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2 Responses to “Biography: Chin-ethnic Pro-democracy Student Leader Salai Tin Maung Oo”

• #1 Salai Kipp Kho Lian Says:
  July 14th, 2008 at 10:25 pm

  Please go to http://www.chinforum.org to read the Burmese version of the article commemorating the 30th. anniversary of the death of a student martyr Salai Tin Maung Oo, a High Flying Hornbill and one of the great sons of Chinland. Having laid down his life for the entire peoples of Burma and death had befallen upon him, Salai Tin Maung Oo remains a legendary student leader in the hearts of the new generation students and his legacy still inspires us to follow the courageous path he had once walked.

  … where the Hornbills fly,
  on the mountains high ….
  …. in the midst of the red Rhododendrons
  behold the solace of the unkowns,
  and when the wind sings the song of the unkown heroes ….
  our tears will gather strength … to bring us freedom.
  Salai Kipp (Zoram)

• #2 Hla Oo Says:
  August 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

  I was a first year RIT student in 1974 and I took part in U Thant’s uprising till the last night just before the brutal army’s assault. I still remember the scene we met Tin Maung Oo very first time.

  That day, the funeral day for U Thant, when we got there at the Kyaikasan Ground we were somehow positioned right across the field from the stand where U Thant’s coffin was. Some people now said we marched there from RIT. But I definitely remember we got there by Ma-hta-tha buses and we entered the Ground by the gates near Tamwe Cemetery.

  As we were patiently or unknowingly standing by our buses for our turn in line to reach the coffin, one senior student climbed onto the roof of one nearby bus and started giving us a rousing speech. Then was the first time and only time I saw famous student leader Tin Maung Oo close-up.

  He wasn’t even from our RIT, he was from RASU, but he was clever enough to choose us as the spearhead of his carefully-planned uprising. Some people now even said Tin Maung Oo wasn’t there in U Thant’s Ayeakhin, but I swear on my mother’s grave he was there who started the whole thing and he even introduced himself as Tin Maung Oo to us there from the bus roof.

  The summary of his rousing speech was that U Thant should be treated with more respect than Ne Win’s Thugs had so far shown and we the brave RIT students had to take matter into our hands, so take the coffin, and build a deserving memorial for U Thant on the ground of historical Rangoon University Campus.

  Everyone was kind of curious when he first appeared on the bus roof and paying serious attention to what he was going to say to us. But the sea of students immediately parted away from the bus then he was on, once he mentioned the feared dictator’s name together with that infamous July Seven incident where many university students protesting against the 1962 bloody coup were slaughtered by the army.

  With sudden impulsive fear we all backed away from him so fast like that memorable scene from the movie ‘Ten Commandments’ when Mosses had parted the Red Sea.

  Initially, most of us were jovially excited for being there in a large group, but no one had seriously expected the trouble and the real fear of dead and torture had been deeply implanted in our brains as the result of fearfully growing up under an extremely ruthless and brutal dictator like Ne Win.

  “Don’t be afraid. Just look out there! Lying there is our hero, U Thant, the most famous son of our land. He deserves much, much more than what Ne Win’s thugs are offering. A small plot on the ordinary ground of Kyandaw Cemetery? That is an insult! Ugly insult to the Third General Secretary of United Nations! An insult to all of us.” That was the essence of what he was then yelling out at the top of his voice at the same time pointing his right finger towards the shining casket of late U Thant.

  I was so scared at first, I immediately backed out away from the bus as far as I could and swallowed up by the student crowd just behind me.

  “So, what we’re gonna do now?” Then some brave soul from the crowd yelled out at Tin Maung Oo and he quickly shouted back, “Our U Thant should be treated with more respect than Ne Win’s thugs had so far shown. We the brave RIT students have to take the matter into our hands. We’ll take the coffin, and build a deserving memorial for U Thant on the ground of historical Rangoon University Campus. Let’s do it now!”

  Then he jumped down from the bus roof right onto the hard ground, almost lost his balance, but swiftly stood up, and started energetically attacking the about five feet tall iron-bar-fence stood just there. Seriously agitated by then, we all nearby joined in and the long line of fence gave in and collapsed right down onto the hard earthen ground. We then rushed forward to the stand where the coffin was.

  Me and many of my classmates ended up with the coffin in RASU that night. But for some reason I never saw Tin Maung Oo again inside RASU. At the end, my brother ended up in jail but I miraculously escaped. Two of my friends were never seen again. Only two years later in 1976, I read about hanging of Tin Maung Oo in Insein or Rangoon jail in the newspapers.

  I am now collecting the first hand experiences of that uprising from my RIT contemporaries and eventually write a detail essay to honour Tin Maung Oo and other fallen students of mother RIT.

  May his soul rest in peace as Ne Win’s soul burn in hell!

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