The nineteenth of July
1947 was a day we shall not easily forget. Our grandparents always said it was
the day of tears and mourns. ‘Everywhere in the city, on buses, on trains and
in the market places they saw all the men’s eyes wet and women sobbing as if
their hearts would break.’ There was no need to ask why they were crying for or
what their tears represented.
My grandfather said, if
someone died; only the family and the relative would cry or sob. But on that
day of our martyrs assassination, not only their families and relatives, but
also everyone in the city, shock of sorrow and their tears streaming down their
faces. All were too stunned, all were numb with sorrow, all felt as they had
lost their beloveds from hearing this dreadful news.
While at 10:37 AM in
the Chamber in which the members of the Governor’s Executive Council under the
chairmanship of Bogyoke Aung San held a
cabinet meeting, they fell victim to an act of assassination which was as
senseless as it was cruel. Councilors trusted by people; Bogyoke Aung San, Thakin Mya, Mahn
Ba Khine, DeedokeU Ba Choe, the Sawbwa of Mong Pawn, U Razak, U Ba Win, U Ohn
Maung, Ko Thet Htwe were shot to death.
I learnt from an article of ‘Our Fallen Leaders’ (It was
published in the booklet for the memory of the martyrs day, it was distributed
in 19th July 1988, from the Ministry of Information) which was
portrayed about the scene of the crime as ‘the pungent smell of
carbine and fumes of heavy smoke rolled out of the Chamber.’ (It was absolutely
different in the movie of ‘The Lady’, described this scene as our Bogyoke was
shot by pistol from the few inches away. Ah! Yes, I know that kind of weapon!
It was not a carbine. . This
scene in the movie ruined the greatest event of our history.)
The merciless day was
addition to the heavy clouds and ‘all-shaking thunders’ with roaring rain to
mourn more and more severely to the whole nation. My grandmother said ‘the
thick shroud of rain and clouds lay on us all as if never to be lifted. The
terrible aspect of all nature seemed to be in keeping with the calamity that
shook the whole nation.’ It was the greatest tragedy of our history.
Life had to go on in spite of the tragedy that had struck.
Time cured all as things went back to normal since then. The nineteenth July
comes every year as the time wheels around. I remembered this day not as the
child’s thought as the public holiday, but as it was the day of tears to the
whole nation to mourn for the death of our heroes. The time healed the tears to
dry as log or our heart to cold as ice. But the rain slashed mercilessly and
the winds roared pitilessly that I saw outside from my window while I was
writing this article. I could only imagine the tears of the whole nation
happened in the scene of the day. But I could feel in the flesh at the present
that the weather was foul even for the monsoon season as it might be seen the
same as the day of nineteenth July 1947.
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