Word: thakin
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...vain, previous Burmese governments have offered amnesties to the rebels. Ne Win went farther: he promised a safe-conduct to rebel leaders for discussions in Rangoon. Red Flag Leader Thakin Soe accepted. He was picked up by a river gunboat, taken to a government airfield and flown to Rangoon, where he promptly demanded 1) a nationwide ceasefire, 2) withdrawal of Burmese troops from vital Red Flag areas, and 3) a meeting of all political factions-legal and illegal-to form a new government. Taken aback by these demands, Ne Win denounced Thakin Soe as "insincere" and gave him seven days...
General Ne Win, 48, the new boss of Burma, is a stocky, jaunty soldier with some Chinese blood, who was a post-office clerk in the 1930s when nationalist ferment against the British was stirring Burma. Joining the revolutionary Thakin group, Ne Win was one of the famed "30 comrades" who were smuggled to Japan in 1941 for military training. When the Japanese occupied Burma, Ne Win came with them, but, like the other Thakins, soon discovered that the Japanese occupiers were more cruel than the British, and began fighting them. He has been fighting ever since: against the rebellious...
...onetime comrades in arms were added the bickering and ambitions of their wives. U Nu's wife refused for months to speak to the wife of U Kyaw Nyein, Minister for National Economy. Kyaw Nyein's wife would have nothing to do with the wife of Thakin Kyaw Dun, Minister for Agriculture. Premier U Nu tried hard to take a Nehrunian position above the fray but was inevitably drawn into what he himself describes as the party's "family quarrels." He was also angry about the '"outrageous" lawlessness in the countryside, and last month called...
Marxist Buddhist. U Nu has also declared that "Marxism and Buddhism are incompatible," but to Burma's surprise the side he chose to join was that of Marxist Thakin Kyaw Dun and his strongly left-wing socialist followers. U Kyaw Nyein emerged as the rival leader, backed by U Ba Swe, Minister of Defense, and Thakin Tha Kin, ex-Home Minister who had been fired by U Nu. Both sides agreed to an equal division of the party's real estate and money, and prepared for a showdown in the August session of Parliament, with the losing side...
...Power Success. Burma is still a land of violence, compounded now by some of the inevitable parasites of Socialism: graft, bureaucratic confusion, the arrogance of petty officials. Yet by its own measurable standards and in its own context, Burma is doing well. U Nu has dropped the prewar title, "Thakin." considering that the Burmese are now masters in their house (U means roughly "Respected Sir," or "Uncle...