sewing shirts and longyis to be ready for him when he comes. I will carry on sewing… for he is sure to come back…” As she continued the sewing, her friend released a soft, soft sigh. “The Sittaung Campaign” Wandering thoughts returned to me after roaming wide over the land of the past. Henzada with its joys and sorrows was far away. The mosquitoes buzzing round my ears in thir endless squadrons, the stray shots ringing away out in the night, Thein Mg and Htein Lin still active in the duel of words as to the quickest and surest way of wooing… woke me to the rude realization that the Henzada campaigns were things of yesterday, and that here was Penwegon, a bitter, stinking hell of Japs, shells, bombs and Sittaung mud. And that a weary day of battles was over and it was night. That tomorrow would dawn in a few hours, and I would have to start again a day of excitement and fight — if I did not die tonight. “106 Bn. at Yele-Karen village being encircled by Japs, about a thousand strong. 104 Bn. to the south of the cut-off Bn. must rush to its rescue. Supplies and ammunition will be dropped to 106 Bn. by the R.A.F. at 0.800 hrs., today.”

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“102 Bn. will deploy its Companies along the East banks of the Sittaung, the positions to be held being: Coy. I (…), Coy. II (…), H.Q. Coy. (…)” “101 Bn. will stick to its present position and will not retreat without orders, though present enemy pressure is heavy.” The Zone I H.Q. of the Patriotic Burmese Forces was buzzing busily with orders, messages, reports to Allied Army H.Q., and other matters of weighty importance. Men came in and men went out, they must hurry for there was no time to spare. It was a race with time and the Japs. The telephone bell would ring and “hello, hello, P.B.F.? Japs about 50 in number moving towards your H.Q.” “Damn the Japs”, we would curse, as we grabbed our weapons and dashed out to stage a welcome parade to the oncoming foe. And fifteen miles away, east of the Sittaung; the P.B.F. Bns. were wading knee-deep in mud and fighting. Night and day, the Japs would attempt crossing the river by big bamboo rafts, and night and day, the vigilant P.B.F. sections waiting beyond the river would extend a warm reception. They had to be patient, must wait till the enemy had reached the middle of the river, and then… The itching fingers madly drew the trigger, and rac-a-tac, rac-a-tac, the vengeful guns would bark out their curses. From the middle of the river, there would be grunts and groans, as bodies rolled over and splashed into the gaping river. The current was swift and the bodies would be carried away down-stream, to meet more showers of rifle and machine-gun shots from P.B.F. nests planted all along the river. In one of the situation reports of the 98 Ind. Inf. Bde, it was announced that in one particular day when the Japs risked a group crossing, the number of Jap corpses floating down the river was counted up to a thousand. When darkness fell, the reporter gave it up and stopped counting — but in the dim phosphorescent glow of the moon, he could still see corpses riding the waves and coming down along with the current. Communications with Bns beyond the river were difficult. Messengers had to cover the muddy trails on foot, cross the river in the teeth of danger of being shot by the enemy, and then another ten miles of mud. Supplies had to be shouldered to their destinations. Trucks and jeeps, had attempted to struggle through the mud, but after many trials, they had puffed with sweat, and surrendered. Once, a jeep got stuck and a

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station-waggon went out to help. The waggon too got stuck and more waggons rushed to the rescue. When the vehicles were safely towed back, it had become quite a convoy. It was good fun waiting beyond the river and shooting the Japs when they crossed over. It was better fun to see the enemy shocked and furious as unexpected shots rained down on them. But it was no fun at all when the Japs took up the offensive and began to squeeze the small P.B.F. sections in a mighty steel ring of angry numbers. Thousands of them would close in on the out-numbered section, determined to quench their thirst for revenge. And as they madly charged forward in a frontal assault, the defending section would tear away gaps in the advancing columns, by a determined and steady fire. But, jumping over the corpses of their comrades, the Japs wuld come on. On and on, the smell of bloody revenge luring them. The P.B.F. guns would cough and grow silent, ammunition spent. Desperately the men would search their pouches for any moe rounds… desperately they longed for a round of rifle shot. Oh! What a single round could do — how many it could kill. Searching for the rounds and grenades that were not there, the men would swear. And on all sides, the furious Japs were closing in… So Tha Chit was dead. 2/Lieut Tha Chit was dead. I read, and re-read the battle-report. No mistake about it. The rank, the name, the Battalion, there was no mistake at all about it. Tha Chit was dead. Tha Chit, who had shared the same room with me at the Academy, Tha Chit that quiet, tall fellow who would smile rather than speak. Tha Chit that good-natured, obliging kind of chap who was always glad to be at your service… “Hay, Ko Tha Chit, would you mind rolling up my blankets for me?” Of course, Tha Chit did not mind. Tha Chit who had often talked to me about his old mother, his young sisters and his brother. Tha Chit who was always with me whenever I went to raid the Officers’ Mess in the dead of nights. And at last, Tha Chit was dead. I was not surprised. Death was a common thing now. You saw a man quite hale and hearty just now, and in another hour, you heard he was dead. You would just say “Ah” and go on with your work. Death had become quite homely in our midst. He was there all the time, working with you, eating, drinking and sleeping with you.

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Anyway, Tha Chit was dead. He had rushed an enemy machine-gun nest with five men. The enemy flung out a delighted burst of fire at them, — the men had taken cover, but Tha Chit stalked on, sten-gun in hand. He did not call on his men to advance. He just went out alone. He liked doing things alone. And he died alone, with three enemy bullets nestling fondly in his stomach. Another casualty report. 2/Lieut. Thein Zan of 106 Bn. was dead. His battalion had been encircled, and fought its way out bravely. There were heavy casualties on both sides, but Thein Zan’s platoon came out alright. Everyone escaped without a scratch. Except Thein Zan. He was not bruised or scratched. Nor was any of his limbs broken. Only a bullet had hit his temple, entered, and passed through at the other end. After the bullet had done its duty, Thein Zan naturally had to do his. He died. Thein Zan, that happy-go-luck chap at the Academy, Thein Zan whose weakness was wine. Thein Zan who had boasted he would die a hero’s death. Anyway, he was a hero — the Jap bullet had made him a hero. Tha Chit, Thein Zan, Pe Than, Min Lwin,… all were dead. Comrades of the Academy all. I felt my temple, — it was still alright, without yet a hole in it. The Jap bullet had not done its work on my temple — yet. But since all my friends were dead, it was quite logical that I too must die. Surely I would die. Let me wait, wait…. for surely I would die. Living, fighting, dying, the P.B.F. men went on. Danger, to the men, was a tonic. It strengthened them for further action. There had been, in fact, a keen rivalry and competition as to who would die first and die an honoured death. A race, in which death was their goal, and honour their prize. The break-out Jap forces thinned in strength, visibly. The hale and healthy had either crossed the river and reached shelter of the hills, or died. Only the sick and crippled remained. Some died in the hills, some still came on limping. They were harmless, they were too weak to carry arms, and there was no fight in them. Skeletons of what had once been proud, victorious soldiers. Look, what war and defeat had done to them. They were no longer men. They were just limping two-legged creatures with no spirit and less life.

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And then came the atom bomb, and Russia’s declaration of war on Japan. Nagasaki and Hiroshima had been atomised, and the Russian Red Army was pounding its way into Korea. In the Burma theatre of war, the occupation had been through. Only east of the Sittaung, and along the Mawchi roads were some remnants of Jap fighting forces left. The rest were concentrating at Moulmein, ready to recoil into Thailand. At last, on August 14, 1945, the Japs sued for peace. They had had enough. The dreamland of power and wealth, in which little, short Japs mastered the subject races they had conquered, in which Hirohito sat solemnly on a gold throne radiating its godly shine — was split into atoms. There was to be no power for them nor wealth. And Hirohito and his gold throne must wait. The atom bomb effects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima must be cured, and the cuts of defeat doctored into healing. Japan kelt down in unconditional surrender. The cannons’ boom and the bombers’ drone, rolled away out of the field. Silence came down in gentle showers. The sun shone bright on the battlefields, torn by shells and bombs. Branchless broken trees nodded in the breeze. Here and there, dead bodies lay, rotting in the sun, a sickly sight, and a square meal to the hungry dogs. Peace. Peace. Peace. War and Peace. War that took you by storm and left you stunned and dazed. Peace that came in like a cool, soft breeze, kissing you on the brow. “What the Guerillas Did” The late Maj-General Wingate and his ‘chindits’ infiltrated into Northern Burma in Febuary 1943, reached the railroads between Shwebo and Indaw, blew up bridges, snapped the rails, and returned to their Imphal base. They were well-equipped, organised and trained, and also had marvellous air support. Even luxuries like beer and chocolate were dropped — after a few hours of the indents being transmitted to the R.A.F. in India. Also, fighter-crafts and bombers could be called upon to join a hard-pressed fight with the Japs. Later in 1944, the expedition was launched on a fuller and larger scale. They used gliders to drop troops behind the Jap lines, and built improvised airfields to facilitate transport and contact with India.

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Both the expeditions were successful. The results were good, but the casualties in men and materials were heavy. The guerillas and the P.B.F. did what the ‘chindits’ did, with as good if not better results, and less loss of materials — though the loss of lives might possibly have been heavier. With scanty ammunition and rusty rifles, the guerillas fought desperately, their spirits being their sole encouragement. Sometimes a section had to share two or three rifles and a grenade whose action was not sure. Regarding food supplies, their resources were nil. They left their stomachs to the hospitality and care of sympathetic villagers. It was a doubtful sort of trade; with no capital invested save their own lives, and with big ends in view, — Burma liberated, and the Fascists driven out. With nothing, the guerillas went out to have everything. They would do it, or die. The ‘chindits’ raised havoc in Northern Burma. The guerillas made the whole of Burma, a boiling hell for the Japs. They were everywhere. They raided Jap camps, seized Jap garrisons, blew up bridges, cut telephone cables, smashed wireless stations, waylaid Jap convoys, ambushed patrols, took occasional shots at passing cars, sunk motor-boats, and burnt up ammunition or petrol dumps. They used the strategy of speed, in striking and in retreat. These speedy raids succeeded in breaking down the morale of the enemy completely. Lost on the moral front, the enemy sped swiftly on toward actual defeat in battle. The guerillas were not a disorganised mob just made to draw Jap blood. They were well-organised and attached to proper B.N.A. units. The organisations were detailed with such foresight that even when the Japs had fled, the guerillas could take up administrative duties and reconstruction work, in cooperation with officers of the Government of Burma left behind. In this way, the guerillas saved many districts from being run over by riots, dacoities and finally, collapse, before the arrival of the C.A.S. (B). The guerilla organisations included all leading political parties united together for a common cause. This unity was unique in the history of Burmese politics, and the consolidation of parties that had resulted during the Anti-Jap campaigns, is still holding on in the body of the A.F.P.F. League.

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Thanks to the Anti-Fascist Movement, Burma now stands out strong and confident in its unity. The days of the guerillas are gone, but unity remains. “The Last of the P.B.F.” The agreement come to between the Supreme Commander, S.E.A.C. Lord Louis Montbatten, and Burmese leaders including Maj-Gen. Aung San, C-in-C P.B.F., U Ba Pe, Thakin Than Tun and others, sealed the fate of the P.B.F. War with Japan was over, and there was no more use for the P.B.F. The Japs were being cleared from the Burma front and after the Japs, the P.B.F. must take its turn to be cleared off. It was a natural thing to do. Certainly, the personnel would be paid before they were sent home, for afterall, the Allies were thankful to them for their services. After many references were flashed to H.M’s. Government at home, and after many heated arguments coupled with the scratching of expert heads, it was decided that about five thousand of the P.B.F. personnel would be accepted in the regular armed forces under Burma Command, and that, from amongst the officers, about 200 of those who were good enough to hold H.M. commissions would be granted emergency commissions. Facilities for training up future officers, might also be arranged. (For details, the reader is requested to refer to the original of the Kandy agreement.) A couple of months after the signing of the Kandy Agreement, the disarming of the P.B.F. followed by its discharge, commenced with eager speed. All personnel were subjected to a medical examination which was to decide who all would be eligible for enrolment into the regular army. They were paid according to the ranks, uniforms and kit issued to them were taken back, and the men were free to go home. A shirt, a longyi, and a discharge certificate which requested “whom it may concern” that the bearer, yesterday a P.B.F. man and today a nobody, may be given a lift or provided with transport facilities in his attempt to reach home. Those three things were all that remained to prove that the chap sitting dejectedly at that corner belonged to the famed family of the Patriotic Burmese Forces, whose deeds were the pride of Burma.

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Gradually, but surely, the P.B.F. broke and dispersed like mists in the sun. “Like the snowfall on he river — a moment white, then melts, for ever.” Those brave, spirited youngsters who had fought in the forests and on the hills, in the rivers and the rains, in the Sittaung swamp and mud, — they all have gone away. x

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“Is it true?,” she asked, her voice trembling with excitement. “Is it true?” Sein Myint’s mother sat before me, firing her volley of expectant questions. She was in her early forties, and a widow. Sein Myint, her only son was an N.C.O. of the P.B.F. which operated under Zone 4 Command, east of Pegu. I had known him before, when I was an officer of the Burma National Army, and he a private. I had liked the young fellow quite, and had once visited his home, in a certain town of the Deltas. “Is it true?” she repeated, “I hope it is not true.” I knew she hoped it was not true, and I knew too that it was true alright. Sein Myint had fallen in action in one of those battles around Waw, and being dead, would not return. His mother, since she heard of the discharge of the P.B.F., had been on tip-toe of hopeful waiting. He would perhaps be back tomorrow, and tomorrow, she would cook his favourite meals. And yes, yes, could she ever forget?… there must also be the cakes of corn and sugar which he liked so much. Mother and daughter would be busy cooking, baking looking at the gate, looking out at the roads. But the tomorrows came and went. And his favourite meals and cakes had gone stale, uneaten. “Is it true?,” she repeated. “For God’s sake is it true?” She had at last heard the rumours, and had come to raid me in search of reality. Why had I gone back there, at all. Knowing well that mothers would pump me for information about sons who would never come back. I had been a fool. I did not want to lie. I liked truth, even though it might hurt. And, afterall, the truth would come out, somehow or other. “Yes. It is true. Sein Myint died a hero’s death. You are a hero’s mother.” “A hero’s mother?” She did not know the meaning. She just stared at me. Nor did she cry. x

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She waited and waited. Her eyes always on the streets, her heart always on the beat. He was due. Her dear he was due. He had written to her from Penwegon, and his letters and his love poems were his forerunners. Messengers to announce he would be coming soon. She hummed the love verses he had composed to her. Humming the tunes softly, she waited. She took a dried-up rose flower from a cherished envelope. He had sent it along with the letters — a token of love from the battle-swept muddy fronts of Sittaung. The scents had fled now, and the leaves had withered. But she kept it and loved it. For it was not an ordinary driedup flower. It was he. Kissing the flower, fondling it, and humming the love lyrics he penned to her memory, she waited. She must be patient. A soldier’s lover must learn to be patient. Look. How strong, how brave, how patriotic, how noble he was. Look. What all he did for his country. See. What dangers he dared for Burma’s cause. To be a fitting partner for him, she must be patient, sweet and strong. No, she must not cry when he failed to come today. Oh, dear, dear, don’t cry. The pain of waiting would be so alight compared to the wounds of war he suffered smiling. Cheer up. For he was due. She must not look so pulled-down and broken-up when he came. She must be fresh, her smile must be there, the rose must be in her checks, the twinkle in her eyes. Then only he would be pleased. Yes. She must try to give him a nice welcome. She must not lose her beauty-sleeps. She must not wet the pillows with tears. Wait, wait… “Tap. Tap.” Someone at the door! He had come! Her heart went bumpity-bump. “No one in?” His voice! He had come! No mistake. He had come. The dear he had come. The darlingest darling he had come. She ran to the mirror, heaped some powder on her oily nose, ran the rouge on her cheeks, and dashed to the doors. “No one in?” His voice repeating. “Oh, dear, dear. Be patient, I am coming.” She said to herself. Patient? She laughed to herself as the word bubbled to her mouth. Patient. A sweet thing, patience, but hard to practice. She turned the door-knob. And he came in.

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The same he who went away three years ago. A little browned, but save for that, all the same. The same prominent bold nose. The same eyes, with a little sadness sitting in them. The same fine-curved lips. The same perfect jaw. He was all the same, except that in the place of two legs he used to have before, now he only had one. He had a crutch instead. Ten days after he got his discharge, Min Naung reached Mandalay. Those ten days he spent on the roads, were days of discomfort, hunger and sweat. Interrupted lifts dropped him at different places from where he had trudged on until kind hearts offered him lifts again. Excitements in his heart, he entered Mandalay, a pile of runs. Fallen pagodas blinked dejectedly at the blue skies yawning above. Mandalay’s beauty was all gone with the bombs. The Fort Dufferin, the pride of ancient Mandalay, had fallen to ashes. It had been the home of Burmese kings, the seat of their splendour. It had seen kings come and kings go. It was where the Burmese Courts sat and passed out Burmese law and order. And finally, it saw with wet eyes, its master, King Thibaw kidnapped by British annexation troops in 1885. And now it was all gone. Its history, beauty and memories, all in heaps and piles and ashes. Min Naung sighed. Mandalay had suffered much during those three years of his absence. The scars of a destructive war were here, there, and everywhere. Excitement mounted in a crescendo, when he neared his home. His aged mother, his young sisters and brother… they would receive such a sweet surprise. His eyes moistened as thoughts flickered over the fact that the familiar face of his father would not be there to meet him — he had been dead a year since. His young sisters would certainly rush out, wild with welcome, his mother following behind, shouting, — “Hay-kaunglay.” And his brother would surely stop his play and rush over with “Akogyi — what presents for me?” His heart missed a beat when he reached his home and found it not there. Only debris stared out at him from what had once been his home. Min Naung stood there staring. He stared and stood and stared, his inward soul saying repeatedly, “what, in the name of Heaven?” His

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mother? His sisters? His brother? Why didn’t they rush out with, “Hay, akogyi” “Hay, kaunglay?” A neighbour passed along, and Min Naung stopped him — “Will you please tell me the where-abouts of Daw May and family?” — pointing a finger at his homeless home. “That?”, the man nodded towards the bricks. “Don’t you know?” “No, I just came back.” “Who are you?” Where had you been?” “Daw May’s eldest son. I had been with the P.B.F.” “P.B. what? What was that. A religious mission?” “Patriotic Burmese Forces. We fought the Japs, you might have heard.” “Ah.” “Please tell me about Daw May…” “But wait. I am anxious to know… The P.B.F. were the chaps who fought the British out of Burma, as the B.I.A. weren’t they?” “Yes, some of them were.” “Then didn’t the British take action? Did the B.I.C. hunt you all up?” Disgusted, Min Naung, snapped, “Why should they? We fought the Japs side by side with the Allies didn’t we?” “But still… You better take care, you know. The police or the B.I.C. may be after you…” “Thanks for the warning. But Daw May…” “Ah. I almost forgot. Of course, Daw May. You want to know where they all are, I suppose?” “Yes” Eagerly. “They are nowhere” “What !!??” “They died — the whole family — during the December air-raids… Goodbye… look out for the B.I.C…” The neighbour passed on. Min Naung stared at the debris that had been his home. December raids bombs, B.I.C., P.B.F… oh, hell!, his heart groaned. “The Forgotten Army” From the heights of Shwedagon, I look down into a mobile mass of busy people below. It is a pleasant sight — people moving about busily.

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It is evening, and the traffic is thick. A troop of boys and girls, bags of books slung on their shoulders, march along gaily. Youth twinkling with life and innocence. The dashing fire of youth in their veins! No worries, except perhaps their daily lessons associated with the teacher’s scowl. Happy, School, home, and play. “Boys, and girls. You never knew nor cared about politics, and the P.B.F. You don’t even want to know who all fought and died for your Father country. I don’t blame you at all. Your youth is an ample excuse. But grow, I say, grow up and be patriots. Learn up and be leaders. Future Burma looks up to you.” An open saloon car hoots along, a solemn-looking elderly personage with the tail of his gaungpaung dancing in the breeze, sitting at the back. His head is titled up in pride. A prosperous merchant? A minister who had just received his port-folio? “Ah, my dear Sir. Whatever you are, minister or merchant, have you forgotten those days when you hid in the village, as war rolled along past you? When the honest village peasents stood guards over your life and property? When the patriotic guerillas patrolled the area and fought the enemy who would otherwise have menaced your life and all that was yours? Now, forgetting the past, you roll along giddy with the pride of the present. You look down with contempt on the mass of poor people who walk the streets when your car swims along with grace. Our General Aung San had never given his head the pleasure of a ‘gaungbaung’ — no, not when he was a Defence Minister, nor when he sat among his men at Thayetmyo camp passing out orders to the guerillas all over Burma, no, not even now when he is the undisputed leader of freedom-seeking Burma. But, of course, I wander. I am talking not of your ‘gaungbaung’, but of your pride and disinterestedness in public affairs. Pray, consider, sir… the past… the blood our boys had shed… lives that had been freely sacrificed… The car rolls out of sight. A police officer, probably a Sub-Inspector, with a formidable-looking revolver slung across his shoulders, enters the stage on a cycle. My interests are keenly aroused. “Oh, Officer! A moment, please!” He does not hear, for I am shouting out in my mind. “Oh, Officer. A word in your ear. Is it true that you hate our P.B.F. men, Sir? Yes? No? Oh, why so, Sir? I, for one, as a P.B.F. man, give my best respects and love to you all. Really, in my eye you look so fine, gallant as the guard of law. What noble profession! What a mission!

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But please dear Sir, it is not true the police hate us like poison? That you all think we are thieves, robbers, murderers, and all such dangerous criminals good to be cursed but bad to approach? It is certainly only rumours that you officers have the lovely hobby of smuggling arms into a P.B.F. man’s house and catch in him and throwing enough to let you cheat him? Of course, these are rumours, certainly. Don’t let us impair goodwill between us. For afterall, you are akin to the P.B.F. in that you all work for the maintenance of law, order, security and peace. Don’t, oh, please don’t forget the little army of little boys who fought for you only yesterday…” The English officers jollicking in a jeep, roll along. Merry, jolly, happygo-lucky. Laughing, loving, they fight and they fool. “Hey! Gentlemen! Hey Officers! Where are you all off to? ENSA? Club? Dance? Why not taking me along. Don’t you remember me? I was there with you all along the Sittaung…, you and I and the Japs, remember? No? You were not there… I see, I belong, or rather belonged, to the P.B.F., you know, No, no, not Poor Bloody Fool’s… it is Patriotic Burmese Forces. Yes, correct. You are all in a hurry, so, I won’t stop you. Remember us to all when you go Home. So long!” And then, out of a theatre-hall, a crowd of sweating men, women and children roll out into fresh air. Quite a good gathering, this. “Aha! Finished your fun, Sirs and Madams? Having a fine time, eh? Merrymaking is your work, fun-seeking your hobby, the theatres your haunts… yes? Now, look. Do any of your realize that post-war Burma burried in debts and drowned in poverty, needs all of you and your money for reconstructional purposes, that instead of wasting your time in fun-seeking, you all should flock round the banner and pour your all-out efforts into the cause of Independence. All hands to the pump, or Burma sinks! Only yesterday, youngsters fought and died for you. And today you laugh, hunt fun in couples, switch your energies on to wasteful means. Wake up! The forgotten army calls on you. Wake…” The moving screen of busy people swinging along, dims and fades out. Darkness descends and takes over the scene — leaving me along to shout, curse, and lecture at the silent, sympathetic Shwedagon.

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Section V, A, Appendix

THE BURMESE GUERILLAS1

An Indian Army Observer

N

ight, with a thin rain falling. A rifle cracks. The bullet sings through the darkness. Somebody threshes through the soaking paddy. There is the click slam of a rifle bolt opening and closing. Then — silence. Next day the communique from Burma gives the laconic statements: Burma guerillas were again active last night. Behind this bald statement lies the story of a fully equipped and well disciplined Army of Burmese patriots who are fighting side by side with the British, Gurkha and Indian troops in Burma. Few armies can have had so many different names as this one has in the three years that it has been formed. When the Japanese entered Burma in 1942 they brought with them some Burmese who had previously fled to Japan to undergo military training there. These men, among whom was Thakin Aung San, now Maj-Gen. Aung San, sincerely believed that the Japanese would grant independence to their country. They therefore named the army that rallied to their call the Burma Independence Army. This was a well-organised force, two divisions strong, and armed mostly with weapons that had been left behind during the great trek out to India. 386

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It was well-organised, too well-organised for the peace of mind of the ever suspicious Jap. They feared it as a potential revolutionary force and so had it disbanded and reformed as a skeleton force of three battalions. The Burma Defence Army, as they now termed it, was only a fighting force on paper, but the spirit was still there. Disgusted with the turn that events were taking so soon after Japanese occupation Thakin Thein Pe, a leading nationalist, stole out into India and made contact there with the British forces on the Eastern Frontier. Then and there plans were made to reconquer Burma. The Japs, having one ear very close to the ground, soon became aware of the general discontent that was sweeping the country. They staked all on a gigantic bluff. On August 1, 1943, just two years ago, they gave Burma her “independence.” Here, however, they had but made a rod for their own back. Quick to see their opportunity, Burmese military leaders demanded that as their country was now “independent” a new war office that would be free from Japanese intervention should be set up. They also changed the name of their army to Burma National Army. In this same year, 1943, the Anti-Fascist Peoples’ League of Freedom came into being. Like the underground movements in Holland, France and Belgium, they pledged themselves to the task of driving out the hated invader. This organisation went to work under direct instructions from Thakin Thein Pe and other leaders. During this period a constant stream of our agents came and went from India and Burma. They trekked out to the Frontier and then, when their business was done, they were dropped by the parachute from R.A.F. planes into Burma again. When the full story of this amazing war of subterfugs and counter-subterfugs can be told it will rival even the most exciting spy novel. By the beginning of 1945 the People’s League was ready to rise, and only waiting for a suitable opportunity to show their hand. On March 27 this year, 1945, the Burma Army, with the consent of the Nippon authorities who thought that they were going to fight against the Indian and British forces deployed themselves in various areas across the country. The stage was set, and the curtain lost no time in going up on one of the most thrilling adventures of this war. The peoples’ League declared war on the Japs. Things began to happen so fast that it is difficult to place them in their correct chronological order. Jap lines of communication were constantly harassed. Villagers downed

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their tools and refused to do any more work for the Japs. Guards had to accompany all parties of troops who were on the move. Not a night passed but there was the crack of rifle shots and the chatter of hidden machine-guns. The Japanese began to panic. They dared not follow the guerillas up into the hills and the jungle, for that way lay certain death. They did not know who or where the enemy were. And to add to their confusion the glorious Fourteenth Army was hacking its way through Burma with a frightening speed. It is no exaggeration, however, to say that this sweeping advance of British and Indian troops owed more than a little to the valiant uprising of the Burma patriots. Like their counterparts in Europe they died willingly for their cause and their country. Future historians will rank their deeds with those of the legendary heros of the old Burma. Once more the name of the Burma Army was changed. They were referred to in news bulletins as Local Burma Forces. All along they had had to content with shortage of ammunition and other supplies. At the beginning of this year four or five men had to share one hand grenade. However, their lean times were over. They have equipped themselves very largely from dead Japanese soldiers that they have killed. Their latest name is the Burma Patriot Forces, and they would wish for no prouder title. Side by side with our troops in Burma they will fight on to the last battle and against the last enemy. Night, with a thin rain falling. Penwegon Camp. August 7, 1945.

Note 1. In a nut-shell, the above article, written and sent over to us by an English officer of the Observer Corps, Penwegon, gives us a survey of the Burma Army and its history. The article also helps us to see the Burmese guerillas at work, through English eyes.

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Section V, B.

THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT

T

he rains have come and with the rains recollections of those bitter days of difficulty, danger and death when Burma rose as one man against the Japanese to achieve that historic Resistance. It was about this time, two years ago, that we were wading knee-deep in the mud and swamp east of the Sittaung river, throwing our feeble strength against the mighty hordes of the enemy who were leaving the Pegu Yomas for the open fields by the side of the Mandalay-Rangoon trunk road. We fought bravely. We were poorly-fed, ill-equipped, badly-armed. But all the same, we fought bravely, we fought with eagerness and joy, we fought like mad. But why did we, the Patriot Burmese Forces, fight so furiously in the mud of the Sittaung’s bed, in the hills and in the jungles? Why did our guerilla bands, so few in number, so feeble in strength, fight with so much determination an enemy, so strong, so well-equipped, so superior in

“The Resistance Movement” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Bamar Publications, 1949), pp. 15–20; first printed in The Burman, nd, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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strategy, so well-trained for battle and so experienced in warfare. Why did Burma fight? What led to that Resistance Movement that made Burma’s history? Did the Burmese, young and old, men and women, fight for the sake of fighting: because the Burmese like blood, cannot stay quiet but must always be killing somebody? Let me answer these questions. As soon as he war in the Far East broke out on the 8th of December, 1941, the Japanese launched their long-planned invasion. With lightning thrusts, the spearhead of invasion drove its way, breaking defence lines of the unprepared Allied Forces until it entered Burma, a very few months after declaration of war. Burma was unprepared. Defence was weak and the few hurried preparations made at the eleventh hour to meet the onslaught were, of course, of no avail. And thus, the British went out and the Japanese came in. For Burma then it was just a change of masters. The Japanese made lavish promises to make Burma free immediately after she was occupied by their armies. They promised Burma many good things — from the much coveted crown of independence down to cheap consumer goods. Burma was deceived. Deceived by subtle Japanese propaganda, deceived by the coaxing voice from their radio that Japanese soldiers were coming to free the enslaved East. Independence! At last! The Japanese soldiers are coming with the torch of liberty in their hands! Burmese eyes sparkled and Burmese hearts danced with delight when they heard that. Fondly they waited to meet the Japanese liberators. The Japanese came. And the BIA came. And all was joy. The Burmese welcomed the BIA as the bringers-in of liberty, the Japanese as friends and helpers. Even the wounds of war, even the deaths and destruction that came before the Japanese and the BIA were forgotten. But only for a moment. The Japanese soon showed their true colours. They unbarred their yellow fangs and showed themselves myopic wolves and not the gallant knights or charming princes daring death to save Burma, the damsel in distress. Giddy with the pride of race and victory, they began to swagger about and bully the Burmese who had so recently welcomed them as liberators. Japan was ambitious. She was a visionary but short-sighted. She has had a meteoric rise to power and she dreamed of world conquest.

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She believed herself the destined master of the world, or at least the Greater East Asia, and all people except the Japanese people were to be her slaves, she planned. Their wild wolves went about Burma and set up a Reign of Terror. The Japanese soldiers slapped Burmese elders in public; Japanese Kempeis or the Military Police tortured people cruelly, sometimes for slight faults, but more often for no faults at all. The Imperial Japanese Army whose strength and power were derived from the Sun Goddess was as poor as it was proud. The Army lived on Burma. The promised food supplies, cheap consumer goods never came in but Burma’s rice, cotton and mineral wealth went out to feed, clothe and enrich the Japanese armies and their homeland. Burma suffered cruelly. There was the heavy machine of military government crushing her down and there was the economic blockade. Those were terrible times, of tears, sweat and blood. But the suffering was, in one way, a blessing in disguise. It evoked the national spirit of the people and set their patriotism afire. Cheerful, happy-go-lucky, and ever-smiling, the Burmese people found for once that they could not be happy-go-lucky, relying on their stars to light up their future. They became grim with determination. They drifted no more. They had quickly found out their mistake in putting faith in Japanese promises — and they resolved on righting their mistake. They would not have Burma tortured, oppressed, exploited. They could not have Burma down. They could not have the rights of man taken away. The Burmese once more sought for a way of getting their freedom. Once more they looked for the ways and means. A nation-wide revolution! Revolution! The Burmese smiled, ground their teeth with determination and set to work getting things ready. And the Burmese Army became the hope of the country. The Japanese had intended to use the thirty comrades and the BIA and then dismiss them when the Burma campaign was over. But the army had swelled immensely in numbers and its spirit was too strong for the peace of mind of the Japanese. The Japanese found some excuses for disbanding the BIA but were obliged to keep a skeleton force of a few battalions in order to please the outraged Burmese people. They called the force, ‘Burma Defence Army,’ or the BDA. The Japanese trained and controlled the BDA; Japanese instructors treated our boys brutally, slapped them,

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fed them poorly, worked them like slaves. They did everything to encourage the boys to desert — but the boys stuck on. Our boys might be slapped had but they would swallow the saltish blood that oozed out of their mouths and carry on. They might be starved and their strength grow feeble, but their spirit and determination would be as strong as ever. They knew that a great and noble task was ahead: the battle for freedom was yet to fought. The people encouraged the boys in the Army and gave their all for the great cause of freedom. Never in history had Burma been so united, so fixed in the determination to get her independence or die. Men and women, young and old, came out to do their bit. Rank and class prejudices, political differences, were forgotten. Officers of Administration did their duty bravely even though the Japanese soldiers and Kempei-men would interfere. There was the Youth League whose young members were always happy to help the Burmese Army and do public service. I still remember a certain event that came to me as a pleasant little shock. I was ordered to take charge of a section of men that was to go recruiting. We went to a small town in Upper Burma. The Youth League there convened a public meeting for us, and we were introduced to the audience. I spoke and sat down and a lady executive of the League rose. She remarked on this and that; she gave a glowing tribute to our Army and at the close of the talk, she did, in my way of thinking, a very terrible thing. She pointed her finger at me and said, “Look at the young soldier there; he is my ideal. When the war is won and he comes back after having done his duty, I shall be glad to be his wife, if he wants me.” That was a shock that knocked all the breath out of me. After I recovered from the shock, I blushed in the proper young-mannish way, though my heart was singing. I knew she did not mean what she said — I knew she was carried away by enthusiasm into saying what she said. But look! a young Burmese lady, throwing her famous modesty to the winds, saying she would marry any soldier who had fought for the country’s cause — she was the symbol of the new Burma born of the war. With their fair encouraging the soldiers so much, no wonder our Army had to turn away thousands of eager volunteers. The Japanese became alarmed at the sight of the great and general awakening among the Burmese people. They found that the Burmese feeling had turned against them, that they could no longer bully the

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people with impunity. Even women in the market-place would eagerly attack the insolent Japanese soldier with their teeth and nails and wooden slippers. The tide had turned and the sons of the Mikado saw the turn with an uneasy feeling. Burma was hastily declared an independent sovereign State on the 1st of August, 1943. The BDA was renamed the Burma National Army. A Burmese Cabinet took charge of responsible portfolios and a Burmese Head of State directed matters. A Council of nominated Burmese members did the law-making. Everyone knew, of course, that the independence was a sham. The glitter and glamour of the false independence came too late to attract or deceive. The Burmese had become wise to Japanese political strategy. The Burmese Administration, however, worked very efficiently. Burmese was made the official language; inspite of Japanese interference, the work of alleviating Burma’s war distress was carried on as means permitted. Meanwhile, the Army grew in strength, preparations for the Resistance Movement made good headway, and antiJapanese feelings became more intense. A secret organisation called the Anti-Fascist Organisation had been formed to fight fascism. Contacts had been established between the AFO and the South East Asia Command in India. The time of the rising was to be synchronized with the general offensive that was to be launched from the Indian bases by the Allies. Everything was ready except the spark to set off the blaze. On the 19th of March, 1945, all available troops of the Burma National Army gathered in Rangoon at the foot of the great Shwedagon Pagoda. The Japanese were there to send the troops off with tributes and cheers because they had been persuaded by the Burmese commanders to believe that the troops were going out to stop the inrush of Allied invasion. The farewell function was quite a happy one. The Japanese were happy because they thought our boys were going away to die for them. Our boys were happy because they knew their mission, knew that their task was to fight the Japanese: and that was what they had been patiently waiting for. After a farewell, troops separated and left for their destinations. All had been prearranged. They were to disappear that night and emerge on the 27th of March as guerillas fighting the surprised Japanese in all parts of the country.

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When the Japanese found that the Burmese troops had faded away altogether, they were first amazed and then alarmed. They gave hurried chase and made a thorough search all over the country. But it was too late. The Resistance had begun.

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Section V, C.

THE MIGHTY DRAMA

I

went to Insein two days after the Union Armed Forces had taken occupation of it. With me were Khin Lay Maung with his inevitable camera, and my doctor friend who was anxious to find out if his Karen sayama was safe. We passed the famous Saw Benson’s garden, U Set Kain monastery, the hillock number 112 etc, all bearing the scars of the meaningless battle that had raged there only a few days earlier. Once we entered Insein we at once felt that we were not in the ruins of a recent battlefield only, but were looking into an important chapter of free Burma’s history. History, when written, will have a sad tale to tell, but we did not have to wait until history tells us the tale; we saw for ourselves in the drooping trees with their torn-off branches, in the buildings that bore the cruelty of the battle on their face, in the roads where broken glass, brick and shrapnel lay littered, and in the heaps of charcoal and twisted zinc sheets that had once been

“The Mighty Drama” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Bamar Publications, 1949); first printed in The Burman, 29 May 1949, pp. 75–77, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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homes in which happy families passed their happy days, the evidence of tragedy. There, at Insein, a mighty drama had unfolded itself; we could not stop it from unfolding, we could only watch it and gasp at the mightiness of it. It was neither the Karens nor the Burmans who unfolded the drama; it was the drama which unfolded itself, and it was sheer accident that it had to be Karens and Burmans. They were ready at hand and it was convenient to have them play the different roles in that mighty drama; so the drama chose them for its players and all that happened, happened. x

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There at Insein I met some of the players of the mighty drama. There was, for example, my uncle and his wife and their little sons. I could see three months of servitude and hunger clearly written on their faces. They had a rough time. My uncle had a chance to run away but he stayed to look after his wife and her aged father. The wife and children were offered a safe conduct to Rangoon by the Relief Missions sent out by the Indian and the British Embassies but they stayed back when the KNDOs ordered that my uncle must remain. So they stayed together to face the future, devoted and loyal to each other, they settled down as best as they could to pass through that long nightmare. The wife was with child and late one night she announced that the time had come for she could feel those little stabbing pains which she knew so well from yearly experience. No doctor could be fetched at that time of the night; even the KNDOs were afraid of the night and they kept indoors till the sun came up to give them courage. But the wife would not wait till the sun came up and my uncle did what he could to effect safe delivery of the baby. It might have been a miracle which came to the assistance of my uncle, or it might have been his clever and experienced handling of the delicate situation, but the fact remained that all went well, the baby was delivered without any difficulty, and mother and baby slept peacefully through the night. My uncle has become a clever midwife now and flushed with the success of his first case, he is thinking if he should turn to midwifery as a profession. x

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Then there was that Chin Captain whom we persuaded to give us a pass into the jail. He was in a jovial mood that day — probably it was the rum inside him that made him fall in love with everybody and everything he met. He was talkative and his Burmese, though not fluent, was faultless. He said he had been in the army for twenty years, “a long long time”, and he has seen service in many wars in many lands. “But Burma is the worse,” he declared. “Things are confused here, and people of the plains are very cunning. In the hills where I had my home, we were happy. We ate, drank and we worked hard.” But there was one Burman officer whom he admired very much. “I like him. He’s like me. His language is filthy like mine. He curses and swears like I do and that is the sign of a man with a good heart.” That officer was General Ne Win. In the jail we saw the wounded and the sick being looked after by one Karen lady doctor and her nurses. The wards were damp and they smelled. There were the men shivering with malaria, men with bullet holes in their bodies, men minus their hands and feet which they used to have before they were spurred into a mad enterprise by some fanatical leaders. There in the wards we saw what might have been the Karen State. There in the faces of the sick and wounded men we could read the hopes miscarried, the expectations belied, the faith betrayed. I was sorry for all the people there in those gloomy wards. Then we met a Karen major who belonged to the Burma Army Medical Corps. He was to have flown to the UK for a short course of training and it was on the eve of his departure that trouble broke out. He and his charming wife, a western trained teacher, had a hard time and he too had his baby safely delivered in the rain of shots and shells. He looked after the sick and wounded of all communities stranded in Insein and his pride was in his success in treating three cases of chest injury, “I save those three lives,” he told us, “one Indian, one Burman and one Karen.” His wife was sick with the meaningless slaughter of men and when we met her she had already succeeded in persuading her husband to give up his army career and go with her to some quiet village where she could teach and he could set up private medical practice. “A village home is my dream,” the wife murmured. x

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Those are a few of the characters who played their different roles in the mighty drama that has unfolded itself and is still unfolding. They are good characters, sweet and innocent, pitiful victims of foul circumstance. There are many bad characters beside them; there must be the villains of the drama, the people who exploit the innocence of the good characters, the people who kill and plunder, the people who make widows of wives, orphans of little children, the people who render people homeless and destitute. We did not meet those bad characters when we visited Insein, and I am deeply thankful for having been spared the agony of meeting them.

