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U Nu (; ; otherwise known as Thakin Nu; 25 May 1907 - 14 February 1995) was a Burmese nationalist and political figure. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma serving in that post under the provisions of the 1947 Burmese Constitution from 4 January 1948 to 12 June 1956, again from 28 February 1957 to 28 October 1958, and finally between 4 April 1960 to 2 March 1962.
Political life His political life started as a university student when he became president of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU) with Aung San as its secretary. They were both expelled from university on account of an article that appeared in the union magazine, and their expulsion sparked off the second university students' strike in February 1936. Both became members of the nationalist Do Bama Asi-ayone (We Burmans Association) which had been formed in 1930 and henceforth gained the prefix Thakin ('Master'), proclaiming they were the true masters of their own land. For a few years after independence in 1948 Nu retained the prefix 'Thakin' but around 1952 he announced that since Burma is already independent the prefix of 'Thakin' was no longer needed and hence forth he would be known as U ('Mr') Nu. In 1937 he co-founded with Thakin Than Tun the Nagani (Red Dragon) Book Club which for the first time widely circulated Burmese-language translations of the Marxist classics. He also became a leader and co-founder of the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP), which later became the Socialist Party, and the umbrella organisation the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), which advocated Burmese independence from both Japanese and British occupation during the 1940s. He was detained by the colonial government in 1940 along with Thakins Soe and Than Tun, Kyaw Nyein and Dr. Ba Maw. After the assassination of its political and military leader Aung San along with his cabinet ministers on 19 July 1947, U Nu led the AFPFL and signed an independent agreement (the Nu-Atlee Treaty) with the British Premier Clement Atlee in October 1947. After Burma obtained independence from Britain on 4 January 1948, U Nu became the first Prime Minister of independent Burma. Nu immediately had to deal with armed rebellion from various ethnic groups, the Karen in particular, and communist factions, including certain regiments in the Army. Yet another challenge was the exiled Kuomintang (KMT), chased out of China by the victorious Communists. They had established bases in eastern Burma and it took several years in the early 1950s to drive them out of Burma. A democratic system was instituted, however, and parliamentary elections were held several times. He voluntarily relinquished the Prime Minsterial position in 1956 by and the Prime Minster position was taken over for a year by AFPFL member U Ba Swe (died 1987) for one year from June 1956 to June 1957. On 26 September 1958, he asked the Army Chief of Staff General Ne Win to take over as a "Care-Taker Government" and Ne Win was sworn in as Prime Minster of a 'Care take' government on 27 October 1958. In the February 1960 general election, U Nu's "Clean" faction of the AFPFL won in a landslide victory over the "Stable" faction led by U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein and returned to power forming the Pyidaungzu (Union) government on 4 April 1960. Less than wo years later, on 2 March 1962, Nu was overthrown by a coup d’état led by Ne Win. After the 1962 coup, U Nu was put in what is euphemistically called as 'protective custody' in an army camp outside Rangoon. He was released more than four years later on 27 October 1966 (see the Rangoon Guardian and The Working People's Daily of 28 October 1966 concerning the news items of U Nu's release from custody.). Among others, on the day of the military coup on 2 March 1962 the then President Mahn Win Maung (died June 1989) as well as Chief Justice U Myint Thein (22 February 1900-3 October 1994) was also put under 'protective custody'. Mahn Win Maung was released from detention in October 1967 and U Myint Thein was released from detention on 28 February 1968. On 2 December 1968, General Ne Win, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council (RC) established a 33 man 'Internal Unity Advisory Board' (IUAB; known more informally as 'the thirty-three') of former politicians some of whom he had jailed (or put in protective custody) several years earlier. The Board was assigned with the task of advising the RC for possible suggestions to enhance internal unity and to make suggestions for possible political changes. U Nu was one of the 'thirty-three'. In February 1969, U Nu submitted an 'interim report' asking that General Ne Win hand over power back to him; that the Parliament that was abolished by Ne Win in March 1962 be recalled. He proposed that the Parliament would meet and formally make General Ne Win President. In his proposal he stated that he made these suggestions in good faith after repeatedly mulling over alternative arrangements. He stated that he made this proposal in absolute sincerity so that the Revolutionary Council would not remain as 'usurpers' ('those who came to power through force') and the 'taint of illegality' of Ne Win's takeover could be erased. (The English translation of U Nu's 'interim report' or proposals could be read in the 3 June 1969 issues of the Rangoon Guardian and The Working People's Daily.) Soon after submitting his 'report' or suggestions, U Nu, feigning illness, and under the pretext of a pilgrimage to India left Burma for India. When Ne Win did not respond to his suggestion U Nu went from India to London. (In a speech given at the opening day of the Fourth Seminar of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), on 6 November 1969 Ne Win formally rejected U Nu's proposal, saying that he took over power — and held on to it — not because he craved power but to uplift the welfare of the 'workers and peasants' and that U Nu's proposals amounted to 'turning back the wheel'). (The full translation of Ne Win's speech to the BSPP seminar can be read in 7 and 8 November 1969 issues of the Rangoon Guardian and the Working People's Daily. By that time U Nu had already announced in London that he was still 'the legal Prime Minister'). In a press conference held in London on 27 August 1969, U Nu announced that he was the 'legal Prime Minister' and 'pledged to the people of Burma' tha he would not stop his struggle for democracy in Burma and that Burma was under the 'same kind of fascism' which (Burma's independence hero) 'General Aung San had fought' (during the freedom struggle and the resistance against the Japanese occupation of Burma during the Second World War).