Kyaw Mon U Thaung - From the Burmese Era to Kyaw Mon

Introduction by Kyamon U Thaung

(Written by Nyo Mya.)

(1)

Aung Bala and I, also known as Ko Thaung, were classmates at the Burmese-era Towara School and the Insein Towara School, so we could be called classmates. Just like at university, I was an older student and Ko Thaung was a younger, younger brother, but we were classmates as graduates of those Towara schools.

I was selected to be sent to Kabul in the pre-war era as the first journalism scholar in Burma. When I arrived in Kabul, World War II broke out, and I was sent to London, where I was to attend.

The college was closed indefinitely due to the war. So the government searched for other journalism schools and found a suitable university in Chicago, USA.

Of the more than 2,000 universities in the United States, about 200 offer journalism courses. Of these,

(1) Columbia University in New York City,

(2) Northwestern University in Chicago

(3) Missouri State University

The government sent me to Chicago, where I graduated with a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University two years later. You may be wondering why I'm so self-absorbed in my introduction to your book. But I'll just say, read on.

Just as the university I was supposed to attend closed when I arrived in London in 1940, in 1942, when I returned home with a degree in journalism, Burma fell under the Japanese occupation, and the doors of my home were closed to me.

I was stranded in the United States, working in universities and government departments. The Americans were kind. I said, “I’ve been living with you for a long time, I’m getting bored. I miss my village. So please send me somewhere closer to Burma.” I was sent to the American military base in Assam as an information officer.

Just as the monk U Thein Pe Myint in India collaborated with the British to publish the “Le Nat Thar” newsletter, I collaborated with the Americans to produce the “Ling Yon” newsletter. Both Le Nat Thar and Ling Yon were golden leaflets dropped by Allied planes during the Japanese era. We did as much as we could for those of us who were on the side of the Western Allies during the war.

The war ended in a terrible way because of the atomic bomb. I returned to Rangoon with the Americans and soon after resigned from my job and went to live with Ko Thaung during the Burmese period.

I arrived at the Tory School. The monthly salary in the Burmese era was over 300 kyats, which was quite different from the 1600 kyats I was paid when I worked with the Americans. However, at that time, the Burmese press world was not able to afford that much.

Oh. Besides, the responsibility and dignity of a scholar are not related to money. As a journalist, you have to make good use of your life. Just like the high tide, there must always be ups and downs with your country, your people, and your people.

(2)

U Ohn Khin was not a well-known person in the Burmese era, but he was a humble man. He worked hard to rise through the ranks in both education and business, and was able to establish a successful business, achieving the feat of "making one tree a tree, and ten thousand birds happy."

U San Ni of Perot, U Nyunt of Hanthawaddy, U Nyi Pu, and other Burmese brothers and sisters are also great entrepreneurs and meritorious people.

U Ohn Khin is a good businessman. He is skilled in governance, knows how to negotiate and make a lot of money, and does not mean that he is a man who can make a lot of money. He is not greedy for those profits, but is willing to sacrifice everything when faced with an emergency. He receives various news and writes various criticisms in the press, so he can face various problems with the public and the government. During the Burmese era, U Ohn Khin was always a good businessman when faced with an emergency.

When establishing a newspaper, there is always an editorial department and an administrative department, and I think the administrative department is more important. No matter how good the editors are, if there is chaos in the administrative department, it cannot last long. If the administrative department is skilled, it can last long by making the editors poor and changing the appointments. U Ohn Khin, after establishing a good foundation in the administrative department, sought out good editors and himself pursued literature.

If you study the history of Burmese newspapers, you will notice that the Myanma Alin newspaper and the Hanthawaddy (Rangoon) newspaper had a system that focused on the administrative side. Newspapers in foreign countries also generally follow this method.

However, if you study the Thuriya Newspaper, you will find something different. When the political leaders led by Bagyi Baba started the Thuriya Newspaper, these people were already full of wisdom and had a lot of experience in management. Since the businessman was also a scholar, it grew rapidly under the leadership of versatile masters like Bagyi Baba. Journalists who are as versatile as Bagyi Baba in both editorial and administrative aspects are rare.