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Section V, D.

SOLDIERS OF VICTORY

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ow, on every front our soldiers are winning victories for us. From everywhere heartening news are pouring in. The thrust to Prome is steadily pushing northwards and soon it will meet the downward thrust that is rolling down from Yenangyaung irresistibly like a great flood. Now the “Freedom Armies” of the shady elements are on the run. Now the great heroes who talked of liberty and the common man’s rights, now those great men who preached equality and took advantage of their usurped power by collecting wealth and taking innocent people’s innocent daughters for wives, now these great men are seeking shelter, helter-skelter. Terror is in their hearts now for punishment for their heinous crimes is high. The day of reckoning is closing in upon them. Nearer, deadlier comes that day for closer and deadlier the soldiers of law are coming on. The inevitable is happening. People who trade slogans for illegitimate

“Soldiers of Victory” reproduced from Maung Maung, Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Bamar Publications, 1949); first printed in The Burman, 19 June 1949, pp. 85–86, by permission of Daw Khin Myint (wife of the late Dr Maung Maung).

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power, people who exploit the innocence and ignorance of the masses to gain their own ends, people who boast and swagger with a few looted arms, people who reign like the supreme lords in undefended areas… now these people are to be taught that the liberty that is for the common man is not to be abused by a few who have the cunning to plot and intrigue. The soldiers of law are there to teach those “revolutionists” a lesson, and the soldiers of law are also the soldiers of victory. Nothing will stop them now, the soldiers of victory — they will just push on, brushing barriers aside. x

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When troubles began, the Armed Forces were caught under a disadvantage. The enemy had split the ranks of the Forces by foul intrigue before coming out into open war. Some sections of the Forces went astray, hypnotised by some dazzling ideology or misled by some self-seeking leaders. The leaders of the mutiny were mostly those who nursed personal grievances. Some officers aspired for pole-jump promotions for which they were not fit, and when they were disappointed in their aspirations they led their innocent men to seek short-cuts to rank and fortune. Mutiny sounded big but the motive beneath was simple and mean. The mutineers might say they fought for the freedom of the common man, they might say anything for nobody could stop them from saying what they liked. But people knew the truth. They knew that the mutineers were fighting by words for freedom, by deeds and in reality for power without responsibility. The loyal elements, however, remained in the Forces. In numbers they might not have been much but in quality and in spirit they were good and strong. For anxious days and months, the loyal troops raced here and there and all over the country trying to put down the head of rebellion which reared up wherever the forces of law were weak. It was a grim struggle. Time and again the lawless hordes rushed down to overwhelm the loyal few by the might of numbers, but every time the hordes were driven back and the few stood firm. Now the mighty hordes are mighty no more. They have split and scattered, and their numbers have been reduced because their wild adventures had cost them heavy casualties. Into the jungle the scattered groups are being

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chased and in the jungle they will see the end of their story. The loyal soldiers are marching on to victory. x

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In a way, victory has been won by our soldiers because their ranks were purged and purified of bad elements by the mutiny. Before, there were a lot of mercenary soldiers, a lot of bad hearts beating under the uniform. A bad soldier is a real torture to the people who pay him and look to him for security of life and limb. There is no criminal more heinous than a soldier with a criminal mind. So, before the mutiny, the bad and the good were all mixed up in the Forces, the regular troops and those irregulars who were good only for shooting themselves accidentally were all mixed up. But the mutiny has separated the good from the bad. The bad have gone away and the good have remained; it was a process of distillation — and in that respect, the mutiny was indeed a blessing. And now let us have heart and have hope for the good soldiers, our soldiers of victory are on the march!

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Section V, E.

DESTINATION MONGHSAT The author flew up to Camp NS in 1953 and visited the troops of the Union Armed Forces which were then engaged in Operation Maha against the Kuomintang aggressors. The Union Forces had then fought their way through Mong Pan to Wan Hsa La, and only the rains and the diplomatic victory that Burma gained at the United Nations General Assembly halted their march to Monghsat. Today Mong Ton is ours and Monghsat. This report was originally published in a series of despatches in The Nation and later in the widely read booklet Grim War against the KMT. Some of the men mentioned in the report have moved on to other fronts, but their valiant spirit still dominates the scene.

T

he war against the KMT is a grim war and a lonely war. The men engaged in the actual fighting are enjoying it. Action wakes are men up, inspires them, even intoxicates them. But waiting in the rear for messages that are relayed from the front, for reports that come by wireless at certain times of the day, for requests for food and supplies, for the sick and wounded to get them into fighting form and send forward again, is unnerving. One feels left out somehow. In fact, however, the men in the rear are doing essential jobs and they are doing them well.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Destination Monghsat” in The Guardian I, no. 6 (April 1954): 18–20, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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Take, for example, the case of Major Thein Maung and his small staff of officers and men at camp NS. They run the base supply depot, and it is their duty to keep the men in the fighting lines fed and supplied. The task is no easy one. From camp NS to Mongpan, which is being built into a supply point, is nearly a day’s journey by truck; the roads are bad and there is a river-crossing at Linkai. Beyond Mongpan there are no passable roads for trucks or even jeeps. The men must carry their rations with them. Local labour is engaged to carry other supplies and mules from surrounding villages are hired to supplement the army animal transport. The labour force employed between Mongpan and the Wan Hsa-Lla front numbers more than 1,500. The men are not conscripts but volunteers, and after about a week of work, they want to return home, taking their pay. They have to be fed too, and when a man carries a load of about 40 lbs to the front line, by the time he gets there he has eaten 10 lbs. weight of that load. Then there are the mules which are good for steep climbs though quite a few of them have fallen and broken their legs — because the tracks through the mountains rise so steeply. Supply involves not only the question of getting enough labour and enough mules and elephants, but that of keeping things flowing freely and quickly. Added to the routine problems there is the occasional urgent demand for some essential material. For example, a 3 inch mortar platoon moved up to the front, carrying their guns dismantled and their ammunition boxes slung across mules. When they reached their destination and assembled the guns, an essential part was found wanting. A signal was flashed to the supply point; the missing part must be sent up fast, or the guns would have to sit idle. This kind of urgent demand sends the supply people into hysterics, but they soon calm down and get the job done, sometimes even they don’t know how. x

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Or take the sailors who man the Bofor guns at the airstrip. Their job means watching the sky day and night for the enemy who never comes. It is boring work, but essential. The sailors want to move up to the front with the army and join in the fighting; do they not remember Insein where the Navy joined in blazing away with the Oerlikons? Nobody has forgotten the Navy, but the men at the airstrip are wanted

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just there to shoot down the enemy if he makes an appearance in the sky. The sailors standing sentinel beside their Bofors are lonely men, but this war, like all wars, is for some people a lonely war, a war of patience, a war of nerves, a grim war that gets at the soul. The airmen and officers of the BAF however have a fairly busy time. Flying Officer Tin Maung pilots the Dakotas on airdrop expeditions, Flt. Lt. Saw Pru flies Oxfords and Seafires. F.O. Tin Maung Aye is the fighter pilot and F.O. Aung Khin is liaison officer at command headquarters. Every morning when an assignment comes from H.Q. there is a mild friendly dispute between Saw Pru and Tin Maung Aye as to who should remain behind, because they both want to go. Flying over mountain and jungle in the midst of the Shan State is no easy task, but our fighting airmen enjoy the thrill of the adventure. Tin Maung Aye recounted to me with great relish the tale of one of his airstrikes at Monghsat. “I dropped the bombs from 3,000 feet,” he said: “for 3,000 is about the lowest from which bombs should be dropped, and then I dived and did the strafing from 300 feet. There are 4 or 5 big barracks just outside Monghsat, and when I flew over, I saw the KMTs stream out in panic. I let them have.” Letting them have it might not be so risky here, because there is no ground resistance, but getting home always is. Often in the pilot’s brief absence, mists have set in and covered the home airstrip, so, locating it and landing through the mists is difficult. Again if he remains too long aloft in which to locate the home strip, the margin of flying time that he has is worn thin and a forced landing is not a happy prospect in this terrain. They are doing it, however. Reasonably restrained by orders not to take too many risks, they are flying in difficult conditions, dropping supplies to our men and harrassing the enemy from the air. I had occasion to take a lift in an Oxford piloted by Flt-Lt. Saw Pru. The experience is one that I shall not easily forget. Pru flew at 10,000 feet, then dipped and dived and flew over the treetops; he glided lower and almost skated over the earth; he threw the plane around in the sky, performing aerial acrobatics, as happy as a boy at play. We reached our destination right on the dot, and when we landed I breathed a sigh of relief. x

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I visited the army field hospital and met there Major Tun Shwe, an old friend. The major is a studious doctor, one of the few army doctors who made their mark in post graduate studies in London. He is an artist — he hopes some of his paintings will be exhibited one day at the Royal Academy — a keen hunter and bird watcher. He can find plenty to do at camp and around, and does not find life too lonesome; he watches birds, goes after wild boar with a double barrel, or catches the sunset in the hills on canvas. It was rather unfortunate that when I met him at camp, Major Tun Shwe was laid up with a broken leg, sustained in an accident while he was out on an expedition. He was impatient to be up and about and greatly annoyed that he would not attend to the X-ray cases, having just installed the apparatus in a dark room improvised by himself. Lt. Col. Maung Maung, popularly known among the men as “Aba” or father, a name he appreciates, is still young and active and eager for adventure; he was in the BDA and the PBF, and after taking a commission in the Burma Army, he went to England “Aba” seems to be growing younger every day and when he took me to Panglong he showed himself in fine form for work or fun. Captain Htwe was another officer I met at the field hospital; a quiet young man who loves reading, he liked my “London Diary” and I promptly decided he must be a connoisseur of art. The hospital is clean, well kept, and well equipped. Most of the in-patients I saw were malarial cases and accidents — the toll of the jungle — and, surprisingly, VD cases were few. Every fighting unit has its field medical officer, usually a Captain and sometimes a Major and there are good arrangements for evacuating serious cases by car to camp NS and then to the base hospital or to Maymyo by air. Medical facilities for our men are adequate. One hears unusual stories of human endurance at hospitals. I heard, at the field hospital, the story of a labourer who was with the troops. The enemy made a surprise attack and for a few hours there was a brisk exchange of fire. The labourer was hit and left for dead, when the troops went after the enemy. After one or two days, order was restored in the area and an officer went to inform the family of the labourer that he was lost. The widow asked if a party could be sent out to bring back the body, and the scene of the battle was searched. Finally, the man was found under a tree, caked in blood

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and weak, but still living; he had dragged himself out of harm’s way and subsisted on grass. x

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The troops were pushing on, and the men had full confidence in their commander, Lt. Col. Kyaw Soe. A Japanese academy product, like his colleague Lt. Col. Saw Myint, he had returned to Rangoon in the same group of young officers in whom the Japanese placed great hopes. Like his friends, he became a resistance fighter, and when the Burma Army was formed, he received a commission and steadily rose in rank. Col. Kyaw Soe has commanded a battalion, and has taken charge of a training depot where he was able to lay down the army’s policy for training recruits. He has been on the planning staff of the War Office, was secretary of the Military mission which visited Yugoslavia, England and other European countries, and till he was given command of the 9th. Brigade, he was commandant of the Officers Training School at Maymyo. He is considered to be a sound tactician; he is a hardworker and a man of serious purpose. So serious is he that though he is still a young man, his men call him “Old Man”. Always eager to experiment, always willing to try, the “Old Man” is leading his brigade on to Monghast from Wan-Hsa-la. When dusk creeps in from the hills and mist comes slowly down, it is pleasant to sit out on the grass with some of the men who are fighting the KMT and join them in their wandering talk. Sometimes they talk about their families, sometimes about the battles they have fought, quite often about their future after the KMT have faded off the scene. Sometimes the men bring out their favourite jokes, and then visitors are most welcome, for to them the jokes are new. There is the story which someone had invented about the successors to Gen. Limi. “Have you heard” one officer asked me, “that the successor to Limi on this front is Lt. Gen. Htoo Ye Shai?” No, I replied, that was news to me. “Note it down then,” said the officer, and he spelt the name out for me with great patience. “And the leader of the KMT guerillas is Maj. Gen Oo Yai Shai. Don’t you know, he was even reported seen in Liolem?” I became convinced and began to write the name down when loud laughter burst out all around me. It was a success, the joke had come

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off. The officer explained to me with great joy that “Htoo Ye Shai” was Htine Yet Shu” meaning in Burmese, smoke-opium-sitting; similarly Oo Yat Shai meant “Aik Yet Shu” or smoke-opium-reclining. The men told me they were going to try the joke out on the next Rangoon newspaperman who visited them. Thus conversation would wander. Homes, hopes, the future, the foibles of men, women and war, and as the men talked and laughed at their own jokes, night would gently descend. The little birds winging by called out “did-you-do-it” and I answered back, in my mind, “No, we did not do it.” It was not the men around me but the KMT who had brought war into the Shan State, war to shatter the peace of such a tranquil land. And as night grew, wild fires started on the mountains that lay between our men and Monghsat; wild fires that quickly spread in rings. The mountains then looked like dark mysterious angles, wearing necklaces of fire, beckoning our men to come on.

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Section V, F, Profile

BURMA ARMY

“S

it!”, ordered the platoon commander and the cadets of the Burma Army Officer Training School sat. They set preserving their formation. They were tired after a long march and the day was hot, but even in sitting down they were smart. They did not sag and fall. They sat by trained movements and I thought I saw their tired bottoms kiss the sun-baked earth together. Only when they were safely landed, did some of the cadets heave sighs of relief. Looking at them, there at Pindale artillery range near Meikhtila, I wondered why all this was necessary, all this routine and meaningless wastage and I too have had my fairsized dosage of it in 3 years of Army, and some months of O.T.S. Why do men have to march together if they don’t want to or sit together if they don’t have to? Why couldn’t one be free like the vigorous happy winds that blow over the rising grounds and sweeping valleys of Pindale? But, I quickly checked myself, much of war is routine, much of life is routine, much of any kind of work is routine. A few grand or glamorous

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Burma Army” in The Guardian II, no. 1 (November 1954): 46–50, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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moments, a few flashes — the rest is marking time, going through the same routine, working off energy in innocent wasteful movements. The rest is waiting and make-belief. x

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Yet the Burma Army today is having to tackle real problems. It is emerging handsomely from the dark period of suppressing insurrections and fighting Chiang Kai Shek’s opium smugglers round Kentung way. It has met the challenge that was rudely flung in its face in 1948; it has ridden over communist betrayal and PVO folly and Karen insurgents’ mockful jeers and the desertion of its own doubting troops. Crises have braced the army, and it has, in gathering strength to fight back, also, almost incidentally, gathered strength for its own growth. In 1948 the Army was only a handful, a few thousands, a few depleted battalions. Today it is some 65,000 strong, formed on proper professional basis, fairly well equipped. Strong and confident, seasoned by ceaseless campaigns all over the country, the young giant is now faced with prospects of unbroken peace, and endless routine and drudgery. How to keep the giant happy and occupied in useful pursuits, how to make routine bearable to the Burmese soldier, how to keep the giant fit and yet not too big, how to preserve its fighting spirits in peace while making it a thing of peace and a valued part of a society at peace. All these questions are engaging the best brains at the War Office and in the field. New plans are coming out to build the army of the future. A new spirit is abroad, and in my recent wanderings through army camps in northern Burma, looking up old friends, talking with the commanders, I felt stimulated by that spirit. x

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Of the renowned “thirty comrades” who came back from Japan in 1942 and formed a fighting vanguard of the Burma Liberation Movement, only three are still in the Army; Supremo Ne Win, Brigadier Kyaw Zaw and Major Bala. I met Major Bala at Meikhtila where he came to see artillery demonstrations and had a long talk with him over dinner. A good talker he was, and sincerity gave added eloquence to

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his talk. We were reminiscent, and the Burma Independence Army, and the Resistance, marching men and guerrilla fighting in the hills and the swamps — all these unfolded again before our misty eyes. Major Bala was also able to give me a firsthand account of the Communist rising in 1948, how some of his colleagues and men broke away to join. Truly, it has been a period of turbulent history and we must thank our stars, and the Burma Army, that calm is being restored. One thing Major Bala feels deeply about — the absence of authentic accounts of the BIA-PBF-Resistance history. “Now”, he said, “our new young officers know very little of the Army’s background and its tradition. Some of them did not even know what or who were the thirty comrades”, he added with a sad laugh. Yes, it is very important that our soldiers should know that they belong to an Army with a proud history and a tradition. The Army has its roots in the early nationalist movements, its beginnings in the heart beats of patriots two decades or so ago. One might even call the Burma Army a direct descendant of Bandoola. x

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It was good to meet them together at their Shan State headquarters. Col. Saw Myint, formerly military administrator, who made a good job of Bayinnaung operations; Lt. Col. Kyaw Soe recently back from training in the United States, who has taken over charge of the 4th Light Infantry Brigade from Col. Saw Myint; Lt. Col. Hla Maw, recently back from an intensive study tour of Israel, now commanding the 9th Light Infantry Brigade in Kengtung. It was good to see them three commanders together for they were such great friends among themselves and they in so many ways embody much that is good in the Army today. The three had been together since B.I.A. days. Col. Saw Myint and Hla Maw had gone to school together at Sagaing, and passed out in close succession. Then the B.I.A., and the two went for advanced training to Japan. Two became four — Saw Myint, Soe Naing, Kyaw Soe, Hla Maw — when they returned, as the first batch of academy graduates to Burma which was then in the thick of Resistance. They reached Moulmein and established contact with the 5th Battalion of the B.N.A., and from then onwards the Army took them, body

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and soul, and they have been fighting all over the country; at Insein against the KNDO, in Arakan against the Mujahids (the first encounter took place as early as 1947), in Pyinmana against the communists, in Maymyo, in the streets of Mandalay, back to Toungoo and Pyu when the KNDO retreated after committing brutal slaughter and carnage, in the Shan State against the Taungthu and the communists and the KNDO and finally against Chiang Kai Shek’s “heroes”. Major Soe Naing of the inseparable four, died, and now the three could no longer be as much together as they would like to be because each has now to shoulder heavy command responsibilities. Each in his way shows qualities on which the Army has relied so much in the past, must rely much more in building for the future. Col. Saw Myint, quiet, tactful, thorough, with a touch of the diplomat and the writer; he was one of the first Burmese Officers to visit Yugoslovia and establish such happy relations between the two countries. Col. Kyaw Soe: a tireless worker, perfectionist planner, with a vast experience of training men and officers, a patient plodder who has so far managed to escape publicity spotlights by being away from victory celebrations. Col. Hla Maw, a as people munch peanuts, a big, hefty, happy man, munching studious student of military science; in the midst of directing military operations or going abroad on missions, he found the time — and the War Office encouraged him — to pass University exams leading to a degree. I mentioned these officers at some length not to give them publicity of which they are genuinely shy, but because I feel that in such men lie the hopes for the future of the Army. And I like to think that such men are not only at the top, but rising from below. x

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Burma is a nation at school and the Burma Army is an army at school. And that is the greatest cause for hope. In the Burma Army they know that they do not know and much still remains to be known. So they are learning. Field officers go to the local staff college or abroad to Australia, America, Britain, India or Pakistan; junior officers go to the local combat forces school or on special courses at home and abroad; the men do their basic training in a depot and go out to serve selected arms. Not military training alone it is which is receiving

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attention. A lot, an increasing lot, of emphasis is being placed on a liberal education to make the soldier a complete man, a useful citizen, for in his new role he is to be not merely a bold fighter or a good shot but a good citizen. University graduates are being encouraged to apply for commissions; holders of degrees are appointed subalterns immediately on selection, so that when they go to the OTS they draw their subaltern’s pay (k. 250 plus cost of living allowance at 2/3rds the rate prevailing in the civilian services), and then they come out from the OTS they get two years’ seniority and within sight of promotion. The Army is thus attracting a goodly number of graduates — which is good. Some of the ‘veterans’ who have come on from the BIA or risen from the ranks may resent these new comers from the University, and some of the old-servicemen complain that the new generation of officers is more prone to be mercenary, more fond of a good life. That may well be so. But the new officers are also doing rather well, and they are usually keen and smart in turnout, and always anxious to overcome the prejudice that they know that some quarters hold against them. Generally, there is unison between the BIA-PBF men and those who have been with the British-raised army, and the recent volunteers. After all, they have come through much together, and in the face of mortal danger soldiers, be they British made or Japanese made or University made, must stick and fight it out together or be destroyed. Most of the men in the Army today are those who have stuck loyally together and come through. The new defence academy at Lawksawk being constructed under the direct supervision of the War Office and its Burmese and Yugoslav engineers in the Shan state, is near complete. Well-planned buildings have sprouted up in 2,500 acres of wide open fields, undulating grounds, highlands and wooded valleys, and there are beautiful houses for teaching staff. The academy will take students of university entrance level, and in about 4 years turn them out as commissioned officers with an arts or science degree of the Rangoon University in the bargain. Thus would the future generations of army officers be assured of a good liberal background and a qualification for civilian jobs when they complete their service in the Army. The academy is a great idea, a bold idea, and if good entrants will come forward, the results should be encouraging. Some wastage is inevitable, for many will fall out by

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the wayside in the 4-year’s long march through academic study and military training, but some should survive and those who do will make the project worthwhile. x

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The Burma Army of the future will be a people’s army, not in the communist sense, but in the genuine democratic sense. Within the Army itself much will be done to break down barriers between officers and men and to build closer relations. Even today there isn’t such a big gap in the earnings of a private soldier and a subaltern. A private gets about 90 kyats all round, a second lieutenant about 300 out of which he has to buy his clothes and pay for his food and foot a few other bills. Under the British regime, a private or sepoy would get 14 to 15 rupees while a second lieutenant would draw something in the region of Rs. 500, a lot more if he had a wife and children. Yet, the Burma army today is trying to bridge the gap between officer and private still further — as much as could be done without prejudice to discipline and control. Thus, the idea is being discussed of doing away with the officers’ mess, and substituting something like clubs which will be open to all ranks. At the club the commanding officer and his junior colleagues and the sergeant and the corporal, the private and the orderly can all join and buy their food and drinks, or read or relax. It is an idea which has worked in Yugoslavia and Israel, and one that could be made, by careful gradual steps, to work in the Burma Army. In regard to the Army’s relations with the civilian departments and the people, the usual class distinctions will be firmly pulled down. The ultimate aim is to make the soldier aware at all times that he is a civilian doing a form of duty and that he is not invested with special privileges. The civilian on his part must be made to learn that a soldier is not a paid policeman to do all the dirty or dangerous work for him, and that he, the civilian, too is under an obligation to serve as a soldier if the need arises. This removal of psychological barriers and the creation of a new psychological climate should be greatly helped by the National Service which is due to be introduced in about two years. x

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Looking far forward into the future, the Burma Army today marches on. Watching the artillery demonstrations at Meikhtila was a real pleasure. Men and mules and machines and guns, all looked eager and efficient. There I saw the famous mountain artillery regiment whose guns, sent in the nick of time from Yugoslavia, did much to make the Bayinnaung operations against the Kuomintang gangs a resounding success. There the recently arrived Unimog German cars showed their marvellous powers in pulling heavy guns over muddy ground or up the mountains. There I watched the anti-tank and the heavy 25-pounder and the mountain battery guns open fire in mighty combination against trembling targets on the Pindale highgrounds. There the young officers, given the guns and the training and experience, showed that they could handle their jobs as well as any artillery men of any race. Some of the guns which took part in the exercises had been in action from the days of the Insein battle, and the men who are now officers in the artillery regiments had handled them, and the men and the weapons now know each other like old lovers. x

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Building itself into a peacetime people’s army, fighting in the final mopping-up phases of Pyidawtha, the Burma Army today has its hands full. The civilian departments and the people continue, in the districts, to look to the Army for leadership. Some of the civilian officers have, in the troubled years when they operated only as auxiliaries to the military, quite forgotten how to think and act for themselves. Result: in some districts which have long been restored to civil government, the civilian officers still expect the Army to think for them, act with them — or sometimes, without them. Thus the Army must be, for many more years to come, much more than a fighting machine. It must be soldier, administrator, diplomat, public relations man and propagandist, teacher, father confessor, and first and always a friend of the people — all in one. x

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And that is exactly what the new commando units are, I think. Unassuming, because they go only by names, 105, 106, 107… only

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numbers, meaningless and insignificant to these who do not know. Yet the Special Forces which carry those numbers, already becoming famous numbers, are experiments that have worked. The Forces are trained for commando and jungle warfare, and fitted out for long range penetration. They are the Army’s answer to those insurgents who specialise in blowing up bridges and evading punishment by the simple process of running fast and hard. A Special Force does not need to bother about supplies or transportation; it is provided with funds to buy its food and pay its transportation charges. A lot of administration and paper work is thus cut down, and the Force becomes highly mobile. Men in the Special Force eat better because they get fresh vegetables and food on the spot instead of the tinned or preserved food sent out to them from the rear bases; incidentally this arrangement also saves money. The men fight better. They are tough. In training they are usually made to carry 80 lbs. in kit and weapons. In action they move lighter and each man carries an armoury of automatic weapons. Special Forces have often made Thakin Than Tun jump out from bed and run for dear life, for the Forces move swift and stealthy like phantoms and they do not bother to knock on the door. When a Special Force takes a communist stronghold, they try to restore proper administration in the area, make friends with the people and win them over for democracy — and the people do not need much winning over, for the communists would inevitably have alienated them — distribute food and clothing, and medicine, and generally help to make the area fit for decent human beings to live in. It seems that Thakin Than Tun is not pleased with the Special Forces. They disturb his sleep and give him bad dreams. And Thakin Than Tun thinks General Ne Win has been unfair sending out the Forces after him. The General should have left him, Than Tun thinks, to blow up bridges and burn down buildings so that between him and his men and some building contractors they can go on having their own little pyidawtha. x

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The Burma Army marches on, fighting, building, learning, improving, looking far far ahead. And are all the men — 65,000 or so — the embodiment of perfection, the true staunch guardians of the people’s liberty, protectors of the weak, and so on and so forth? Are they, in

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other words, all saints? No, not by any means, 65,000 men of different indigenous races, coming with different backgrounds, with different motives. The majority, I think, are good and keen, eager to do their duty. A good many, among the men and officers, are mercenaries, and who can blame them; profit motive is the strongest that drives man. I have also, in the course of my visits, met officers who seem to have wrong ideas and motives. Fat with easy life and luxurious living, they work a few hours a day at comfortable desks in near absolute safety and consider themselves the greatest, if not the only, partriots in the country, dedicated to give up their lives for the country etc. etc. However, I think those few who have exaggerated ideas of their importance and value, have been rightly valued by the policy-makers at the War Office and they will hardly ever be entrusted with key positions. On the whole, the Army is moving on in the right directions guided by able and sincere hands. And the fine job the Army is really doing is perhaps best expressed by the Shan peasant to whom I talked in a village outside Aungban. He told me — and no army men were around with us at the time we fell into a general conversation — that the peasants in the Shan state have grown to like the Burma Army. The Shans grow to like a person rather slowly but when they do their affection can be steadfast. “And the Army has civilised us,” the man told me in his faltering language, “for they have made us understand and like our Burman brothers.” The affection that the people in the Shan state have for the Army is not always shared by some of their die-hard rulers of the old autocratic school. However, that is another story.

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Section V, G, Profile

WOMEN OFFICERS OF THE BURMA ARMY

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he Burma Army Combat Forces School at Ba Htu Myo in Lauksawk, Southern Shan State, lay quiet and sleepy under a curtain of mountain mists. It was six in the morning, time only for the birds and beasts of the jungle to stir; reasonable men and women slept. Even the soldiers in the long rows of wooden, zinc-roofed barracks were still clinging to the last treasured moments of sleep; soon the morning’s bugle would call, urgent, insistent, unkind, and they would run, hastily dressed, into the cold unsheltered fields where they would unfurl their regimental flag and sleepily pledge anew their steadfast loyalty to state and the peoples. But at that early hour of six, when temperature plunged like the reckless neck-line of a modern fashionable young lady’s blouse, eleven women officers of the Burma Army were having a warm time, running, marching, doing their physical training in the vast open spaces and in the big gymnasium by turns. Dressed in jungle green trousers and army

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Women Officers of the Burma Army” in The Guardian III, no. 3 (January 1956): 23–27, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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pull-overs, beret capped and their neatly bundled hair tucked back, the officers worked in rhythmic unison through the jerks, the jumps, the bendings, and the swings, and all the exercises which had been carefully planned and designed to remove fat, trim figure, to make limbs supple and muscles active and alert. With Captain Tin Nyun, instructor, Major Ye Gaung, the chief instructor, and Colonel Kyaw Soe, the Commandant of the BACFS and the new Defence Services Academy, I watched the women officers doing their P.T. The men officers looked on, proud of their women students. I, shivering slightly under layers of wool and trying bravely to put up a calm face in the cold, admired. x

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A Womens Auxiliary Corps is not a new idea. Women have fought in wars as valiantly us men. The last War proved to doubting men the worth of women. Staff jobs at headquarters, jobs in the field — manning anti-aircraft guns, driving trucks, running the cook-houses and canteens — there were at thousand and one jobs which, men found, women could take on and do well at. Thus, gradually, the women found their way into the armed forces, graduating from clerical positions to staff jobs at the battlefronts, and finally, in the invasion of Europe women officers and other ranks in the Allied forces had penetrated to the very frontlines and, nobody thought that was strange or unbecoming. Not in the British and American forces only, but in the Yugoslav resistance formations, and in the Russian Red Army — to take only a few examples — women served and distinguished themselves even in combat units, often commanding troops of men. Women in uniform have become an accepted feature of the modern army. In Burma, the British tried to raise a hurried corps of women officers and other ranks for clerical duties just before they retreated from Burma. It was a half-hearted attempt, and only a few AngloBurman young women got recruited just in time to join the general rout. When the Burma National Army grew under General Aung San, the thought of a women’s unit occurred to the military planners again, and a small group of women were recruited. The women, however, did not have much opportunity to prove themselves. The planners were still

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discussing their dress and uniform and training, when the resistance broke out and the women soldiers went with the men to the Thayet jungle camps. Those women were thorough. They took their thanaka and toilet accessories, and in the jungle they were dainty. Sections of men had to be assigned to protect the women (or was it to protect the men from the women?), and after the fighting was over a few of the women officers distinguished themselves by marrying communist chiefs like the Red Flag Thakin Soe. x

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Now it is different. The War Office planners have not rushed into organising the Women’s Corps on sudden impulse. They have taken their time, let the idea brew in their minds, and carefully studied the different women’s forces — their plans and blueprints, their aims and purposes — before they built the present nucleus. This was to be the experiment. Call them guinea pigs, therefore, or call them, more politely, the pioneers, call them the apparatus of a laboratory, call them the forerunners of a women’s army corps, call them what you will, the eleven women officers denote a plan within the bigger plans of mobilising the nation’s manpower (and womanpower) in the striving for pyidawtha. Every man is wanted to man the job he can best handle, the job that he is best equipped to handle; and for “man” read “woman” wherever necessary. Thus, the Defence Forces, crying always for more men and more technicians, want the women too. In a few years National Service will be in operation, and it will be the duty of all able-bodied citizens to serve a season in the Forces, to learn to defend themselves and the Union, to learn to work and earn. Then, women officers will be needed to command women’s battalions and women’s units, and in anticipation of that necessity, the women officers have been recruited. Men like to think that they are special, that women, with all their clamour for equality, are “inferior” — or, to be polite, “different”. Thus, whenever male soldiers think of women in uniform in their midst they like to think of the women only as clerks and secretaries — neat and pert and efficient, but limited to the files and the type-writers. The sterner tasks of war are the privileges of gallant men.

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But this is not going to be true for very long. The eleven women officers are daily giving the lie to the general belief that women are only good for desk work. The women officers, now half way through a rigorous course which is the usual soldiers’ basic and the officers training combined, are proving that women can shoot as straight as men, fight as hard, and ride out the rigours as cheerfully. x

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The wooden barracks at Ba Htu Myo through which the icy winds blow freely at night, are a far cry from the college cubicle or the comfort at home to which all the eleven women officers had been accustomed. And the coarse, unpolished rice served at the mess may be good for the body and the bones, but is rather hard to digest. It is a strange new world into which the young ladies have ventured, and the marvellous thing is that they have taken to the new world with real enthusiasm. At first the novelty is a thing that does not last. Now it is P.T. in the morning, weapon training and drill, lectures and map reading, fighting battles on the sand. Day in and day out it is drill and lectures, military exercises and lectures, kit inspection and lectures; the interminable routine of army, the jumping to rigid attention, the sigh of relief when one was ordered to be “at ease;” the saluting and the formalities; the khaki and jungle green, and no variety at all, no room for imaginative art in dressing, the cap must rest on the head at the regulation angle and no more, no less; the boots must be polished so that they shine like the mirror in which one can see one’s unpainted face. The soldier’s life about which the songs and the story books are so full is ninety-nine per cent drudgery and one per cent glamour and glory, and the trick of surviving happily in the army lies in making the drudgery look glamorous. The women officers have learnt that trick in double-quick time. x

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For Lieutenant Daw Kyin Si, designated officially “Bo Daw Kyin Si”, army life is just another step forward from the National Fitness Council organisation work which she had done for many months with outstanding success. She was an organiser at college where she took her

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Bachelor’s degree in education. Later, she went to America to study for many years for a post-graduate degree in physical instruction. On her return home the NFC seized her. Tireless, undefeatable, Daw Kyin Si had gone to the districts to build a corps of NFC women organisers, and conservative eyebrows had shot up high when she and her young ladies performed in public, showing ankle and thigh and such thitherto only-imagined-but-never-seen parts. From the NFC, the War Office wooed and won her. The wooing was done in the usual abrupt way of the soldier. It was an ultimatum more than a proposal. Colonel Maung Maung, the Director of Military Training, invited Daw Kyin Si into the sombre rabbit warrens of the War Office and sprang the question. The War Office wanted to recruit some women officers and train them with a view to raising a Womens Auxiliary Corps. Would Daw Kyin Si be interested to join and take the lead? “You will come, won’t you?” the persistent Colonel asked. Daw Kyin Si couldn’t say No, but she couldn’t say Yes either, for the NFC needed her, and she loved the NFC work. But, like a girl who is excited with her first proposal, she came back from the War Office breathless and full of dream. Her answer ultimately was Yes, and thus Goodbye to NFC, and away into the fields, to Lawksauk surrounded by blue mountains, to the red dust fields to do the slope arms and present arms and the drills and the section attacks. When Bo Daw Kyin Si joined the colours, the lives of her closest friends underwent a revolutionary change. Daw Khin Hta, for example, another Bachelor of Education, teaching peacefully at the Bassein State Teachers Training College. A quiet young lady, attached to her friends and relatives, always soft-spoken. She was one of the first whom Bo Daw Kyin Si recruited. Now Bo Daw Khin Hta handles her 9-pound drill-purposes rifle as easily and as fondly as if she had been born with it. Used to a comfortable home and good food, the change to barrack life and army rations might well have affected Daw Hta adversely. But no. She thrived. In Lawksauk when I met her, she was looking trim and smart, darkened by the mountain suns but healthy and happy. She recommends her new life to all young ladies. Another early recruit to the pioneer team was Daw Aye Mu alias Anne Htin. A Master of Arts in geography and a Bachelor of Laws in the bargain, she was lecturing at the University College, Mandalay, when the

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call came. Daw Aye Mu responded not without hesitation. She belongs to a conservative family and to join the army would have been a radical thing, even for the most progressive parents. Besides, Daw Aye Mu was a big-made person, and the agility and energy that the army might demand could well be beyond her. But, taking courage in both hands, she took the plunge. Now she enjoys the new life, and all the physical exertions are nothing much to mind. She too carries her rifle and her 23-pound training kit and gear as if they were as light as a half-sleeved nylon blouse. Thus the team has grown steadily, surely. More and more left their comfortable homes and their peaceful occupations, and soon the first group of eleven was complete. Bos Daw Yin May, Daw Mya Thein, Daw Tint Tint Than, Daw San Lwin, Daw Khin May Tin, Daw San San Yi, Daw Hla Hla Kyi, and Daw Khin Sein Myint. A most impressive collection of University degrees and family backgrounds it was. Between them the eleven women officers possess eighteen university degrees and diplomas, most of them having received post-graduate degrees or professional diplomas before they had gone on to teach or work in government departments. Except for two or three of them, the women officers have had extensive experience, mostly in teaching, in the professions, before they joined up. The age levels of the women officers vary from twenty-four to forty. The youngest, Bo Daw Khin Sein Myint comes from Mandalay where she taught at the State Girls High School. She has always been fond of sports and manly activities and preferred trousers to skirts. The army offered her just the life for which she was born. In training she is smart and quick and uninhibited and she has fast acquired a command personality. Bo Daw Yin May, 40, worked in the Ministry of Home Affairs as a translator for many years. She is the mother of five children, the eldest daughter being a college student. It is said that all the five children gave their blessing and gracious permission when mummy wanted to go into the army. If the army turns out to be all right for mummy some of them may join too. In the meantime when mummy goes home on leave wearing her uniform the children spring to attention and salute in welcome until the Bo Mummy orders, in the gruff command voice that Lawksauk has given her, “At ease!” x

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The Combat Forces School had not received the women officers without misgivings. The men officers, even the other ranks at the School and around, felt a little uncomfortable in having female colleagues in their midst. The new sight was strange. The women officers themselves were then a varied crowd. Some of them had not yet slipped snugly into the soldier’s mould; most of them felt strange in the new surroundings. “They were funny,” giggled a male soldier, when I asked him how he found the women officers on their arrival. “But,” the soldier added quickly, “they improved. A few weeks of the BACFS did them good. They became smart and even soldierly. Now they are all right.” This was a great testimonial coming from a male soldier who is by nature a conservative creature especially towards female soldiers. Instructor-Captains Myo Lwin, whom I knew in the resistance, and Tin Nyun were assigned to the women officers and they, the two men instructors and the chief instructor Major Ye Gaung, had a rough time at first. The three males felt their responsibility keenly, and it wore them thin. Major Ye Gaung even lost a few pounds from his grand total of 187 pounds in body weight. The first thing that the instructors had to learn was that they should not swear in the presence of the ladies. Now, the swear word is the spice of the soldier’s language, and without it, the male instructors found life a little bleak and barren. But they learned to put brakes on their tongues, and the ladies on their part re-educated their ears, so that in the end it was all right. Also, the words of command were at first a little too brutal to the young ladies. Command is not request; command words are designed to evoke instantaneous obedience and are therefore abrupt and blunt, not sugared and sweetened with “Will you please…” and such. The young ladies, of the privileged sex which is always flattered and waited on, found the brutal words of command a little harsh at first. Later, they got used to it. One day they will be using the same forceful words of command on their subordinate women soldiers or even on male subordinates. One day, perhaps, they too will find that language without the swear word is a little insipid. x

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They are doing well up there at Ba Htu Myo. Eleven young women learning a new life, venturing forth on a new mission. The training results are good and the War Office planners are encouraged. Not only that the women have proved they can shoot as straight as men — one of the officers, Bo Daw Khin May Tin, slender like the willow, scored 47 marks in range shooting with the .303 rifle, a brilliant record even for a man — or adjust themselves to army discipline, but they are keen and dedicated. They have the sense of mission. They look far into the future, and though some may have joined just on the whiff of fancy or because their friends had joined, now all are determined to make the army their career and life’s assignment. Everyone is pleased with the results. The instructors, the Commandant, the War Office planners. Colonel Kyaw Soe, the Commandant, told me: “They are keen and adaptable. They have the right spirit.” That, coming from a commander with the reputation of a stickler for detail, a tireless worker and a perfectionist, is something. Ba Htu Myo is a lonely place, and soldiers call it jokingly the military exile. It is cold up there, and life is hard, and during the day one is covered with red dust. Unless one is inspired with some sense of mission one cannot endure Ba Htu Myo. The women officers must have something, now that they have, by dint of tenacity, approached the end of their special course. I breakfasted with the women officers at their mess, dropped in to dine in the evening. I saw them at their P.T. and their training; I saw them watch military exercises. It was an inspiring experience. And the night before I came back, I spent a few happy hours in the mess, sharing brief moments of recreation with them. There were visitors from the National Fitness Council in Rangoon, and one of them, a sportswoman and a singer too, sang some songs of lonely love and deep yearning. The songs filled the mess hall and drifted outside to linger like frozen music on the mists of night. I swept a searching glance over all who were listening. If those songs of love caused any faint stirrings in their forgotten hearts the women officers did not show it.

