The memory of great leaders will remain fresh

_{By: Mu Byan Binn, February 17, 2008}

"She called me before and her voice was shivering and she seemed to be very scared," she said.  I got very worried and asked what happened and she told me, “You know, mother said, Tee (uncle) Mahn Sha is dead”.  I personally call him "A Tee".  For a few seconds, I didn't know what to say.  "What, what, what?" were the only words that came out of my mouth later on.
 
I was totally shocked and felt like my whole body system went jumble for awhile.  But, it was even more shocking when I heard my sister continued, "He was shot dead".  With tears in my eyes, I asked, "Is mother, father and everyone at home okay?" I asked, because Tee Mahn Sha's house is only two doors to ours.  Since, my father and Tee Mahn Sha are close, I felt like maybe the gunmen also shot at our house.  She told me that no one was hurt except Tee Mahn Sha. 

I hurriedly called my mother and she sounded calm by then and told me the entire story.  She said, "I was inside the house and heard gun shots. I was shocked at first but then I thought it must be the fireworks.  I went out anyway to see and I saw that the neighbors were busy (at Mahn Sha house) with something and later, I learnt that Mahn Sha was shot dead".   She then continued that the boy from our house saw a black car passing by and that someone remembered the number plate and the story went on just like what I later heard and read in the news over the past few days.  
 
After hearing the story, I was filled with anger and sadness.  I stopped working, went outside and, "Why would anyone do that?" I said to my boyfriend who was washing his motorbike and also just hanging up his phone.  He knew exactly what I said to him, because his friend has just called him informing him of A Tee's death.   We both concluded that it would be a great lost for all the Karens as well as Burma's pro-democracy community as a whole because he was very talented and was a man with great vision. 
 
I met Tee Mahn Sha when I left Burma for Thailand in 1999 in Mae Sot.  But, we never talked to each other then.  He was always busy talking to my father or someone else so mostly I just smiled at him just to be polite.  When my father moved to another house near to A Tee's house in 2005, I had more chance to talk to him, visiting him as well as people from his house and became friends with them.  I went to the Karen Revolution Day celebrations with them. I interviewed A Tee, and I had taken pictures of him for my friends because they needed them for their news articles.  Whenever I came back from Australia, I would buy presents for him and my friends at his place.  A Tee sometimes invited my family to have dinner with them. 
 
When we met, he would always flatter me by saying that, "You are such a great help for your father, you sweep the floor, you wash up for him". Also, "Your dad always talks about you.  Your dad said you are the only child who is interested in Burmese politics and wants to come back to the border to work with the Burmese community".  I would shyly say, “That's true and thanks for saying nice thing about me”.  Also, he would always encourage me to work hard for the community. 
 
On some occasions, when he came and visited my father and finished talking to him, he also told me about his children and his wife.  Although he had a very brave and talented wife (who died in 2004) as well as very well educated kids, he was always humble while talking about them.  He would just say your aunty (his wife) worked hard and that his children were studying abroad.  But, he always took big pride on one of his daughters who is studying in England.  I later learnt that the daughter he mentioned is Zoya Phan, who is actively involved in Burmese politics in England and who received a prize on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi.   
 
A Tee was admired by many old and young people.  My father is one of them.  My father would say,"He is a great leader for KNU, a great politician and also a good friend".   A Tee talked only when it was necessary yet he was friendly and was a man of discipline.  He seemed to really like gardening as well.  From my house, I always saw him watching or working on the plants and flowers that he had grown in the garden. 
 
Tee Mahn Sha finished his study in 1966 majoring in history at Rangoon University and soon after joined the KNU movement.  Since then, he had been working hard and occupied one of the top positions in the KNU as the general secretary of KNU in 2000 and dutifully done his works until his death. 
 
 To sum it all up, I don't really know much about A Tee, I only talked to him a few times because mostly I only talked to young people at his house.  But I know that he was a good man who worked hard, who had great vision for the community.  He liked to see young people improve and always encouraged them to be empowered. 
 
One of the Karen youths, Saw Nicky said, " He was a valuable leader for the Karen.We, young people admire him.We are all saddened for his death," when I asked about his feeling over the death of Tee Mahn Sha.  "It is rare to have a great leader like him.Not only Karen youths lost him, but he is also a big loss for all the Karen nationalities," he added. 
 
Another Karen youth who is a female said, "He was an important man for Karen community as well as for the democracy movement for Burma.  He encouraged and guided us to the good way and understood that it is necessary to work not only with Karens but also with other ethnic groups, so it is very sad that he had to die this way."
 
I am not a Karen but like all Karens, I feel like I have lost something important and I am sure many Karens and non-Karens feel the same way.  I am certain that KNU will survive without him but at the same time, he is a big loss for the KNU. 
 
To be honest, I hardly pray but since the death of A Tee, I pray for him before I go to bed and also when I wake up.  He will be buried on the 19th of February somewhere in the KNU controlled area at the Thai-Burma border with great honor.  His body may be buried but as the great leader, his name will still be alive and in many people's mind, the memory of him will remain fresh.