Chin Youth - Blog

Salai Biak Lian Sang

You may wonder who Omoda Monchi is. Sure, it is a Japanese name. There were days that a Burmese national hero had humbly siad "Watashi wa Omoda Monchi desu". It was a Japanese name of General Aung San. He also had a Chinese name called Tan Lu Sho. Of course, he had made friendship with the fascist Japanese and even became their colleague fighter. He also had made friendship with the communist Chinese. That's why he got those names. His father U Pha was a lawyer and communist. I Google about General Aung San and found out in Wiki that he was a founding member and the first General Secretary of Burma Communist Party which was founded in August 1939.

Some still have doubts that Aung San was a communist. I would like to argue that he was not a communist even though he was son of a communist, friend of communist and member of communist party.

When I was young, I wrongly thought that communists were non-religion. Actually the communism does not have to do with the religion. Both atheists and Christian can be communists if they believe in the concept so. Karl Marx developed the idea of Communism. Once a friend of mind told me that the early Christians according to the book of Act in the Bible were communists in terms of socioeconomic. It could be true. They shared whatever they had in equal. The political ideology of communism aimed to end up the capitalism. It was originally effective ideology against the capitalism but later on Lenin, Stalin and Chairman Mao Zedong practiced it in entirely a different position and became authoritarians. Since it was effective ideology for revolution against the colonization of the capitalist at that time, most revolutionists including Aung San adopted it. But the purpose would be to overcome the capitalism. It is quite clear that Aung San's tones were changed after the end of World War II in 1945. The end of the Second World War indeed was also the beginning of the conclusion of communism and Fascism.

I should state that General Aung San was greatly influenced by socialism which is rather an economic system rather than a political system. Politically he believed in democracy. According to the collection of Aung San's speeches 1943-1947, it is can be clearly seen that he stressed upon establishing a democratic government. He even indicated it as "heaven on the earth." He said that the real democratic country would be established and consequently criticized the so-called democratic country at that time. It was also obvious in the book that he told the reporter that the new government of Sovereign Union of Burma would occupy some main industries whereas in democratic country such as the States, the government handover industries to the private company. This point and other similar expressions of Aung San indicate that he believed in socialism in order to establish the national economy in the newly establish democratic country.