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Section V, H, Profile

WOMEN ON THE WING

A

t Hmawbi one day in July, the Glider Club organized by the Burma Air Force to make the citizens of Burma “airminded”, put on a demonstration for the benefit of the press. It was an impressive affair. Young boys from schools, young men from college or who are working and earning, elderly people, they are there in the club, making a keen, adventurous crowd, teaming together, cleaning their aircraft, getting their glider ready, pushing, pulling, towing, doing all the chores and the hard work, sharing the fun of it, sharing the joy of being up their in the blue sky guided and helped by the instructor, or on solo flight quite alone with only the sweet strong fresh air or those foams of clouds around one. The Burmese have flow very little. Traditionally they have considered that the only safe and sure means of transport are: bullock carts on the dusty roads, or slow boats on the river. Now they are flying, of necessity, or for the joy of it. Accidents happen in the air, of course, as they do to

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Women on the Wing” in The Guardian III, no. 11 (September 1956): 30–34, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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the pedestrian on the most innocent road, but all in all, the sky is safe, and with skill and perseverance one can master it. At the Glider Club demonstration in Hmawbi, one of the attractions — for press reporters who have a softness for the fair sex the main attraction — was Flying Officer (Woman) Hla Than. Not only because she is pretty — though that helps — but because she is probably the first Burmese young lady to do a solo flight by glider. Soon she may be flying a powered ’plane alone; soon she may be racing in a plane alone; or going out on reconnaissance flights alone… Who knows, she may do it yet and her three other sister officers are waiting in a queue, impatient to fly the glider, and then progress on. And the Burma Air Force is happy that the ladies are so “eager and impatient” as Wing Commander Perry Aye Cho put it to me, and the BAF will not be placing any restrictions whatsoever on the ladies. For their ambition or their keenness, the sky is the limit for the four woman officers of the BAF — or rather, the sky is only the beginning. x

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The four ladies in the BAF are now nearly veterans; they have been 2 years in the service come December. They first “joined the colours” on 13th December — a lucky day for the BAF — 1954. The BAF was only experimenting when it called for lady officer recruits; the high command of the BAF as well as the Defence Forces were not without doubts and misgivings. The idea was good, but would it work? Only after the war have Burmese women emerged their homes to work and earn, but getting them into the Forces might well be too drastic. Would they come, and if they did, would they do? The response to the advertisements put some of the doubts at rest. Some 15 young ladies, all in possession of University degrees, answered the call. They took their medical tests, got certified fit, and went to the Officers Testing Team to undergo 3 days of gruelling endurance tests. For the 3 days they were made to run and climb and do the usual chores to prove they had the spirit and the stamina. Daw Nyo Nyo, who is now a very much seasoned military woman, is one who has been given a substantial bulk by bountiful nature — I do not mean, by that, that she is fat; I mean she is well fitted out — was so keen that in scaling up a pole she got to the top ahead of her lighter sisters.

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Similarly, in obstacles, Daw Nyo Nyo often negotiated the difficulties with greater ease as if she had been climbing trees all her life instead of spending most of her time at the University befriending the poets and Ye Olde English in her English honours course. Four were selected and given commissions as Flying Officers: Daw Nyo Nyo, of course, who has her English honours degree, and a law degree as well (her father Mr. Rahman was a Barrister, and Daw Nyo Nyo is better known to friends as Dolly); Daw Hla Than, who was a tutor in English at the time; Daw Khin Hla Win, B.A., B.Ed., who was teaching English and history at the State High School in Bahan; Daw Yin Yin, a graduate in arts, who was teaching history to mass education organizers at Chawdwingone. A handsome pick, the Defence Forces thought, but would they do? Their University degrees were well, but they were — still are — women, and that made a lot of difference. Or so the male General Staff officers thought. The tendency of the male animal is to think and feel that the female is weak and inferior — well, not inferior, but not quite the thing, you know how. The four women officers of the BAF went about systematically and patiently to shatter the myth of the male superiority. They have now nearly completely succeeded. x

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The women in their midst caused some embarrassment to the males in the BAF at first. Office and camp were never the same as before. They were there. For some time the males did not know what to do with the females, and at last it was decided that nothing special would be done, and they, the females would be treated equally in all possible respects as them, the men. Let the women officers go out and do their basic training; let them do their weapons drill, and other drills; let them go through the mill. That decision having been made, the male senior officers heaved a big sigh of relief; they had done something; the female officers were off to Mingaladon to do their preliminary chores; to handle their rifles and small arms, to march and drill in the sun. The four musketeers like it. The sun burnt their faces, unprotected from the rigours by cold cream or whatever cream it is the women use in such emergencies; and their skin was scorched, their faces were scorched

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except where their beret sheltered them somewhat from the April sun. They visited Army depots, units, naval establishments and generally made themselves acquainted with what went on in the Armed Forces — hitherto, men’s Armed Forces. They trained with enthusiasm, never grumbled, always asked for more. They read up the training manuals — written decades ago by half-witted British officers for soldiers and officer cadets who possessed no brains at all — and quickly mastered them. In a brief few months, the four Flying Officers had learnt all that the BAF could teach them, and they were packed off to England for further studies. x

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The Flying Officers trained at the Officer Cadet Training Unit in Kent where all the instructors, except two or three men, and all the cadets were women. There were, thus, 500 women officers, cadets and women other ranks in the Unit, and some 50 mere men; the preponderance put the men in their right place and reduced them to the right size. At the OCTU the Burmese women officers did brilliantly, won commendations and credits. The training was not over-tough, but it was not soft. There was no weapons training, for the women of the Women’s Royal Air Force train mainly for technical, secretarial and other rearline jobs. In that respect therefore, the Burmese officers were a little in advance knowing how to kill their man, given the weapons. Also well in advance of the WRAF, were their privileges. They draw the same pay and allowances as the men of equal rank in the BAF, whereas the WRAF, like other women in Britain, get less than the men who do the same jobs. The agitation by women in Britain for equal pay still goes on. After OCTU, the four women officers went round visiting training establishments and depots, and then joined an equipment officers’ course. The course was loaded with technical studies and considered to be quite tough. One mere man, doing the same course as the four young ladies, gave up and dropped out of the course in the middle of it. The young ladies not only survived but passed out brilliantly. England was not all work and no play. There were moments of leisure, and week-ends off, when the four officers could shed their

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warlike uniforms and put on their shining silk and carry their colourful Shan-bags (which are so convenient for shopping, carrying sweets and chocolates, make-up accessories, newspapers, etc), and go out to the parks and the places of interest. They spent 10 months in England, during which there was some summer, and they could wear their Burmese dress and go gay like sunshine. Many times they were photographed, in uniform and out of it — I mean, out of uniform but in their national dress — or in the mess dress which they themselves had helped to design in Burma. Their photographs appeared widely in the British press, and in the magazines in Japan and Hongkong. Once, travelling by underground train, the four young ladies were greeted quite suddenly and quite unexpectedly by an English gentleman, elderly and balding at the top, who thrust a magazine into their hands saying, “Look, your picture is here!” and then ran away. For an Englishman to emerge so recklessly from his usual reserve to do such a thing, to complete strangers, in such a public place as an underground station, meant a lot, a terrific lot, by Jove! To this day, I am sure, the particular English gentleman in question, must still be blushing deep red right down from face to neck, whenever he remembered the terrible incident in which he forgot himself; (but glory be to Queen and country, he recovered, and that was the main thing!) x

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From England the Flying Officers flew to Israel the ancient land of young and valiant people. The BAF in Rangoon had specially planned the Israel visit because the senior planner of the BAF have been to Israel and know that while England and America can broaden outlook and extend the horizons, Israel can give useful and practical lessons. For Israel is poor, poorer than Burma, but Israel is a young nation under arms; every young man and woman has to join the Forces at 18 and serve for 2 or 3 years; after they are released, they remain fighters all their lives. The Burmese woman officers have come back deeply impressed with that dauntless spirit which Israel stands for. “Every girl learns to shoot her rifle,” Flying Officer (W) Yin Yin told me, “every girl in uniform works hard, lives hard, but smiles all the times.”

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In Israel the women at arms work, fight, live side by side with the men; they go out on fighting patrols, take up sentry duties. There is no discrimination at all, nor any concessions for the women. In the Israeli Air Force, the women take their full share of work, though few fly. Reason: it is thought by Israeli Air Force command that if one of their comrades, a woman, is shot down over enemy territory and, say, captured, it makes the men on this side mad; and madness is no good; war must be fought with steel nerves and icy calm. Israel did the Burmese officers good. They had started in the Air Force with some sense and spirit of mission. Israel lent fire to the spirit of mission, confirmed their belief that in Burma too they could serve, and whip up fervour to serve. x

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What has the Burma Air Force to offer to the four woman officers? In a way, nothing. For when one takes off the glamour of uniform, the saluting, the drilling, the ceremonial ritual, Armed Forces these days are just like any other bureaucratic organization, bogged down by routine and regulation and logistics, just so many files and papers and books and accounts. Those days of individual valour, or leadership, or glory in war, are gone. Yet in many ways, however, the BAF or the Army or the Navy, have a lot to offer the women officers and those who come after them. Though those idle glorifications and glamour are gone for good, a lot still needs to be done. Comradeship, healthy adventure, spirit of mission, all these will remain and these days when in other departments of public service in Burma selfishness and greed seem to be slowly taking over, in the Armed Forces the spirit of service and sacrifice still burns — not with a feebling flame, one hopes. Besides, the four officers are pioneers, and they are proud of the fact. “One reason why we joined is the love of adventure. Another is, being a new service for women, the future in the BAF as a career must be bright for us, the early birds.” Thus the four officers answered when I asked them why they left their homes, and their womanly jobs such as teaching, to take to the uniform, and the wing. With such sentiment, and such practical and cold calculation, they can really do something in the BAF, I thought.

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And what does the BAF think of the woman officers? Wing Commander Perry Aye Cho, a veteran of the war throughout which he served with the Royal Air Force, now senior administration officer with the BAF, and special assistant to the Adjutant-General in the work of integrating the three Services, was enthusiastic. “There are no artificial restraints or taboos at all in regard to the women officers,” he told me. “They can fly, they can rise in the service as high as any man. They do not even form a separate women’s corps, for then they would be limited. They are with us, enjoying our privileges and prospects. They are keen, and want to get on, and we are happy.” Could the woman officers marry and raise families? There again, there are no inhibitions or restrictions. Flying Officer Yin Yin answered: “Surely. And we can get our married quarters, and other allowances — rations, for example.” Flying Officer Nyo Nyo added: “And our maternity leave.” F/O Khin Hla Win only smiled. That there are no inhibitions for the woman officers became even more apparent in what F/O Yin Yin had to say about marital affairs. “In the WRAF,” she said, if a woman marries and gets pregnant she has to leave the service. Here in the BAF no such ‘inhuman’ exist.” Hearing such intimate, intricate domestic affairs discussed so openly, I, as became a man, blushed. I also though that if the ladies could take to themselves suitable husbands, then indeed they, with their married quarters, their rations, etc., must be most eligible in the matrimonial market these days when houses are difficult to rent and food is expensive and man is becoming more and more dependent on woman. Prospective suitors should probably join the Glider Club at Hmawbi. x

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“We have now drafted a blue print for raising ‘air women’ or woman other ranks in the BAF” the officers explained to me. “We are hoping the Government will accept our proposals. Up to 300 air women will be recruited in batches of 50. They will be trained in different trades and crafts, so that they can free the men for combat duty or other services. There will be women police in the BAF — to keep the air women in check — and women bands. We shall not be separate, but we shall serve with the men together.”

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The Government would do well to grant the sanction quickly. The four woman officers in the BAF are getting impatient to prove their leadership qualities. They are good. They are working at headquarters handling jobs that men have handled; at Mingladon as equipment officer or provisioning officer; they live at the mess, and keep their male colleagues in discipline and good manners. They have become accepted now by their male subordinates who respect them and take their orders in good grace. The Government too might just as well yield.

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Section V, I, Profile

106

T

hakin Than Tun does not like 106, for this commando unit of the Burma Army, officially known as “Special Battalion 106” has been chasing him all over the country. For many months 106 chased Than Tun or his men in the “three-M triangle” — the area between Meiktila, Myingyan and Mandalay — until he had to resort to moving constantly with a few loyal troops as his own bodyguards. Than Tun’s camps were broken, his headquarters were captured, his documents seized, his weapons taken. Only a few loyal men and the clothes that he wears and his own boundless conceit remain with Than Tun. The rest, 106, in combination with its brother special units 107, 108, 105 and 104 have taken. x

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The idea of commando warfare to combat the highly mobile Communists and other rebels first presented itself to General Ne Win

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “106” in The Guardian III, no. 1 (November 1955): 21–23, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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and the planners of the Burma Army when the insurrections were at their fiercest. It was thought that if a few special units could be trained and equipped for long range penetration and raiding sorties they could be highly effective, and even, perhaps, decisive. But 1949 and 1950 were busy years for the Burma Army. The handful of officers and men had to be everywhere almost at the same time, and all that they could do was fight as best they could without any serious attempt at planning and organisation. Later, when the forces had some time to re-group and consolidate, commando warfare was carried out as part of bigger operations and by way of experiments. In the reduction of Pyuntaza, Brigadier Kyaw Zaw committed a few companies in short range penetration sorties; in the assault on Toungoo, Colonel Saw Myint used some long range penetration columns; in the clearance of the Moulmein-Thaton sector, Col. Saw Myint again resorted frequently to LRP tactics. One major triumph for commando warfare was won when two specially picked companies of 2nd Brigade commanded by Col. Saw Myint penetrated deep into Karen rebel territory and rescued Col. Maung Maung and a few other officers held captive by the rebels. The special force returned bringing back the treasured prizes, but it left behind a few of its men dead in enemy territory. The force won two posthumous “V.C.’s” or Aungsanthuriya, and final recognition for the efficacy of commando warfare. Col. Maung became a key planner at the War Office, and naturally, his early efforts were directed toward the raising of commando units. He and his colleague, Col. Aung Gyi, G.S.O, (l), raised the special units almost with their bare hands. 108 was born first, and later, in July 1954, 106, 105 and 104 arrived next, and by whim or design in numbering, 107 arrived last. The four special battalions went into action immediately after their birth. x

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Lt. Colonel Aung Pe, commander of 106, stressed the point that though his battalion was a “special force”, it was just one of the many fighting units of the Burma Army. He told me, when I met him at the 106 camp at the foot of Mandalay Hill recently, that the battalion had hardly ever fought openly in its own name. He and his men are always on call by the army sub-district commands or the brigade in whose area

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they are stationed. When they go out on special missions, therefore, they go as a wing of the garrison troops in the area. “If the Communists or the rebels knew that 106 was coming, or any other special force for that matter, they would disappear very promptly and that is not what we want. We rely mainly on surprise; minus surprise, the deadliness of the special force is gone”. To achieve surprise, 106 has often marched 30 miles in one day over difficult terrain, carrying their kit and arms and rations. The battalion is lightly organised. There is a minimum of administration and paper work. Captain Soe Myint Aung of the 106 is thus the battalion’s adjutant, quarter-master and transport officer, all in one, whereas in a normal infantry battalion at least three officers would have been required to hold down the jobs. But the administration jobs are simple enough in 106. Transport does not require much organisation for 106 has no transport of its own, relying mainly on railways and available road transport for journeying up to established rail-heads or road-heads, and then on to their destinations deep in enemy territory on foot. Supply too is simple enough for officers and men have been trained to eat like local peasants, two big meals a day of rice and curry or anything locally available. The force is thus highly mobile and it is geared all the time for fighting. And it has fought, most of the time, all through the 15 months of its young career. x

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106 has special tasks and to undertake them it has to observe specially strict discipline and special codes of personal conduct. It is almost a battalion of Pongyis as far as its moral conduct is concerned. At its officers club, no alcoholic drinks are served. The men must be morally above reproach. In their relations with the people, they must be courteous and kind. Peasants in the areas liberated from Communists domination are apt to be suspicious. Long conditioned to misery, the peasants do not care whether the Communists dominate them or government troops. They are resigned. To awaken them from this apathy, the government troops have to be specially correct and convince without being suspected of doing propaganda. The only way to do this to be sincere and be one’s true self. Men of the 106 have therefore to be natural ambassadors of peace in those dark areas which have been under rebel heels for years

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sometimes. The men fight in and hold, treat the local population with kindness and cordiality without deliberately wooing their friendship. The psychological warfare team which generally accompanies 106 on its operations will then get in touch with the village elders and inform them of the political situation in the country. The team also shows films of general interest, and then puts on Ludu Aungthan or “The People Win Through” based on the play written by U Nu. The peasants, at first suspicious and even a little hostile, gradually come round and become friendly. Ludu Aungthan does not get across in one showing. The peasants are often so backward that they cannot follow the rapid changes of scenes. But after two or three showings, they begin to appreciate and then they murmur their approval and agreement. “The Communists who were here were exactly like Bo Tauk Tun,” they say, Tauk Tun being the bullying Communist in the film. Gradually confidence returns to the peasants, and they smile and cheer, and befriend the soldiers. For months, for years, they have been kicked about, and ordered and talked down to. Now they are free. The masters have fled; 106 has arrived; they are free to talk aloud and laugh, and work in the fields and sing; reap the harvests and keep them for their own needs. x x x x x 106 has had a proud record of battles in its young life. It has fought in the broad triangle; it has fought and cleared the Popa area and the Shwe-set-taw and the Minbu district; it has fought around Mandalay and captured the district headquarters of the communist — Than Maung, a district BCP leader surrendered to the government soon after that; above all, it has taken a shining part in the Yangyiaung operations against the Kuomintang forces, the biggest combined operations ever launched by the Burma Army in its history. In Yangyiaung, 106 lost 13 men killed and 57 severely wounded. In close combat, the battalion had stormed hilltops while the Burma Air Force and the Artillery gave supporting fire right up to the time of the charge — safety zones for supporting artillery fire or strafing were reduced with success to much less than the regulation limits. One 2nd. Lieutenant Than Sein had just come out of the Officers Training School when he was posted to 106 — a

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signal honour — and sent on to Yangyiaung. He led his men in an assault on KMT bunkers and was shot down. His pay book arrived only weeks after he fell. One Ba Khway, private, veteran of many battles, stormed the heights with his colleagues and fought brilliantly. When victory was in sight, a bullet hit him right in the centre of his helmet, and tore through. Than Sein, Ba Khway, and many others are deathless on the battalion’s roll of honour now. Colonel Aung Pe, a native of Minbu, is a veteran of the Burma Independence Army. Just out of school, he marched with the B.I.A. and the officer under whose immediate command he served was Bo La Yaung of the “30 comrades”. Later, the BIA units were recalled and regrouped, and Bo Aung Pe came under the command of Bo Min Gaung1 for a while. Later, young Aung Pe was picked for the first Officers Training Course at Mingaladon, took one of the best cadets’ prizes there, and was sent to an Academy in Japan along with 29 others. There he trained for two years and was ready for returning home after graduation when resistance began and, later, the war ended. After return to Rangoon, Bo Aung Pe was commissioned into the re-formed Burma Army and then began the years of endless fighting. In Arakan against the Mujahids in 1947–48 (he received his Thura title for those campaigns and was among the first recipients of that coveted title); then at Insein; in Toungoo; then commanding the 2nd Burma Regiment in the Naganaing operations against the KMT in 1953; the recovery of the Mawchi mines; against Cassim, the Mujahid leader, in Arakan; then Bayinnaung operations against the KMT; and in 1954 assigned to command 106, a fighting commander of a fighting battalion. 106 knows no rank. When it goes to battle everyone goes, “men” includes the officers and the commander as well. Col. Aung Pe has as deputy Captain Maung Maung Lwin, also a son of Minbu, and a veteran. Capt. Soe Myint Aung and other officers, all of them graduates of the Officers Training School and the Combat School and many of them graduates and undergraduates of the University, complete the team. 106 is a long way from the University and Pinya or Thaton hall, but the young officers are proud to be with the battalion, and no more severe punishment can they suffer than to be “returned to unit”, that is to be rejected by the battalion. x x x x x

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“We go for three things”, said Col. Aung Pe to me as we had lunch at his austere home after we had spent a few hours at the 106 camp, “and they are: mines, home-made mines which Communists use to blow up railway bridges — which we have seized and destroyed in thousands; headquarters of the rebels, and we have captured a good few of them; and the minds of the peasants who need to be injected with new confidence and hope.” In going after those objectives. 106 has done rather well, though its commander and its officers kept on insisting to me that they and the battalion were only typical of the Burma Army in general. “We are not special”, the men of the special force said modestly. It is a modest fighting force with a mighty record. Note 1. Now Minister of Supplies.

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SECTION VI

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE CONSTITUTIONS OF MYANMAR

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Section VI

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE CONSTITUTIONS OF MYANMAR

I

f Dr Maung Maung’s patriotism drew him toward the tatmadaw in which he had briefly served and many of whose top officers were close friends of his, his journalistic avocation drew him naturally to write about the politicians, judges, and journalists who were prominent in the 1950s, again many personal friends. But his professional career as a lawyer drew him naturally to write about the constitutions of Myanmar with which he was engaged. The 1947 constitution, under which he lived and worked during the period when he wrote the overwhelming bulk of his English-language writings, in particular, was a subject about which he knew perhaps more than anyone at that time. His writings were widely read by foreigners as their key historical guide to understanding constitutional developments in Myanmar at least up to the military take over in March 1962. His writings on the constitution were so influential not only because they were erudite but also they drew a very broad picture of the role and life of the constitution, seeing it as a living set of aspirations as well as a clear guidelines for the rules and procedures with which the government, and the wider state, were to conduct their affairs. In the days soon after the height of Burma’s post-independence civil war, Myanmar’s socialist politicians sought an ideological guide that took 441

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them away from the accusation that they were little different from the Communists who they were battling. They also sought to reassure both Western governments that they were not Marxists, then a particularly unacceptable word in the midst of the Cold War, and also to convince more conservative elements in Myanmar’s own society that they were not taking the country down a path which was antithetical to Buddhism, the faith of the overwhelming majority of the country. However, the 1947 constitution contained a number of leftist, if not explicitly socialist, ambitious that the government sought to achieve while maintaining its very shallow political support. This posed a serious presentational and policy issue for a government whose major domestic political opposition was on the radical left of the political spectrum. Dr Maung Maung’s article “Pyidawtha”1 described the first of several attempts by the government of U Nu and the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) to find a doctrine that “is above party and ideology and … is in some way to help build the nation…”. Written at a time that the government of U Nu was optimistic that it had seen off its enemies and was benefiting from the Korean War boom in rice and other primary commodity prices, grand plans seemed the need of the day. Now, of course, there is little left of U Nu’s Pyidawtha, which literally translated can mean a “pleasant royal country”, than a village founded under the scheme north of Yangon and many dusty volumes of grand but unachieved plans. Like Dr Maung Maung’s essay “Pyidawtha”, which was originally written for the August 1953 issue of the Far Eastern Survey published in New York to educate Americans about neutralist Burma’s domestic political orientation and then reprinted in The Guardian, “State Socialism in Burma”2 was written to help explain what was happening in the country in 1953 to an Indian audience. Here he could be more explicit in terms providing a gloss for pyidawtha as a welfare state. As that was the goal of the Indian government of Pandit Nehru and the Congress Party, as well as an accepted term in British and European politics at that time, that was language which his intended readership would appreciate. The article then goes on to describe the plans the government had for improving the standards of living of the population as well as the health and educational provision the state intended to develop. These were the grand dreams that we saw above that Dr Maung Maung wrote had to be abandoned by the early 1960s for a more realistic assessment

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of Myanmar’s economic and social possibilities under prevailing, and unpredictable, circumstances. If socialism or building a pyidawtha was the avowed goal of the 1947 constitution, the heart of the political system the constitution mandated to carry that through was the parliament. Of its two houses, the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, was the most explicitly democratic body, entirely formed on the basis of multi-party elections held on the one-person-one vote principle. The upper house, the Chamber of Nationalities, provided for representation skewed to ensure the disproportionate influence of the ethnic minorities residing in the border areas. It was from the Chamber of Deputies, like the House of Commons in the British constitution, that the cabinet and the government were formed as it was the larger and more democratic body. When Dr Maung Maung wrote “The Burmese Parliament”3 sometime in late 1956 or early 1957, he was reasonably pessimistic about the quality of debates and decision making in the lower house of the legislature. This was because, as he makes clear in subsequent articles reprinted here, the legislature, dominated by the AFPFL, had been largely ignored by the cabinet that ran the government rather like an authoritarian, one-party, state.4 But when the grand coalition of disparate elements that formed the AFPFL began to split up as a result of the conflicting personal ambitions and plans of various ministers who controlled factions of the party, Parliament became much more the focus of Myanmar’s political life. But then it almost disintegrated, thus forcing the formation of the first non-political military government formed by General Ne Win in 1958. As Dr Maung Maung wrote in a box inserted into “The Burmese Parliament” for the July 1957 issue of The Guardian, Since it was written, six months ago, Parliament in Burma has become an increasingly dynamic assembly. Opposition leaders like Dr E Maung, U Ba Nyein and U Thein Pe Myint, have added much to the quality of debate, and the cut and thrust in the Chamber has become faster, sharper. Parliamentary democracy thus begins to show signs of life.

Written following the 1956 elections which had seen the political support for the AFPFL wane and new members of parliament, but old political hands, now involved in attacking the government of U Nu, that government soon began to crumble and the constitution faced its first serious tests

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as to whether it was strong enough to maintain the principles and goals that it encapsulated. While “The Burmese Parliament” was originally written for an audience primarily made up of members of, or students of, the British Parliament, “Burma’s Constitution Comes to Life”5 was written initially for the Indian Yearbook of International Affairs. As India and Myanmar at that time were pursuing similar foreign policies and relations between the two countries were remarkably cordial under the Prime Ministers Nehru and Nu, there would have been a degree of interest in Dr Maung Maung’s views in India at that time, 1957–58. By the time the article came to be written, U Nu’s government, thanks to the final splintering of the AFPFL, was in a minority position except for the support it received from the former opposition, itself a fairly motley group of conservatives like Dr E Maung and “above ground Communists” or leftists of various stripes. Instability was rife and, as Dr Maung Maung wrote, new elections appeared to be in the immediate offing, as one would expect in a parliamentary political system. But as the postscript that Dr Maung Maung added before the article came to be reprinted in The Guardian made clear, events took an unusual term. For reasons to do with machinations outside the parliamentary frame, and about which there is yet no firm conclusion as to what precisely occurred, U Nu “invited” General Ne Win to form a non-political Caretaker Government to take over running affairs for six months in order to achieve “the restoration of law and order” prior to holding new elections. In the event, those elections were not held until eighteen months later, and despite, as Dr Maung Maung wrote, “in several ways it was a welcome rest from the politicians,” it placed the constitution under a severe strain. Soon after the Caretaker Government was formed, a government in which he served at the invitation of General Ne Win as Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Maung Maung made two radio addresses that were subsequently reprinted in The Guardian as “Our Living Constitution”.6 Clearly, the arguments that emerged amongst the political public in Yangon and other cities and towns of Myanmar following the failure of the elected Prime Minister to either maintain his parliamentary majority or call for new elections because of extra-parliamentary circumstances, led many to begin to doubt the strength or validity of the 1947 constitution. These

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two talks, turned into articles, appear to be designed to allay these fears by putting the emergence of the constitution in its historical context and to remind the public of the rights it bestowed and obligations it imposed upon them as citizens of an independent state. Given the strength of Marxist thought among many intellectuals in the country who felt that a one-party state would be more appropriate to achieve Myanmar’s then socialist goals, these talks appear to be an effort to shore up the crumbling foundations of the multi-party constitution. The public debate over the constitution did not subside, however, and in March 1959, Dr Maung Maung’s “Living Constitution” series gave way to a talk on a more narrowly drawn question, the meaning of “Section 116 of the Constitution”.7 This was the result of the fact that the parliament had determined, over the opposition of the leftist National Unity Front (NUF) which had helped prop up U Nu’s government after the initial AFPFL split, to ignore Section 116 of the fundamental law which stated that “A member of the Government who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of Parliament shall cease to be a member of the Government”. Were this section not ignored, or set aside, General Ne Win would have been serving as an illegal Prime Minister. This the Parliamentary majority refused to contemplate. What the Parliament had determined in this case, at least, was that its views were superior to that of the constitution. As the highest court in the country never ruled on the issue, it was never tested in a full-fledged constitutional struggle. Expediency prevailed. General Ne Win’s Caretaker government is remembered by many positively for some of its actions and policies and negatively for some of its methods. These were perceived as in sufficiently sensitive to peoples’ wishes. This is especially the case in regard to the army’s then controversial policy of forcefully removing the thousands of persons who had illegally occupied land in Yangon over the years of the civil war as people fled the countryside in search of refuge from the fighting. The sections of Yangon now known as North and South Okkalapa were established for that purpose. Equally controversial at the time was the government’s eventually successful efforts to convince the Shan Sawbwas and other traditional leaders amongst the minority communities to abandon their hereditary rights as recognised by the British during the colonial period. “Anti-feudalism” had been one of the goals of Myanmar radical

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nationalists since the 1930s and the General’s non-democratic government was the one to achieve that objective. The “Burma-China Boundary Settlement”8 was perhaps the most significant international achievement finalized during General Ne Win’s first time in office. As Dr Maung Maung retails the story of the treaty, its importance becomes clear in terms of the security of Myanmar’s northeast border with China. This, of course, was the area in which the Chinese Nationalist KMT troops had settled after the Second World War and from whence emanated an alarming story in 1956 about an alleged “Chinese invasion” of Myanmar. To agree the border agreement, Myanmar had to accept certain adjustments that were said to have caused distress to persons living in the affected areas but these were minor. The interest at the time in the agreement led not only to the article reprinted here appearing in the Asian Survey, published by the University of California, of March 1961 but serving also as the basis for an address Dr Maung Maung gave to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on 14 February of the same year. His American audience was very concerned, of course, about the intentions of China toward Southeast Asia at that time. Dr Maung Maung, throughout the 1940s through the early 1960s was an occasional teacher of English, history and, most importantly, law. His love of law and the importance of the proper teaching of the subject so as to reflect the best in its principles of fairness and justice and to keep it in tune with the customs and conditions of the country in which it is found is the heart of his discussion in “Lawyers and Legal Education in Burma”.9 This was originally published in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly in London, January 1962. Like so much of what Dr Maung Maung wrote about the law and the constitution of Myanmar, he puts the question of legal education within its historical context. Many of the suggestions found in this article were never taken up because the socialist legal system which it was attempted build under the Burmese Road to Socialism provided no opportunities for the clearly elitist legal training that was envisioned in this article. The title of the last article on the constitution is prophetic. “The Search for Constitutionalism in Burma”10 was originally given at a conference held in Canberra in 1960 just after the Caretaker Government had returned power to U Nu’s new Union Party following what were described as fair and democratic elections. Being in the way of an

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academic paper, it did not appear in print until three years later by which time the constitution that it describes had been abrogated and General Ne Win’s non-constitutional Revolutionary Council government was in its second year of authority. It is perhaps the most concise but also most lively and intellectually critical pieces on the 1947 constitution that Dr Maung Maung ever wrote. It is a monument to his scholarship as it demonstrates his intellect at its peak. At the end of the article, as originally published there is four-page transcript of the discussion of Dr Maung Maung’s paper that took place at the conference at which it was presented in August 1960. While the other remarks are now of little consequence, Dr Maung Maung’s own final comments are worthy of recalling. He said about the Caretaker Government: I would like to add to my paper some words about the period of army rule in Burma, as I think this has been widely misunderstood. The period of army rule was distinguished by the following features: First, Ne Win was invited by the Prime Minister U Nu to assume the power for a limited period; secondly, the psychology of the army was interesting. The men concerned were not always very bright but were honest and courageous and hard-working. They came to work early in the morning and left late at night — not a common feature previously. They had respect for regulations and worked ‘by the book’. If you could show them a law they would stick to it. They respected the idea of democracy and wanted to work it. In fact, it was under the Ne Win Government that official recognition was first given to the post of Leader of the Opposition.11

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

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Section VI, A. Section VI, B; originally published in United Asia, Bombay. Section VI, C. See Sections VI, D. and VI, E. Section VI, D. Section VI, E. Section VI, F. Section VI, G. Section VI, H. Section VI, I. “Discussion on Paper 6” in R.N. Spann, ed., Constitutionalism in Asia (London: Asia Publishing House, 1963), p. 133.

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Section VI, A.

“PYIDAWTHA”1

“P

yidawtha” is one of the happily increasing number of things in contemporary Burma that one can be really enthusiastic about. A fascinating word — coined perhaps by Premier Nu who has a flair for phrase — pyidawtha has quickly become an idea that has grown into far — reaching development projects and welfare schemes, Pyidawtha is imaginative and practical, and has great appeal to the masses. Unlike most of the great development plans that have been born in blue prints and then shut away in the pigeon-holes of government departments, pyidawtha has little to do with paper planning. From the start it goes to work in the field, in the remote villages and hill tracts, in the faraway countryside traditionally neglected by government and visited by its officials only when they felt like hunting big game or shooting snipe. “Pyidawtha” eludes exact translation and therein perhaps lies its charm — and even impishness — as a word. The Socialists see pyidawtha as a phase of their revolution. “The Burmese revolution should be achieved

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Pyidawtha” in The Guardian I, no. 1 (November 1953): 15–19, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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by Burmese methods,” according to U Ba Swe, the Socialist leader and Defence Minister, and though Marxism should be the trusted guide in the revolution, yet it should be adapted to local needs and circumstances and the acceptance of “the carbon copy of the Russian or the Chinese revolutionary pattern” would be most unwise. The ideologically neutral can accept pyidawtha as eagerly as the Socialist for pyidawtha is above party and ideology and to push pyidawtha forward in some way is to help build the nation; government personnel can take active part in pyidawtha unworried by the rule that forbids their participation in party politics. Thus, by a happy word, the nation has been roused and mobilised for action in rehabilitating the country by self-help — for that is pyidawtha, building a “happy and prosperous nation” or a welfare state without its political colour. Everyone a Boy Scout Self-help is the essence of the pyidawtha programmes, at least those of them which have been designed for the immediate reconstruction of the country. For these short-term schemes, every “township” in the country gets from the government an allowance of Kyats 50,000 to cover expenses during the financial year 1952–53. Pyidawtha committees are formed in every town, and these propose the projects to carry out in the villages within the township. The proposals are examined by the district committee — there are 41 districts or administrative counties with two or more sub-divisions each and anything from two to nine townships — and those that are passed are carried into execution without more formality. The criteria by which the proposals are examined are few and simple: they should be practical, and they should accomplish something which will be of real and immediate benefit to the peasants; they should be economically sound though not grudging; the expenses for the year should not exceed the allowance, though the proposals may be passed if the estimated excess is forthcoming from voluntary contributions in money labour or skill from the villages. Budgetary procedure is much simplified; the year’s allowance is placed outright at the disposal of the township committees and accounting and auditing formalities are cut down to the minimum. These short-term schemes are not overambitious. They were launched in the hope that by the end of the pyidawtha year

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the villages would be a little better off than before. The year is closing at the time of writing, and reports from the districts on the working of the plans have been heartening and they indicate an 80 per cent success. The people have responded warmly to the plans, and the idea of self-help and united endeavour underlying them. Pyidawtha is turning everyone in rural Burma into a Boy Scout eager to do his good deed. In many townships, the contributions from the people have been more than fivefold the government grant in value. In some areas, the people have taken the challenge and gone on ahead with their pyidawtha without touching the grant. More water reservoirs have been dug in the country, more roads opened and repaired, more bridges built, and more primary school accommodation provided by pyidawtha than could be provided by ten years of government activity through blueprints and bureaucracy. In the short-term schemes therefore pyidawtha has proved itself, and the government has promised to increase the yearly allowance to the townships next year. Pyidawtha is not limited to digging wells and mending roads. It’s long term aim is more far-reaching and comprehensive; it aims in fact at the full development of the country’s resources — men and material for the uplift of the people’s standards of living through fair distribution and active state sponsored welfare services. The welfare state is pyidawtha’s ultimate goal. In August last year a national conference was convened where leaders of mass organisations, of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League — the government coalition of parties — and leading Socialists and government officials and experts discussed and adopted the major development plans. One of them, the economic plan envisages a step-up of the national income from the 1950–51 level of kyats 355 crores to 700 crores in 1959. It is calculated that only if the national income reaches the level of 600 crores will the per capita income of the people be restored to the 1938–39 figure of k. 330 per year when the national income was 500 crores, or about 32 per month, an income on which a person could not hope to survive in western conditions of life. The 1959 target is income groups a standard of life only slightly better than what they enjoyed pre-war with prices and their upward trends as they are. Yet the 1959 target is therefore a modest one which promises the lowest would call for a total investment of k. 750 crores by that year: or an average of 100 crores per year, which is not too large but a great increase over the pre-war average domestic capital formation of about 30 crores per year.

