Independence Hero Aung San: His Integrity is Sorely Needed
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His honesty and straight-forwardness remained unchanged, however, and this earned him the respect of colleagues, international leaders, war allies and the Burmese people as a whole. “His leadership is well accepted among the people, he has developed statesman-like skills and he quickly became a national leader,” Taya noted.
Before Aung San’s assassination in July 1947, Taya wrote a famous biography, Aung San or“Ahyine” (meaning untamed or unpolished), regarded as a dynamic portrayal.
In his biography, Taya touched on the issue of Aung San’s decision to marry, at a time when the writer felt marriage might affect the general’s total commitment to the independence struggle.
Aung San himself had once warned his comrades and soldiers not to be distracted by women and romance. Politics and the struggle for independence were paramount for him.
But love overtook Aung San and changed his views.
The general met his future wife, Khin Kyi, when he and some colleagues were receiving medical treatment at Rangoon General Hospital. Among his nurses was attractive young Khin Kyi.
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AUNG SAN and family. |
Suu Kyi wrote of the encounter: “Ma Khin Kyi [was] an attractive young woman of great charm whose dedication to her work of healing had won the respect and affection of patients and colleagues alike. She handled Aung San with firmness, tenderness, and good humor. The formidable commander-in-chief was thoroughly captivated.”
To the surprise of many, the 27-year-old commander of the Burma Independence Army, or BIA, married Khin Kyi in September 1942.
“Marriage,” mused the general in a meeting with Taya and other friends. “You can not keep thinking about it for too long—you just have to do it.”
Many of those in the general’s circles thought the same. They were disheartened and depressed by the Japanese occupation and the prospects for their independence struggle in a country under foreign domination.
Many of them married in those difficult times. One, Thakin Ba Hein, a close friend of Taya’s, told the writer: “When they are depressed, they want to share their feelings with some one who is a lifetime partner, not just a friend.”
Taya later observed that Aung San, the “political animal”, had shown his human side by getting married. He frequently revealed his human side in other ways.
Taya recalled a reception where he was playing the piano and singing romantic songs with friends, including BIA army officers.
Aung San, wearing military uniform, stormed into the room and stopped the party. The young general made a short speech saying it was no time for love songs. Martial songs were needed, he said—songs to boost patriotic morale and the fighting spirit.
He then abruptly left the room, but Taya and his group disobeyed their leader’s exhortation. The party continued.
The next time, however, Aung San, the husband and father, was in a more melodious mood.
At a friend’s wedding party, to Taya’s bemusement, Aung San grabbed him from the crowd, led him to a piano and begged him to play a romantic song. Aung San sang along to Taya’s accompaniment, and then asked him to play on.
On another occasion, Taya visited Aung San’s house, where guards told him to wait outside the living room. Minutes later the general came out—and Taya saw lipstick on Aung San’s cheek.
Politely, Taya did not embarrass the country’s independence hero.
A year before the assassination of Aung San (he died aged 32) and other national leaders, Taya thought the general, then a leader of the Anti-Fascist People’s League, had emerged as a true statesman.
“Aung San doesn’t pretend, he is very honest—his speeches are not from books but from his own experiences and heart,” Taya said.
Taya believes, like so many, that if Aung San had survived, with his straightforward honesty and popularity intact, he could have better navigated the nation in the right direction.
“I still believe that the country would be better off with him,” Taya says, dismissing the notion that Burma wouldn’t be much different under Aung San.
It’s certain that were he alive today he would have been saddened by the failed state's unresolved conflicts and the suffering of his countrymen.
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