At the Burmese Times, businessman U Ohn Khin sought out various editors and eventually met Aung Bala, known as Ko Thaung. It was a good fit for both of them. Ko Thaung, although young, had the same talent as his older brother, and was able to handle both editorial and administrative duties with ease.

I was a journalist by training. I graduated from abroad. But I was only interested in the editorial department and did not want any administrative responsibilities. I did not know how to handle money. I did not want to look at the statistics. I thought that the numbers and petty problems related to business were only thorny issues for the thinker, the writer. That is why the Burmese era

After I started my own newspaper, Owai, after singing at Toray Monastery, it languished for a long time without any progress.

Aung Bala, also known as Ko Thaung, was not yet a man of great ability, and even in the Burmese era, he was a man of great strength after four or five years. However, he was like his grandfather (a two-pronged contract), and from the day he founded Kyay Mon Newspaper, he rose to prominence.

The sky is already falling. Kyaw Mon, during Ko Thaung's reign and after it was nationalized, never seemed to lose its popularity in its own way.

Therefore, as a journalist who has returned from exile, I must say that you don't need to go to exile to become a successful journalist. Bo Wazira, Bagyi Baba, and Ko Thaung are all educated.

There are no apprentices. Interest in all aspects of the business and study are the main required skills.

It is a shame for me, even though I am a journalist, that I am not as good as the above-mentioned scoundrels. However, I have good friends because I have similar scoundrels. The late Pandit U Maung Gyi is also

Good, Your Majesty, they were only interested in publishing. They were editors who were very averse to administrative nonsense like numbers and statistics. That

Because of this, those great men never experienced the wealth of businessmen and went to live in camps. The way they were able to contribute to the country is an encouragement to us, the "literate" people.

(3)

Ko Thaung published the Kyay Mon newspaper, imitating the “Daily Mirror,” the largest newspaper in England. He copied everything from the layout, proportions, layout, editorials, and irony. That is why it became a clean and tidy newspaper.

However, there is one thing I don't like about Ko Thaung's Kyay Mon newspaper: its bias.

As people grew up in this era, they followed the leftist fashion and became a newspaper that was full of white and red flags. It emphasized news from the Golden Left group.

The mirror used to do things like tailing, distorting, completely blacking out, and throwing the news from the Western right-wing group into the trash.

As a newspaper, you can prioritize the ideology you like. However, you should not hide or hide the world news and knowledge that is necessary for your country's situation throughout the era, but present it truthfully. "Our Myanmar has never studied world knowledge in detail, neither in the feudal era nor in the colonial era. Even in the darkness of the rulers,

We were in a state of confusion. When we gained independence, it was time for us to study the world situation objectively. Without studying this, it was impossible to develop. Japan has reached this advanced level since the Meiji era (a hundred years ago) when the whole Japanese nation tried to study world affairs. Russia's similar efforts did not begin until Lenin's time. They began when Peter himself traveled around Europe in the (17th) century. England has accepted and cultivated various scholars who were expelled from foreign countries throughout its history and cultivated them. The United States has also developed into a country where all kinds of knowledge of all nations flourished.

Burma, along with the newly independent Asian and African countries, adopted a policy of neutrality because it wanted to maintain friendly relations with all countries, whether left, right, east or west, and to gain complete knowledge from both sides. In such a situation, should the newspapers mislead the newly independent and neutral public towards either the left or the right?

In any case, Kyay Mon Newspaper, as the newspaper with the largest circulation during Ko Thaung's reign, played a role in the left, which led to the Burmese people being left-wing. It should be noted that the more circulation a newspaper has, the greater its responsibility.

When newspapers were nationalized, I heard that Ko Thaung's Kyay Mon was the largest and most profitable in Burma and was very profitable to the government. It was a great satisfaction for Ko Thaung to have created a large and prosperous business in this life and entrusted it to the people's government. He was not one of the "rice-barrel" people, so his life clearly had meaning.