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Plans Within Plans Economic development is a major plan with many offsprings. Thus, it calls forth a plan to rehabilitate the railways, the inland water transport, the airways system and the road services. The railways served 2,058 miles before the war, not an impressive service in a sprawling country much bigger than France, but the major towns were connected. Today only 1,512 miles are in use, Rehabilitation of railways must of needs be slow since procurement difficult and it will be another five or ten years before the railways run with their former efficiency. Similarly, inland water transport system is being run by a much depleted fleet and it will be some years before foreign manufacturers can take orders for river craft. The system is, however, yielding handsome profits — about k. 100,000 per week — which is a consolation when the railways are running at a loss. The airways system, with a monthly profit of k. 200,000 per month, is being expanded without government aid, the improvement of airports and dockyards have gone on apace, and recently the government has started a steamer service to link Rangoon with coastline ports. There is a proposal to nationalise road transport and run passenger and haulage services, or operate them on a co-operative basis; the resources, however, are extremely limited — most of the motor vehicles plying on the roads being converted war time trucks which have long outlived road-worthiness by normal tests — and large fleets must be bought overseas before an efficient road transport service can operate. Postal services are to be improved; at present there are only 390 post offices serving the whole country as against 640 pre-war, but within the next three years the pre-war number should be restored. Wireless is to be installed in important district towns and that should be a help in these days when other means of communication are so vulnerable to insurgent activities. Rangoon is to have an automatic telephone system by 1955, and trunk lines are to connect the main towns all over the country. These plans for improvement of transport and communications are sad reminders that Burma is still lagging far behind in the forward march of nations and of time and that she is in 1952 where she was in 1935 or so. The virtue of pyidawtha therefore lies in its buoyant determination to catch up when the task looks so disheartening.

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Grow-more Campaigns The pyidawtha agriculture plan aims at doubling production of rice and increasing that of other land produce in the next five years. Rice has eager markets abroad, and if the plan succeeds in producing 1.75 million tons more rice for export every year. Burma’s income from State trading in rice alone would be considerable. Two and-half million acres of land which have been thrown out of cultivation on account of the war and insurgent action are to be rehabilitated, and half a million acres are to be wrested from the jungle and the desert. Farming methods are to be modernised and schools for farmers have been started, and government research and model farms opened in agricultural areas. The plan for agricultural development is naturally linked with that of land nationalisation. Legislation was passed in 1948 authorising the government to take over the land of big landowners and absentee landlords on payment of equitable compensation, and distribute the land to peasants who have hitherto been tenants or workers. The idea that inspired the law-making was good, though the law was perhaps made rather in a hurry without sufficient thought being given to the consequences. Civil unrest held up the execution of the law for many years, but now a few pilot districts have been chosen in which to carry out the first experiments of land distribution. A separate department has been created to supervise the work and the minister for land nationalisation has visited New China and the Soviet Union to study collective farming and methods of abolishing landlordism. It is perhaps just as well that the land distribution was not rushed, for the four years for which the law had to wait before enforcement have sobered enthusiasm and given the opportunity for careful study and preparations. The question is whether productivity will suffer when large farms are split and distributed among the peasants, and how soon the new owners will adjust themselves to their new status. Development of industries is not overlooked by pyidawtha long-range planning. The cultivation of hydro-electric power for industrial plants and the supply of electricity to towns and villages; the building of paper mills and steel factories; extensive surveys of hitherto unexplored areas for mining prospects are some of the projects included in the industrial plan. New departments have been created to push through the plan; the services of important American and British engineering firms have been hired; pyidawtha missions have been roaming the world trying to procure

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equipment and engage experts. Industrialisation is; happily, no longer a political slogan or just something to please nationalist pride. A proper balance seems to have been struck in allocations towards industrialisation and the production of rice. The latter claims priority; rice sells, but when buyer countries grow more and become self-sufficient, the markets will dwindle if not disappear; the gold harvest of rice will not therefore be reaped for ever. Education to Raise New Man Pyidawtha aspires not merely to develop Burma materially, but also to raise the “new man” — a responsible citizen who can be entrusted with active participation in government, an intelligent, public-spirited person with a fair amount of modern education, certainly not an ignoramus or a “Mr Zero” as the nickname goes. To raise the new man education plans have been carried far into execution. Progressive policies in school and University education with free compulsory education as the aim, and new projects such as mass education and the translation of books on modern knowledge for popular consumption are some of the features of the education plan. A thoughtful programme consists in bringing down boys and girls from the hills to the schools in Rangoon where, on government grants, they are getting their first experience of school and broadening their horizons. The programme is strategically sound for it will help to foster closer relations between the Burmans and the hill peoples. Parallel with the education and its allied health plans run the plans for “devolution of powers” of the central government and the “democratisation of local administration”. The idea is to quicken an active democracy and make it durable. Government machinery is “bureaucratic” and it is to be replaced by a government by popularly elected local councils: government structure is ultimately to emerge as a pyramid with the village councils forming the broad basis and tapering up towards the central government which will, ideally, be of pin-point proportions. The democratisation plans, embodied in recent legislation, are being carried out in a few pilot districts, and it is hoped that by the time the old bureaucracy has completely withered away, the new man will have come on the scene.

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Pyidawtha and ECA It was no secret that Pyidawtha hoped to lean rather a lot on American aid which, in its varied career as “point four” and ECA and TCA, has given substantial help towards the reconstruction of the country. The partnership between pyidawtha and TCA was expected to continue happily and fruitfully for ever when the government announcement of termination of TCA came as a surprise. The decision was made about the time when the problem of Kuomintang troops in Burmese territory had become the biggest worry of a government which was still harrassed by multicoloured insurgents. The Kuomintang troops under the now notorious General Limi has swollen by local recruiting and reinforcements from Formosa into an army 12,000 strong, and they had launched on aggressive operations against the government often in alliance — though it is hard to believe — with the Burmese communists. Government troops mounted major offensives, while efforts to settle the issue by diplomatic means through the good offices of the United States and Thailand were increased. Burma decided to take the matter to the United Nations and government gave notice of its decision to stop TCA and to surrender thereby about 13 million dollars worth of aid. It will be unrealistic to pretend that pyidawtha will not miss TCA; on the other hand those political and economic analysts who would equate pyidawtha after the departure of TCA with wishful thinking are unduly pessimistic. It Marches On Pyidawtha sweeps on, plans linked with plans, the government and the people together putting their shoulders to pyidawtha, inspired by it and gladdened by its results. This partnership between the government and the people is unique. In some areas where government troops are engaged in operations against remnant insurgent groups and the Kuomintang trespassers, pyidawtha has even inspired the troops to lend a hand in digging wells and repairing roads when they can take time off from fighting. Pyidawtha preaches self-help and Burma, recipient of aid from the United Nations agencies, the Colombo Plan organisation and — the most generous donor so far — the United States, was in bad need of a sharp reminder that a nation cannot build herself on foreign aid alone. Pyidawtha has caught on. Motor buses running in Rangoon carry notices

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that “pyidawtha” is their goal; children in the streets sing pyidawtha songs; at pyidawtha coffee bars one can buy and drink a cup of pyidawtha coffee or a glass of pyidawtha cold milk. Nor would the Burmese sense of humour, touched with a little cynicism, spare pyidawtha. Thus the humorists tell the story of a man who bought a ticket at a railway station and went in for a ride, to be confronted with the amused and superior smile of one of those ticketless travellers. Of asking what was wrong he was told that it was his ticket. “Shouldn’t one buy a ticket to travel?”. “Of course, one shouldn’t. That’s plain silly. Don’t you know this is the Pyidawtha Free Special?” Note 1. Reprinted from the Far Eastern Survey, New York of August, 1953.

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Section VI, B.

STATE SOCIALISM IN BURMA1

M

ost people in Burma today are ardent leftists. Marxists, intellectuals and thinkers, organisers, and workers, revolutionaries and realists. It is extremely difficult to find people who profess themselves to be rightists; “rightists” and “reactionaries” are terms of reproach reserved for political opponents. At the core of this great enthusiasm for leftist principles and ideology is state socialism which finds acceptance in the constitution of the Union and which is today becoming a real and active force. A whole series of government sponsored schemes have been launched to build the welfare state; “pyidawtha” or “welfare state” is a slogan as much as a programme. A national convention was assembled with the Anti-Fascist Peoples Freedom League (AFPFL) and the Socialist Party as organisers; representative organisations came, and men from the professions and experts. There at the convention, socialist principles were expounded, socialist plans were proposed and approved, “pyidawtha”

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “State Socialism in Burma” in The Guardian I, no. 2 (December 1953): 26–27, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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committees appointed. Burma, however, was not unaccustomed to such national gatherings. There had been a number of them before, where great messages had been delivered, lofty principles expounded, pledges and promises made, and plans even adopted. After such gatherings peoples would usually go home happy to have done their bit. The pyidawtha convention was different from many of its predecessors in that serious endeavour survived it. A Nation at School That endeavour has given rise to many plans of far-reaching range. State socialism is at it with a vengeance. Government machinery itself is to be overhauled and rebuilt. There is the plan for “devolution of powers” by which the people are to be brought into the government at different levels through the village, township, district and divisional welfare committees that are to be set up; in future government and the people are to be one. On similar lines is the plan for democratisation of local government; a pyramid would be built with popular village councils forming the road and firm basis and on the higher tiers are the township, district and divisional councils; salaried government officers will serve the councils as advisers and secretaries, rather like the clerks of the lay courts who help the lay justices in England with their law. There are plans for the development of Burma’s economy; agricultural production is to be stepped up, natural resources fully exploited and industries built. The plans appear practical and practicable. In 1948, in the first flush of freedom’s excitement, such plans had been hastily drafted, but it was unduly optimistic envisaging a two-year period of operation. The present pyidawtha plans are long-term plans and therefore more realistic and have a better chance of success. There are more plans for the development of the underdeveloped areas, for example, and the housing plan to relieve the choking congestion of the towns and cities. Public health is the concern of a separate plan. New directorates have been established for the care of child health, for the welfare of women, for school health; new and well-equipped hospitals are being built, travelling vans take medical aid to farflung villages which have rarely before known modern medicine; polyclinics give something approaching the national health service in England. Perhaps the best hope of the pyidawtha plans is the education

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plan. There is a growing realization of the urgent need to educate the people for democracy, to train men and women to run the welfare services of the state, to develop the country’s economy, to man the industries. It is a picture of a nation at school, and the encouraging thing is that people are learning without much trace of self-consciousness. More schools are being opened, more vocational institutes, and more schools to train teachers to staff them. A new university will be coming up at Mandalay in the near future; a new college has started its first session at Moulmein, and more colleges are planned. Tuition in the school and colleges is free, and free compulsory education should not be too far off. The university for adults at Rangoon is receiving increasing support from the public and the government; in Akyab a movement for such a university is afoot. Mass education that began in a groping way a few years ago has now found its feet; field workers and being trained and sent out to deliver education at the door of the peasant and the villager. The pyidawtha plans seem to be in earnest. Apparently there are no obstacles to the success of State socialism. The constitution is pledged to it. The Socialists enjoy a decisive majority in Parliament; they hold important Cabinet posts. The few Cabinet ministers who are “independent” accept the Socialist programme: their independence lies in their not being members of the Socialist party. Nobody quarrels with socialism; even those who do not know what it is all about are ardent Socialists and Marxists. The danger to State socialism comes from within, from the habits of behaviour and thinking and the complexes of the people. In the Burmese political scene the one thing that is sadly and conspicuously missing is an organised and disciplined opposition. Those parties and splinter parties which have something to say and some ability to organise have preferred to fight it out with the government in the field rather than in fair and free elections. Thus the Red Communists and the White Communists, some remnants of the Peoples Volunteer Organisation, the last of the Karen rebels, and the wandering armed gangs who call themselves by fancy names — all of them take refuge in hill and jungle when government troops seek them and emerge to rule over the village when the troops withdraw. Apart from the programme of obstruction, of blowing up railway bridges and water pipes that supply Rangoon and other towns, the rebels do not seem to have anything positive to offer. Hate drives them, and personal

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jealousies. Occasional overtures have been received by the government from rebel leaders; once a leader offered to come in with his men if he was promised a post in the Cabinet. In opposition and not “underground” are a few groups, the most active of which is probably the Burma Workers and Peasants Party, avowedly Communist, but not so red as to follow the Red Communists into the jungle. The leadership of the BWPP is composed of Marxist intellectuals; their party propaganda is subtle and in some ways effective; the BWPP promises to be the nucleus of an organised opposition. There is also the Mahabama or the Greater Burma group led by Dr Ba Maw, the war-time “head of state”. Dr Ba Maw is vocal, and his criticisms of the pyidawtha programmes are intelligent and have the right of truth but he too has very little of a positive programme to offer. These groups to which PVO stragglers have become attached have made several attempts to form a United Front against the AFPFL and the Socialists, but the pre-essential of such a Front is unity among themselves. Thus political unity seems hard to come by in Burma. When the masses are educated for a genuine and active democracy, when they are taught tolerance, taught to appreciate the value and necessity of unity amid diversity, then perhaps multi-party politics may cease to do the harm that it has been doing to the country. Till then, it may become a painful essential for the government parties to assume greater and more far-reaching powers to enable them to preserve the State and promote effectively the various pyidawtha or welfare schemes. For that, the AFPFL and the Socialists, who have come through five years of office a little battered but whole, seem best-fitted. But how to reconcile concentration of power in the government to make State socialism work, and such of the pyidawtha plans as that for the devolution of powers is a question that must worry the best political strategist. Note 1. Reprinted from the current issue of United Asia, Bombay.

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Section VI, C, Profile

THE BURMESE PARLIAMENT This article is reprinted from the Spring 1957 issue of “Parliamentary Affairs”, published by the Hansard Society, London. Since it was written, six months ago, Parliament in Burma has become an increasingly dynamic assembly. Opposition leaders like Dr E Maung, U Ba Nyein, and U Thein Pe Myint, have added much to the quality of debate, and the cut and thrust in the Chambers has become faster, sharper. Parliamentary democracy thus begins to show signs of life.

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he Union of Burma Parliament began its career in April 1947 as a Constituent Assembly. The constitution was drafted in three busy months, adopted unanimously by the Assembly in September, and soon after by the British Parliament, and the independence of Burma was inaugurated in January 4, 1948. The men who assembled to draft the constitution were, as Aung San the leader of the nation called them, “revolutionaries”. Negotiations with the Labour Government in Britain for independence were proceeding and though there had been promises and a solemn agreement signed by Aung San and Mr Attlee in London in January 1947, the Burmese nationalists Reproduced from Maung Maung, “The Burmese Parliament” in The Guardian IV, no. 9 (August 1957): 27–29, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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who gathered under the banner of the AFPFL and behind the leadership of Aung San thought they could not relax. Thus Aung San, sweeping the country in whirlwind electioneering tours asked the voters to send to the Assembly men he and the AFPFL had chosen. Many of the chosen men were not the men who would normally find their way into Parliament, but they were “reliable” by certain standards, and they were the People, Aung San said, who would fight for independence if the constitutional processes failed. “Independent” candidates and nominees of splinter political parties withdrew their candidature hastily in the face of Aung San’s frank and forceful campaigning, or stayed on — showing signal courage — to get beaten at the polls. It was an AFPFL landslide: except for the communal seats which went to AFPFL supporters in any case, and seven seats won by the Communist Party, there were practically no “independent” candidates who got into an Assembly of 255 seats. Those who assembled to draft the constitution were a mixed crowd. There were young men in their early twenties who had just left the resistance forces; there were young men who had emerged from school and college at the commencement of the war and entered politics, now hardened “veterans”. Of the older politicians there were few: men like Dr Ba Maw and U Saw preferred to stand aside in watchful waiting. Aung San himself was 33 which was even a little higher than the average age of the Assembly. Much has happened since 1947. Aung San was murdered in his supreme ascendancy by frustrated U Saw who himself was tried and condemned to die a felon’s death. The revolutionary members who came to the Assembly sporting tattered khaki uniforms they had worn in the resistance forces — the Socialist members devised a uniform of their own consisting of khaki suit and green neck-tie — or national dress made from coarse home-spun cloth, have changed beyond recognition. The uniforms have been discarded, and national dress complete with silk gaungbaung is prescribed. Many of the members have become Ministers, Parliamentary secretaries or members or chairmen of high-powered “boards” and commissions, and they have learned more, earned more and become comely and a little opulent and paunchy. The fire and urgency of the revolution are gone now and in their place have risen party discipline, ambition, and forms

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and procedure. But many of the members of the Constituent Assembly still remain in either of the two Chambers, for the AFPFL is still in power, and expects to be, as its leader U Nu has always said, for another 40 years. The revolution did come, however, though after and not before independence. Soon after the constitution was adopted, the Communists who had joined in supporting it went into armed rebellion saying that the independence was false and the Government was a stooge of the British and the “imperialists”. Altogether 44 members of Parliament joined the rebellion and had to be struck off the members’ roll by the Speaker for continued absence without leave. Also, in the elections of 1951 and 1952 some of the AFPFL members lost their seats to a gathering Opposition. In the recent elections held in April 1956 there were more AFPFL losses and some 65 Opposition Deputies have found their way into the popular Chamber. 65 members in a Chamber of 250 is not a big number but it is enough to keep the AFPFL members on their toes, and to shake their belief that they would be there in the Chamber for another 40 years. Rebellion has torn the country and at its peak Parliament remained a formality with the Government using emergency powers and setting up military administration in disturbed areas. As normalcy was gradually restored, democracy quickened again, and Parliament became the proper forum of political controversy. Parties which had boycotted the elections now contest for the seats in real earnest. Even Dr Ba Maw’s “Greater Burma” party has been contesting though without success. It used to be easy to become and remain a member of Parliament. To become one all one had to do was to get the AFPFL ticket, which was not over-difficult. In the first elections the central committee of the League was quite arbitrary in picking its candidates, and some of them never came from the constituencies, nor ever went back to them after the elections. The voters were tolerant and those who raised any questions were given the stock answer that what was urgent was not representation but revolution. The members who assembled were given kyats 200 a month as salary and an allowance of k. 20 per day for attendance during sessions. It was not a princely salary, nor were the members princes, but the Assembly worked hard and most of the members served on the many committees which were formed —

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the main committee for drafting the constitution had one hundred and eleven members. The situation has changed now and it is no longer easy for one to get elected mainly on an AFPFL ticket. To get that ticket itself has become difficult, for, for one thing, the old members continue and there are few “vacancies” and for another, the electorate has become more aware of its rights and selective and the AFPFL central committee has had to restrict itself to picking from those names which are put forward by the constituents. The M.P. today gets k. 300 per month plus the same k. 20 per day for attending sessions or serving on parliamentary committees. He also gets travelling allowances. The salary is inadequate and there have been murmurs among members that it should be increased, but no member has yet taken the risk of being branded as unpatriotic and mercenary in taking definite steps to get that done. Parliamentary life, however, is fairly easy. There are normally two sessions a year; once in August or September which is the budget session and generally lasts from three to four weeks. The next session is in February or March, a shorter session which deals with revised budgets and making laws or amending them. During sessions too, the day is short, often lasting an hour or less. Members therefore have ample time to practise their professions or run some business to supplement their parliamentary incomes. Less than half of the members are professional men or have independent incomes, and most of the remaining members have to subsist on their salaries or what allowances they earn from serving on different committees. In the districts specially the prestige of the M.P. is high and he is a ubiquitous man. Women enjoy equal rights as men; they vote and they can stand for elections. A few of them have served in Parliament. Yet it would seem that parliamentary life does not agree with most of them for the tendency is for woman members to dwindle in numbers. Those who have served and are serving have shown wit and humour and ability, and more of them would only be an asset. There was, to take an illustration, a debate in the Chamber of Deputies on the remnants of “feudalism” in the Shan state, a constituent unit of the Union, which is supposed to be the stronghold of the hereditary chieftains. It was alleged by an Opposition member that if a Chief’s wife gave birth the “subjects” had to pay tribute in humble thankfulness. At this a lady

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member, wife of Soa Shwe Thaike who was Burma’s first President, and now Speaker of the Chamber of Nationalities, a hereditary chieftain, intervened to inform the Chamber with first hand knowledge that that was incorrect. “I’ve been giving birth every year for many years” ended in a roar of laughter. Britain should be proud that Burma chose to adopt parliamentary democracy of the British pattern even though she decided, rightly or wrongly, to leave the Commonwealth. Constitutional lawyers in Burma still refer to Westminster as the “Mother of our Parliament”. The rules of procedure in Burma are framed on the British model, and when questions such as those of procedure or privilege arise it is from Erskine May and the British authorities on parliamentary practice that guidance is sought. During the 1956 Budget Session, a sensational incident happened in the Chamber of Deputies. One Opposition M.P., the police reported, had been in league with rebels and the Home Ministry decided to arrest and try him. The arrest, by some clumsy timing, was made at the premises of the Chamber. In fact the Speaker announced the arrest on the report of the Home Ministry while the member was still in the Chamber participating in the day’s proceedings. There was excitement and the member, surrounded and advised by other Opposition members, “took sanctuary” in the lobby thereby posing the question of privilege. Police officers preceded by a man carrying the Speaker’s mace — to signify his consent to the arrest — at last went to the lobby and took the member into custody. There was a hue and cry from the Opposition and the press that “parliamentary privilege” had been violated; but once again on the authority of May and other British constitutional jurists the answer was given that a member does not enjoy immunity from arrest for criminal offences. The Burmese Parliament is not housed grandly but quietly. The Deputies have a small building in the Secretariat, and the Chamber of Nationalities has a floor at the Police Courts. Members take their allotted seats and ceremonial is limited to the Speaker’s entry to start the day, preceded by his mace-bearer. In the Chamber of Deputies, which usually begins its day at eleven in the morning, question time starts off the proceedings. The Chamber of Nationalities is even quieter than the Deputies, meets less often and enjoys more leisurely discussion and debate. Ministers come from both Chambers.

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With the growth of an Opposition in Parliament, the quality of debates and the general conduct of affairs are improving. Even the Government’s respect for Parliament grows, for whereas it used to take Parliament for granted now it treats it with some awe and respect. In a country where public opinion has somewhat become apathetic or resigned from long years of suffering in war and civil strife, Parliament is the one organ where whatever public opinion there is must be sharply reflected. That function, the Burmese Parliament is now performing with increasing effectiveness.

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Section VI, D.

BURMA’S CONSTITUTION COMES TO LIFE

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he title of this essay is borrowed from a series of articles which were published by ‘The Guardian’, in Rangoon, when the ruling party in Burma, the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) split into two large factions, and several grave issues of politics and constitutional law suddenly sprang into prominence and controversy. The constitution was widely, often hotly, discussed in the press and at political meetings, and a few questions were referred to the Supreme Court for advisory opinion. It was indeed as if the constitution had come to life, not exactly from death, but from a dormant state to which it had been relegated by an all-powerful political party which enjoyed predominant and unchallenged governmental power. The constitution was drafted within a few months. The Constituent Assembly first met in June 1947, after the general elections in April. The AFPFL won the expected predominant majority, partly because its leader General Aung San was the nation’s hero and idol, and partly “Burma’s Constitution Comes to Life” reproduced from Indian Year Book of International Affairs (Madras: Diocesan Press, reprint 1958), by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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also because it was a genuine united front of the nationalist movement which was then at the height of its momentum. There were communal seats for the Anglo-Burmans, the Karens, etc., but all those seats went to supporters of the AFPFL. Seven Communist members also got in, to compose a small and solitary opposition. In May, the AFPFL convened its own ‘small Constituent Assembly’ in Rangoon to define the basic priniciples of the constitution, and to produce a first draft of it. The principles were that Burma should rise as an independent sovereign republic in which the democratic rights of the citizen without discrimination shall be safeguarded, and be a Union of people dedicated to democracy and socialism.1 The principles were unanimously adopted when the Constituent Assembly met in June, and several committees were elected to draft the constitution’s separate chapters. Several nonmembers were also co-opted on the committees, e.g. Justices Sir Mya Bu, Sir Ba U, and Dr E Maung; Mr M.A. Raschid, a lawyer and an associate of Aung San since student days, now a minister of the Union Cabinet; Sir Maung Gyee, a counsellor to the Governor before the war; U Myint Thein, legal adviser to the frontier areas administration, now Chief Justice of the Union. The committees had an able constitutional adviser, U Chan Htoon, now a Judge of the Supreme Court, and his small but carefully chosen and highly competent staff, to assist them. U Chan Htoon and his staff worked overtime to produce memoranda and drafts for the subcommittees, while a small team of Burmese scholars such as U Thein Han and U Wun of the Rangoon University translated the English drafts into Burmese as the drafting proceeded. There was unanimity among the committees which Aung San regularly attended and led, and the staff, and the feeling that they were building the new state also inspired them. There was a faint fear also in their minds that if they could not produce the constitution within reasonable time, His Majesty’s Government in London might consider that Burma was unready for independence, and decide to prolong the period of tutelage. The drafts were improved by Sir Benegal N. Rau, constitutional adviser to the Government of India, who came to Rangoon for a few weeks to advise and work on them. They were then considered by the full Constituent Assembly, section by section, and on September 24, 1947, the constitution was finally adopted. It was a great moment, except that

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the young father of New Burma, Aung San, and several of his associates, were missing from the Assembly to share the joy of fulfilment: they had been assassinated on July 19, that year. U Nu had taken over the leadership of the AFPFL and the premiership, and he signed the final treaty of transfer of power with Britain’s Prime Minister Mr Attlee in October. On January 4, 1948, the Union of Burma emerged, a new independent sovereign republic, outside the Commonwealth, nevertheless a friend. The constitution enshrines the ideals of democratic socialism, and adopts parliamentary democracy. It guarantees fundamental rights to the citizen, entrusting the safeguards against infringement of those rights to the Supreme Court. It defines the ‘directive principles’ or the ideals which the state will strive to attain — the welfare state minus the marxist connotation, or in Burmese the ‘pyidawtha’, the happy land. It contains traces of the constitutions of the Republics of Ireland and of Yugoslavia, partly because the freedom movement in the former, and the resistance in the Second World War of the latter, had inspired the young leaders who drafted it. The Union of Burma is a secular state, and Buddhism is only recognized as the religion of the majority of the citizens. The independence of the Judiciary is protected. The President of the Union is the first citizen and the nominal head of state, while power resides in the Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister, and responsible to Parliament. It is a well-written and workable constitution and it has worked for 10 years without mishap. During the 10 years there have been Communist insurrections, the rising of elements of the Karens who wanted to carve out by force a separate state for themselves, and other risings against the Government. These stresses and strains, the constitutions has withstood. Parliament met regularly in the troubled years, debated budgets and new laws. The Supreme Court functioned and issued orders in the way of habeas corpus when citizens were wrongly placed under ‘preventive detention’. Military administration was imposed in some districts between 1949 and 1951, but martial law was never proclaimed — indeed it has been pointed out that the constitution does not provide any room for martial law at all.2 All functioned smoothly, but not altogether well, for the Government, with its predominance in Parliament, was too strong, and could have its way in everything in the end. Also, the AFPFL, composed of widely divergent elements, could not hold together very long, and the rifts that started within it began to reflect adversely in Government

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policy-making and action. In April, 1958, Prime Minister U Nu at last announced that the unity of the united front was gone, and that he, and Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Tin, and their associates would form the ‘Clean AFPFL’ and try to purge the League of corrupt elements. Deputy Premiers U Ba Swe, and U Kyaw Nyein, and their Socialist colleagues thus broke away to organize the ‘Stable AFPFL’. Out of the massive and monolithic Government was thus born its own Opposition. When the split was announced in April, U Nu generously, and without constitutional precedent, offered to keep his rivals in his Cabinet until the day that the Chamber of Deputies, the popular chamber, could meet and decide which faction should form the Government. Thus, he said, his rivals would be able to organize against him in positions of power. The special session of the Chamber took place on June 4, and the non-confidence motion moved by U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein was debated and voted on June 9, and defeated by a narrow majority of 8 votes. The AFPFL split and the small majority with which one faction survived have raised many constitutional problems. The first was the question of dissolution of Parliament. Under section 57 of the constitution, it is the Prime Minister who advises the President to summon, prorogue, or dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, and the President is bound to act on the advice. When however, the Prime Minister has ceased to ‘retain the support of a majority in the Chamber’ the President may refuse to prorogue or dissolve the Chamber on his advice and shall, if he does, forthwith call upon the Chamber to nominate a new Prime Minister. While the rival faction of the AFPFL conceded the right of U Nu to advise dissolution if, and after, he had defeated the motion, it contended that U Nu should not advise dissolution if he was defeated, but should step down from office and go into opposition. And if he did advise the President to dissolve the Chamber after his defeat, the faction contended, the President should refuse to accept the advice in the interests of democratic practice. This question quickly flared up into public controversy in May, 1958, till the very day of the debate, U Nu declared in a public speech that the constitution was drafted by Aung San, U Ba Swe, U Kyaw Nyein, himself and others and was never meant to favour any particular person; he must not be blamed, therefore, if he found himself in a position of vantage, and he would use his power if he considered it necessary in the public interest,

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and would not be intimidated by his rivals who, he said, would have the constitution reduced to a scrap of paper.3 Lawyers and elder-statesmen also came out to express the view that power must be exercised with responsibility and in the national interest, and that the constitution should not be read too rigidly, but must be allowed to grow and develop with the help of conventions.4 Fortunately there was no necessity for U Nu to recommend dissolution as a defeated Premier; his victory was good for the country in that it helped to preserved a climate of good-will and democracy. It was a close contest between the two factions and every vote was important. In the few weeks before the day of reckoning, both factions, vigorously wooed members of the Chamber, and each accused the other of bribery, and even of attempts to kidnap members. One member, U Ba U, of a district constituency became confused and desperate in the situation, and wrote a letter to the President, tendering his resignation. As a rule of procedure of the Chamber required, he addressed his resignation to the Speaker for transmission to the President. U Ba U changed his mind soon after he had committed the letter to the post, and he sent a messenger to the Speaker to withdraw the resignation, and the messenger arrived there a few hours before the letter was delivered by post. The letter was, however, forwarded, in due course, to the President, who announced that U Ba U’s seat was vacant. U Ba U had declared for the Opposition, and to it, thus, his vote was lost. The Opposition cried out that the Government had used its influence to extinguish a rival vote, and that as U Ba U had effectively withdrawn his resignation before it had reached the proper authority, his status quo should not have been disturbed. This question was referred, under section 151 of the constitution, by the President to the Supreme Court for an opinion. At the hearing, it was argued by Dr Ba Maw for U Ba U that the constitution requires the letter of resignation be ‘addressed’ to the President, and the expression ‘address’ must be construed in the proper parliamentary meaning, that is to say moving the President in the prescribed manner. The rule of procedure required an address through the Speaker, and as U Ba U stopped the letter at that stage, there was no proper address to the Speaker, and his attempt to resign must have no effect. The Court, however, held the view that once the letter of resignation left the hands of U Ba U and was taken care of by the post, which was not his agent or

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messenger, he could not recall the letter, and his resignation was complete and effective. It is not for the President to consider the resignation, permitting it or denying permission; the constitution makes him only the receiving agency; a member writes his letter of resignation and sends it to the President, and ‘his seat shall thereupon become vacant.’ In regard to the rule of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies requiring letters of resignation to be addressed through the Speaker, the Court pointed out that the rule was unnecessary, though perhaps not entirely ultra vires the constitution. The Chamber could, the Court pointed out, make rules for the conduct of its own business, but the resignation of a member of his own free will was not ‘its own business’. The rule which said that the resignation would be effective when the President had accepted it after the Speaker had forwarded the letter to him was, on the other hand, found to be ultra vires. There is no provision in the constitution for the President to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ a resignation, for it becomes effective by itself. The Court also distinguished an earlier case in which a member wrote to the President asking for permission to resign. The President ignored the letter, and the member retained his seat. The Court explained that since the President does not have the power to ‘permit’ a member to resign, he could not act on the letter. If U Ba U had only asked for permission to resign, he would probably have kept his seat.5 Another more important and far-reaching question referred to the Supreme Court in the aftermath of the split, related to the Prime Minister’s powers to appoint ministers in his Cabinet for the States. The constitution has introduced a rather unique arrangement by which a minister of the Union Cabinet for, say, the Karen State, also becomes the Head of the Karen State. He plays a dual role which is conducive to economy of men and money, and also gets the States more closely linked to Union affairs. In the Karen State he is responsible to the State Council, and in all matters which are within the powers of the State, the decisions of the Council are binding on him. Members of Parliament representing the Karen State also become members of the Karen State Council; in other words, members also play a dual role, serving in the Union Parliament, participating on the national level in making laws and running the Government, and also in the State Council, playing a miniature role on the State level. This arrangement worked well for the first 10 years of independence. The constitution provides that the Prime

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Minister shall choose his minister for a particular State ‘in consultation with’ the State Council concerned. When the AFPFL was undivided, and its decisions therefore passed unchallenged, there was an isolated instance where Prime Minister U Nu appointed the Minister for Chin Affairs against the persistently expressed choice of the Chin Affairs Council. That was in 1952 when U Za Hre Lian, a young Chin leader, had come into Parliament on a landslide victory. The Chins wanted him to be their Minister, but U Nu said he was too young, and needed an apprenticeship as parliamentary secretary. He explained that it was his prerogative to choose his own ministers as he was leader of the Government and there must be collective responsibility in it. U Za Hre Lian waited for a few years, and is now Minister for Chin Affairs. During the split, however, ministers for the States and other ministers took sides. The Minister for the Karen State, and the Minister for the Kachin State, joined the Opposition and resigned on the eve of the special session. U Nu then appointed new Ministers in their places without prior consultation with the State Councils concerned. This provoked a hue and cry, and accusations were flung at him by the now constitution-conscious Opposition that he was reducing the constitution to a ‘scrap of paper’. U Nu admitted that he did not consult the State Councils because the peculiar situation did not permit him to. Only the Heads of States could convene meetings of the State Councils, and as there were no Heads in the Karen and Kachin States, there could be no Council meetings. He could not, on the other hand, let the States go without their Heads for then the administration would stop in the States. Thus the temporary appointments, he said, and the new Ministers (cum Heads) would convene meetings of the Councils, then resign, and let the Councils freely nominate their candidates for appointment. It was a rather odd arrangement compelled by peculiar circumstances. The President asked the Supreme Court for an opinion as to whether the appointments that U Nu had made without consulting the State Councils were valid, and if they were not, how the defects could be cured. Dr Ba Maw, the first Prime Minister of Burma after separation from India, took the Supreme Court on a ‘historical pilgrimage’ by references to the Government of India Acts, and the Government of Burma Act of 1935 where the Governors-General or the Governor were required to do certain acts ‘after consultation with’ the Legislative Councils. He

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argued that the requirement of consultation was mandatory, and whatever was done without satisfying the requirement was rendered void. Dr E Maung, one of the drafters of the constitution, and a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, argued a amicus curiae, that the kingpin of the constitution was the collective responsibility of the Cabinet to Parliament, and the Prime Minister, as leader, must, therefore, be entirely free to choose his own Ministers. The consultation clause in regard to the choice of Ministers for the States was, therefore, ‘directive’ and not ‘mandatory’. It would be ideal if the choice of the Prime Minister and the recommendation of the State Council could agree, but if not, the Prime Minister’s choice must prevail. This argument was accepted by the Supreme Court.6 The Prime Minister’s appointments were thus found to be constitutionally proper by the Supreme Court, but in practice they raised great difficulties. In the Karen and Kachin State Councils, the Heads who were appointed by the Prime Minister, found themselves to be in the minority. There were no-confidence motions in the State Councils, and the conflict between the Heads and the Councils made administration in the States extremely difficult. Moreover, the Cabinets in those States, composed of ministers from the ‘Opposition’ began to go against the Heads. The ‘Opposition’ ministers could not be dismissed as they enjoyed the support of the majority in the Councils, and the most that the Heads could do was to relieve them of executive duties while tolerating them in office. Politics in the States being advanced and active, it looks as though a new general election will bring up the same awkward and frustrating situation in some of the States. The result will be that if the Prime Minister insists on having his own choice of Minister for a State, and he does not command a majority in the State Council, then there will be collective responsibility in the Union Cabinet, but no democracy in the State. Or, as a compromise, the Prime Minister must accept as Minister a leader who commands a majority in the State Council, even if he does not entirely approve of him, bowing to the need of democracy in the State. These circumstances were unforeseen by the drafters of the constitution who met in a climate of goodwill and unanimity which they thought, justifiably, would last for a very long time. The slogan of the AFPFL, a few months before it irrevocably split, was ‘AFPFL unity and power for 40 years’, and the

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drafters cannot be blamed if, at the height of AFPFL strength and unity, they too thought that serious constitutional problems and crises would not arise for a lifetime. The split in the AFPFL reached out in all directions, and cut deep vertically. Labour unions were split; the women’s organizations were split, so that where one united organization existed in which members wore red skirts, another immediately sprang up in which members wore blue skirts; professional organizations and men and women were split; the States were split in their political organizations. A new general election, it was therefore foreseen early, was demanded. Nothing short of general elections could solve the problem, and there is no promise that new elections will not bring up a multiplicity of parties in Parliament and problems in politics. Prime Minister U Nu, sustained by a small majority, declared that he would go to the people at an early date — probably December, 1958, or January, 1959 — for a clear mandate. The problem after the non-confidence vote was how the new budget for 1958–59, beginning October 1, 1958, must be passed. The Government had signed several loan agreements with the Government of the United States and many of the left-wing parties in Parliament which had lent their support to U Nu found themselves unable to support the agreements if they were put before Parliament for ratification. The left-wing parties which had formed the National United Front began to split, and U Nu, faced with the prospect of a vanished majority, decided to cancel the budget session of Parliament which had been convened, in a routine way, to meet on August 28, 1958, and declared that Parliament would meet no more, and the budget would be passed by Presidential ordinance. Parliament would then, at the proper time after the rains and at the tactical moment, be dissolved, and new elections would be held within the 60 days of dissolution that are set by the constitution. The ‘AFPFL Opposition’ are crying out that once again U Nu is reducing the constitution to a ‘scrap of paper’ because he is denying Parliament, representing the people, the valuable right to scrutinise the budget. It is pointed out that even in the troubled years when Communist insurgents knocked at Rangoon’s door, Parliament met regularly and passed the budgets; that in England, Parliament continued to meet even

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at the height of the bombing during the war. U Nu is accused by the Opposition of putting the ordinance, an exceptional measure reserved for national emergency, to extraordinary use. Thus, as this essay is written, general elections are visible on the horizon, and perparations are being made for them to take place within a few months. Political activity is quickening everywhere; new parties grow up under the monsoon rains like mushrooms. The AFPFL split has certainly shattered the predominant strength of the Government, and it is being harrassed by many demands from many quarters. The split has also set free new waves of freedom; civil servants feel more independent of the political bosses; the Courts dare to be more independent. On the other hand, there are dangers of the Government being weakened to the point of impotence, of the tender young democracy breaking down under the new stresses and strains. One hopeful feature of the situation, however, is that the major parties are abiding by the rules of democracy as they understand them, and, when they quarrel on certain issues they reach for the constitution rather than their guns. Postscript The cabinet system came under heavy strain in the brief period during which U Nu led his AFPFL faction in office. He had some 50 AFPFL M.P.s with him in the Chamber of Deputies, as against over 100 AFPFL M.P.s in opposition, and his majority was built up of some representatives of the constituent States and the communist indoctrinated ‘National United Front’ (45 votes). To get the desperately needed votes in the Chamber, U Nu had to offer Cabinet jobs liberally; thus, for example, the Arakanese with their 6 votes received 3 Cabinet appointments and 3 parliamentary secretaryships. The result was a ‘multicoloured Cabinet’ as the AFPFL opposition dubbed it, and ministers spent most of their time travelling to their constituencies at state expense to prepare for the then imminent elections. During that trying period the civil service remained loyal but confused. Civil servants have the tradition of loyalty to the masters of the day, and even subservience, but when they did not know how long the masters would last, and whether the opponents of the masters would be

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coming in soon in the fast changing scene, they were bothered and bewildered. The Judiciary managed to keep some calm and dignity. The NUF and the communist insurgents concentrated their attack on the Burma Army which remained their only sizeable and significant foe. Elsewhere, it was a field day for them. They demanded general amnesty and got it by Presidential decree. Then, they asked for roundtable talks for an armistice. They demanded that their guerrillas should not only be legalized, but accepted into the Burmese Army, retaining their ranks, Field-Marshals, Generals and all. The situation deteriorated rapidly, and on September 26, 1958, U Nu, with a remarkable display of statesmanship and shrewdness, decided to invite General Ne Win, Chief of Staff of the Defence Services, to take his place and lead a caretaker government pledged to hold general elections in 6 months. The change, however, took place within the constitutional framework. The Chamber of Deputies which was on the point of dissolution was given a fresh lease of life, and summoned to meet on October 28 and elect General Ne Win as the new Prime Minister. The constitution allows a non-M.P. to join the Cabinet for 6 consecutive months at the maximum, and that was the provision under which General Ne Win, and his carefully picked non-political ministers hold office today. Retired Chief Justice of the Union U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the High Court U Chan Tun Aung, Chief Secretary to the Union Government U Khin Maung Phyu, Chairman of the Union Bank U Kyaw Nyein, Retired Sessions Judges U San Nyun and U Ba Kyar, Professor U Kar, and U Chit Thaung, are ministers in charge of Union subjects in the Ne Win Cabinet. Reversing U Nu’s method, General Ne Win has left it to the State Councils to elect their own Heads by majority vote, and accepted the elected Heads as Ministers in his Cabinet, without assigning Union subjects to them. The Ne Win Cabinet is not a military administration; nor is there martial law in the country. Paradoxically enough it has been left to this Cabinet, which foreign observers have been quick to label a military dictatorship simply because it is headed by a General, to convene Parliament, and have the budget, which was passed by U Nu by Presidential Ordinance, voted and passed in the regular way. General Ne Win has promised to strive for the restoration of law and order, the

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essential condition for fair and free elections. His Cabinet, being under no obligations to party followers and supporters, has been able so far to do what is right and just with swiftness and resolution. A few young colonels have been lent to the civil administration to inject energy and confidence into that rather tired and disillusioned organization. In several ways it is a welcome rest from the politicians. Notes 1. The principles and the draft constitution were approved by the AFPFL convention on May 23, 1947. See Burma’s Constitution by the author, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1958. 2. Speech of Dr E Maung as an Opposition leader, in the Chamber of Deputies, Parliamentary Proceedings (Deputies). Vol. 3, No. 11, dated March 12, 1957 (in Burmese). 3. U Nu’s speech at a mass rally in Rangoon on June 1, 1958, reported in full in The Guardian, June 2. 4. E.g. Dr Ba Maw’s article on the question in The Guardian, May 30, 1958. 5. Reference No. 1 of 1958, Supreme Court. 6. Reference No. 2 of 1958, Supreme Court. In the ten years preceding these two references, there had only been three others in which the Supreme Court held (1) that ‘joint-ventures’ with foreign capital in exploiting Burma’s mineral resources would not be ultra vires the constitution; (2) that the Land Nationalization Act also applies to the States of the Union. The Supreme Court interpreted the President’s Election Act in a matter between two candidates for the Presidency.

