After reading the General Aung San’s speech which was delivered 61 years ago, this blogger would like to praise and speak to Bogyoke Aung San through my small insignificant blog.
Bogyoke,
All the Burmese, including your Daughter Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have no chance to taste the Freedom of Real Independence in Burma.
Bogyoke,
On the 60th Anniversary of the Independence of Burma, all the Burmese are still unable to taste the real freedom as Burma is ruled by the Military Junta, called SPDC.
Bogyoke,
Burmese people, including your daughter Daw Aung San Su Kyi, has risen up against the Evil and Unjust leadership of Burma, under the watchful eyes of International Community.
Bogyoke,
Allow me to share your wonderful speech which you have delivered 60 years ago as it is still relevant to the current Political Chaos of Burma.
May Bogyoke’s speech useful for the younger Generation of Burmese, who are tirelessly working for the Freedom of Burma.
Sit Mone
Bogyoke is how Burmese address to respected General Aung San
Presidential address delivered to the first Congress of AFPFL, January 20, 1946 by General Aung San
Excerpt:
For years, and for the first time in our history, our nation has lain prostrate under the heels of foreign imperialism. For years, our creative potentialities have been held in leash and gradually atrophied by the scheme of things of imperialism, so that we cannot order to ourselves a life we hold most dear, a life far better, richer and more complete, a life in which the free development of each will be the condition for the free development of all. And for one generation after another, our nation rose and rallied again and again so that we might live and develop freely as a nation and individuals.
Bit by bit, our movement has grown and advanced amidst shoals of reactions, passions and prejudices. Bit by bit, the generations before us have laid the foundation for us to build upon. Today we, standing on top of their creation, may feel like belittling their efforts.
But such is the nature of a freedom struggle and historical progress. The development of history is not a sudden and accidental flash in the pan, but a continuous dynamic process involving several layers of men and women reacting to such given historical conditions extant in life and society; and it is not always a smooth placid one in its course.
This then is how we must conceive of our freedom struggle � that it is a developing process which the entire nation must help to work in the light of its objective possibilities, that it may run several gauntlets before it comes to its destined goal and that it cannot be treated as a question of days, months or even years in a number of instances.
When we come to see our freedom struggle in such perspective, we also come to know that we cannot, when victory comes, carry away the laurels all to ourselves which must likewise be shared by all peoples and generations concerned together, for they have also contributed their parts in their way and time.
But then victory is not yet. We have still an arduous way to traverse before we reach our goal. And you want me to pilot you safely to that journey�s end! I cannot thank you easily for this gesture of trust and confidence you have reposed in me. I must tell you quite frankly from the outset that I cannot dangle any promise of speedy results or sudden windfall of millennium before you.
No man, however great, can alone set the wheels of history in motion, unless he has the active support and co-operation of a whole people. No doubt individuals have played brilliant roles in history, but then it is evident that history is not made by a few individuals only.
I have already mentioned to you above how history develops as the cumulative creation of generations of men responding to the demands of ever growing logical events. I am well aware that there is such a great craving in man for heroism and the heroic, and that hero worship forms not a small motif in his complex. I am also aware that, unless man believes in his own heroism and the heroism of others, he cannot achieve much or great things. We must, however, take proper care that we do not make a fetish of this cult of hero-worship, for then we will turn ourselves into votaries of false gods and prophets. And we have had more than enough of such false gods and prophets for this trouble-ridden world.
So then we must labour together in the common cause which concerns all and affects everybody. This is the best way in which we can show our highest sense of homage to our heroes; this is the only way in which we can accomplish the mission before us and find our salvation. We must strive and work, all of us, until we become heroes all, so that we can ultimately dispense with any leader or leadership. For only then we can have freedom in a real and absolute sense. But I have gone far ahead. We have yet to win our national freedom before we can hope to help ourselves progressively to that absolute conception of freedom.
Read the full text of General Aung San’s Speech, delivered 61 years ago at
http://www.aungsan.com/Speeches.htm
Following is the AP News description of Military Junta’s way of celebrating Independence Day(4.01.2008)
Despite the growing international pressure, Than Shwe was defiant in his message on Friday, saying the road map was vital for turning Myanmar into “a discipline-flourishing democratic nation.”
The junta leader made no reference to the September violence in his message and also made no mention of independence hero General Aung San, who is best known overseas as the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, 62.
“Than Shwe did not want to mention Aung San only because of Aung San Suu Kyi. If he glorified the role of Aung San, in a sense, he was also glorifying Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University.
“It’s like America celebrating the Fourth of July without mentioning Washington,” he said, referring to the first US president, George Washington.
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