The 30th anniversary of remembrance for Nai Nonlar, former Chair of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) took place at a monastery in Three Pagoda Pass (TPP), on the Thai-Myanmar border on August 8, 2019.
The ceremony attendees included Mon monks led by Sayadaw Ashin Hongsae-Rajai, and NMSP’s current Chair, Nai Htaw Mon and members of Nai Nonlar’s family. In addition numerous NMSP representatives and members from the TPP-based Mon Unity Party (MUP) as well as representatives from the Mon Literature and Culture Committee were present.
“This ceremony is organized not only in honoring of late chairman Nai Nonlar but also to pay tribute to all those leaders: leaders Nai Shwe Kyin and Nai Htin who served as NMSP’s chairs. We pray for these heroes of revolution who sacrificed their lives for their people” stated Sayadaw Ashin Hongsae-Rajai during the ceremony.
The TPP-based All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) had invited Nai Nonlar to deliver a speech on the first anniversary of 8888, held on August 8, 1989. Nai Nonlar suffered a fatal heart attack while giving that speech on the stage.
The commander of Battalion No. 5 of the MNLA, the armed wing of NMSP, Lt. Col. M Seik Chan spoke about Nai Nonlar’s work during the event highlighting something the former Chair once said, “as a revolutionary or as a politician, one must implement within the boundary, one must fix within the boundary, and one dares to give up their lives within the boundary.”
Nai Nonlar passed away at the age of 72. His family members and relatives have organizing an annual remembrance ceremony in his birthplace Hanee Pa-daw village, Mudon Township, where a statue commemorates the former Chair, and at Three Pagodas Pass (TPP) town,.
Nai Nonlor aka “Sait Nooh” his birth name, was born in 1917 and served as a village head at the age of 22. At 31 years old, he became a central executive committee member of the Mon People’s Front (MPF). In 1958, he was one of the Mon leaders who participated in an event titled ‘exchanging guns with peace’ alongside Nai Aung Tun, then Chairperson of MPF, and the government led by U Nu.
After peace talks in the country failed in 1963, Ne Win’s government arrested and jailed 10 Mon leaders including Nai Nonlar. After his release, he joined the NMSP led by Nai Shwe Kyin in 1974. When the MNSP broke into two factions, Nai Nonlar served as a Chair of the TTP-based NMSP from 1980-87. When the two factions re-united, the committee elected Nai Nonlar to become vice-chairman at the first conference of the NMSP in 1989.