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Section VI, E.

OUR LIVING CONSTITUTION [I] Dr Maung Maung went on the air from the Burma Broadcasting Station on December 11. He is giving a series of talks on the subject, once in English and once in Burmese every month. This talk on Our Living Constitution is the first of the series. The whole series will appear in the Guardian Magazine.

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e live in a fast changing, fast-moving world. Much of what we used to believe in have been found to be false. We were taught that in matter the atom was the ultimate, the indivisible. Now the atom has been split, and the atom which used to look so sweet and small is now found to be the source of huge power for making things or destroying them. We used to feel safe in our world, and the stars and the moon were wonderful and beautiful objects for us to look at and make our wishes to. Mothers used to sing lullabys to their babies: Give baby his food on a gold plate, Mister Moon! But now things have changed. The moon is a target to shoot rockets at; a winning post to race to so as to beat the other fellow at it. The moon and the planets and the stars are unfriendly; in fact they are enemies to be wary of, to guard against. Men from Mars will invade us, screams Hollywood. The Creature from the Other World will descend on us, cries Hollywood.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Our Living Constitution” in The Guardian VI, no. 1 (January 1959): 28–29, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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Thus we live with our new wonders of science and in our great new fears. Man can leap into outer space now; and he can float in the vast vacuum, weightless, and, of course, helpless. He hopes to float to the moon one day and fly his flag of conquest as the first man to arrive. So now, in this modern world, man is engaged in making small rockets and big rockets, small sputniks and big sputniks, and in sending little dogs into outer space so that the little dogs may teach him the way to the moon. Those who are not engaged in making rockets are engaged in similar activities of their own. The politician wants to rocket to power and stay there forever. The businessman wants to rocket to riches and cling on to them forever. The student wants to rocket to high degrees in no time and with no work, and then grab big jobs and rocket to bigger jobs; they want to shout slogans and stage demonstrations, and after doing that they feel qualified to be Prime Minister. These are all signs of our restless age, and every country is suffering from this restlessness in different degrees of acuteness. Because people are restless, and confused, and afraid, they want to shoot at the moon, or, on more earthly planes, they rock‘n’ roll or they riot. After the war, with a great yearning for everlasting peace and everbooming prosperity, people turned to glittering ideologies and hoped that all they had to do was to profess a faith in some ideology or some dead prophet such as Marx, and then everything would be all right. They were bitterly disappointed, of course, for Marx cannot rise from his century-old grave and clean the streets of Rangoon. Marx cannot bring down the price of fish. People who thought that a great big ideology, or a great dead prophet, can do all the work for them and build them a brave new world, are now discovering, all over the world, that the greatest value on earth must be found not in ideologies, not in prophets, not in sensational conquests of space, not in big rockets, but in people. People must save themselves. People must build the good life for themselves. People must find peace in themselves. They cannot keep on floating, weightless and helpless, in a vacuum. They have to have an anchorage. Our constitution believes in the dignity of the human individual. It puts its faith in the people. It does not draw its power from some divine source. It enshrines in it the eternal qualities of justice and liberty, fairplay and tolerance. It pins its faith on those qualities because it knows that the world may change and rock with the shooting rockets, that ideologies

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may sweep and change man’s minds or conquer empires, but these human qualities will remain unfaded and eternal so long as man remains man and has a spark of goodness in him. Those qualities are our anchorage; those should keep us from floating about helplessly in a vacuum. Ah, you may say, this is all high-sounding nonsense. The constitution of Burma, you may say, was drafted in a few short months, and all that stuff about “WE THE PEOPLE” giving the constitution to ourselves in dedication to liberty and justice is copied from this or that constitution. In fact, you may say, most of our constitution was built up with a pair of scissors and a bottle of gums cutting out passages from this constitution, and pasting them on, cutting more passages from that constitution and pasting them on again. That would be a very wrong view to take of the constitution. There are, no doubt, many ideas in it which Burma did not invent, but ideas are nobody’s monopoly. They travel far and wide; they get absorbed here and there, and grow and go native; but they spread on and on, unreduced. You find in the American constitution the ideas of liberty and equality which gave such force and fire to the French Revolution. You find in the brand new constitution which the French under the leadership of General De Gaulle have just adopted, the American system, in an adapted form, of separation of Parliament from the Executive. Thus, there is really no question of our constitution having copied this or that constitution in this or that particular. Let us say that ideas were received and thought over, adapted to our needs and our genius and given their places in our constitution. The drafters of our constitution might have copied, but they were no copyists. They knew what they wanted, and within human limitations, they knew what Burma needed. And if you say that our constitution was written in a very short time, and there cannot therefore be much to it, I would say: “No, the constitution was not written in three months; it was written in several decades of our history by generations of our people who kept marching on with the will to be free!” Nothing happens in history just like that. There is cause and effect; there are years of building and accumulation, years of endeavour and apparently futile efforts; flashes of success and victory; years of waiting. Then the final victory comes, maybe suddenly, but it is no cheap victory, no windfall; for many years and much have gone into the making of it.

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That is how I would look at our living constitution. The paper work of it might have been done in three or four months, but consider the generations of our people and our leaders who worked and fought to make it possible. They too live in our constitution. Those defiant men and women who fought the British who invaded Mandalay to take King Thibaw captive. Those men and women who, starting off with Buddhist associations, grew more ambitious and persistent and built their Young Men’s Buddhist Associations, and their General Council of Burmese Associations. Remember U Chi Hlaing? I was too young to know about him first-hand, but I have heard stories about him and read about him. He was a prince among the politicians of his time, the uncrowned King, the Thamada. He was rich and handsome and generous; sometimes he wore his European dress, full three piece suit and complete with winged collar and blow tie, and went to those huge assemblies of his ardent admirers with followers holding golden umbrellas over his head. Women flung themselves on his path and spread their hair to make a hairy carpet for him to tread on: women are really wonderful. Remember U Ottama who ordered Lieutenant-Governor Sir Reginald Craddock to go home? It was a brave thing to do those days to order the Governor to pack up and get out. Later Governors got used to that kind of welcome. Remember the Burmese delegations to London to ask the British Government for a constitution for Burma which would be in no way inferior to that which was being drafted for India. Those were the early envoys from emergent Burma, envoys following in those footsteps of Kinwunmingyi. Then came Dyarchy, the double headed creature which only British genius could have invented. “Burma sails in fair winds”, said Sir Harcourt Butler, inaugurating dyarchy in Burma, but the people boycotted it and fought it, and in two or three years Sir Harcourt was sighing over its failure. “I have heard Burmese people call out by way of abuse: ‘You are a Dyarchy’,” he said. Remember Saya San, the king of the Galon, conqueror of the Naga dragon? The Galon army started its rebellion in such great confidence. Its men painted large white circles on their behinds, and turned them backwards to the Punjab Rifles whom the British had to rush down from Maymyo and India, and wiggled those circles in defiance. You know, those Galon soldiers with their wiggling behinds were about 25 years ahead of Marilyn Monroe.

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Then there were the fights in the Legislative Councils and outside: separation from India, or non-separation; learned debates up and down the country, dashing personalities; some said let us separate Now; some said, Never; and some wanted to separate without parting. Wonderful times they were. Some asked for Home Rule, some wanted Dominion Status, some filled their pockets, but most of the leaders, they served Burma well. Then came the young leaders wearing their longyi short as became fighters against imperialism. They wore wooden slippers which clattered in the streets, even as their imperial voices boomed out in their fierce war against imperialism: “Comrades, rise and fight to free Mother Burma!” There were great and painful sacrifices in those last years, and then war came, and the Burma Independence Army led by Aung San. Thousands joined the Army on its northward march; sons and fathers, men of different professions, different backgrounds, marching together, inspired. Those thousands were not alone, for the people were with them: in that march, in the war, and the resistance. The people thus marched like a man to freedom, paying terrible prices, sacrificing Aung San himself, and in the end they wrote this charter, our living constitution, and dedicated themselves forever to freedom and justice and democracy. And would you still say that our constitution was written in haste? It is not merely a few pages of paper; it is the wishes and hopes and faith of generations of our people which breathe and live in the constitution. Ah, you may say, what is all this democracy and justice in this tumbling world? And I will say, “No, if you believe in them strong enough and long enough, they can become real and eternal.”

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Section VI, E.

OUR LIVING CONSTITUTION [II] The first instalment of Dr Maung Maung’s radio talk on the subject of “Our Living Constitution”, delivered during December 1958, appeared in the Guardian Magazine of January 1959. This present is the second instalment of his talk on the air in January. The Assistant Attorney General is giving a series of talks on the subject, once in English and once in Burmese every month. The magazine will publish these talks every month.

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he state is not supreme in our constitution; the people are the citizen does not exist for the state. It is the other way round. All this makes sweet saying, but in actual working it takes quite a lot to maintain a happy balance. If one man gets up in the state and says I am the state, and if he gets away with it, then we have a dictator. If it is not one man who does it, but a group of men, then we have a group dictatorship. If the people do it, then, as everybody will be doing just what he likes without let or hindrance, there is anarchy or mob rule. A genuine democracy needs a fine balance between the sovereignty of the people on the one hand and anarchy on the other.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Our Living Constitution” in The Guardian VI, no. 2 (February 1959): 11–12, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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It needs a fine balance between the rights of the citizens on the one hand and their duties on the other. The citizen’s basic rights are well defined in our constitution. They are the deep wells of freedom from which many other freedoms flow. For example, there is the right of equality which gives every citizen equal opportunity in every field irrespective of his birth, religion, race or sex. Thus nobody may be denied the opportunity to go to school, or get work; men and women are equally eligible, and for equal work they get equal pay. Every citizen can, thus, reach the top positions in the state from the humblest birth; that is why it has been said that every man can become President of the Union. But, of course, not every man will end up as President; nor, needless to say, can everyone be President at the same time. Equality of opportunity is a right, but that does not mean that every citizen can have whatever he wants without working for it or deserving it. The right only means that the door is open; if one wants to get in and get on, one must walk in and try to get on. If there are rights, there are duties; the two go together. If there is a right to work, there is the duty to work. If there is equal opportunity, there is also the duty to use that opportunity well and the duty not to spoil other people’s opportunity. The duties of the citizen are left unwritten in our constitution. They are taken for granted, and it is presumed that a citizen of a democracy does not have to be told about them, that he knows them even instinctively. In the Russian constitution they have put it quite bluntly and harshly: “he who does not work, neither shall be eat.” Now in that principle of no work no food there is more than this idea of right and duty; there is an element of materialism. The state becomes a thing of business where one gets things if one pays for them, where everything, from the state to the individual, is priced and for sale, where man is not an individual but an article of utility or a unit of production. But if we take out the materialistic element in the principle, the right and duty principle remains, and that must be accepted. There must be a give and take in life; if one wants to enjoy a right, one must be prepared to perform the duty that is attached to it. Only politicians at election time will say that one can get everything, even the moon, by simply giving them one’s vote.

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We have been rather accustomed to expecting rights with exemption from performance of duty. In the early days kings reigned at the centre, and “myosas or eaters of the towns” in the country; the people went about their ways and conducted their business, generally unbothered by government; except when the king wanted to build a new palace or a new pagoda and wanted money or labour, or must fight a war and need men. So, the people said, “let us go our ways and do what we like; if we fall into debt, the king will pay.” That was quite an unreasonable attitude, for it was they who had to pay if the king fell into debt; but it only showed how the people felt. Then came foreign rule, and this feeling grew only stronger. The British ruler, to justify his existence in Burma, had to build the myth that the Burmese people were not capable of looking after themselves; the Burmese, on their part, were relieved of all moral responsibility for looking after themselves. If anything went wrong, it was the British ruler, if the rains did not come in time, it was the British; if they came down too heavily and spoilt the crops, it was the British. After independence, there remains this hangover of a feeling. If anything goes wrong we still like to blame the other fellow for it; we are willing to enjoy our rights, but want the other fellow to perform the duty. We have other rights besides the right to equal opportunity. The right to live our lives, unmolested, and in freedom. Our homes are safe from interference, our privacy is free from invasion. We can have our beliefs freely, worship our gods or practise our religions; we can be freethinkers if we like. We can think freely and express our thoughts freely and without fear. We can assemble and associate with our fellow citizens, club together, organize and work together. We can choose our own occupations, or change, according to our wishes or our circumstances; trade or work may take us to any part of the Union, and no doors no gates may be closed on us. We are free from exploitation; the strong citizen must let the weak citizen alone; there must be no slavery of man to man or to party or state. These basic freedoms are enshrined in our constitution. They are legal rights, and if they are infringed, prompt and effective remedies spring into play. But there are other principles of state policy which are not legal rights but which guide the work of every government. These are the ideals to which every government is pledged; these

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are the stars by which the state charts its course. Thus state help for infants and old people, disabled old soldiers, and the like; free and compulsory education; and many such welfare services. It is not the right of the citizen to demand those benefits, but it is the duty of every government to try and provide them. Yet, these welfare services, to which the constitution is pledged, do not make Burma a marxist or socialist state in the ideological sense. The welfare ideas which have been written into the constitution are not really political ideas. They arise from the basic faith in the goodness of man, and respect for his dignity. Wherever in the world there is this faith and this respect, these ideas are found; either in written constitution, or simply as accepted practices which unbroken custom has invested wit the force and sanctity of law. All the freedoms that we enjoy in Burma presume that we reciprocate in an awareness of our duties. We may speak freely and write freely; but we under a duty to do so with respect for the law and the safety of the state and for other people’s feelings. We may assemble, but not to break the peace; we may organize unions but not use might and force to gain our ends by illegal means. Our conscience is free but it must be also clear. We have the vote but must use it intelligently. We can contest elections for parliament, but may not shoot our way into it; we can earn power, but must not rob it. These, I think, need to be continually stressed and remembered. Especially the young people who were born during the tumult and uncertainty of war, and who now growing up need to have these deeply impressed into their minds. One of the duties attached to our rights under the constitution is the duty to watch vigilantly against infringement, and to seek legal protection if that happens. The Judiciary with its extensive jurisdiction and ample powers can correct many an error or infringement. Our people are still shy to go to the courts for legal remedies, and often they have reason to be. The courts are sometimes expensive; at least most lawyers are. There are delays and uncertainties. But it is not really so expensive at all to go to the Supreme Court with an application for a writ, and it does not take much time at all to get one’s application heard. We should be more vigilant in guarding our rights and freedoms, in enforcing them by legal methods, going to the proper courts and

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agencies. If we fail, then our rights and freedoms fall. Or we lose ourselves to hysteria and mob justice, such as rioting and rebellion. The rights bestowed on the citizen by our constitution are so many and so beautiful, and the demands it makes on us are also so many and so big. When we meet the demands in the way of duty, then we earn the rewards in the way of rights.

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Section VI, F.

SECTION 116 OF THE CONSTITUTION “Our Living Constilution” gives place to “Section 116 of the Constitution”, for this has been the topic of the day — in and out of Parliament — throughout February 1959, when Parliament debated the question of prolonging the life of General Ne Win’s Caretaker Government. Section 116: “A member of the Government who for any period of six consecutive months if not member of the Parliament shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a member of the Government.”

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ow that all parliamentary parties except what remains of the NUF are agreed that General Ne Win should continue to lead the Government until fair and free elections can be held and that therefore section 116 of the Constitution should not be allowed to stand in the way, the following note on that section will only be of some academic interest. Section 116, as things now appear in Burma, is obsolete and restrictive, and, looking beyond the urgent present into the long future, one would think that taking this section out, altogether and forever and not merely temporarily, from the Constitution will do no harm but may do some good. A Constitution is not to be lightly amended, as U Nu once said

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Section 116 of the Constitution” in The Guardian VI, no. 3 (March 1959): 11–12, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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in the Constituent Assembly when the Kayah members wanted the name of their state to be changed from “Karenni” to “Kayah”. On the other hand, as U Nu has been saying recently in making his promises to erect new states for the Arakanese and the Mon, amendments must be made if the people and their interest call for them. This talk that amending section 116 will destroy the Constitution itself or damage parliamentary democracy beyond repair is unrealistic. Many of those leaders who now seem to be so fond of section 116 did not have much thought for it when the Constitution was drafted by them. There was no discussion on section 116 in the Constituent Assembly in 1947. The section was section 27 in the original draft of the Constitution (the “pink book”) prepared by Justice Chan Htoon who was then Constitutional Adviser. It speaks highly of the “pink book” that the Constitution as finally adopted was largely on its lines. We may now, after 12 years of independence and some experience, criticise the Constitution as a “cut-and-paste affair” but when it was written there were few who even knew where to cut from and where to paste. The best legal brains assisted in drafting the Constitution: Dr Ba U, Dr E Maung, Dr Thein Maung, Chief Justice Dr Myint Thein, to mention a few. Section 116 repeats in substance section 6(2) of the Government of Burma Act, 1935. In the 1935 Act parliamentary democracy was a new experiment. The Governor was, in effect, the sole legislator and executive. He could kill laws passed by the legislature and appoint or dismiss ministers at his pleasure. It was necessary that if the Governor appointed any minister who was not in the Legislature the tenure of office of the minister should be severely limited — to 6 months. Parliament is a family affair; why should an outsider be in it as a leader? The provision in the 1935 Act therefore worked as a check on the power of the Governor to appoint ministers at his pleasure, though in practice the check was not needed because the Governor, by convention, left it to the Legislature to choose its ministers. In our Constitution section 116 is somewhat unnecessary because Parliament is supreme, as representing the people, and section 116 can only operate as a check or restriction on the Parliament’s own powers. Is there the need to say that a non-M.P. Premier can stay in office for 6 months only, when it is for Parliament to decide freely whether it will have a non-M.P. Premier at all in the first place? Nobody can come

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and impose himself on an unwilling Parliament. Nor if circumstances compel Parliament, as they seem to do now to invite a non-M.P. to lead the Government, should there be a restriction on the powers of Parliament as to the period for which it can have him in office. Normally no non-M.P. can become a Premier, for no party in Parliament would in its rights senses and in normal times pass power to an outsider. Power is what political parties have to fight for, whether they call themselves the party of Saints or the Party of Sinners, and only when they have no alternative will they ever think of inviting an outsider to take the leadership of the Government with which goes, to a large extent, the leadership of Parliament. Parliament itself, therefore, and not section 116 of the Constitution, is the safeguard against the arrival of an outsider as its leader. Regarding the question whether if no time limit is placed on the office of a non-M.P. Premier he would not overstay his welcome, the answer is simple. In a parliamentary democracy no Premier can survive in office if he has lost the confidence of Parliament. He must go. If he stays on, flouting the will of Parliament, then he will have broken the Constitution somewhere and there is a coup. If a man is strong and brazen enough to commit a successful coup he does not require the support of section 116 or any section of the Constitution. A coup does not obey any law. Coming to the matter of non-M.P. Ministers it may be argued that the removal of section 116 will leave a Premier free to import outsiders into Parliament, for it is he who appoints his ministers. That argument is academic. In practice and in normal times a Premier is the leader of the majority parliamentary party and he has to share out office to his own colleagues in the party, partly to reward them for their support and partly also because they are men whom he can trust. He would not, except in extreme necessity, look beyond his party for men to appoint as ministers. He may, however, need to search for special talent outside his party at times; for example, he may like to appoint a man with knowledge of economics, such as a professor of economics, to be Finance Minister, or a distinguished soldier to be Defence Minister, or a journalist to be Information Minister. Now there is no need here to discuss the question whether a man with specialist knowledge in a subject would make a good minister in charge of that subject, but if a Premier

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thinks so, and cannot find the specialist among the M.Ps of his own party he should be free to recruit outside talent. If he does, he will restrict himself severely from the instinct of self-preservation which is stronger than any respect for any law, for the non-M.P. ministers will have no vote in Parliament, and as recent events in Burma have shown votes are vital to Premiers, even a single vote. Thus even if section 116 is taken out altogether, and permanently, there is no danger of future Premiers making mass imports of outsiders into Parliament via the Cabinet. What may happen is that one or two specialists may be invited by the Premier to serve as ministers for 3 months, or 6 months, or more, as the need arises, and that should not be harmful to the working of parliamentary democracy. In fact it may improve the quality of cabinet government. If not always realistic to make comparisons between our Constitution and those of other parliamentary democracies, because such comparisons often focus attention on the letters of the law and forget their backgrounds such as the conditions in which people live, their traditions and attitudes. But take a few examples. In the Constitution of India, Article 75(5) makes a provision similar to that made by section 116 of our Constitution, i.e. it limits the period of office of a non-M.P. minister to 6 months. However if the Prime Minister of India wishes to invite an outsider who has special knowledge or experience to join his Government, he is free to do so under Art. 75(5) for a period up to 6 months, or, if he wishes the non-M.P. minister to come in on a more permanent basis, he can have that outsider nominated to the Upper House, the Council of States, under Art. 80(1)(a) after which the time limit imposed by Art. 75(5) would cease to apply. Art. 80(1)(a) and Art. 80(3) of the Indian Constitution enable the President to nominate 12 members who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as “literature, science, art and social service” to the Council of States. This opens to the Prime Minister a channel for getting in special talent from outside to supplement that of his own party. Similarly in Britain though ministers usually come from inside the party and Parliament, it is always open to the Prime Minister to arrange to have an outsider elevated to the House of Lords before or soon after appointing him as a minister. We do not have that in Burma where both Chambers of Parliament are entirely elective.

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The French under the leadership of General de Gaulle are working out an experiment in parliamentary government which is well worth study. They too have parliamentary democracy, and before the new Constitution was adopted the French Parliament was throwing out Premiers at the rate of one in every few months. Now in the new Constitution the people, expressing their will through Parliament or by occasional referendum, retain sovereign powers in the state. The Government is responsible to Parliament but an M.P. who becomes Prime Minister or Minister must resign from Parliament (Article 23). No-confidence motions in the National Assembly (popular chamber) can still throw out the Government, but the same members cannot vote for a noconfidence motion against the Government more than once in the same session (Article 49 and 50). These provisions permit the Government to govern in peace, unbothered by frivolous no-confidence motions and such scramble for office, while at the same time preserving the spirit of parliamentary democracy. Those who cry that the amendment of section 116 will deal the death blow to parliamentary democracy in Burma are being a little melodramatic. In fact serious consideration should be given now as to whether this section should be repealed forever so that parliamentary governments may in future be replenished with outside talent, when necessary.

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Section VI, G.

BURMA-CHINA BOUNDARY SETTLEMENT This article also appears in this month’s issue of “Asian Survey”, published by the University of California, Berkeley, United States. Dr Maung Maung, who is on a visiting lectureship at Yale, also used it as a background paper in his lecture on the subject at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York. On February 14 Dr Maung Maung is working on a book on Burma’s customary laws; editing the records of the assassination case of 1947 for publication of a trial book which will be, he writes, “without politics, without hate or bitterness”, but the story of a historic case and a historic event calmly told. If there is time and sufficient support, he also hopes to collect and prepare for publication the speeches and writings of Bogyoke Aung San, a task which is long due for doing, but nobody has found the time for.

O

n January 4 this year Burma celebrated her 13th anniversary of independence. In Rangoon to take part in the rejoicings, along with over 400 members of a Chinese cultural delegation, was Chinese Premier Mr Chou En-Lai. As a token of eternal friendship and “paukphaw” (brotherly) feelings, he brought with him the instrument of ratification of the Burma-China Boundary Treaty which he and Burma’s U Nu had signed in Peking on an equally auspicious day —

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Burma-China Boundary Settlement” in The Guardian VIII, no. 3 (March 1961): 21–23, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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for China — October 1, 1960. Gifts were exchanged too: 2,000 tons of rice and 1,000 tons of salt from Burma for the approximately one million Chinese residing along the borders in China; 2.4 million metres of printed textiles and 6,00,000 pieces of porcelain plates from China for the nearly one million Burmese living along Burma’s side of the border. Kind words and complements passed and re-dedications were made to the five principles of peaceful co-existence. The treaty, Mr Chou En-Lai said on October 1, laid to rest a problem which was “inherited from history, a product of imperialist policy of aggression”, and finally demarcated over 2,000 kilometres “a boundary of peace and friendship”; it was thus a “brilliant model” for peaceful co-existence between the Asian peoples. U Nu responded warmly and emphasised that it was a friendly agreement entered into freely and on terms of “absolute equality”. It would be “ridiculous”, U Nu said, to suggest that the treaty was imposed on China by Burma, or on Burma, whose peoples have a strong “will and determination to be free”, by China. The border problem which has now been peaceably, and, Burma hopes, permanently settled was one that had defied solution for some three-quarters of a century. When the British annexed upper Burma in 1885, their anxiety to win the goodwill and recognition of their new neighbour led them to sign a convention undertaking to send “decennial missions to present articles of local produce” in return for which China agreed to allow England “to do whatever she deems fit and proper in Burma”.1 The British, however, quickly came to realize that the Burmese never did acknowledge Chinese suzerainty, and that missions bearing gifts and daughters were mutually exchanged and not a one way traffic, that though in the wars and invasions of history the Chinese had sometimes been able to overwhelm by numbers, the Burmese had more often been able to repel the hordes and had consistently upheld the integrity of their kingdom and their traditional frontiers. After the British had established their power over Burma therefore, they conveniently forgot to send the decennial missions, and instead tried to consolidate their position and demarcate the borders with China. A convention was signed on March 1, 1894 to this purpose, and a supplementary agreement on February 4, 1897. There was a joint survey in 1905 of a disputed area, and there were exchanges of notes, skirmishes, occupations and protests, bargainings

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involving Britain and France, China and Tibet and Burma. The convention signed by Britain and China on April 27, 1906, in the course of the bargaining expressed the understanding of “the high contracting parties that Tibet forms part of Chinese territory”, great stakes were thus involved, and the fortunes of many peoples. Further notes were exchanged in 1914, the Tibetan year of the Wood-Tiger, between the British plenipotentiary Sir Henry McMahon and the Tibetan authorities regarding the India-Tibet boundary between the Isu Razi pass on the Salween-Irrawaddy divide on the east and Bhutan on the west. Another and more extensive joint survey of the Burma-China border was undertaken in 1937 under the leadership of a neutral chairman, Colonel Islin, appointed by the League of Nations, and the notes exchanged in July, 1941, between the British and the Chinese authorsities embodied some of the findings and recommendations of the survey commission. The Nationalist Government after its takeover, continued to publish maps of China showing large parts of northern Burma as Chinese: it was as if the northern triangle of Burma was a piece of bulging belly of a large dragon sprawled lazily over a caving-in roof. The government of Burma protested whenever the maps came to its notice, and the Chinese government would reply that the border could be demarcated at some future time in a friendly spirit. The tides of change that swept China and Burma in the post-war years also swept the border problem into the background, and except for the occasional maps and the protests and the stereotyped replies which became routine, the problem lay dormant. In a joint communique issued by U Nu and Mr Chou En-Lai at the end of the former’s visit to Peking in December, 1954, the “incomplete delimitation of the boundary line” was referred to and the necessity acknowledged “to settle this question in a friendly spirit at an appropriate time through normal diplomatic channels.” A skirmish between Burmese armed forces on a flag march in the Wa state and wandering Chinese troops, took place, however, in November, 1955, and the story found its way, through different channels and official discretion, into the front page of The Nation, Rangoon newspaper early in 1956, and screams of “Invasion” were echoed by the other newspapers through the land. The border problem assumed urgency and importance, and negotiations for an early and final

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settlement were started at the highest levels of the two governments in earnest. The Chinese stand at first was that the “1941 line” was imposed on them by the British at a time when China bled from Japanese aggression and war within, and that therefore the “agreement” was void. A revision of the entire “1941 line” was called for, with both sides maintaining the status quo before final settlement. The Chinese also wanted three villages in the Kachin state of Burma, namely Hpimaw, Kangfang and Gawlum, to be returned to them as rightfully theirs, because the British had seized them against Chinese protests, and, in notes of 1911, had offered to pay an annual rental for their occupation to the Chinese, thereby acknowledging Chinese ownership. The British had also taken a “perpetual lease” from China of the Namwan Assigned Tract on payment of an annual rental of one thousand rupees or two hundred dollars; the Chinese had refused to accept the rent after 1948, when Burma became independent, and now they asked for abrogation of the lease. Because an important Burmese highway passed through the Tract, however, the Chinese offered to barter it for a comparable area in the Wa territory of the Shan state in Burma. The Burmese bargained for the status quo as they inherited it from the British, viz., the “1941 line and the traditional borders”, the three Kachin villages to stay, Namwan Tract a free gift, but even the five principles of co-existence could not persuade Mr Chou En-Lai to give so freely. U Nu himself, a moral man, became convinced on a visit to Peking in November, 1956, of the justness of China’s claim to the three villages and he promised Mr Chou En-Lai that he would fully support the return of the villages: “Burma must act on moral reasons; she must not retain what she does not own.” The Kachin leaders whom he brought over to Peking to participate in the discussions were not, however, so deeply moved by moral considerations, and refused to commit themselves. Thus the negotiations continued over the years, sometimes in personal discussions between U Nu and Mr Chou En-Lai or Deputy Premiers U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein and Mr Chou En-Lai, in Peking or Rangoon, Kunming and Manshi, and sometimes by letter which took many months to reply on either side. In Burma many political changes took place. In 1956 U Nu went to Peking as president of the united Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League, while U Ba Swe managed the

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government as premier. In 1957 U Nu returned to office, and U Ba Swe stepped down to the Deputy’s role. In April 1958 the AFPFL which had held power for a decade broke into two and U Nu and U Ba Swe found themselves facing each other, not as colleagues across the table in the Cabinet room, but leaders of rival factions contending mightily for power. In October, 1958, U Nu stepped down from office, after having held it for a few anxious months with the support of his faction, and moved in Parliament for the election of General Ne Win; the chief of staff, as leader of a “caretaker government”, entrusted with the tasks of restoring law and order and holding fair and free elections. The negotiations on the border problem went on through these changes, fitfully as more urgent matters occupied the domestic scene, but forcefully, and with the united support of the two AFPFL factions on the broad issues. U Nu was able to use his persuasive powers to elicit agreement from the Kachin leaders to the return of the three villages; General Ne Win, with his prestige and influence, was further able to win the cooperation of the Kachin and the Shan leaders in working for a final settlement. The border dispute between India and China, in the meantime, placed the Burma-China border in perspective and probably stimulated China’s desire to demarcate it in a friendly way and hold up a “brilliant model” for all to see. Towards the end of 1959, as his departure from political office drew near, General Ne Win made his straight and soldierly proposals to Mr Chou En-Lai, not failing to point out that he as leader of the interim government was able to command the support of all the major parties in Burma as an elected party government might not be able to do, and offered to go to Peking if prospect was held out of prompt and full agreement. The response was prompt and hearty, and General Ne Win flew to Peking, and in a few days, on January 28, 1960, signed two agreements, one embodying the settlement in principle of the border problem, and another to pledge peace and friendship between the two countries. The Ne Win-Chou Agreement on the border accepted the “1941 line” and the traditional border in the north marked naturally by the watershed; the three Kachin villagers were to be returned to China; the perpetual lease to Namwan Tract would be abrogated and China would transfer the Tract to Burma in return for an area in the Wa territory of the Shan state; the details of the demarcation would be carried out by a joint commission, and a treaty would then be signed and ratified to

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replace the conventions and agreements and the notes which had gone before it in the history of the border dispute between the British and the Chinese. U Nu, returned to the premiership on a huge popular wave, took up the border question as a matter of first importance. He piloted the Agreement through Parliament in a debate which went on into the night of April 28, 1960, and won approval for ratification. Formal instruments were exchanged on May 14; the joint survey commission, under the leadership of Brigadier Aung Gyi, vice-chief of staff, on the Burmese side, went into furious activity, holding sessions in Rangoon, in Kunming, and in Peking by turns, while field teams worked in the wild mountain areas, even in the rains, marking the points on the border, putting up the stones. By September, the joint commission had completed enough of its work to formulate the details to go into the treaty, and on October 1 the treaty was signed in Peking where U Nu went with a large delegation of government and political leaders and a cultural group whose wide range ran from boxers to film actresses. The Treaty, working out the Ne Win-Chou agreements in detail, affects the following transfers of territory: Hpimaw, Gawlum and Kangfang, comprising 59 square miles as against 180 square miles claimed, returned to China; an area of 73 square miles, as claimed by China, under the Panglao and Panghung tribes of the Shan state, transferred to China in return for the Namwan Assigned Tract, 85 square miles. The survey commission had found that the 1941 line passed through some border villages, and, as it would be inconvenient and undesirable for a village to be administered partly by China and partly by Burma, had recommended that fair sharing and exchanges be made. The recommendation was accepted in the Treaty, and two border villages passed to Chinese control, and four came under the Burmese. The Chinese government also renounced its right of participation in mining enterprises at Lufang in Burma, as provided in the notes exchanged with the British authorities in 1941, such renunciation being “in line with its consistent policy of opposing foreign prerogatives and respecting the sovereignty of other countries”; the Burmese government undertook to operate the mines without foreign assistance. Where the boundary follows a river, the Treaty accepts the international practice of demarcation; if any dispute should arise concerning the delimited boundary, the parties agree to settle it by friendly consultations.

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Burma, in dire need of consolidation after the civil strife and political upheavals that followed in the wake of independence, feels relieved that a problem, and a potential source of danger, has been put out of the way at least for the present. The long untamed border with China has held many threats for Burma: Communist Chinese troops had come through it and prowled about on the borderlands; Kuomintang troops had massed along it professedly to spring across into the mainland on a mission of redemption; illegal immigration across it, and propaganda and indoctrination among the peoples along it have also been a problem for the Burma government; Burmese Communist insurgents, in arms against the government now for more than twelve years, have unsuccessfully tried to build a stronghold with Yunnan as a backbone. The border also holds out a challenge and a promise: the potentials for economic development are there, for the development of the border peoples with all their cultures and customs as the great resources of Burma. Also, if the co-existence with China along the border is to be a friendly one it will nevertheless be highly competitive, and there must be endless striving to give the peoples a better and more fulfilling life. The Treaty which has settled the boundary is not, therefore, the end of all border problems, or other problems in Burma’s relations with her big neighbour. It does, however, free the leaders of public life in Burma to devote their time and energies to work for national unity and strength, for consolidation and progress, without which the country must remain weak and exposed, treaties notwithstanding. The ways in which they are going about these days seem to show that the leaders are sharply aware of this great and urgent need. Note 1. Command Paper presented to Parliament in August, 1887, HMSO, London.

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Section VI, H.

