Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – One of the last surviving members of the "Twenty Comrades," the first Mon revolutionary armed group, died of natural causes in Thailand on Sunday.
Nai Mya Thi, 85, served as a patron of Mon social organizations in the Sangkhlaburi District in Kanchanaburi Province.
In 1958, when the Mon People's Front revolutionary armed group surrendered to the Burmese Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League’s government, Mon leaders of the group formed the New Mon State Party (NMSP). Nai Mya Thi did not join the group, but the leaders of New Mon State Party recognized him as a Mon revolutionary leader.
“He is a leader who sowed the seeds of revolution. Our New Mon State Party mourns his death,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nyan Tun, a NMSP foreign affairs official.
Nai Mya was born in 1926 in Mawkanin village in Ye Township in Mon State. He left school at grade 7. In 1947, when he was 21, he worked as a secretary and canvasser for the Mon Independence Group organized by Nai Ba Lwin [New Mon State Party chairman Nai Shwe Kyin].
On August 19, 1948, he was involved in a raid on the Zathapyin Police Station to seize weapons. The date is celebrated as Mon Revolutionary Day.
Under the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League government, he worked in the Mon Language programme at Myanmar Radio.
He was a member of the Mon National Defence Organization.
He was imprisoned in Mawlamyaing Prison for two years, and he was detained in Rangoon in 1957.
His wife, Mi Ban Aung, three children and seven grandchildren survive him. His body will be cremated at a monastery in Sangkhlaburi on Wednesday afternoon, according to his family.
