Message sent by Chairman of State Administration Council of Republic of the Union of Myanmar Prime Minister Senior General Thadoe Maha Thray Sithu Thadoe Thiri Thudhamma Min Aung Hlaing to the ceremony to mark the 76th Anniversary of Independence Day, 2024
Esteemed all the people and ethnic national brethren, On the occasion of the 76th Anniversary of Independence Day of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, I would like to wish all the ethnic people living in the country good health, physical and mental happiness and prosperity.
All the ethnic people born in the Union of Myanmar have had their own culture and culture for many years. While preserving and protecting their own customs and traditions, they stood and lived majestically under the safe haven of their own throne. However, due to the evil colonial system that has come to dominate the world, our country, which is rich in natural resources, was occupied by the imperialist British with three wars of aggression in 1824, 1852 and 1885 each and lost its sovereignty along with the independence.
As the fight for independence was carried out with unrelenting perseverance using spirit of appreciating the own throne, indomitable spirit on oppression and the Union spirit, which arose from resentment against imperialist British and fascists, as the most powerful weapon, the independence was regained on January 4, 1948 and it has been 76 years standing as a nation of regaining independence and sovereignty.
The independence lost in a moment could be regained through working hard and paying the lives of ethnic people for many years. Although a union with the incomparable prestige of independence has been owned due to patriotism and willingness to sacrifice for the country by the ancient ancestors, Myanmar faced a period of being like a seedling in the middle of the storm due to political and racial ideological differences. The root cause of this internal conflict is the weakness of national solidarity caused by the imperialists' long-term divide and rule system. From then on, we once again faced threats of causing the situation to disintegrate the Union and lose sovereignty.
Independence and sovereignty, which are as important as life, have been preserved as the Myanmar Tatmadaw faced and fought hand in hand with ethnic people to protect them. Our Three Main National Causes: non-disintegration of the Union; non-disintegration of national solidarity; and perpetuation of sovereignty is the main pillar for existence and perpetuation of independence and sovereignty and it clearly exists as a code of ethics that all ethnic people must take seriously and observe. Therefore, all the ethnic people born in the Union must seriously follow and implement the path to build a Union based on a true, disciplined democracy and federal system that strengthens the power of national solidarity.
Esteemed all the people and ethnic national brethren, The previous government did not resolve the voter fraud that occurred in the 2020 Election in accordance with the law and besides, as it tried to take power of the State by force, the Tatmadaw had to take the State's responsibilities in accordance with the 2008 Constitution to strengthen the multi-party democratic system. The State Administration Council was formed, and two political goals were laid down to strengthen a genuine and disciplined multi-party democratic system and build a Union based on democracy and federalism. In addition, two national objectives: to ensure national prosperity; and to ensure food security were also laid down and being implemented.
In building a Union based on democracy and federalism, we must focus on developing a region-based federal system rather than an ethnic-based one. As leaders, implementers and those who follow need to be full of knowledge, skill, core quality and thinking ability in building a modern, developed Union based on democracy and federalism, efforts must be made to promote the comprehensive education sector that can produce human resources for the nation.
As the present day era is the age of education, only if you have education, can your life be guaranteed. It is seen that ethnic areas, especially in some rural areas in the provinces, have weak education due to the lack of education encouragement, language barriers and other challenges. Therefore, measures must be certainly taken in order that all rural people and ethnic people will become literate and learn class education. During the summer school holidays in 2024, the literacy activities like the previous three Rs courses will be organized and carried out by dedicated students, teachers, local educated people and civil servants with the help of ethnic language teaching assistants as a nationwide national campaign.
In schools, teachers must teach the students to become literate and continue to encourage the students to keep reading and studying literature. Law and economics are being added and taught at universities in order to increase the number of people with legal knowledge and basics of business knowledge and to have economists. Efforts must be made towards the abundance of educated people who are full of skills and knowledge for the development of the nation.
Only if we have a high level of education, will we have critical thinking. Thus, measures must be taken to ensure improvement of the entire ethnic people’s education. We must promote the comprehensive education sector in order that future young people will become ones who have completed with the Five Nobel Strength to preserve our culture and national characteristics and to be able to keep abreast with the changing times.
Esteemed all the people and ethnic national brethren, In Myanmar, the majority of citizens are engaged in agriculture, and 45 percent of the 72 percent rural population makes a living on agriculture. Other rural people are engaged in agricultural related businesses. If we make efforts and work together on access to water, fertilizer/animal feed, good and quality seeds and planting methods in agriculture and livestock industries, agriculture can help ensure food security, one of the national objectives.
Thus, universities, colleges, institutes and schools are being extended and opened to be able to produce intellectuals and experts on agriculture and livestock. As education needs to be accessible to everyone, 51 joint high schools have been opened in 51 districts in order that those who have completed secondary education are able to learn industry, agriculture and livestock and plans have been made to open 34 more schools in the 2024-2025 academic year.
At such schools, the students will be taught and trained to become industry, agriculture and livestock experts, and through that, outstanding ones will be able to continue joining institutes, colleges and universities. With such experts, scholars and development of human resources, a region has to step up from producing one type of product by making efforts to become an exporter of finished goods producing to meet the domestic demand of finished goods from being an importer of consumer goods based on domestic demand. With the encouragement for MSME businesses based on agriculture and livestock, it is to study advanced manufacturing techniques to produce high-quality, value-added products, to ensure improvement of socio-economic life of the country.
Esteemed all the people and ethnic national brethren, The ultimate goal of the State Administration Council is to hold a free and fair multi-party democratic general election. Preparations are being made for all the people who are eligible to vote to be able to vote and for the entire country to be able to vote 100 percent. It is necessary to conduct a nation-wide census in order to successfully collect voter lists and obtain information needed for development of the country. Therefore, a pilot census was conducted starting October 1, in 2023, and it is to continue to conduct the nationwide census in 2024.
If there are solid and accurate voting lists based on this, efforts are to be made to hold a free and fair multi-party democratic general election in accordance with the law and ensure the right to vote without any gaps in the whole country.
We will continue to ensure an orderly general election and hand over the State responsibilities to a government that emerges from that election.
Esteemed all the people and ethnic national brethren, The Government will continue to make efforts by practically applying grand strategy, strategy and tactics laid down centered on unity of all ethnic people and spirit of Union with mutual respect and trust.
I am sending this message urging all the people and ethnic national brethren to work together in solidarity with true patriotism and spirit of the Union for the independence and sovereignty of the motherland of Myanmar having a great history and tradition by deeply accepting the five national objectives for the 76th Anniversary of Independence Day 2024.