LAWYERS AND LEGAL EDUCATION IN BURMA Reprinted from The International and Comparative Law Quarter, London, January 1962.

“D

emocracy” and the “Rule of Law” are not merely ideals but rallying cries in Burma today. Since her re-emergence as an independent nation, Burma has been having hard trials: insurrections set off by the Communist Party and dissident racial groups; riots on the borders staged by remnant Kuomintang forces which stir now and then from their profitable opium smuggling and gun-running to beat the drum and cry “Crusade”; the problem of keeping cautious friendship with the young giant of a neighbour, New China; the confusing and inescapable conflicts and competitions of the nuclear world. Internally, the insurrections are insignificant compared to the deeper problems of new nationhood: how to give enduring life to the Constitution in which most of the British principles and practices have been faithfully and elaborately embodied; how to build a modern nation without doing violence to the old traditions and cultures; how to blend Burmese notions of law, justice and government with Democracy and the Rule of Law and make them live and grow strong.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “Lawyers and Legal Education in Burma” in The Guardian IX, no. 6 (June 1962): 26–28, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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The lawyer who wishes to serve and have a hand in the exciting nation-building that is going on has a role to play in Burma. This is not to promise the return of “the good old days” when lawyers could live in style with and on a good land suit, and when having been called to the English Bar was in itself a passport to office or fortune. Leadership in politics, when that field started to open, went to those barristers, and they enjoyed a near monopoly of the well-paid and influential political jobs. The great ambition of the young college student was, therefore, to become a barrister and reach out for the abundant rewards, or to get into the civil service through competitive examinations or patronage. The people learned to look on lawyers as talkers and seekers, and, at the most, legal technicians, whose assistance they needed to get through the formalities of the law if they had the misfortune to collide with it. Lawyers and judges had a hand in the drafting of the new Constitution and the Judiciary and the Bar have been consistently recognised as an important guardian of the constitution. Yet, neither the “England-returned” barrister, nor the locally trained advocate, could retain the reins of leadership and power. New classes arose, new values appeared. The nationalisation of land removed a lucrative source of work for the lawyer; the new era, it was said, was for the doers and the revolutionaries, and those lawyers who could only quote from books and play with words had no place of honour in the dynamic society. Fortunately, the dynamism did not destroy the legal system and structure. The laws were kept intact and the courts functioned even when insurrections swept the country and overran large parts of it leaving, during the perilous years, only Rangoon and the cities free. The Supreme Court continued to issue writs to protect the citizen from the exuberant and impatient Government. No mortal struggle developed, however, between the Government and the Judiciary and the Constitution has somehow survived. Those were the days when the Prime Minister himself would often express anger in public at the lawyers “for finding loopholes in the law” and getting their clients acquitted; judges of the higher Judiciary similarly attracted bitter remarks even from Ministers in Parliament. The lawyer himself failed to rise to the challenge of the times. He was rather a lost soul, and at Bar association meetings demands were for recognition of status, as if that was something for the Government to grant, for “automatic promotion” from the lower grades

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of pleadership to the higher by executive decision, and for increase in fees for dock-briefs to keep up with the rising costs of living. More than a decade of change and searching for stable values has now passed. Those politicians who were inclined to look on the Judiciary as an obstruction on the path to the promised land now find, as their own fortunes change, that they need the protection of the Judiciary as much as, if not more than, the common citizen does, and that the independence of the Judiciary is not merely a desirable window-dressing but a vital necessity. With this awakening has also come the awareness that a strong Bar is an important element of a vigorous and independent judicial system. Lawyers are coming back into their own, not by way of recognition of status or automatic promotions, but through a widening appreciation of their true role in society. Lawyers too have been doing some active reappraisal of their role, and recent Bar association meetings have seen a shift of emphasis from status to service, from promotions and dock-brief fees to legal aid, a strong Bar, high ethical standards, and improvement of legal education. The major task lies in the field of education. There is a great hunger for it. The Government has been opening more schools every year, and tuition in the State schools is free and in the universities nominal. There are two universities instead of one, and “intermediate colleges” in several cities, one of which opened in the Shan State last June; yet there is demand for more. It is a healthy sign that the schools are full and it is certainly a most promising sign for the “Rule of Law” that the law faculty of the University of Rangoon, the main provider of legal education in the country so far, is drawing record numbers of students. This year the Adult University in Rangoon, which prepares working students for external degrees, has started lectures for Part A of the Bachelor of Laws examinations. Between the law faculty of the University of Rangoon and the Adult University classes there are one thousand law students, a good many of whom are senior officials of the Government, magistrates, and Members of Parliament. The University of Mandalay, at the insistent request of the Bar, which points out that the High Court sits in the city though legal education is available only in Rangoon, plans to organise its law faculty in the near future. The expansion is not solely to cope with the numbers, and basic changes in the concept of legal education to meet the new needs are also being discussed.

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No distinction is made in Burma between “barristers” and “solicitors,” though practitioners are graded according to defined rights of audience. There are Pleaders, and Pleaders of the Higher Grade, with the right to practise in all civil and criminal courts subordinate to the High Court and all revenue offices subordinate to the Financial Commissioners; in the case of Pleaders special permission was necessary to appear in the higher hierarchy, but this is academic now since all Pleaders, the last of whom were admitted under the rules of 1925 and 1928, have now moved by virtue of seniority or through examinations to be Pleaders of the Higher Grade, or Advocates. The highest grade in the profession is that of the Advocate, and admission is open to those who have qualified at one of the Inns of Court to practise as barristers in England, or to graduates in law of the University of Rangoon who after a year’s reading in chambers, have also practised for a year as a Pleader of the Higher Grade. Barristers of the Inns of Court also need to have read in chambers for a year, but they are exempted from the requirement of a year’s practice as Pleaders of the High Grade. One may enter and rise to the top grade in the profession through examinations, conducted yearly by the Public Service Commission, which persons of prescribed educational qualifications and experience are eligible to take. The clearest road to a legal career is provided by the University of Rangoon. A graduate who has received his first degree in the arts and sciences can work for two years, take the Part A and the Part B examinations and earn the B.L. degree which is not merely an academic degree but also a professional qualification. He can commence reading in chambers after he has passed either of the two examinations, and apply for enrolment as a Pleader of the Higher Grade on successful completion of the degree work. Classes are conveniently arranged in the mornings, from about seven to nine, to permit the lecturers to go on to the courts or their chambers. The majority of the students also find the hours convenient to hold full-time salaried jobs or engage in business. Theoretically the classes are “full-time,” for, before the war, there were two separate courses, the “full-time” taking two years to complete with three hours of lecturing every morning, and the “part-time” course running for three years with two hours of morning lectures. The merger of the two courses and their condensation into two years took

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place after the war, primarily to meet the great shortage both at the Bar and on the Bench. Several proposals have been made for the improvement of legal education at the university. One was to introduce really full-time courses which would provide young students, arriving after their entrance examinations, with two years of preparation for legal study in the Intermediate of Laws and three years of law, including procedure and philosophy, before they received their LL.B. degree. They would then, after the usual year in chambers, enter the profession better equipped, it was thought, than the B.L. graduate who only had two years of parttime study and whose background might have been in disciplines which were not relevant to legal studies. The proposal was accepted by the university, and Intermediate of Laws classes were started in 1957 as an experiment while the B.L. course continued, their future to be determined on the results of the experiment. Shortage of teaching staff — successful lawyers are reluctant to take up full-time teaching — and changes at the university led to a suspension of the experiment in 1959, and students scattered into the various faculties to work for their first degrees before reading for the traditional B.L. degree. Another proposal that is being discussed actively is the introduction of the Inns of Court system. The students would eat their dinners and keep their terms, pass their examinations after taking courses at the Inns of Court School of Law, and, with a year in chambers behind them, enrol as Attorneys-at-Law. The fascination for the Inns system stems not only from the awareness of the need to improve and reorganise legal education, but also from a desire on the part of the Bar to assume more direct control on admission and discipline and such affairs. The High Court, and not the Bar Council, has the control at present, and the Bar Council has the right to be consulted but not to rule. The time now appears to be ripe for reforms in legal education and in the organisation of the Bar with which the subject is inseparably linked. A starting-point must be the review of the aim and purpose of legal education itself. Obviously, it is no longer enough to manufacture law graduates who wander off with inadequate skills and, what is worse, only a vague sense of purpose. The law schools must inspire and stimulate their students who will disperse into the various important fields of nation-building activity; they must not stop short at being legal

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mechanics. Curricula therefore need revision and broadening; emphasis needs to shift. The law schools will also need to offer more variety, so that students may prepare for different kinds of legal career. In Burma, where resources are severely limited, it may be desirable that the law schools provide courses, even on an occasional ad hoc basis, for young administrators or diplomats. Practical training for young lawyers, in lieu of chamber reading, or to supplement it, may also need to come under the auspices of the law schools. The Post-Final training that is provided by the Inns of Court School of Law in London, and the special courses and seminars provided to meet such needs by the American law schools and the Practising Lawyers Institute in New York, offer good models. Co-ordination and active and enlightened central direction are essential as reforms begin and facilities expand. They are all the more necessary because resources are limited, and they cannot be frittered away in scattered endeavours, or permitted to compete and cancel out one another. At present the Ministry of Education, in whose administrative province all universities fall, conducts courses, whenever demands for them are felt, for candidates who are preparing for Public Service Commission examinations for Pleaders and Advocates. The Ministry of Judiciary Affairs, the administrative machinery for the judicial services and the courts, has also felt the need to provide legal training of a specialised nature and refresher courses for judges, magistrates and law officers. Then there are the universities which wish to expand or establish law faculties. All these proposals may perhaps be best directed and taken care of by a Council of Legal Education on which judges, the Bar Council, educationists, and the Government can work together, constantly surveying the general and deeper needs and applying available resources in the most intelligent ways to meet those needs. Under the general supervision and control of the Council, teaching and training institutions will grow whether they are called Schools of Law or Inns of Court. They will develop their special strengths and share their resources where they should best be spared either in teaching or in library and other facilities. As the schools grow strong, they may launch teachers into the universities where the constitution and elements of the law can be introduced into the humanities curricula, or into the high schools where the need for such education has already become felt. The schools will also prepare research scholars to engage in the study of comparative law, or to record and analyse the

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laws and the customs of Burma, for although it is acknowledged that the laws must conform to the customs and march together with them, it is not always clear what are the customs of the peoples of Burma today. As the schools grow strong, Burma can better receive scholars from abroad, and begin to send scholars to exchange views, to enlarge the channels of knowledge, to participate in the greater sharing, and to give wider meaning to the “Rule of Law.” Vast opportunities exist in the field of education in Burma, as in many new nations, and in legal education in particular the opportunities appear to be limitless.1 Note 1. Several good studies on legal education have been made recently and I have found the following, among others, very useful: Report of the Dening Committee on Legal Education for Students from Africa, H.M.S.O. 1961; discussions with Professor Julius Stone of Sydney at a seminar on the constitutions of the new nations at Canberra, August, 1960; Report on Legal Education in India submitted by Dean Carl Spaeth of the Stanford Law School to the Ford Foundation, in March, 1960; a study on Higher Education, Law and the Teaching of Law in British Africa, by Professor Max Rheinstein of the Chicago University School of Law, 1960; the chapter on legal education by Professors Lasswell and MacDougal in “Public Order of the World Community,” MacDougal & Associates, Yale Press, 1961; John B. Howard’s ‘International Legal Studies,” “University of Chicago Law Review,” Summer, 1959.

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Section VI, I.

THE SEARCH FOR CONSTITUTIONALISM IN BURMA

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his is an attempt to study the important features of the Constitution of Burma, the big events in its young career, the problems it has faced and the solutions it has found for them. The story of the constitution is neither spectacular nor sensational, but it has revealed a quiet faith and a steadfast hope that promise well for the future. There have been times when, owing either to the stress of difficult situations or the complacency of the party that was in predominant power, the constitution seemed to lie dormant; but it never died. There were times when great pressures were put on it; but it never broke down. The constitution has even survived a government led by a General; peculiarly, and perhaps uniquely, the General was voted into office by Parliament, and he abdicated power voluntarily after conducting the freest and fairest of elections so far.

Reproduced from Maung Maung, “The Search for Constitutionalism in Burma” in Constitutionalism in Asia, edited by R.N. Spann (London: Asia Publishing House, 1963), pp. 130–33, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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In May, 1947, when the leaders of the nationalist struggle, leading the united front called the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) met, after the elections to the Constituent Assembly, to draft the constitution, their main concern was to get it over with, to close the negotiations with His Majesty’s Government in Whitehall and make Burma’s freedom a reality. The leaders were young: the foremost among them, Aung San, was 33, and he had commanded the national army that was forged during the war and employed in the resistance. The other leaders, ‘fathers of the constitution’, were also young, and they came from the same background of political agitation and student strikes in their university days, of the ‘Red Dragon’ leftist bookclub where they translated Fabian essays or Marxist literature or Hitler or Mussolini indiscriminately, of the army and the resistance. Whatever label they chose to wear, Marxist, Socialist, or Fabian, they were nationalists, and they dreamed their dreams of freedom and a brave new world. Some of the dreams got written down in the preamble of the constitution; some find a place in the chapter on fundamental rights, some are more cautiously consigned to the chapter on directive principles which are guides but not binding law. It was fortunate that these young leaders who looked upon themselves as revolutionaries were able to work in calm on the constitution; the transfer of power from His Majesty’s Government was by friendly negotiation and agreement, and it was to the basic constitutional principles as evolved by British genius that the young revolutionaries looked for their guidance. The assistance of judges and lawyers trained in the British system was also taken in drafting the constitution, and the final draft was given its polish by Sir Benegal Rau of India who was then Constitutional Adviser to the Government of India. The constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 24, 1947, and it came into force on January 4, 1948, when the Union of Burma launched out as an independent state outside the Commonwealth of Nations. Already at that time the Communists in the country, expelled from the AFPFL for their subversion, were crying out that genuine independence could only be bought in blood, and that the AFPFL, in receiving the country’s independence by treaty with His Majesty’s Government was guilty of a sell-out. To give the lie to the Communists the AFPFL decided that Burma must leave the

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Commonwealth with independence. The other factor that probably weighed with the drafters of the constitution was their choice of the republican form of state, and their traditional thinking that that form would not conform with Commonwealth membership; if the decision had had to be made a few years later, after a formula had been devised to reconcile Commonwealth membership with the republican form of government, it might well have been a different story. Parliament Sovereignty, under the constitution, resides in the people, and they exercise it normally through general elections held every four years. Parliament is bicameral; the Chamber of Deputies has 250 seats distributed on a population basis throughout the country; the Chamber of Nationalities has 125 seats allocated to racial groups in such a way that members representing the minorities, should they combine, can outvote the members representing the majority race, the Burman, at any time. There is universal suffrage without any property or educational qualifications, the voting age is 18. Buddhist priests and members of a ‘religious order’ are disqualified from voting. Every citizen who has the right to vote and has attained the age of 21 can stand as a candidate. Both chambers enjoy equal power in regard to legislation except that ‘money bills’ must be initiated and passed by the Deputies; the Nationalities can delay a ‘money bill’ for not more than 21 days after it has been sent to them. The Deputies nominate the Prime Minister who then selects his own Cabinet of Ministers. From 1947 to 1952, the Constituent Assembly acted, as allowed by the transitional provisions of the constitution, as the Provisional Parliament. Unrest in the country made it necessary for the general elections to be held on a staggered and regional basis between 1951 and 1952. In those elections the AFPFL won an overwhelming majority, and Parliament was a rather formal and complacent affair, going through the motions. The Opposition — what there was of it — could not muster the necessary votes to move a no-confidence motion, and the most spectacular gesture it could show was the sit-down strike or the walkout. There were two sessions a year, once in August to vote the budget, and then in February to vote the revised estimates; each session would last four or five weeks, and the daily meetings were short and sweet,

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sometimes lasting five minutes. Prime Minister U Nu himself, as he later admitted, did not care to appear in the Chamber of Deputies where he belonged, and when he had major statements of policy to make he would make them at his press conferences or at ceremonial functions. Legislation was apt to be hasty when the Government could translate every bright new idea into law, drafted in a few days and pushed through the two Chambers. Within the AFPFL party itself strength bred arrogance. Since the party ticket was an essential for electoral victory, members of Parliament who dared to ask embarrassing questions in Parliament or at party meetings were sternly disciplined or expelled, and soon members were quiescent. This state of affairs was reflected too in the behaviour of the government where party influence was unduly strong, and whose attitude towards Parliament and the Judiciary was tinged with some superiority complex. In Burma the people do not like dictators. This may sound paradoxical when, in her long history of independence, Burma had always had absolute monarchs. Yet, kings and governments have always been classed as ‘enemies’, to avoid when possible, to keep away from, and to offer bribes to in the event of unavoidable collision. By and large the kings lived in their palaces, collected their taxes, and the people lived their lives and developed their own democratic way of life in the villages. Thus the AFPFL party, with its predominance and the arrogance and smugness that usually go along with it, began to lose its popularity. By 1956, when the general elections were held again, this time simultaneously through the country, voters in many areas were ready to vote for anyone who chose to oppose the party. The AFPFL, as the party in power, used its vast resources, including influence, in an effort to wrest total victory. However, the National United Front, an alliance of the Burma Workers and Peasants Party and other splinter groups and the Justice Party led by one-time Supreme Court Justice Dr E Maung, won some 46 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The number of votes polled by the NUF was more impressive than the number of seats won: according to NUF research the Front polled 1,139,206 votes against the AFPFL’s 1,743,816, or 44.8 per cent of the total (also counting its allies) against the AFPFL’s 47.9 per cent. For those AFPFL leaders who cared to see, it was the writing on the wall, and U Nu took leave of absence from the premiership to clean

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up and reorganise the party. After a few frustrating months he resumed office, and he promised Parliament that he would be more respectful to it, participate in its work and report to it first on major policies. He also promised to give fair play to the NUF opposition which was now in a position to move no-confidence motions. One of the first things that U Nu did, to keep his promise of keeping Parliament informed of major policy formulations, was to deliver a four-hour long speech, as if to pay a debt with interest. Parliamentary sessions, however, were still too brief, and according to the research service maintained by the NUF there were only 141 days and 402 hours of effective sitting of Parliament from 1956 to December 1959. Union Government The Prime Minister, the kingpin of the government, is elected by the Chamber of Deputies. He chooses his own Ministers whose terms of office depend on his pleasure. The Communist rebellion broke out 83 days after independence was proclaimed, and for many years the Union Government had its hands full dealing with the rebellion, and others which followed. Partly to outdo the Communists and thereby take the wind out of their sails and partly from sincere conviction, the government launched many ‘socialist programmes’ such as nationalisation of industries, the taking over of land belonging to absentee landlords and their redistribution to the landless, and welfare projects in health and education. These programmes made big demands on the slender manpower resources, and it took the Government some years to realise that first things must be done first. A big problem of government was the encroachment of the party into the day-to-day work of the administration. Division between policy and execution was often lost sight of, leading to confusion or frustrations on the part of the permanent staff. Senior Secretaries of the government who, normally, would run the administration of their departments, were often reduced in practice to the status of office assistants who submitted their files to the Ministers for the smallest decision. This happened partly owing to the fear of the civil servants of displeasing the Minister — displeasure would often attract dismissals or transfers to less attractive posts or demotions — and partly, in course of time, because of the laziness of

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the staff and indisposition to make decisions. Gradually, the Secretariat began to slow down as cases travelled their slow and uncertain way from one table to another and collected, sometimes, before the Cabinet. The Union Government started off with high socialist ideals and the Ministers took much reduced salaries — k. 1,700 a month — and expected the civil servants to be likewise noble-minded. In the first few years, when the senior staff retired rapidly, promotions were quick and often meteoric, and the reductions in salaries were not felt. Later, however, when the young Secretaries found themselves face with years of service ahead on fixed maximum salaries of k. 1,600, they did not find the prospect cheerful. In the ‘golden days’ before the war, the government officer enjoyed social status, and young graduates would often rather serve as clerks in the government offices than teach or take up an independent profession. After the war, authority waned and the social standing of the government officer fell; in the district it was the Member of Parliament or the party leader who liked to give the orders. The cost of living shot up, and government servants who did not resort to corruption — and they remain the majority — had to live on the borderlands of bare subsistence. When government activities increased and expanded into business and industry the responsibilities of the staff increased, but not their rewards; it was the same Secretaries who had to serve as chairmen of several boards and corporations, and much of their time was consumed by meetings. At the Cabinet level another problem was the need to provide jobs for the party leaders. Political office had its glamour and privileges, and no party leader of standing wanted to remain at the party to organise: the scramble was for a ministry. The result was that the Cabinet had to be enlarged gradually, and ten years after independence its size had just about trebled. The party in power worked only fitfully in-between elections; its leadership saddled itself with office and liked it; in the districts too the party lost touch with the people as the leaders either took jobs at the capital, or spent most of their time there hunting for privilege. Ministries were carved out of ministries, so that they became small departments, and many of the ministers, with time on their hands, dabbled in the day-to-day work which should have been left to the permanent staff. The Ministry of National Solidarity, for example, was created on brilliant inspiration, but the Minister and his Secretaries had

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no work to do, and the only solidarity that was achieved there was the marriage between the Minister, a sturdy and brilliant Kachin, and his Burman stenographer. The Judiciary The constitution provides for an independent Judiciary and the Supreme Court has the power to check the Executive and Parliament by writs. Judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court are appointed by the President after Parliament in joint session has approved the government’s nominations. The framers of the constitution toyed with the idea of electing the Judges for a period of ten years each time, but this was abandoned on the persuasion of Judges who were trained in the British tradition. There is a permanent judicial service into which a young graduate of law can enter without any practice at the Bar, and he can gradually rise to the High Court or the Supreme Court. Members of the Bar — barristers called by one of the Inns of Court in England, and Advocates who have qualified in Burma — are also eligible for appointment to the higher ranks of the judicial service or the High Court or the Supreme Court. Appointments, postings and transfers in the judicial service are in the care of the High Court and the Supreme Court where Judges serve during good behaviour till they are 60, in the former, and 65 in the latter. A Judge of the High Court draws k. 2,500 a month, a Supreme Court Justice and the Chief Justice of the High Court draw k. 3,000. The Chief Justice of the Union draws k. 3,500 and ranks near the top in the Order of Precedence. The Judiciary has, in the years of trouble, come under many pressures and so far resisted them stoutly. There is the Executive with its impatience and claim for priority in handling emergency situations; there is the party in power which tends to look upon whatever stands in its path as unpatriotic. The Executive was armed by Parliament with special powers, such as the power to take into preventive detention persons who were suspected of being engaged in ‘prejudicial acts’, and it was left to the Supreme Court to correct, by entry of the writ of habeas corpus, abuses and excesses of the powers. The Executive would normally take such corrections with grace, but sometimes it would get Parliament to amend the law and vest it with even larger powers which it could wield with

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only formal checks by the court. There was also a tendency among the leaders of the AFPFL, and the Prime Minister himself, to criticise the decisions of the courts in Parliament or in their public speeches, complaining that the courts were too careful about the letter of the law and the lawyers too sharp in finding the loopholes. Another danger to the independence of the Judiciary came, paradoxically enough, from the respect shown to it by the Executive. Judges were looked up to and in great demand to chair the many special enquiry commissions which grew like mushrooms. Some of the commissions were concerned with political matters, e.g. enquiry into the desirability of statehood for certain clamorous minority groups, parliamentary election tribunals, enquiry into the state of certain boards and corporations of which political leaders were chairmen, enquiry into the honesty or otherwise of certain Ministers. The Judges did not relish their role on the commissions, but in the shortage of men of their eminence and stature they could not well refuse, and sometimes these roles exposed them to misunderstandings. Another practice which often had unexpectedly bad effects was that of some Ministers to consult the Judges informally on matters of public moment; both sides were well-meaning, but when the matters flared into public controversy and the ministers blurted out that they had had prior consultations with the Judges they innocently drew the Judiciary into the controversy. The States There were three autonomous units or States in the Union of Burma at the time the constitution came into force, and the Karen state was created, after much bloodshed, in 1951, after an amendment of the constitution. The Arakanese and Mon minorities have also been clamouring for their own States, and Prime Minister U Nu has pledged that if the majority of their peoples express their wish for statehood the new States will be created. There is also a special administrative division for the Chins, who did not ask for statehood; the division has its Chin Affairs Minister and the Chin Affairs Council, but otherwise it operates very much like any other administrative division. A peculiar feature of the constitution is the dual role played by Members of Parliament elected from each state. They attend the Union

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Parliament like any other Member, and in their state they compose the State Council. The Prime Minister of the Union after consulting the State Council appoints a Minister for the State who then becomes the Head of the State and plays a dual role again. This arrangement, it was thought at the time of writing the constitution, made for economy in money and manpower, and also for closer relations between the units and the Union. There is no ‘centre’ or federal structure; it is only in the States that there are miniature parliaments and cabinets. The drafters of the constitution drew their inspiration for this arrangement from the British, rather than a pure federal system. The arrangement worked well enough when the AFPFL enjoyed unchallenged majority throughout the Union; when it split, and the split reached out to the states also, some Heads of States found themselves in the minority in their Councils, and there was deadlock and confusion in the government of the States. The President The fathers of the constitution did not want to restore the old monarchy, nor did they want to have a President directly elected by the people and invested with full executive powers for a fixed term for fear that he might, during that term of office organise to perpetuate his reign. Nor did they want a President who had only ceremonial functions, an expensive ornament of state. Their search for a mean between the two does not seem to have been too successful, for in normal times the President of the Union has only ceremonial functions. All executive business is done in his name, and the constitution takes pains to provide that he must act only on the advice of the Union Government. He signs bills passed by Parliament, but should he fail or refuse to do so the bills are deemed to have received his signature seven days after reaching him. In times of crisis, however, the President has an important role to play. If the Prime Minister were defeated in the Chamber of Deputies, for example, on a major issue of policy or a no-confidence motion, and he decided to recommend a dissolution, the President might or might not accept the recommendation. This, of course, is a prerogative of the Crown in the United Kingdom, but one which is of academic interest in the developed state of the party system and its employment would be guided by established conventions. In Burma, however, the party

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system is still young, and it is not inconceivable that a party which had enjoyed predominance might suddenly break up — as happened to the AFPFL — or the alliances shift for the sake of convenience or gain. At the time of the AFPFL split one big question which loomed over the entire desperate scence was whether, if the Prime Minister could be out-voted on the no-confidence motion, and if he did choose to ask for a dissolution, the President would comply. Fortunately, however, the Prime Minister survived the motion, and the question receded into the background unresolved. There are also certain ‘rights’ and ‘discretionary powers’ belonging to the President. The right of pardon, for example, is an important one which has been used to proclaim general amnesty for insurgents by Presidential Order. Must the right be exercised only on the advice of the Union Government? The discretionary power to seek the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court on legal problems of national significance is also an important power which has been invoked by the President himself, by signing the letters of reference, on the request of the Union Government. Can a Minister or a Secretary pose the questions to the Supreme Court, signing the letter of reference in the name of the president as the rules of executive business allow for normal government transactions? The President has the right to be informed, consulted, and to advise. He addresses Parliament in joint sessions, usually at the inaugural meeting, and he delivers the annual address on Independence Day in which the Union Government’s policies are outlined. The first President — the ‘Provisional President’ as he was called because the first Parliament had not yet been elected then — was a Shan chief who, after his term, served for several years as Speaker of the Chamber of Nationalities. The Chief Justice of the Union, a Burman, succeeded him, and a Karen leader, who for many years was a Minister, was elected in 1957 for the 5-year term. Parliament in joint session elects the President; if he is a member of Parliament he gives up his seat on taking oath of office. U Win Maung, the President today, is a young man even by Burmese standards, being in his early forties and he has often complained that his office is more suitable for elderly men on the verge of their retirement from active life, then for young men of ambition. U Win Maung has, however, managed to reduce the ceremonial and ritual of his office and make it more popular; he has not hesitated

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to give his views on matters of public interest even if they happen to be controversial, and in his unique way he is helping the development of the role of the President. The AFPFL Split After ten years of holding the State togeher, the AFPFL broke up early in 1958. The party had served the country well and the only alternative to its rule during the period would have been chaos and anarchy or a communist dictatorship. Like people everywhere, the party’s leaders had their weaknesses, but they were up against too many odds and it was to their credit that they kept the name and some of the essence of democracy alive in difficult times. The party broke too because the party system itself was still young and tender; its roots did not go very deep, and people voted for personalities rather than principles and programmes. And the men who had led the AFPFL, the young men who led the university strikes and the resistance, were growing weary of each other’s company and getting on each other’s nerves. The break-up of the AFPFL was the biggest test for the constitution and the greatest opportunity. The two factions called each other names, and dug up the blackest deeds of their past. But they did not go ‘underground’ and take up arms as did the communists in 1948. They fought their wordy wars in the Press and the public places. The constitution, which had lain dormant and forgotten, was remembered and each faction swore by it and pledged itself to die guarding it. The smallest word in the constitution, a full-stop or a comma, took on new significance as different interpretations were advanced of some obscure powers and privileges. Parliament, for many years a formality, now took on great importance, and each individual Member, for many years a mere number or vote, now became a man too woo and win. Resort was had to many sharp practices to win the Members, from bribing them with money or promise of office, to kidnapping or nursing them in well-provided homes for the precious day of voting on the no-confidence motion. Those were not practices to be proud of, but they were fun, and the people enjoyed the fun, as did the newspapers whose sales soared. The main thing was that the constitution survived, and even grew stronger from the crisis. Politicans also began to look upon the Judiciary as a refuge, not a rival,

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and within a few months of the split in the party two references were made by the President on the constitution, as compared with three in the ten preceding years. The Prime Minister threw out the no-confidence motion, but his majority was thin — only 8 — and the National United Front, which the AFPFL used to treat with contempt and dub the ‘aboveground Communist Party’, had supported him. It was an impossible situation, and it became more and more obvious that general elections must be held early to remove the tensions and break the deadlock. The AFPFL was trained in the struggle for freedom and power, and for long years had been accustomed to the exercise of power; now one faction of it was the government, and another was in parliamentary opposition, and the roles were strange to both. Thus the tensions mounted, and Prime Minister U Nu with his inimitable shrewdness and statesmanship decided that power must be handed over to a neutral person or body on a caretaker basis while the parties prepared to seek the people’s mandate in the elections. There were few who were neutral in the country at the time, and it was once again to General Ne Win, Chief of Staff of the Defence Services, whom U Nu had appointed as Deputy Premier in 1949 at the height of the communist insurrection, that the Prime Minister looked. General Ne Win accepted the invitation to lead a caretaker government with modest reluctance and gave a written undertaking, signed by several of his young Colonels as well — to work for the restoration of law and order in the country, and the conduct of fair and free elections within a specified time. U Nu resigned from Premiership at a special session of the Chamber of Deputies and moved that General Ne Win be elected to take over; the NUF growled and grumbled that there had been a coup, but the AFPFL faction which had been in the opposition rejoiced, for now they could take on U Nu on equal terms. The Ne Win Interlude General Ne Win appointed a small Cabinet of Ministers, choosing from among Judges and senior civil servants in order to uphold the political neutrality of his government, and went to his task with zeal and vigour. His time was limited and the task was huge; he set as his prior objectives

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the suppression of insurrections and lawlessness, the lowering of the cost of living, and the creation of conditions in which free elections could be held. He did not seek special powers from Parliament to accomplish his task, nor did he ask the President to give him any by way of Presidential Ordinance. Parliament met as usual in regular sessions, debated and passed the budget and the laws. The General and his Ministers, however, were in the unique position of being able to carry out their work without having to lobby in Parliament or with the parties for votes; they were under no obligations to voters or followers and they were not going to stand for elections. Work therefore progressed smoothly and rapidly yielded remarkable results. Young Colonels and officers were also lent to the civilian departments to inject new energy and confidence into staff who were rather demoralised and confused by the political upheavals, and there was more efficiency and less corruption. Rangoon which was a city fast falling under slums of refugees from the villages was cleaned up and the refugees resettled in the suburbs; that was a task which party governments had attempted several times but given up in the face of demonstrations and demands. For the kind of work it was an advantage for the government to have no elections to face in its near future. Many of the methods used by the Ne Win Government were drastic. The very speed with which things moved was drastic where insurrections and inefficiency had weighed down on everything and reduced motion to a minimum. The stern discipline with which things were done, almost on the scale and certainly on the pattern of military operations, was irksome to the people who were accustomed to a free and happy life. In the midst of all the zealous cleaning up, however, General Ne Win had his sights firmly fixed on the main targets: the upholding of the constitution, the conduct of free elections. His government respected the independence of the Judiciary and tried to give added vigour to the principle of the Rule of Law. People acquired a new confidence in the courts and the government services, and came forth to file reports or give evidence, and the crime indexes fell sharply in a short time. The armed forces in Burma are not yet what are commonly called ‘professional’ or ‘mercenary’. They have grown out of the struggle for freedom, and many of the army leaders were with the political leaders in the struggle. They have their ideals, therefore, and tend to look upon their role as larger than that of mere soldiers in arms. They have good

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intentions, and energy, and for many years when the country has been torn by civil strife, they have had to take on tasks, such as administration, education and welfare, which do not normally fall on soldiers. As soon as the insurrections were put under control, the army had started to train and re-educate itself, and in its search for an unerring and eternal guide had found the constitution. Political parties might come and go, the soldiers decided, but the constitution must abide for all time with its ideals undimmed, and they would respect it and protect it, serving the people and all constitutional governments with loyalty. The constituion thus came to be taught in army schools, and the soldiers became constitution-conscious even before the parties did. That was fortunate for the country, for when General Ne Win became Premier there was never a doubt that he would do his duty under the constitution, hold the elections and give up political power in due time, and, what was equally important, that his officers and men would take his orders, and serve within the constitution unquestioningly. Prospects General elections were held early in February 1960 and U Nu has returned to power with an overwhelming majority. His battlecry in the campaign was ‘Democracy’, and in the few months that he had been back at office he has been showing magnanimity to his opponents and patience and tolerance in all his dealings. He has said that he will devote the next four years of his office to laying firm foundations for democracy and the rule of law, and will not play with fanciful ideas such as welfare and pyidawtha, the happy land. First things must come first, and he has likened Burma to a patient for whom the doctors have almost given up hope, and the administrative machinery to a broken down jeep without tyres or even the essential parts of the engine: ‘I can’t drive this affair at 160 miles an hour!” Burma is still at school, learning what democracy is, trying to make democracy more than a sweet-sounding word, to make it part of the habit and instincts of the people in their daily life. Much has been learnt in the last eventful decade; much more needs to be learnt. The political parties need to learn, for they had been schooled in agitation, in slogan-shouting, demonstrations and strikes. They now need

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to be more constructive. They now need to learn to govern as responsible rulers, or oppose as the responsible opposition. The importance of the Opposition in Parliament was recognised by General Ne Win who established by statute the office of the Opposition Leader on an equal footing with that of a Minister of the Cabinet. Prime Minister U Nu is setting a good example by consulting the Opposition on matters of national interest, and by keeping up friendly relations with its leaders. So unused are the people and the parties to the sight of Government leaders and Opposition leaders smiling together or dining together that every such coming together still gives rise to rumours of reconciliation or a coalition government. The time when such friendly exchanges are taken as normal will be when democracy has found its firm feet. The civil service is being encounraged to serve the government, not the party, and the people loyally. To give them the courage to be independent, the Prime Minister has turned over such matters as appointments, postings and transfers to special committees appointed from the services, and has promised further to improve the conditions of the civil servant. The independence of the Judiciary is respected; the rule of law is a priority; the government has promised to repeal or amend emergency laws, withdraw special arbitrary powers, and submit justiciable issues to the courts and abide by the decisions. The soldiers have returned to the barracks, submitting with grace to civilian authority. The Prime Minister himself has taken the Ministry of Defence and the transition has been smooth. The role of the armed forces in peace-time needs to be thought of and defined, so that the young, eager men, imbued with ideals, may be given the opportunity to serve better in the nation-building. The people need to learn too that democracy is a two-way traffic, a matter of give-and-take, that they too must give to make it grow. Demonstrations and demands, agitation and strikes do not build the nation; quiet, sustained endeavour is required. The people, however, have their lovable traits. They are cheerful, and their Buddhist philosophy teaches them tolerance and patience; they have resilience to recover quickly from the many troubles that have come down on them in recent years. They have also discovered the magic of the secret ballot, and at elections they will always defy the bully and reject the pompous; like all peoples, they

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may be swept along on emotional waves and vote by the heart and not by the head, but they will vote as they wish. The constitution has come through intact, but its search for its levels must continue. Some way must be found, for example, to make the delicate machinery of parliamentary government work; there has been an avalanche for U Nu and he has been able to gather massive majority for his government, but it is not improbable that parties will splinter and split and future governments come under the curse of multi-party parliaments: yet there is no way to develop the two-party system except by the slow process of weeding out the undesirables at elections by educating the voters. Values need to be adjusted and the perspectives set, giving to each his own place, the politician, the civil servant, the professional man, so that all can work and march forward together instead of scrambling for privilege and superiority. The future no doubt has its problems and perils for Burma, but with patience, tolerance and a free mind she should be able to go ahead and grow a democracy which is best suited to her soil.