(The full text of U Nu's press conference in London can be read in the 1 September 1969 issues of the Rangoon Guardian and The Working People's Daily. The text of U Nu's press conference announcement, made in English, in London, was also translated into Burmese in full and was published in all the State-controlled Burmese language newspapers of 1 September 1969). U Nu later formed the Parliamentary Democracy Party (PDP) and led an armed resistance group. U Nu's 'resistance group' consisted no more than several hundred or at most a few thousand at its' peak and his avowal to fight and overthrow General Ne Win from the Thai border failed abjectly. U Nu accepted an offer of amnesty granted by Ne Win and returned to Burma on 29 July 1980.(The news item that 'former Prime Minister U Nu and wife Daw Mya Yee arrving back at Rangoon airport at 3:30 pm in the afternoon of 29 July 1980' can be read in the 30 July 1980 issues of the Rangoon Guardian and the Working People's Daily). After lying low, teaching Buddhism in Burma and the United States (U Nu visited Northern Illinois University) in the US to lecture on Buddhism in 1987) U Nu was again politically active during the 8888 Uprising forming the first new political party, the League for Democracy and Peace (LDP). In an echo of his assertion that he was the 'legal Prime Minister' of August 1969 in London, U Nu again announced on 9 September 1988 in Rangoon that he was still the 'legal Prime Minister'. His invitation to Aung San Suu Kyi and to ex-Brigadier Aung Gyi (another opposition politician at the time of the 8888 crisis) to form an interim government was not accepted by them. Still he formed his own 'government' reappointing former President Mahn Win Maung who was overthrown in the 1962 coup as 'President'. After the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took over power on 18 September 1988 the SLORC repeatedly asked U Nu to formally 'abolish' his 'interim government' but U Nu refused to do so. As a result Nu was again put under house arrest on 29 December 1989. SLORC spokesmen at that time stated that though U Nu could have been tried for 'treason' due to his advanced age and his contribution to the freedom struggle he was not charged with that offence. He was released on 23 April 1992 the same day the then SLORC Chairman Senior General Saw Maung (died July 1997) was forced to relinquish power and current Burmese junta (officially named State Peace and Development Council, SPDC) chief Senior General Than Shwe took over from Saw Maung. Religious and literary works A devout Buddhist, U Nu was long the popular spiritual leader of his country. He had the Kaba Aye (World Peace) pagoda and the Maha Pasana Guha (Great Cave) built in 1952 in preparation for the Sixth Buddhist Synod that he convened and hosted in 1954-1956 as prime minister. On 29 August 1961,mainly due to moves taken by U Nu, the then Burmese Parliament declared Buddhism as the official state religion (this constitutional amendment making Buddhism the state religion became ineffective when Ne Win took over power in March 1962), which alienated the Christian ethnic minorities such as the Kachins and the Karens. Cow slaughtering was officially banned; beef became known as todo tha (lit. hush hush meat). When General Ne Win took over power in 1962, one of his first acts was to repeal the ban on cow slaughtering, which perhaps was symbolic of a personality clash between Nu and Ne Win. U Nu authored several books some of which have been translated into English by various persons. Among his works are The People Win Through (1951), Burma under the Japanese (1954), An Asian Speaks (1955), and Burma Looks Ahead (1951). His autobiography (1907-1962) Ta-Tei Sanei Tha (Ta-Tei - Saturday Son) was published in India by Irrawaddy Publishing, U Maw Thiri in 1975. An earlier version was published in 1974; it was translated into English by U Law Yone, who was the editor of The Rangoon Nation till 1963 and who, like U Nu was jailed by the Revolutionary Council in the 1960s. Before U Nu became Prime Minister, he had translated, in the late 1930s, Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People (Lu Paw Lu Zaw Louk Nee in Burmese, in retranslaton it roughly meant 'To Take Advantage of Humans by Humans'; later the translated name was changed to the more palatable 'Meikta Bala Htikar' which can be retranslated as A Treatise on Social Friendship/Dealings. The translated work under the second title became a prescribed text in schools in the 1950s as was U Nu's original work in Burmese, The People Win Through or The Sound of the People Victorious. U Thant had been Secretary to the Prime Minister U Nu before he was appointed Burmese Ambassador to the United Nations in 1957. Later in 1961, U Thant became the UN's third Secretary-General. Nu died on 14 February 1995 in Yangon at the age of 87. His wife Daw Mya Yee died before him. He was survived by his five children, San San (daughter), Thaung Htaik (son), Maung Aung (son), Than Than and Cho Cho (daughters). Novelist and playwright Besides serving as Prime Minister, U Nu was also an accomplished novelist and playwright. In a work from the colonial period It's So Cruel (Man, the Wolf of Man) U Nu describes how during the colonial period rich landlords were able to get away with just about any crime they wished to perpetrate. The play The Sound of the People Victorious (The People Win Through) that U Nu wrote while he was Prime Minister is about the havoc that Communist ideologies can wreak in a family. Strangely enough the first production of the play seems to have been in Pasadena, California. It later became a popular comic book in Burma, was translated into English, and made into a feature film at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s. Some in Burma can even remember having studied the play in school when they were children. In the play Thaka Ala, published just before the 1962 coup, U Nu paints an extremely ugly picture of corrupt politics both amongst the high-ranking politicians in power at the time as well as among the communist leaders who were gaining ascendancy. This is a play in the vernacular, a genre that hardly exists in Burmese literature. A translation into English was published in instalments in the Guardian newspaper. The play is critical of the current state of politics in Burma at the time (around 1960) and in this critical stance it resembles Thein Pe Myint's The Modern Monk (Tet Phone Gyi in Burmese). Like The Modern Monk, it deals with scandalous sexual liaisons not much in keeping with traditional modes of Burmese behaviour. This time the scandalous sexual liaisons are among politicians both of the left and the right | ||||||||
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