Thakin Nu,
Burma's first prime minister
Thakin Nu’s first address to the nation,
on January 4, 1948
Protected by the sea and by mighty mountain ranges, we in Burma had pursued our own way of life till the all-pervading West intruded on our history, but on this auspicious day, on which we regain our independence, we need harbor no resentment. We could not for ever develop our own culture and maintain our old way of life without reference to the outside world, a world which was even then growing smaller by the development of the steamship and the railway. The clash with the West was bound to come and if in that clash we lost for a time our independence, we have gained in knowledge of the world and have had time and opportunity to align our civilization and our way of life to what the world demands though we have been careful not to lose in that process our national individuality and the principles that we hold dear.
Perhaps the main disadvantage of our loss of independence was that the natural process by which the several races of Burma were integrating into a nation was retarded and, until recently, we were divided administratively from our brethren of the Frontier Areas.
Our period of tutelage and our separation are now alike over and, benefiting by what we have learned from the outside world, we part this day in friendship and amity from political union with the country in whose tutelage Destiny placed us.
This is a solemn day. Five years ago, few of us alive today, however hard we fought for freedom, imagined it was so near at hand. Burma is again free to work out her own future.
No one will blame us for being jubilant on such an occasion, on such a day, but nevertheless for most of us it is a day for solemn thought. Burma is again free but we must be fit to maintain that freedom and we must be ready at all costs to keep Burma free and to make her great. A long and arduous task awaits us, the task of national reconstruction in many spheres. We must build up efficient defense forces, we must repair the material damage which Burma suffered by the war and in all directions we must reconstruct and re-organize to render Burma fit for the new life into which she enters to-day.
There is no room for disunity or discord-racial, communal, political or personal—and I now call upon all citizens of the Burma Union to unite and to labor without regard to self and in the interest of the country to which we all belong.
May the years that come keep us steadfast in the patriotic endeavor which has gained us our freedom! Let us resolve to-day to put away all thoughts of self and to strive together for the peace, welfare and prosperity of the land we live in!
Protected by the sea and by mighty mountain ranges, we in Burma had pursued our own way of life till the all-pervading West intruded on our history, but on this auspicious day, on which we regain our independence, we need harbor no resentment. We could not for ever develop our own culture and maintain our old way of life without reference to the outside world, a world which was even then growing smaller by the development of the steamship and the railway. The clash with the West was bound to come and if in that clash we lost for a time our independence, we have gained in knowledge of the world and have had time and opportunity to align our civilization and our way of life to what the world demands though we have been careful not to lose in that process our national individuality and the principles that we hold dear.
Perhaps the main disadvantage of our loss of independence was that the natural process by which the several races of Burma were integrating into a nation was retarded and, until recently, we were divided administratively from our brethren of the Frontier Areas.
Our period of tutelage and our separation are now alike over and, benefiting by what we have learned from the outside world, we part this day in friendship and amity from political union with the country in whose tutelage Destiny placed us.
This is a solemn day. Five years ago, few of us alive today, however hard we fought for freedom, imagined it was so near at hand. Burma is again free to work out her own future.
No one will blame us for being jubilant on such an occasion, on such a day, but nevertheless for most of us it is a day for solemn thought. Burma is again free but we must be fit to maintain that freedom and we must be ready at all costs to keep Burma free and to make her great. A long and arduous task awaits us, the task of national reconstruction in many spheres. We must build up efficient defense forces, we must repair the material damage which Burma suffered by the war and in all directions we must reconstruct and re-organize to render Burma fit for the new life into which she enters to-day.
There is no room for disunity or discord-racial, communal, political or personal—and I now call upon all citizens of the Burma Union to unite and to labor without regard to self and in the interest of the country to which we all belong.
May the years that come keep us steadfast in the patriotic endeavor which has gained us our freedom! Let us resolve to-day to put away all thoughts of self and to strive together for the peace, welfare and prosperity of the land we live in!
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