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SECTION VII

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE PRESIDENCY

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Section VII

DR MAUNG MAUNG AND THE PRESIDENCY

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r Maung Maung’s final public act was to assume, on 19 August 1988, the Chairmanship of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and thereby the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. His occupancy of the highest office in the land may be seen in retrospect as a quixotic attempt to defend a dead political order in the face of massive public protests at the old order’s economic incompetence and geriatric administration under the all purpose slogan of a return to “democracy”. Certainly the nickname that some subsequently gave him, ta lat (one month) Maung Maung, conveys an image of the hopelessness of the task that was set for him. The growing clamour for him and his government to step down and hand over power to the self-appointed leaders of the demonstrators on the streets of Yangon, especially the recently returned daughter of national hero General Aung San, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, former General Tin Oo, former Brigadier General Aung Gyi, and former Prime Minister U Nu, in the end made his efforts to restore peace and order, and then organize a constitutional transition, impossible. Their demand that the old order be abolished was eventually conceded but the ultimate agent of its end was not the leaders of the crowds in the streets but the tatmadaw, on 18 September 1988. 525

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Dr Maung Maung, however, believed he was not defending the old order but preserving the fundamental constitutional point that political change, to be lasting and secure, must be guided by and ultimately maintained by the rule of law, especially a polity’s fundamental law. This was the position he argued at the time as he attempted to reason with the crowd and subsequently in his defense of his Presidency. His speeches given to the Party, the Pyithu Huttaw (people’s assembly) and the nation all conveyed this argument. But was he not being hypocritical in defending the old order in this way in as much as he had acquiesced to the 1962 military coup that abrogated the 1947 constitution and later served under the non-constitutional Revolutionary Council government of General Ne Win? He was accused of this during his Presidency as well as by armchair critics subsequently. Quixotic or not, on the basis of his career and beliefs as a student of constitutionalism as well as of Myanmar’s modern political history, one can see the logic of the position he took in the turmoil of 1988. When General Ne Win invited Dr Maung Maung to serve in the judiciary under the auspices of the non-constitutional Revolutionary Council Government, he had made it clear that it was the intention of the armed forces to return political power to the people. Dr Maung Maung, no doubt as susceptible to General Ne Win’s persuasive charms as most people, had reason to believe, on the basis of previous experience during the Caretaker Government, that the General meant what he said. Moreover, as he recalled in later years, that General Ne Win had stated near the time of the coup that the army should avoid politics in the long run as it was not good for the army. Therefore, the army, with others, would have to form a political party with which to govern and through which power would be handed back to the people.1 Moreover, he pledged to have a constitution drawn up and implemented because, as he said in a meeting with leaders of the old political parties on 4 March 1962, just two days after the coup, “that the Revolutionary Council wished to promulgate a new constitution, for the current constitution was open to too many misinterpretations”.2 Dr Maung Maung was merely one of many people who saw the March 1962 coup as a possibly necessary step to restore orderly government to Burma.3 And nor was General Ne Win alone in thinking that a oneparty state was a more appropriate political system for Myanmar than

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the existing multi-party constitution with its false promise of a “federal” system. Combined, these constitutional features gave rise to continual political pressures for greater devolution of power and increasing autonomy for Myanmar’s hinterlands. As Dr Maung Maung had written the previous year in his introduction to Burma’s Constitution, “Peace and stability, law and order, the rule of law, a strong civil service, an independent and fearless judiciary, a strong Parliament — the big beating heart of democracy — all these must be restored or reinforced or created altogether anew.”4 Was it not the General who had led Burma for eighteen months with a military government that “had respect for regulations and worked ‘by the book’”?5 But of course, history rarely evolves as people hope or optimistically expect and the sentiments expressed by Dr Maung Maung in 1968 in Burma and General Ne Win came back to be paraphrased in one of his presidential speeches: Power held for its own sake is both a corruption and a corruptive influence. Of this Gen. Ne Win is fully aware. He keeps on repeating that power is a trust, and an instrument for building a better life for the people. The best safeguard against the abuse of power is to have the people participate as fully as possible in as many spheres of activity as possible.6

The 1974 constitution was intended to achieve that goal. Coming twelve years after the establishment of the Revolutionary Council government, however, the initial enthusiasm and impetus for the establishment of the one party state had waned, and as history was to show, the following fourteen years of BSPP rule became a mockery of the revolutionary intentions set out in the founding documents of the Party. This is not the place to analyse the reasons for the failure of the BSPP and the 1974 constitutional order that it was responsible for managing. That would require a fuller study. For our purposes, Dr Maung Maung’s words retell his version of what happened. In the oral history he described the constitution and its failings thus: [The] constitution was written on a one party model. Otherwise it was a democratic constitution because there was a lot of decentralisation of power and the decision making given to People’s Councils and so

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on, elected councils, while civil servants were just their staffs. This was a very idealistic constitution and nobody could say it was not democratic. All that one could say was that it was too idealistic, too good to be true. That was what I thought too when the constitution was written. In fact I missed this point, this is too good to be true when power, there is a wide diffusion of power, people will just pass the buck, use the power but not exercise the responsibilities. They will always say please give me guidance. So that was what happened really, and the economy of course, the socialist economy, planned, all the big industries, shops and trading concerns were nationalized, banks and so on. We were not ready, we did not have the staff to run the nationalized industries. Everything, like all nationalized industries everywhere, in England, everywhere, the incentives were gone once it was state owned. The workers, the managers, were salaried and civil servants. And they would also play safe rather than try to improve productivity and all that. They wouldn’t make decision and all that was the thing that happened, nothing very repressive.7

And so by 1988 the country was virtually bankrupt. The government had twice demonetised bank notes in the 1980s; foreign exchange was very, very scarce; and in August 1987 General Ne Win conceded that the socialist one party state and the socialist economy were failures. However, within the year that he had given his senior colleagues to propose reforms for the political and economic order, the public rose against the government in widespread demonstrations. To quote Dr Maung Maung again, So the people, of course, after all the frustrations, rising costs, unemployment, everything, and the students, there were student riots, students in Rangoon were also rising against one thing or the other. And they were not properly handled, a series of mistakes from government, too.8

In mid-July, Chairman Ne Win, the man who had lead Myanmar to the condition it found itself in mid-1988, called a meeting of four senior BSPP officials including Dr Maung Maung. He recalled: We told him … everything we knew, said credibility was very low. He said there was a credibility gap. I said, “No, no, no. There is no credibility gap. Credibility is zero.” And [he said] “Yes, yes, I will do

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something about it.” I did not know what he was going to do, but I suspected that he would do something drastic. Not just opening up the economy. And then he directed the Executive Committee of the Party to summon a special conference at very short notice, two weeks’ notice. [From] all over the country about a thousand of them came down and he got up and said “I’m going to resign. We must have political reforms, people seem to have no confidence in us and we must find out whether those who don’t believe in us any more are the majority or the minority. So the best thing is to go to the people and ask them for their vote on the party system itself, whether the one party system should be abolished”.9

When the Party conference met on 23 July, it heard U Ne Win call for a referendum on maintaining the one-party system; the delegates were also stunned to hear him announce his resignation and the resignations of some of his key associates. Rejecting his recommendation on the referendum and naively content in the belief that if the Party abandoned socialism and opened the economy as the Chinese and Vietnamese Communist Parties had done, the public mood would quieten. The party chose former General U Sein Lwin to succeed U Ne Win. Sein Lwin, whose own reign was to last less than three weeks, attempted to regain order by imposing martial law and arresting a number of prominent spokespersons for the crowds in the streets. However, the demonstrations, far from subsiding in the face of firm government, grew in size and intensity, leading to perhaps millions of people on the streets of Yangon on 8 August 1988 (8-8-88). A number were shot as the army attempted to control the public’s fury in the midst of widespread looting and vendettas against real or alleged government agents. U Sein Lwin resigned on 12 August and Dr Maung Maung succeeded him. His family, doubtless concerned about his health, he was then sixtythree and suffering from diabetes and hypertension, attempted to persuade him not to accept the presidency. He explained that the situation in the country was at that time “in a very bad way, but if [he] could, if during [his] term in office, which [he] expected to be quite short, instead of 1000 people dying, only 100 did, and if I could save 900 lives, then it would be worth it.”10 As Party Chairman and President, Dr Maung Maung gave five speeches during his time in office. Each of them were written in the

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Myanmar language and presented personally. All five speeches are reprinted in The 1988 Uprising in Burma11 with Dr Maung Maung’s own elegant translation. The speeches reprinted below, except for one, are the translations that appeared in the official government newspaper, The Working People’s Daily, the day after their presentation.12 The first of his speeches was to a meeting of the BSPP Central Committee. At that meeting Central Executive Committee’s decided to appoint a seven man commission to assess the people’s economic, political and social demands and to report to the session of parliament that was to meet as scheduled in October was confirmed. It was to be chaired by U Tin Aung Hein, long a close associate of the new President, and like Dr Maung Maung, noted for his honesty. Presumably it was believed that this would be sufficient to cool the demands of the public in the streets and get them to return to work or school. Dr Maung Maung’s address of the 19th of August appears to be crafted in much this spirit.13 Admitting to the Party’s previous mistakes, he exhorted his colleagues to reform themselves and their work habits in order to fulfill the original intentions of the Party. Before the inquiry commission could meet and formulate a method for assessing the public mood, members of the Central Committee had concluded that such a step would be meaningless and inadequate to quell the public’s anger. They pressed for reviving the referendum proposal that U Ne Win had made in July and Dr Maung Maung, who concurred in this view, announced over radio and television that this question would be put to a Party Congress in the immediate future. Moreover, he announced the end of the measures that U Sein Lwin had implemented to control the demonstrations, including lifting martial law and releasing a number of political prisoners.14 As he subsequently explained, My immediate priority was to hold the referendum that was rejected [by the party], at least hold it and I knew that if a referendum was held, the answer would be straight, that we had a multi-party system.… I lifted the military administration and hoped the people would respond. Set Aung Gyi and people free… I set a lot of political detainees free, students, seven, eight hundred of them and so on. And the response at first was good, people responded. Again all kind of things came in, foreign intervention, you know, the people were out on the streets. Aung Gyi was there, U Nu was there and everybody

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was there, without any common programme, common identity. All they wanted to do was do away with the party, get rid of the government and step in. Which was a silly thing for them to expect. There was the army there united working with us. Later, General Saw Maung came to me and said, well, do whatever you want, we have faith in you. If you want to assemble an interim government, please do that, it’s all right. But you have to lead. We can’t be swept aside and U Nu come in or Aung San Suu Kyi come in or Aung Gyi come in. We can’t accept this because, after all, what is their claim to power?15

Prior to Dr Maung Maung’s second speech to explain the constitutional necessity of a referendum in order to move to a new political system and government, demonstrations had continued to grow. There continued to be calls for a nation wide strike increasingly heard from the mass demonstrations on 22 August. By that time, the administration of the government had for all practical purposes collapsed. Soon after Dr Maung Maung’s 24 August speech, so-called people’s committees sprang up across the country to create order in local communities. Strike centres also arose to attempt to coordinate activities against the government. On the same day as martial law was lifted, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made her first public appearance, in the front of Yangon General Hospital, where she announced she would make a major speech at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda on 26 August. Arriving three hours late, she called on the sizeable crowd who had turned out in the rain to listen to her to organize a “second struggle for independence”, a direct comparison of the Ne Win regime with the British colonial regime from which her father had gained independence 1948. Such an inappropriate analogy was bound to increase political antagonisms on all sides. The demonstrations unabating, and with thousands of prisoners released from prison following the inability of the authorities to maintain order in them, or indeed feed the inmates, the political intrigue grew and grew. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was receiving advice from American and other diplomats while former politicians of the left, including former Communists, rallied to her cause. Amidst this kaleidoscopic scene, former Prime Minister U Nu announced he was forming a rival government with a number of former politicians including some who denied supporting him. Around the same time a meeting was held at Guardian Sein Win’s home between U Aung Gyi, U Tin Oo, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

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where they agreed to form a politician party that eventually emerged as the National League for Democracy. The inchoate nature of the political demands upon the state were matched by the lack of unity and trust amongst the self-appointed leaders of the demonstrators. Tempers ran high and emotions strong but cool political calculation was being little applied except in the offices of President Maung Maung and those who advised him. The key political leaders, U Nu, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin U, and U Aung Gyi, wished to contact the President. He said, Come, come, then let us talk and they would disappear. I wasn’t able to reach them. I did manage to talk with U Nu, and Suu Kyi, and Tin U, and others through intermediaries and they were too disorganized.… Question: Were they in a position to control their followers? No, no. That was what I thought. If they were in the position to control, [that] would have been an asset to us. We could have worked together and they could have said, well, look, we are now in the government, let us end all this, the demonstrations and so on and proceed to general elections. No, nobody was, not Aung San Suu Kyi. At this time, in September 1988, we have to go back to that, she was just started. She was just a young bright girl, wearing the name of Aung San, but she was an untested, unknown figure. Even now she is unknown of course, but she is better known, but she is an untested person. Aung Gyi too was saying all kinds of things. One day he would write to me and say that well, take me into your administration in any capacity, not as a minister or anything, but me on the Election Commission and I will serve. The next day he would be on the street saying that the government had to be thrown out, you know. There crowds were there, moving, shifting, and you don’t know to whom they belong.16

As the demonstrations showed no signs of abating, and the calls for a continued general strike until the government stepped down and handed power to who ever came forward to represent the people in the streets, the Central Executive Committee of the BSPP met in both formal and informal settings to discuss how to regain control of the situation. In the end, it was determined that moving directly to multiparty elections and abandoning the planned referendum on changing the constitution would have to be the way forward. This was announced on 10 September in Dr Maung Maung’s Chairman’s speech to the BSPP

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Extraordinary Congress.17 Following the Congress’s concurrence with the recommendation of the executive committee, the move was explained the next day to what became the last meeting of the Pyithu Hluttaw.18 At the time, and subsequently, critics of the BSPP and its Chairman, as well as U Ne Win who many saw as the eminence grise of the drama, claimed that the referendum had merely been a ploy to forestall the inevitable collapse of the old order. While Dr Maung Maung, facing the reality of the situation, went along with those who recommended abandoning the referendum,19 he felt this was a regrettable, if necessary move. It proved to be insufficient, however, to quell the hysteria that had grown daily and in the end, on 19 September, the army ousted him from power. When the coup came, he did not object. As he said subsequently, the army was … the last hope, no alternative left. I did not object. I personally agreed that this was the thing to do, there was nothing else to be done. Otherwise there will be anarchy and civil war and all of that. But I didn’t talk it over with him [General Saw Maung], agree with him, and so on. There was no point.20

Looking back on his one month presidency, Dr Maung Maung expressed that he had one regret. That was … that we were not able to affect a peaceful transition, not able to preside over a peaceful transition. If we had been able to switch to a multi-party system in 1988 as U Ne Win suggested, then we would have been the first in the world to do that. To relinquish monopoly on power voluntarily, without being pressed. But still, things have happened.21

On the other hand, his presidency was one, he felt, in which he had been … able to do quite a few things. For example, lifting the military administration, getting people like Aung Gyi out of jail, deciding on the multi-party, abolishing the socialist economy, the one-party system, and deciding on elections, preparing for them, appointing an Election Commission and so on. And in my time, no force was used. Nobody was shot in anger, no body died.… There were, of course, lootings and killings amongst themselves and so on.… And the press was free.… So it was not altogether an unsatisfying period, even though it was short.22

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Nearly two decades after President Maung Maung offered to organise multi-party elections and for himself and his senior Party colleagues to resign from both administrative and political life, many in Myanmar, with the advantage of historical hindsight, recognise that an opportunity for peaceful political change was lost. Perhaps it was never a viable proposition. It certainly was not for the impassioned orators on the streets of Yangon in August and September 1988. But had the leaders of the political opposition thought in more calculating, and less emotional terms, they might have been able to achieve a degree of power which has eluded them ever since. But that would have required them to trust Dr Maung Maung’s word. As he wrote forty years earlier, in his September 1948 radio talk, “My Politics”, … while we let time and opportunity slip by, our debts will grow, not intangible debts, but very real, and under their weight which grows heavier, we shall gradually sink. Not a happy prospect, that. My politics therefore stands for unity, moderation, and a determined drive in our nation building programme. Let us work together in close friendship, as we used to do in every phase of our national struggle before. Let not suspicion poison our heart and cloud our eyes. Let those who hide in the shadows come out and join us in our united endeavour, and we may yet save our country. Let us unite while there is still time.23

Notes 1. Interview, p. 213 and p. 215, quoted above at Section I, p. 17. 2. Chit Hlaing, “The Tatmadaw and My Political Career”, unpublished paper translated by Kyaw Yin Hlaing. 3. See, for example, [United State Ambassador to Burma] John Everton, “The Ne Win Coup in Burma”, Asia (New York) (Autumn, 1964), p. 6. 4. Burma’s Constitution (The Hague: M. Njhoff, 1961), p. xiv. 5. “Discussion on Paper 6”, in R.N. Spann, ed., Constitutionalism in Asia (London: Asia Publishing House, 1963), p. 113. 6. Burma and General Ne Win (London: Asia Publishing House, 1969), p. 295. 7. Interview, pp. 68–70. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid., p. 74. 10. Ibid., p. 102.

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11. Speech of 19 August on pp. 68–72; of 24 August on pp. 86–88; of 1 September on pp. 108–12; on 10 September on pp. 184–88; and of 11 September on pp. 197–202. 12. The speech of 24 August was not printed in the English language version of the The Working People’s Daily until 28 August. Conditions were such then that the press had been able to function for four days. 13. Section VII, A. 14. Section VII, B. 15. Interview, pp. 78–79. 16. Ibid., p. 83. 17. Section VII, D. 18. Section VII, E. 19. “In fact, I wanted to do it, but the people knowing we were weak, they thought we were on our knees already. They only wanted to administer the last, the fatal blows. They wouldn’t accept the referendum they didn’t want. So that was why, in the last Parliament, we even skipped the referendum and we said, all right, we abolish the one party system. We set aside the constitution and we won’t hold the referendum any more. But we will hold general elections on a multi-party basis. And then that was what we decided. And then we appointed the Election Commission… and set the country on the move, new racks, new system. But things were really bad, out of control. Anarchy had stepped in, civil administration had broken down, the police were demoralized, they had melted away. We decided not to use the army unless absolutely necessary and we put them in the barracks and so on, in the background.” Interview, p. 83. 20. Interview, p. 97. 21. Ibid., p. 101. 22. Ibid., pp. 101–102. 23. Section II, B., above.

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Section VII, A.

ADDRESS TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BSPP, 19 AUGUST 1988

M

embers of the Central Committee,

It has now been a year since Party Chairman U Ne Win gave guidance for reviewing the experiences gained during 25 years, for improving and consolidating the good points, correcting mistakes and bringing about basic changes in works that cannot be implemented. While measures for bringing about necessary basic changes in the economic and political field, were being discussed, drafted and prepared for presenting to the people on completion, there arose upheavals and disturbances in the country and among the people and we felt those acts which hit at us like a severe storm. Instead of trying to seek out, in a mood of anger and vengeance, who created this storm, how it gathered or who were involved, we, together with the people, can only feel happy in hope that they storm has come

Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung presidential speech, “Address to the Central Committee of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), 19 August 1988”, published in The Working People’s Daily, 20 August 1988, by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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to pass. We, on our part, must find ways and means and make earnest endeavours so that we may not experience such traumatic and dangers again in the future. It has not even been a month yet that measures for bringing about basic economic changes were presented and discussed and decisions passed at the Extraordinary Party Congress. Had the people’s minds been engaged only with these changes, it would have been a matter of great joy and satisfaction. If all the people, nationals, citizens, adults and young people, poured their strength, financial resources and technical skills into the economic ventures which had been opened to them, they would have not only enough work but even room to spare. Only by working together like this will the national economic improve. Increased cultivation, production and distribution and stepped-up exports will result in more imports for the people. This would mean enough food and other requirements for the people. Only if the people work together to the best of their ability, will they be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour quickly and, in the long run, bring about benefits which future generations can enjoy. Such constructive activities must be carried out collectively with perseverance and tenacity; confrontation, agitation, and destructive acts are no substitutes. The fact that they are not borne out is demonstrated by the experience gained by us for a number of years following the regaining of Burma’s independence in 1948. Youths and young adults who have no knowledge of what took place then had a sample of what it was like in the past few days. The youths and young adults of today are bright, smart and sharp. The brief experience they had recently should be enough for them. Hence, I would like to invite them to speedily start working together in a peaceful and stable manner for bringing about economic development and a better quality of life for the people in the interest of the country. As this cannot be done overnight, I would like to ask that sufficient time be given for carrying out these tasks, in unity and in peace and tranquillity. While collectively working to ensure that the people can live and work in a peaceful atmosphere to bring down commodity prices and bring about favourable economic conditions which are of immediate importance, stops must be taken at the same time to ascertain the true wishes of the people in a constructive and candid manner. We will have

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to work to the best of our ability to fulfil the fair wishes of the people once they are known.

Members of the Central Committee, It is not enough just to exhort people and to lecture them. We will also have to honestly examine ourselves, make self-criticisms and effect changes. The State Constitution was drafted with the objective of enabling the people to actively participate and decide on their own affairs, on the village, township, division, state and national levels. The drafts were presented to the people on numerous occasions to obtain their views and suggestions and these were incorporated in subsequent drafts. The third draft, drawn up after close and frank discussions with the people for two/three years, was put to a national referendum and this became a Constitution which was thus given to the people by themselves. Under this Constitution, all citizens are eligible to stand for election. They need not be Party members. It was in 1974 while preparations were being made for the first elections — when nominations were being considered by the Pyithu Hluttaw and for State/Division People’s Council representatives — that Party Chairman U Ne Win appealed to the people from a Party Central Committee meeting, that though the candidates had promised to be worthy representatives of the people, the voters would know better and they should therefore feel free to reject those who were not considered suitable and that only those who would be their true representatives be nominated. At the first elections, some non-Party members were elected right up to the Pyithu Hluttaw where some were also assigned duties as members of the Central Organs of Power. This exhortation to choose as candidates only good and able persons respected by the community for elections as people’s representatives was made at every election. Numerous other elections have been held, but at such times there was a lot of work to be done under pressure of circumstances and vacancies were getting fewer with the result that certain shortcomings crept in the matter of co-ordinating new candidatures. People’s representatives with credentials which satisfy the people are bound to emerge if thorough co-ordination was conducted for the selection

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of widely respected candidates and if appropriate advance measures are taken well before the end of each term to ensure smoothness in the rotation of duties. It would, of course, be difficult to find candidates who enjoy a hundred per cent support. But if sufficient time is taken to discuss and co-ordinate matters with the people, they will be more inclined to understand and accept. According to the Constitution, all levels of people’s representatives should be in constant touch with their constituents — constantly providing feedback to the people about what is being done, and more importantly, listening to their wishes — as prescribed in the Chapter on Fundamental Principles. But in practice, when this requirement is carried out in meeting the respective constituencies once a year, we should reassess ourselves as to whether or not there had been too much oratory and too little serious effort to listen to the people and to get things done for their benefit. It is not enough for us to be merely making speeches, laying down policies and guidelines. We, on our part, must also do our share of listening with patience, of making notes and of getting things done. It is our duty to get things done. We have stood for election declaring that we wished to carry out our duty and have become people’s representatives through their votes. Of course, we realise this to a certain degree. But the people who are demonstrating sincerely give an indication that there is room for improvement for further realisation, for better understanding and more effective action. We do not, of course, include in this, the purveyors of violence and those who place their hopes and loyalties elsewhere. It is the same with the Party — that good and able men to get to the right place. Our Party is well founded and organised with rules and regulations and ideological philosophies and objectives properly defined. Peasants, workers, students and youths and people of all strata are included. The Party has been organised throughout the country to the grassroots. We founded the Party, openly declaring that we would give greater priority to the interests of the nation than to that of the Party, that we would not enjoy special privileges for being Party members and that there shall be no disadvantage for being a Party member. For this reason, Party members should not be a privileged class but be models of public service. More open discussions within the Party coupled with greater effectiveness in fulfilling the people’s wishes after objective appraisal of the people’s conditions should help further develop

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the Party into a more genuine People’s Party. We should candidly reassess if there are any shortcomings in our efforts to be models in serving the people’s welfare and in frank and open discussions at all levels of Party organisations. There is also urgent need to bring about correction and improvements. How can decisions be made more correctly without objective cognition of reality? Justice cannot be carried out merely by referring to law books without knowing the full facts. Nor can right or correct decisions be made this way. We cannot cure without knowing the nature of the disease. And when we talk of facts and truths, it should be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Right and wrong should not be mixed up.

Members of the Central Committee, There is much we need to do hand in hand with the people. We still have a long way to go. It will be of no avail to go on disputing, blaming one another. Even if we cannot fulfil all the rising hopes of the people at once we will have to calmly make broad studies and enquiries and fulfil expeditiously as much as possible. For that, civil peace, prevalence of law and order and national solidarity are vital and a prerequisite. The habit of respecting law is most important. It is a virtuous instance that the people themselves participated together with the Sangha, other religious leaders, ward elders, Tatmadaw, Party and Council organisations in some townships, ward and villages to keep the peace, spurred by truly bitter experiences in the practical reality of the issue. It is also in accord with Burmese tradition and customs. It is also most noble and effective that the Sayadaws and the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee made a request, out of their own volition and deep feelings, for the citizens to present their just demands civilly within the framework of law and not to be impatient just because they cannot immediately get all that they want, and for the government to abide by the ten tenets of the ruler and comply with the legitimate wishes of the ruler. Similarly, leaders of Islam, Christian and Hindu religions have made requests to those of their faiths. In our country, traditionally, there has been no religious repression. Freedom of religion is an important

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provision of the Constitution. There have been few religious conflicts occurring without outside influence and instigation. Just as the Sangha, other religious leaders, ward elders, residents and senior citizens in the wards in co-operation with the government help maintain civil peace and tranquillity, if parents, teachers and students could together safeguard the peaceful pursuit of studies at schools and universities, it will be possible to reopen them as permitted by the situation. For this whole academic year classes have had to be suspended frequently so much so that students could barely pursue their studies despite the high costs that have to be incurred. It was learnt that when classes at universities had be suspended students, who wished to pursue their studies peacefully, students who were taking examinations broke into tears, and appealed to the authorities to keep the classes open, to let them carry on with their examinations. Perhaps it might have gone unnoticed by the people but in the order issued by the military administration in Rangoon Division, one task given to the military administration authority was to help promote peaceful pursuit of studies. In connection with education it is necessary to study most carefully, co-ordinate and effect changes that will truly be beneficial rather than experimenting at random from time to time. We are endeavouring also to enable educated youths to quickly get into fields of work beneficial to the country compatible with their skills.

Central Committee members, In the present times in any country, politics is economics. To provide food, clothing and shelter to the people, and in the next stage to raise their standards of living, is the main task. Accordingly, the Extraordinary Party Congress has opened up economic avenues. The Pyithu Hluttaw too has prescribed the resolutions of the Congress as tasks to be carried out by the government and delegated them to the Council of State for expeditious implementation. The Council of State, the central and regional organs of power must strive to realise them expeditiously. And they have already started to do so. We all must strive for success without fail. It is not necessary to sit and write complicated laws, rules and procedures. There is no time either. Necessary laws must of course be

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prescribed from somewhere, explained clearly to be understood by the people, and implemented without fail by all organisations. Only by working in such a clear and easy way will things move. If easy things are made difficult, difficult changes made impossible, with one order issued from here, another from there, with many forms prescribed, a great number of copies required, things will be weighed down with paper, hardly possible to get moving and our good intentions will come to nought. So it is necessary that we, ourselves, Party and Council at different levels, and services organisations, change our ways of thinking and habits and strive all round. It is vital to have peace in the country and have the people participate in these constructive endeavours, with full enthusiasm and confidence.

Members of the Central Committee, The fire of dosa (anger) can be doused with the water of metta (loving kindness). False words and deeds can be overcome only with true words and deeds — with truth. So I conclude with a call upon all to firmly imbibe the principle of metta (loving kindness) and truth, and work for the good of the people together with the people with might and main, unswervingly, and with full confidence.

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Section VII, B.

ADDRESS TO THE NATION, 24 AUGUST 1988

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eople of the country,

The emergency proclamation and the military administration orders that had been issued in Rangoon and Prome has been revoked since 1 pm today. It is the primary duty of the government of the State to safeguard the country, peace and security of life and property of the people. The people themselves, too, have the duty to collectively keep control of their own communities and go about their life and work in accord with law. In taking measures for the rule of law as of duty, the government has to exercise power in accord with the conditions. It is very difficult to accurately weight the extent of power to be exercised. If it is very violent, duty has to be assigned to the Tatmadaw to control the situation.

Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung presidential speech, “Address to the Nation, 24 August 1988”, published in The Working People’s Daily (28 August 1988), by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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Leaders and members of the Tatmadaw, being offspring of the indigenous working people, loathe to confront the people. Just as there are many who demonstrate sincerely as prompted by their own feelings, there are also those who mingle in various guises to exploit the situation and perpetrate looting, destruction and violence and it is very difficult to differentiate between them. At such times it tends to so happen that things, which should not, happen, rage grows, and some further inflame this rage, so all that tend to fan the fires difficult to extinguish. So, now, the Tatmadaw after transferring back the military administration duties, will be able to resume its primary duties, going out to forward areas when the time comes, to crush internal and external dangers, the duties it has performed undauntedly and strenuously all along. We would like to have amity between the people and the Tatmadaw which was born out of supreme struggle for independence and brought up and nurtured with correct concepts of discipline by prominent leaders in the history of the country, which had stepped in and kept control in times of crises in the country and has shouldered all assigned duties. I would like to speak of the next important point — the matter of holding a referendum to determine whether to continue to practise the one-party system of change over to a multi-party system. It is a matter the Party Chairman opened for, at the Extraordinary Party Congress held in July. The primary objective of the Congress was to strive in all ways for resolving food, clothing and housing conditions of the people and bringing about economic development of the country. However, as it was feared that such concentrated endeavours might be hindered by political arguments, as it was doubted the holding of the referendum is appropriate at such a time when it is not easy to travel, and when the farmers are busy in the fields during the rainy season, and also as Party delegates were so attached to the one-party system that had been promulgated by the will of the people in the Constitution, the Congress did not accept the proposal to hold a nation-wide referendum to determine whether the people want the one-party system of the multiparty system. As it was not accepted by the Congress it would be difficult to get accepted by the Hluttaw made up of most Congress delegates even if it was submitted again at the Pyithu Hluttaw.

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Address to the Nation, 24 August 1988

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So a way was opened by forming the commission for ascertaining the desires and aspirations of the people to tour the various States and Divisions and seek the desires and aspirations of the people and complete the work in September for considerations at the regular session of the Pyithu Hluttaw in October. In the meantime it will no longer be necessary for the people to rally on the streets as they can go and submit matters to the commission. It was helped with goodwill that citizens would come individually or in groups and organisations, present their desires and aspirations in peace and tranquility in wards and villages; the people would be able to carry out their work without any danger to life and property; and trade would become normal and prices of commodities would fall. But it did not turn out like that. So, placing the interests of the country, the interests of all the people and national unity to the fore, we have made arrangements thus. Extraordinary Party Congress would be held as soon as possible and the matter of ascertaining the desires and aspirations of the people would be submitted again. Since delegates from all over the country, from hilly regions to the plains, would have to be summoned it would be held within two to three weeks. There shall be no cause to say it is mere delaying move as it has already been decided by the Congress and it would be to no avail if it is submitted again. The Congress delegates too come from the midst of the people and will know the changed situations. Another thing is that if the Congress accepts only the single party system and refuses to accept the multi-party system and decides not to hold a national referendum, all Party Central Executive Committee members will resign from their duties and retire from being Party members. I would repeat again to make this clear. If the Party Congress refuses to accept the holding of national referendum, I, Party Chairman; U Aye Ko, General Secretary; Thura Kyaw Htin, Joint General Secretary; and Central Executive Committee members Thura U Tun Tin, U Tun Yi, U Chit Hlaing, U Hla Tun, U Ye Goung, U Than Tin, General Saw Maung, Lt.-Gen. Than Shwe, U Tint Swe, U Sein Tun, and U Khin Maung Gyi will all resign from duty and retire from being Party members. If the Party Congress decides to hold the national referendum, it will be presented to the Hluttaw session the next day and the national referendum will be held within a month or so.

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There will be those who do not want to wait, those without patience to proceed according to the Constitution but if the people are going to accept the multi-party system, Article 11 in the main principles of the Constitution will have to be amended. This Constitution was drawn and promulgated by the indigenous people themselves. So, Article 11 cannot be amended without seeking the wishes of the indigenous people. If the people truly cherish prevalence of law and order, they have to respect and abide by the law. They have to have patience. As the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Sayadaw had requested, we would like to appeal to the people to call for what they want peaceably in accord with the law and not to be angry and impatient because they do not immediately get what they want. The Aparihaniya Dhamma so necessary for prosperity of the country, also involves unity and abidance by the existing laws and rules until they are amended. National Referendum Convening Commissions will be extensively formed at central and lower levels. Invitations will be made to submit the names of persons the people can respect and accept. What has been provided in the Constitution too is that persons on the Council of State, the Council of Ministers and so on, shall not be included in such a commission, in such a general elections commission. If the people choose to change the single-party system and accept the multi-party system, the Pyithu Hluttaw will be promptly held, the multi-party system will be adopted, the remaining tenure of the Hluttaw will be reduced and the general election in which multi-parties can participate will be held. Persons proposed and respected by the people will be included, in coordination, in the commission to supervise these elections. Even if not noticed by the people, it will be known to those in the legal field that amendments have been made to the regular four year term of the Hluttaw. It is not permitted to extend the period of term. That is from our true cetana (good will). It is provided so that the term cannot be extended, only reduced if wanted. In the general elections to beheld in future, I and members of the Council of State, the Council of Ministers, the Council of People’s Justices, The Council of People’s Attorneys and the Council of People’s

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Inspectors will not be standing for election. Only as of duty given under the Constitution will we remain to hand over duties to the emerging organizations. So we have no personal interest, attachment and hope in the national referendum and in the general elections except our wishes for them to be most expeditious, right and fair. We had taken part as young men in the nation’s independence struggle and we feel happy to have performed all kinds of duties towards the country till now. We should retire when it is time to retire, we will have given a turn to active youths who come up. I will once more repeat important points. Extraordinary Party Congress will be held in the next two or three weeks. There will be submitted again to seek the will of the people as to what they want — the single party system or the multi-party system. If the Congress refuses to hold a referendum, all the 14 Party Central Executive Committee members including myself will resign from Party duty. If the Congress decides to hold a referendum, the Pyithu Hluttaw will meet and decided the following day, and it will be arranged to hold a referendum in the shortest possible time. For the supervision of the referendum a commission will be formed with persons who have respect and confidence of the people in coordination with the people. If it turns out that the people want multi-party system the Constitution will be amended as necessary, the current term of the Pyithu Hluttaw will be reduced and general elections will be held as soon as possible. The Commission to supervise the elections will also be formed with the people who have respect and confidence of the people. In those elections, I myself, members of the Council of State, Council of Ministers, Council of People’s Justices, Council of People’s Attorneys, and Council of People’s Inspectors will not be standing for election. Only as duty given by the Constitution will we remain to hand over duties to the organizations to be formed after the elections.

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People of the country, So as to proceed in an orderly way like that we need to be united among ourselves. If the oxen break up the tiger will devour them, as the saying goes, Peace and tranquility is essential. Under disquieting conditions how can anything be done with any peace of mind? How can there be free expression of wishes? How can free elections be held? The government on its part will continue to strive for economic development of the country and improvement of people’s living conditions as much as possible. It will also strive all it can for the prevalence of law and order. Finally, the most important of all is for the Sangha, religious leaders, elders, residents and public servants to keep control on their own communities. I would like to request all to work civilly together to fulfil the just and true wishes of the people with metta (loving kindness) and truthfulness.

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Section VII, C.

ADDRESS TO THE NATION, 1 SEPTEMBER 1988

P

eople of the country,

We are now making arrangements to hold the Extraordinary Party Congress on 12 September and then to hold an emergency session of the Pyithu Hluttaw on 13 September, to decide on the holding of the national referendum as to whether the single party system is to be continued or whether to change over to a multi-party system; and for holding a free and just national referendum within one month. If the answer received is a choice for a multi-party system, general elections will be held as quickly as possible and in the most just manner under the supervision of free and independent election commissions. The party which is strongest in the Hluttaw will form a government. We will then hand over matters to that government. This I promised in my address on 24 August. This promise was not given by me alone; this promise was made by me and all my colleagues with the most genuine cettana.

Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung presidential speech, “Address to the Nation, 1 September 1988”, published in The Working People’s Daily (2 September 1988), by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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This arrangement is the most convenient and possible one according to the Constitution. We are not in a position to employ methods which are contrary to the Constitution for my colleagues and I have been entrusted with responsibility according to law. The life blood of religion rests in the codes of conduct, the vinaya and disciplines; this is the case in all other religions. For the Tatmadaw, its life blood is discipline. In a nation, the life blood of civilised existence which enables people to live in peace and tranquillity is law and order. We have heard and seen demonstrations in the town. We sympathize with the people and we are doing our very best to fulfil the just aspirations of the people as quickly as possible. Some are saying that having written the Constitution, we should abolish it and form an interim government, and then hold elections in which many parties can compete. The fact is that it was not we who drew up the Constitution. The Constitution was drawn up with the participation of the people and it was adopted after a national referendum in which artistes, students, Tatmadaw, and all the rest of the working people participated overwhelmingly. Some of those who are now calling for changing or abolishing the Constitution must have also participated at that time. I don’t know if these people have forgotten after some 14 years; in the life of a nation the period of 14 years would correspond to yesterday. If changes are needed, they must of course be made. It was the desire to make changes if needed that the matter of a multi-party system was open for discussions at the Party Congress in July. Before this nobody thought about it or demanded it. The people are now demonstrating because they can no longer bear the experiences of the 14 years which the term of the Constitution had remained as mere words on paper even though the Constitution in fact provides controls against any single person or group from gaining and exercising absolute power. The Constitution provides such control by spreading and sharing authority from the centre right down to the ward and village tract. Present conditions give opportunity for all those who would like to exploit the situation by using many methods including blatant violence or by pandering to the genuine and just wishes of the people. Just as the roads are full of the sounds of militant demonstrators and others who have been brought along by other means, there are many people who are having to live in fear and anxiety day and hide in their

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Address to the Nation, 1 September 1988

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homes and those who are having to take turns at kin (guard duty). It is also necessary to listen to the silent cry of such people who are also suffering. If the referendum and the elections are genuinely free and just, the authentic aspirations of the majority of the people is bound to emerge clearly and distinctly. Can you not wait until the people’s wishes become clear and distinct in such a way? I shall not dwell too long on these aspects because I have more important things to speak about. However the things which are being spoken about today have occurred twice in the history of independent Burma. The first time was when in 1958, the party in power split. Instead of solving party matters within the party they sought to resolve it in parliament; when this could not be done the Chief of Staff of the Defence Services was invited to form a caretaker government, like the interim government now being spoken about; the Chief of Staff gave priority to the prevalence of law and order and held the most just and freest elections in history. Just how free it was may be seen from the fact that the party concerned won a landslide victory due to the overwhelming votes of the people and because a majority of the members of the Tatmadaw also voted for that party even though some commanders were known to have given orders to contrary; at that time the Chief of Staff of the Defence Services had given specific instructions to all commanders to allow all members of the Tatmadaw to vote freely; quite a lot of commanders who did not follow the instructions of the Chief of State had to leave the Tatmadaw after the elections. The caretaker government at that time was formed in full accordance with the Constitution. Therefore there was no case of contravention of the Constitution. The Hluttaw (Parliament) too did not have to be dissolved. Even when the caretaker government wished to promulgate a law it did it after consulting the two parties at the Hluttaw and with the Hluttaw’s consent. The new constitution does not contain the matter of forming an interim government. It would depend entirely on the desire of those in the future to amend or draw up an entire new constitution. The next instance was in 1962 when the Tatmadaw had to assume the reins of power under the leadership for the Chief of Staff; that was the period of the Revolutionary Council when quite a large number of now retired commanders participated. At that time the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council declared that the Tatmadaw had had to intervene

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due to unavoidable national circumstances and that this kind of action was not a good precedent; in order to prevent repetition it was important to found a united people’s party; members of the major political parties were invited to join and leaders of a lot of parties did so. The, the constitution was drawn up, national referendum held and adopted, elections held in accord with the wishes of the people and organisations including the Pyithu Hluttaw came into existence. That is the reason why, what kind of method is being demanded by asking for the abolition of the constitution, the Hluttaw, the Councils and the formation of an interim government? It is necessary to submit the demands in such a way that they are clear, practical and easily understood by the people. The idea behind it is not for us to argue, put the blame on others and make personal attacks. Members of the Sangha, the people and students all have reasoning power. It is just the case of recounting some of the significant historical events for majority of them to understand as these events occurred before they were born.

People of the country, Now I would like to submit important facts: (1) We are to abide by the Constitution and the Laws and Rules In order to hold a free and independent referendum in accordance with those laws so as to enable the people to choose one-party system or multi-party system, the Party Congress and the Hluttaw Session to be convened in the near future will decide that matter. The reason why we are taking pains to call the Party Congress and the Pyithu Hluttaw session is to be in accord with Article II of the Constitution. The Article II of the Constitution states: “The State shall adopt a single-party system. The Burma Socialist Programme Party is the sole political party and its shall lead the State.” If we want to amend that article, we have to hold a nation-wide referendum. Because of the Article 194 of the Constitution states: “Article 11… and Article 194 of Chapter XV shall be amended with the prior approval of 75 per cent of all the members of the Pyithu Hluttaw, in a nation-wide referendum only with a majority vote of more than

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Address to the Nation, 1 September 1988

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half of those who have the right to vote.” We are not in a position to contravene the provisions of the Constitution. We would not like to leave a heritage of casual contravention of law for the future generation. All people are therefore requested to lend a helping hand for successfully holding the Party Congress and the Pyithu Hluttaw session. You all are requested to consider the matter of holding the Congress and the Hluttaw session as your concern. (2) Please render help for enabling those who are highly regarded by the people to supervise the referendum and the general elections to be held. We also request Sanghas and leaders of the religious associations in some regions to supervise right from protecting the polling booths up to the time of counting the votes. (3) In the past students have rendered assistance in holding the nationwide referendum and in compiling electoral rolls. They too are now invited to participate in these tasks. (4) Student youths are now demanding for forming students’ union in a systematic way. We promise to rebuild the Students’ Union building that was demolished in 1962. Let us rejoice at the foundation-laying ceremony in the near future when peace and tranquillity have been restored and when all are free from worry and anger. (5) People living in some townships, wards and village-tracts are now concerned with lack of security as there is no administration there. In such a situation, sanghas, ward elders and students are in accord with the people’s wishes are taking security duties for ensuring peace and tranquillity in their communities. We are thankful to those persons taking security duties by forming temporary organisations. Request is also made for the departmental personnel, Tatmadaw and People’s Police Force to render assistance to these organisations. (6) Public service personnel, employees from transport sectors and bank employees are urged to resume their duties in the interest of the people. The people are now facing difficulties in livelihood and transportation. We do understand the services personnel for their

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participation in the demonstrations and their submitting papers either of their own will or inevitably [i.e., under duress]. Action will not be taken against them. However, they are from now on to perform their duties abiding by discipline, with conscience and honesty. The people are urged to assist the public services personnel and the people’s police force to perform their tasks dutifully for the sake of the people. (7) The People’s Tatmadaw is now praised and honoured by all and is on good terms with all. The Tatmadaw, which took responsibility in holding the national referendum as well as in the general elections in 1974, should continue to perform their duties by abiding by discipline and being loyal to the people. Regarding the multi-party system, the delegates from the Tatmadaw promised at the Extraordinary Party Congress in July to dutifully perform whatever tasks assigned to them by the Congress. I would like to remind you people of that promise and to have faith in it. (8) Our humble request to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Sayadaws, members of the Sangha and leaders of religious associations does not mean to mingle politics with religion. We know that the Sayadaws and religious leaders are over-burdened with these tasks and are feeling sad. However requests have been made not for the sake of any political party but for the sake of the country in such matter as ensuring peaceful daily life of the people, enabling the people to fulfil their needs for food, clothing, shelter, enabling students to peacefully pursue education. Hence, it is requested to render assistance and take care with metta and haruna. May the people of the country rejoice and their just wishes be fulfilled. May then be gentle as they are bona-fide Burmese and be able to uphold the dignity and prestige of our country.

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Section VII, D.

ADDRESS TO THE EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS OF THE BSPP, 10 SEPTEMBER 1988

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espected Chairman and delegates to the Party Congress,

I would like to commend and confer honour upon the Party Congress delegates from all over the country who have assembled today after passing various obstacles and dangers. As invitation could be made only on 24 August evening for convening the Extraordinary Party Congress we had a total of only about 16 or 17 days. Even if means of transport had been smooth, it would not have been easy for 968 delegates out of more than 1,000 Congress delegates to come and gather at the Congress. The conditions no longer permit for the people to reconsider and hold national referendum under the provision of the Constitution and whether the Party delegates choose one party or multi-party system. Beset with this problem, the people are faced with difficulties in meeting food and shelter needs. This is why the decision to hold, as speedy as

Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung presidential speech, “Address to the Extraordinary Congress of the BSPP, 10 September 1988”, published in The Working People’s Daily (11 September 1988), by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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possible, general elections under the multi-party system has been made and it therefore evident that the interest of the people is placed before the interest of the Party. In fact, the Lanzin Party was initiated with various parties with objectives of serving the national interest in the Burmese way. When efforts were being made to build the Party, leaders from various parties were invited to participate in the endeavour. Though all the leaders did not participate, quite a number of leaders and young men had joined it. Party rules were collectively drawn up; the drafts were explained to the people; suggestions were solicited and party rules were approved and the Party was constituted as cadre Party and then as a People’s Party. When the People’s Party was built, those from various parties, farmers, workers, public service personnel, intelligentsia, adults and youths and those who are now strongly criticising the one-party system had earnestly joined the Party. In building the Party, the executive committee, inspection committee, and discipline committee have been appropriately formed after the Party policy and principles had been mentioned definitively. As the Party has been formed with persons from various parties and those from various classes, there were splits, big and small, in the Party and changes in many aspects very often. Action had to be taken as there were breaches of discipline and abuse of office. There are many persons who, after being accused falsely, relieved of duty. The parties throughout Burmese history have had similar experiences. Previously, the Party organisation was quite good and the party had been truly the People’s Party. The Party members must constantly be with the people. They must humbly serve the interest of the people. They must not deal with the people arrogantly by means of power or by giving orders. As these have been repeatedly told and they were trained to follow these guidance, they had carried out the assigned tasks in accordance with instructions. The people, too, reciprocate the metta and they are grateful to and appreciated the goodwill of those who have come to their areas to serve the interest of local residents. But the weakness of the Party is it emerged as the ruling party and grew as the ruling party. There have been practically very few sacrifices, risks and strenuous efforts. The powers can absolutely destroy the man. When without power, it is natural that there will be craving for power. There will be a few who do not crave for power except for the Arahats.

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Address to the Extraordinary Congress of the BSPP, 10 September 1988

557

Only if the ruling party practises self-criticism would it be free from being castigated by others. The Party which had gained the Burma’s independence with unity also ruled the country only from 1948 to 1958. It later split. When the Party Chairman with cetana at the Extraordinary Party Congress held in July, spoke of the multi-party system and asked the public whether they have confidence in the Party and the government or not. He also spoke of the people who are longing for change, facing present difficulties in earning their living, their dissatisfactions in wards and the movement of honest and active student youths. He also talked about the opportunists, rowdy elements, those who say aspersions and rude words and external enticements. The people are now suffering from these affects. Those demanding genuine democracy and multi-party system wished their desire to be fulfilled overnight. Giving multi-party system and dissolving the Lanzin Party were also demanded. The Party members were also threatened and harmed. The proposals to hold national referendum and fair and just general elections were also rejected. The enforcement of law and order is also neglected. These not in conformity with the Burmese culture. This is not democracy. Regarding democracy, it must be polite. The independent thought and wish of each citizen must be respected. His/her independent secret vote must be respected too. These facts are included in the basic rules of the Lanzin Party as well as in the State Constitution. There were weaknesses in abiding by these rules in practice. As these weaknesses were not pointed out and the people failed to utilize their votes for various reasons, there appeared such a situation.

Congress delegates, After correcting the mistakes of the past and in serving the people, we should not entertain anger and prejudice nor speak ill of politicians of party organisations that will come into being. Instead, we must face the law of impermanence and continue the march along the Burmese way. Trust shall prevail. Metta (loving kindness) will overcome dosa or anger.

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The State has honoured and kept records of those who took part in numerous stages of independence struggle namely: Wunthanu-khit, GCBA and students’ struggles, peasants and workers struggles, the Thirty Comrades, the Pha-hsa-pa-la (AFPFL) and the Tatmadaw. They played different roles in the service of the people and the country. Being human beings they have their virtues and failings. Some of them have passed away. We should not blame them. We should express our gratitude and fittingly honour them. To ensure good future, we must try to improve our performance. We must correct our mistakes and not repeat the mistakes of others simply. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Congress delegates, The Hluttaw meeting will be held tomorrow and its decision is to be sought so as the change over to multi-party democracy on experimental basis in accord with the resolution of the Party Congress. Arrangements will then be made to be able to hold, within the shortest possible time, the most just and freest general election in which various parties can compete. It will be complicated and time consuming if elections are to be held at Hluttaw and lower levels. Therefore only the Hluttaw is to be elected and the forthcoming Hluttaw is to form a government. The Constitution is then to be amended as necessary. The formation of a commission with personalities who are highly regarded by the people and worthy of being on it is to be submitted to the Hluttaw meeting tomorrow to supervise the effect that the general elections are held in a most just and freest manner. The commission is also to seek the help of members of the Sangha, students and town elders to supervise polling booths. The rule of law and order, efficient transportation, bringing down commodity prices and ensuring in selfsufficiency of food are vital for holding just elections. It would be most appropriate if personalities who were highly regarded by the people, who will not stand for elections and who place the nation’s interest in the fore can help and act as patrons at these elections. The metta, karuna and ovadakatha of the Sangha Maha Nayaka Sayadaws have contributed a great deal in avoiding worse current incidents.

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Address to the Extraordinary Congress of the BSPP, 10 September 1988

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It has been a tradition among the Tatmadaw members to vote freely on their own will in the general elections. They will be able to uphold this tradition. The Tatmadaw would not canvass for any party. Neither party should make any move to undermine the unity of the Tatmadaw and its allegiance to the country. The moves will come to no avail. The public services personnel should act the same way. They should resume their work and carry out activities to ensure the successful holding of the general elections for the benefit of the people. They should be loyal only to the country and the people.

Congress delegates, As we have said before, we will not stand for election and retire from the Party. I am pleased with and proud of that we have worked together. I ask for forgiveness if we have made mistakes during our working together. All the activities we have carried out will be put into the history books.

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Section VII, E.

ADDRESS TO THE PYITHU HLUTTAW, 11 SEPTEMBER 1988

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espected chairman and Pyithu Hluttaw members,

The Pyithu Hluttaw has today decided to override the single-party system and to hold general elections as soon as possible on the democratic multi-party system. The decision is a milestone in history. History itself will provide the answer in twenty or twenty-five years times as to whether this decision is a correct one. Some of the things which sadden us are the desecration of the State Flag in the name of democracy; the state of anxiety in which the people exist behind bamboo barricades day and night, the difficulties which they are facing in food and existence; the disruption in the flow of food to consumers due to cuts in transportation and communications; that students are demonstrating on the roads instead of being able to pursue their studies; that ordinary people are having difficulties due

Reproduced from Dr Maung Maung presidential speech, “Address to the Pyithu Hluttaw, 11 September 1988”, published in The Working People’s Daily (12 September 1988), by permission of Daw Khin Myint, wife of the late Dr Maung Maung.

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to demonstrations by service personnel; that offensive things are being said about the lugyis (elders) and their families and that the flames of lobha and dosa are burning so intensely. Responsible political leaders are not likely to instigate such intense anger (dosa). They are likely to instil discipline and explain that democracy constitutes not what one wants to do but constitutes respect for others’ wishes and that it is the civilised concept. However, it is all too easy to instigate and provoke a militant mass of people but it is very difficult to pacify and persuade them otherwise. Instead of trading accusations and counter-accusations as to who is responsible for the happenings of the past one or two months we should realise that we have before us many tasks to be carried out with the people. Law and order, and peace and tranquillity, are needed for holding free and just general elections. This is lacking in some cities. There have been incidents in which administrative offices have been forcefully occupied; the people and members of the Party and Council threatened; and in which people’s homes have been commandeered or destroyed — all in the name of ‘democracy’. If the Councils in such regions have really become unacceptable to the people, there are still departmental personnel. The People’s Police too needs to be regrouped and the right conditions created in which they can carry out their responsibilities without fear; and administrative work too must be resumed. There are also many townships in which Councils continue to get along with the people and are working together with them. Such service personnel and People’s Police Force personnel ought to bring work to reactivate the stalled administrative machinery. The nearest Tatmadaw units too have been directed to provide necessary assistance. There can be no law and order without proper administrative machinery. It is essential that law and order be reinstated speedily throughout the nation. How this is to be done effectively must be directed clearly and precisely after thorough study of prevailing conditions. It is not sufficient merely to demand that those who are not concerned should immediately vacate administrative officers and government premises; such offices should be reoccupied (by responsible personnel) and the administrative bases rejuvenated. It is time for this to be done.

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There exists immense danger for the people and the State as well as for those who are claiming that the government no longer exists and that they only constitute the ‘government’, are assuming power in village-tracts, townships, division, states and anywhere else to set up ‘parallels’. There is also great danger also for those who are setting up such ‘parallels’. There is urgent need for all this to be quickly removed. The people’s hearts are breaking at the outright acts of criminality which have been perpetrated in the name of ‘democracy’. The people are wishing for an end to such criminal acts and effective action to be taken against such acts. Those party organisations which believing and accepting genuine democracy would be standing for elections for the successful completion of a free and just general election should stop their demonstrations and strikes and turn to participate in constructive activities which would benefit the people. Such party organisations should now be seeking to set up their respective parties systematically; present their political platforms clearly and honestly to the people and prepare for responsibilities which will have to be assumed according to the free ballot of the people. The people will assess of their own accord the value of the work of each respective political organisation. The assessment cannot be made by yourself. When the Constitution was adopted by national referendum in 1974 there were about 14 million people who were eligible to vote. The number now is more than 22 million. There were 250 seats in the previous Pyithu Hluttaw while the present Pyithu Hluttaw has 489 seats. It is time to seek people’s metta gently for more than 22 million voters and for the 489 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw. It is now necessary to seek and bring into the arena candidate people’s representatives of the party concerned who could stand the ‘tests’ by the people. Service personnel and heads of service organisations are responsible to redress shaky and stalled administrative machinery. The duty of public service personnel is to serve the interest of the people. As they eat the food provided by the people all including us should be grateful to the people. The service personnel will be, to some extent, dissatisfied with justice lacking in their departments. These problems cannot be solved by staging demonstrations and strikes and disobeying orders and worksite discipline which will amount to breaching prescribed rules and regulations.

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It is necessary for them to systematically solve these problems though co-ordination while carrying out their duties conscientiously. Public service personnel are to be loyal to the country and the people. The government elected by the people represents the country; and the government is all the services personnel from the Central to the ward/village-tract levels. People are those they deal with from day to day in their departmental activities. Public service personnel from different levels who speak in an arrogant manner to the people who come to them and delay their work are, to some extent, responsible for all these incidents. If there had been good public service personnel at every department the State machinery would have gone on smoothly whatever changes there may be in the government. People will give their support and get their co-operation. Therefore, the real role of good public service personnel is vital. Each public service personnel can vote on his will in the general election. Nobody is to use his influence through unlawful means upon somebody else. Public service personnel are to carry out their own tasks without swaying to any side. The Tatmadaw is also the same. This tradition has to be upheld. In the general elections held during 1952–1960 some party leaders, making arrangements with military commanders with whom they were friendly, transferred about one regiment to the area where their positions were rather weak. In this way they won in the elections with the Yebaws’ votes. This has not been always the case. Yebaws are one only in their allegiance to the country and it is according to their own will which is to decided individually. Anticipating the fact that some party leaders might seek the help of commanders who are friendly with them, the then Chief of Staff of the Defence Services made arrangements that the Tatmadaw are to cast their votes at the regions where they reside and they are to cast in voting-certificates wherever they are during the election to prevent their enrolling to cast votes at the regions they have been transferred to. To this extent, the Tatmadawmen can vote freely in the elections. The Pyithu Tatmadaw is for the people which means they are to give their allegiance to the country and are to safeguard the people and must not be a lackey of any party. Because of their oath the Yebaws have always recited and kept in their heart that they now stand firmly in the

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current turmoil. It is because there is unity among the Tatmadaw that there exists sovereignty in the State. The Tatmadaw has unswervingly carried out the tasks assigned to it within the framework of the Constitution and law by the government elected by the people in accord with the wishes of the people. This tradition has been upheld throughout the history of Burma’s independence and if the country practices multi-party system this tradition will become more vital as lifeblood of the country. As we have decided to hold the general elections under the multiparty system without soliciting the desires of each and every individual among the more than 22 million people living throughout the country whether or not to change into a multi-party, we humbly ask forgiveness from the majority of the 22 million people from whom we could not ask their free aspirations. The working people, living in villages, in the hill regions, became tired of hearing the political policies and foreign words translated by people from the towns but wished to do their own work, live peacefully, visit pagodas, hold novitiation ceremonies for their sons. In the fight to rebel against foreigners to gain independence for the country, the peasants, workers, youths and old people alike took up a united stand. But with different policies amidst the people there were quarrels among our pocket armies and the people became victims of such internal strife. Although young people did not experience this, middle aged and older people will remember it. Among those who remember this have heard and read much about having a single party system, to reform that single party and find good and able persons whose actions are according to their words. We have heard some sighing in anger that during the one party in spite of promises made, actions of some were contrary and people suffered. If there is multi-party system there will be more troubles and therefore it would be better if there is no party at all. Hence our Pyithu Hluttaw is responsible for now soliciting the wishes of the people in full and we had to leave the path of precisely abiding by the laws. The Extraordinary Party Congress and the emergency session of the Pyithu Hluttaw were convened and we deliberated and discussed placing the interests of the people in the fore as much

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as possible and we request the masses of the people to consider that we have accomplished our duty. What we wish to remind the people is to make effective use of secret voting power which was used frequently in the elections after 1974 and which will still exist. Thorough scrutiny of the candidates should be made as no one can hide their past and present deeds. If they are young and do not know, advice should be sought from elderly people, study historical events and discuss with people who speak the truth and then elect the true people’s representatives. Then also they may have a tendency to go astray with the passage of time. At such a time they should be corrected and criticized and if this fails they should be removed in the next election. We should not feel bad to do so because becoming embarrassed is the main weakness of our people. People’s secret voting power is the most effective instrument of democracy. It is life itself. We have decided to hold the general elections under the multiparty system within three months. We have also done within our physical and mental ability for holding free and fair elections. The persons elected and assigned duties by the Hluttaw as election commission members are well known and have served the country for a long period. These persons will serve as full time officials in matters relating to Hluttaw elections without taking sides and working freely on their own. They have accepted these special duties on promises that they would be free to act on their own in consideration of the interests of the State. There is no democratic country in which elections are being held reducing the term of the Hluttaw. There are no instances when the entire government resigns without taking part in the elections and handing over power to new party. We are doing this not because we are afraid, but because we place true metta on the people and we wish to hand over the duties peacefully in accordance with the law. The role played by the Pyithu Hluttaw members who came to attend the Pyithu Hluttaw dutifully in spite of great hardships and dangers, who took part in discussions and laid down decisions is very important and prominent and will not be forgotten by history scholars who will praise and write them down in Burmese history.

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Bibliography of Dr Maung Maung’s Writings

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r Maung Maung was one of the founding members of the English language The Guardian Monthly Magazine (in November 1953) which was established by the Myanmar military, and he wrote a regular column under the series title “Profiles” from January 1953 to February 1969. Guardian Magazine ceased publication in November 2002, but Dr Maung Maung had stopped writing in the magazine from about 1970. The profiles are mainly life-sketches of prominent Myanmar politicians and other personalities of the late 1940s to early 1960s, similar in style to Kingsley Martin’s Biographical Sketches in the New Statesman and Nation, (London based weekly journal). Dr Maung Maung was a close friend of Dorothy Woodman and Kingsley Martin, and admired their writings. The content of this bibliography is arranged by the date of publication. Profiles “Aung San”. The Guardian I, no. 3 (January 1954): 29–31. On the founder of modern, independent Myanmar Bogyoke Aung San (13 February 1915– 19 July 1947).

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“Mr Speaker Sir!”. The Guardian I, no. 7 (May 1954): 25–26. About Bo Hmu Aung (30 September 1910– ), one of the members of the Thirty Comrades who took military training in Japan during World War II. He later became Speaker of the Myanmar Parliament. “Brigadier Kyaw Zaw: Battles and Books”. The Guardian I, no. 8 (June 1954): 38–39. Former Brigadier-General in the Burma Army, Kyaw Zaw (3 December 1918– ), Communist leader, now in exile in China. “Bo Khin Maung Gale: ‘Democracy and the Rule of Law’”. The Guardian I, no. 9 (July 1954): 35–40. Bo Khin Maung Gale (12 October 1912– ), former Army Captain of BIA, BNA and later Minister for Home Affairs. “Thakin Chit Maung”. The Guardian I, no. 11 (September 1954): 37–40. Thakin Chit Maung (14 July 1914– ), former Secretary-General of the Burma Socialist Party and later the Burma Workers Party. “General Ne Win”. The Guardian I, no. 12 (October 1954): 55–60. General Ne Win (14 May 1911–5 December 2002), one of the members of the Thirty Comrades, military leader who took over power on 2 March 1962 and later became President of Burma and Chairman of the Burma Socialist Programme Party up to 1988. “Burma Army”. The Guardian II, no. 1 (November 1954): 46–50. “Mr Justice Chan Htoon”. The Guardian II, no. 2 (December 1954): 33–37. Chief Justice Chan Htoon (23 April 1906–16 May 1988) of the Union. “Daw Pyu la Mac Phsu”. The Guardian II, no. 3 (January 1955): 46–49. Daughter of Prince Myingoon who went into exile in French Indochina in mid-nineteenth century after a failed rebellion against his father King Mindon (1853–78); grand-daughter of King Mindon. “Mandalay”. The Guardian II, no. 4 (February 1955): 9–13. About Mandalay city, the last capital of the Myanmar kings and contains biographical data of Dr Maung Maung’s youth. “U Kyaw Nyein”. The Guardian II, no. 5 (March 1955): 9–19. U Kyaw Nyein (March 1915– ), former Deputy Prime Minister, AFPFL Leader, and also Minister for Co-operatives. “U Hla Maung”. The Guardian II, no. 9 (July 1955): 9–15. U Hla Maung (20 September 1911–4 February 1992), a political leader who later became Ambassador to China. “U Thein Maung, Chief Justice of the Union”. The Guardian II, no. 11 (September 1955): 25–29. Chief Justice U Thein Maung (17 July 1890–11 March 1975). “U Tun Win”. The Guardian II, no. 12 (October 1955): 21–26, 26A. U Tun Win (31 December 1917– ), AFPFL Minister for Information. “Htain Lin, a Young PVO Insurgent”. The Guardian III, no. 2 (December 1955): 21–23. An Army officer of the People’s Volunteer Organization or PVO, an AFPFL militia.

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“Vum Ko Hau of Siyin”. The Guardian III, no. 4 (February 1956): 29–34. Vum Ko Hau (17 March 1917– ), a leader of the Chin ethnic group, and later Ambassador to France. “U Ba Swe”. The Guardian III, no. 5 (March 1956): 27–31. U Ba Swe (19 April 1915–6 December 1987), former Socialist Leader, Defence Minister, and Prime Minister for a brief period. “U Thant”. The Guardian III, no. 10 (August 1956): 25–29. U Thant (22 January 1909–25 November 1974) was a former Headmaster of a National School. He later became the Secretary to Prime Minister U Nu and retired as Secretary-General of UN. “Thakin Than Tun”. The Guardian III, no. 12 (October 1956): 33–36. Thakin Than Tun (1911–24 September 1968), leader of the Burma Communist Party. “M.A. Raschid”. The Guardian III, no. 14 (December 1956): 27–34. M.A. Raschid (1912– ), was of Indian descendant, an influential AFPFL leader and Minister for Trade Development and Labour. “Dr E Maung”. The Guardian IV, no. 3 (March 1957): 25–30. Dr E Maung (January 1898– ), leader of “Red Socialists” and Justice Party, and former Advocate-General. “U Myint Thein, Chief Justice of the Union”. The Guardian IV, no. 10 (October 1957): 9–16. “Saya Za Khup of Siyin”. The Guardian V, no. 2 (February 1958): 33–34. Chin ethnic group leader. “Dr Htin Aung, the Fourth Brother”. The Guardian V, no. 8, (August 1958): 25–30. Dr Htin Aung (18 May 1909–10 May 1978), former Rector of Rangoon University, and later Ambassador to Sri Lanka. “U Nyo Mya, or ‘Maung Thumana’”. The Guardian V, no. 10 (October 1958): 31–34, 52–53. U Nyo Mya, popular writer (11 April 1914–29 September 1985), an American trained journalist and Chief Editor of Oway Journal. “Daw Khin Kyi (Madame Aung San)”. The Guardian VII, no. 6 (June 1960): 33–36. Daw Khin Kyi (16 April 1912–27 December 1988), wife of Bogyoke Aung San, late Ambassador to India, and mother of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. “New Hope with U Nu”. The Guardian VII, no. 8 (August 1960): 13–14. Return of U Nu (25 May 1907–14 February 1995), as Prime Minister in 1960, first Prime Minister after Myanmar regained Independence in 1948 and again after the Military Caretaker Government of 1958–1960. “Aung San: Hero of Burma’s Victory”. The Guardian XVI, no. 2 (February 1969): 30–31.

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History, Politics, Military “Pyidawtha”. The Guardian I, no. 1 (November 1953): 15–19. Reprinted from the Far Eastern Survey (New York: August 1953). Pyidawtha Plans and Projects. Plans for a Welfare State in Myanmar. “State Socialism in Burma”. The Guardian I, no. 2 (December 1953): 26–27. “The Resistance Movement”. In Burma’s Teething Time (Rangoon: Bamar Publications, 1949). About 27 March 1945, the day when the Myanmar Resistance Movement against the Japanese Army occupation began. “Burma Army”. The Guardian II, no. 1 (November 1954): 46–50. Brief history of the Burmese Army, from its formation in 1942 to the early 1950s. “106”. The Guardian III, no. 1 (November 1955): 21–23. Special unit in the Myanmar army. “Women Officers of the Burma Army”. The Guardian III, no. 3 (January 1956): 23–27. “Women on the Wing”. The Guardian III, no. 11 (September 1956): 30–34. Burmese women officers of the Burma Air Force. “Books on Burma”. The Guardian IV, no. 2 (February 1957): 37–40. About books on Burma by Dr Frank Trager and Ms Dorothy Woodman and urges Myanmar authors to write similar books. “The Burmese Parliament”. The Guardian IV, no. 9 (July 1957): 27–29. About the Burmese Parliament from 1947–56. “Women to Man the Air Force”. The Guardian IV, no. 12 (December 1957): 29–31. Burmese women officers of the Burma Air Force. “A Boundless Faith in Burma”. The Guardian VI, no. 6 (June 1959): 26–27. About Dr J.S. Furnivall, Economic Advisor for the AFPFL Government, who carried out research on the economic history of Burma. “Impressions of the United Nations”. The Guardian VII, no. 1 (January 1960): 39–40. “Burma-China Boundary Settlement”. The Guardian VIII, no. 3 (March 1961): 21–23. “A Book for Colonel Ba Than”. The Guardian VIII, no. 7 (July 1961): 28. About the book called Golden Boats from Burma by Gordon Langley Hall, on American Baptist Missionary Adorinam Judson. “The Secretary-General’s Role in the U.N.” The Guardian IX, no. 1 (January 1962): 15–17. About U Thant and first printed in the Christmas issue of Virginia Law Weekly published by the University of Virginia.

Law “Elections: Burma and Britain”. The Guardian III, no. 6 (April 1956): 34–35. An interesting comparism.

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“Burma’s Constitution Comes to Life”. In Indian Year Book of International Affairs. Madras: Diocesan Press, reprint 1958. “Our Living Constitution”. The Guardian VI, no. 1 (January 1959): 28–29. The first installment of Dr Maung Maung’s radio talk on the subject of “Our Living Constitution”, delivered during December 1958. ———. The Guardian VI, no. 2 (February 1959): 11–12. The second installment of Dr Maung Maung’s radio talk on the subject of “Our Living Constitution”, about Burma’s first constitution of 1947. “Section 116 of the Constitution”. The Guardian VI, no. 3 (March 1959): 11–12. The author wrote in support of extending the six months expiration period for a non-elected person to be a Member of the Government. This enabled General Ne Win to continue as the Prime Minister of the Caretaker Government. Subtitle: “ … Is it obsolete? Will its amendment deal the death blow to Parliamentary Democracy?”. “Burma’s Constitution Grows up”. The Guardian VII, no. 9 (September 1960): 33–39. A gist of the paper, which the author presented to the Seminar on the Constitutions of Asia held from 22–26 August 1960 in Canberra, Australia. “Lawyers and Legal Education in Burma”. The Guardian IX, no. 6 (June 1962): 26–28. Reprinted from the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, London, January 1962. “In the Chief Court of Burma, Rangoon: Civil Regular Suit 105 of 1962 Judgment”. The Guardian XI, no. 7 (July 1964): 28–31. Dr Maung Maung decision as Judge denying permanent stay in Burma claimed under the Specific Relief Act, by one Mohamed Ebrahim Salebhoy. “In the Chief Court of Burma, Rangoon: Civil Regular Suit No. 27 of 1963 Judgment”. The Guardian XII, no. 1 (January 1965): 28–31. In a suit for adultery filed by Walter Allen Medd for divorce from Mrs Dawn Medd and custody of their daughter Caroline. Judgement in favour of the husband. “In the Chief Court of Burma, Rangoon: Criminal Appeal No. 287 of 1964 Judgment”. The Guardian XII, no. 7 (July 1965): 33. Dr Maung Maung’s judgement as a judge in the Chief Court confirming the sentence of the special Judge of Bassein. The appellant, a Maung San Hlaing, found guilty of the offence of unpremeditated murder, and sentenced to ten years rigorous imprisonment. “In the Chief Court of Burma, Rangoon: Criminal Revision No. 34(B) of 1965 Judgment”. The Guardian XII, no. 11 (November 1965): 17–18. Case of rash and negligent driving. Dr Maung Maung as Chief Justice set aside the sentence passed by a Lower Court and ordered to fine a Maung San Nyunt, driver of a lorry.

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“The Search for Constitutionalism in Burma”. In Constitutionalism in Asia, edited by R.N. Spann. London: Asia Publishing House, 1963, pp. 130–33.

Travel “Destination Monghsat”. The Guardian I, no. 6 (April 1954): 18–20. Monghsat is in Northern Shan State near the border with China. “Vietnam (South)”. The Guardian II, no. 5 (March 1955): 29–31. About a visit to Vietnam in November 1954. “Malaya”, The Guardian II, no. 8 (June 1955): 31–33. About a visit to Malaysia in 1954. “In the Fabled Land of Apollo and Socrates”. The Guardian V, no. 12 (December 1958): 31–32. Travels in Greece. “Antioch College, a Living Dream”. The Guardian VIII, no. 11 (November 1961): 17–20. Visit to Antioch College in the United States.

Radio Talks “Burma’s Youth”. In Burma Speaks. Rangoon: Ministry of Information, 1950, pp. 125–29. A collection of broadcast talks from the Burma Broadcasting Station. The broadcast talk was on 18 August 1949 while Dr Maung Maung was Assistant Secretary to the General Manager of Burma Railways. Some personal experiences and observations, about a youth “who thought he was a communist”, and about young man in a Rangoon University hostel “with varied mental make-ups”. “It was then the fashion to flout authority and break rules”. The author then comments that “The youth of the country are too valuable to be squandered away”; “There are great opportunities for our youth in all spheres of public life…”. “The Human Factor”. In Burma Speaks. Rangoon: Ministry of Information, 1950, pp. 136–39. A collection of broadcast talks from the Burma Broadcasting Station. The broadcast talk by U Maung Maung of Burma Railways on 22 September 1949, supporting the AFPFL government’s drive for enduring peace in the country within one year, i.e., by 19 July 1950. Dr Maung Maung cites some personal experiences and then concludes that “in everything the human factor is the one that is decisive … [bad] human factor has given rise to the country-wide disturbances; disgruntled and dishonest human factor has expressed itself in subversive activities, riots and violence … the good human factor has passively watched things go wrong, now it must stir itself into determined action to get things put right”. Dr Maung Maung’s talk from (58) years ago still seem relevant to present day Myanmar and her problems.

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Books in English The Forgotten Army. Rangoon: Khitsan Press, [1946]. 36pp. 11cm. About the Patriotic Burmese Forces [P.B.F.], the forerunner of the regular Burma Army, with an Appendix article on “The Burmese Guerillas” by an Indian Army Observer, and Foreword by U Ba Cho, editor of The Dedok Weekly. Burma’s Teething Time. Rangoon: Bamar Publications, 1949. 96pp. 17cm. Foreword by U Thant (Pantanaw), about Burma in turbulent times during the early days of her Independence (from January 1948). A collection of the author’s writings and broadcast talks, which first appeared in the local press or were aired on the radio. London Diary. Rangoon: Burma Publishers, 1952. 75pp. 17cm. About the author’s stay in London as a scholar studying law; also about England and the English people. It has some interesting details of the author as a student in London. Grim War against the KMT. Rangoon: U Nu Yin Press, 1953. 86pp. 19cm. with foreword by U Thant, a record of the incursions into Myanmar territory by the Kuomintang (KMT) Chinese forces. It was first published in The Nation daily newspaper in Yangon. Burma in the Family of Nations. Amsterdam: Djambatan, International Educational Publishing House, 1956. xi, 236pp. 26cm. A bibliography, with introduction by Dr J.H.W. Verzijl, and foreword by Chief Justice U Chan Tun Aung. A diplomatic and legal history of Burma from 1944 to 1954. Burma’s Constitution. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1959. 325pp., with photographs. 18cm. ———. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1961, second revised, and enlarged edition. xviii, 340pp. 23cm. Foreword by J.S. Furnivall, the book is about best study of Burma’s first Constitution of 1947, drafted by General Aung San and his colleagues. It also covers later amendments, with examination of some important clauses. The author also wrote on the application of this constitution between 1948 and 1960. In the Appendices, the Constitution of the so-called “Independent” Burma of the Japanese occupation period, proclaimed in August 1943 is given. The Draft Constitution, approved by the AFPFL Convention (May 1947), and the actual text of the Constitution of the Union of Burma is given on pp. 258–308. Also included are some related documents like the important Burma–China Boundary Treaty of 1960. Chronology to 4th January 1961 is given. The second edition has a new chapter on the AFPFL split and Genereal Ne Win’s “Caretaker Government” of 1958–60. Essential reading for all interested in the constitutional history of Burma.

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Aung San of Burma. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962. xiv, 162pp., inclusive of photographs, and portraits. 22cm. Compiled and edited by Dr Maung Maung and Introduction by Professor Harry J. Benda, this is a collection of Bogyoke Aung San’s (1915–47) speeches and writings, together with sketches, memoirs and appreciative essays by friends, colleagues and contemporaries of General Aung San, the founder of modern Independent Myanmar and the Myanmar Army. A Trial in Burma: The Assassination of Aung San. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962. vii, 117pp., inclusive of photographs. 24cm. Includes table of relavant law cases, this book was also published in Myanmar language in 1968 under the title: [Assassination (Union of Burma versus U Saw] (Nainggandaw loke — kyan-hmu (Pyitdaungzu hnint U Saw). Mainly about the trial and conviction of U Saw (Premier of Burma in the immediate pre-war period). Contains important trial transcripts and text of the judgement (30 December 1947) now lost. Law and Custom in Burma and the Burmese Family. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1963. xii, 155pp. 25cm. Includes bibliography and index, it looks at the legal system in outline and the customary law of the Burmese in some details. Consists of eight chapters, a list of Dhammathats, glossary, bibliography, and table of statutes and cases are given as appendices. Burma and General Ne Win. London: Asia Publishing House, 1969. vi, 332pp., with photographs. 23cm. About General Ne Win from about 1914 to 1969. Latter in the same year (1969), this book was translated into Myanmar language and won the National Literary Award. It also covers the political history of Burma for the period. The only partial biography of General Ne Win; deposed in 1988, born in 1911, and died in 2002. The author, an admirer of the General wrote in eulogistic mode. To a Soldier Son. Rangoon: Sarpay Beikman, 1974. 158pp. 23cm. It consists of nine chapters, about the Resistance Movement and the Burma army, life as a young soldier and officer. First published in Myanmar language in 1973 under the title “Tha Maung Sitthe Tho” [To My Beloved Soldier Son]. The 1988 Uprising in Burma. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph 49, 1999. xix, 285pp. 21cm. Foreword by Franklin Mark Osanka, it includes index of proper nouns and consists of twelve chapters. This book was published posthumously after the author’s death on 2 July 1994. The title of the book was given by F.M. Osanka, and not the author’s original title. It is a record of events in the author’s life including the Socialist Period and the 1988 upheaval, and a vindication of his role as an “elected” President of the Union of Burma on 19 August 1988. He was deposed by the Military Coup of 18 September 1988.

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Bibliography of Dr Maung Maung’s Writings

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Bibliography of Dr Maung Maung’s Writings

577

About Dr Maung Maung and His Writings in English “A Helping Hand”. The Guardian II, no. 8 (June 1955): 8. Brief sketch of Dr Maung Maung by the Editors of The Guardian Ltd. “Burma in the Family of Nations”. The Guardian V, no. 8 (August 1958): 45–46. Book Review. “Burma’s Constitution”. The Guardian VI, no. 7 (July 1959): 47. Book Review. Cady, John F. “Burma’s Constitution”. The American Historical Review (October 1960), Ohio University. Book Review. Benda, Harry J. “Aung San of Burma” edited by Dr Maung Maung. The Guardian VIII, no. 1 (January 1961): 42, The Guardian IX, no. 3 (March 1962): 41–42. Book Review. M.B.K. “Dr. Maung Maung (Lawyer, Writer, Scholar)”. The Guardian IX, no. 8 (August 1962): 11–12. Born in Mandalay on 31 January 1925; parents U Sin, Higher Grade Pleader and Daw Aye Tin. He was educated at B.T.N Boy’s High School, Mandalay. He passed the Anglo-Vernacular High School Final Examination in 1939. About Dr Maung Maung by his colleague at The Guardian, Chief Editor U Ba Kyaw. “A Trial in Burma”. The Guardian IX, no. 9 (September 1962): 40. Book Review. “Law and Custom in Burma and the Burmese Family”. The Guardian X, no. 9 (September 1963): 39–41. Book Review reprinted from the Burma Law Institute Bulletin (July 1963). Aung Than Tun. “Dr. Maung Maung’s To a Soldier Son”. The Guardian XX, no. 6 (July 1973): 45–47. An appreciation of To a Soldier Son by Dr Maung Maung. The author compares Dr Maung Maung to Jawaharlal Nehru, the late Prime Minister of India who had written “Letters from a Father to his Daughter”. Aung, C.T. “To a Soldier Son by Dr. Maung Maung”. The Guardian XX, no. 6 (July 1973): 44–45. A brief review of the book To a Soldier Son by Dr Maung Maung. ———. “The State Assassination Case (The Union of Burma versus U Saw) in Burmese”. The Guardian XXI, no. 8 (August 1974): 39. Book Review.

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578

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