Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council  Senior General Than Shwe's Union Day message
Esteemed national brethren of the Union

12 February 2003

On the occasion of the 56th Anniversary of the Union Day of the Union of Myanmar, I, with goodwill, wish auspiciousness to all the national races of the Union.

Myanmar is a Union in which various national races such as Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine, Shan and so on are living in all parts. So, every region of the Union itself is a mini-Union, where the different national races are living together in unity. The brethren, who were born in the Union, are living in harmony, in weal or woe and through thick and thin, possessing the spirit to help and understand one another based on friendship. With relentless zeal and perseverance, they have daringly warded off all the dangers risking their lives for perpetuation of the Union and sovereignty.

Thus, the national races were able to found the First Myanmar Empire in Bagan Period, the Second Myanmar Empire in Toungoo Period, and the Third Myanmar Empire in Konboung Period, achieving the glory and winning the respect of neighbouring countries.

The people were able to establish the great sovereign empires when the strength of the national unity was strong and Union Spirit flourished. In addition, the nation saw much progress in her political, economic and social sectors during the times. However, when the national solidarity weakened and Union Spirit waned, the political, economic and social sectors were in a state of decline and even the sovereignty was encroached upon.

At a time when national unity was in jeopardy, the colonialists waged three unjust aggressive wars — the first in 1824, the second in 1852, and the third in 1885 — relying on their superior firepower to annex Myanmar and enslave the national people. Although the nation fell under subjugation and lost her sovereignty, the patriotic national races of the entire Myanmar put up strong resistance against the colonialists with the unyielding spirit to fight on till only the hull is left for over a decade.

With the intention of crushing the strong resistance and enslaving the Myanmar people for a long period, the colonialists resorted to various means to destroy the national unity. They sowed discord among the national races and created suspicions and hostilities with the ultimate target of destroying nationalistic fervour and national pride.

The colonialists divided Myanmar into the plains and the hill regions in governing her. Moreover, they introduced different types of laws and applied different administrative systems for each particular area in governing the hill regions to cause dissension among the national races. They committed acts to divide the national races, giving unequal rights to each ethnic group to cause misunderstanding among the national races. Even when they were about to restore independence to Myanmar, they tried to keep the hill regions under their administration. It can been seen in the pages of history.

In accord with the sayings which go “Blood becomes thicker in times of emergency” and “No one can draw a line on the water to divide it”, the national races showed the spirit of national solidarity at the Panglong Conference on 12 February 1947 to regain the independence in unity. Even in the final moments of granting independence, the colonialists hatched up a wicked scheme to destroy the national solidarity; they abetted the plot to assassinate the national race leaders.

However, due to the relentless efforts made with the strength of the national solidarity and Union Spirit, which were conceived at the Panglong Conference, Myanmar, which had lost independence for 100 years, was able to restore her independence on 4 January 1948, and since then it has been standing tall with glory as a sovereign Union among the world nations.

Although, the nation was able to regain her independence, the national solidarity which had been consolidated with utmost efforts, began to break up, soon after regaining of independence, resulting from the wound the nation had received from the colonialists’ scheme to divide the unity. Because of the consequences of the break-up of the national unity, Myanmar lost peace and stability for nearly 40 years during which the people had to live in fear, and the nation lagged behind in development.

The State Peace and Development Council, seeing that only with the consolidation of national unity would it be possible to make an all-out effort for national development, tried on a wider and deeper scale for national reconsolidation and the propagation of Union Spirit by adopting the national policy: Non-disintegration of the Union, Non-disintegration of national solidarity and Perpetuation of sovereignty. As a result, 17 armed groups, realizing the genuine goodwill of the State and the Tatmadaw, have returned to the legal fold and are lending themselves to the national and regional development endeavours together with the Government, the national people and the Tatmadaw.

Therefore, remote border areas, where the transportation was poor, the living hard and the economic development slow during the past successive eras, have now an improved network of roads, bridges and modern communications. The economic life of the people in those areas has also improved with the development of agriculture, livestock breeding, industry, trade and tourism sectors. The local people are now able to fully enjoy the benefits of schools, hospitals and dispensaries. The border areas today are developing in parallel with the major cities and so various national races are sharing the fruits of peace and stability. As a peaceful, modern and developed nation can be built only with the strength of national unity, the State has been implementing the special projects for better transportation and communications so that there may be increased dealings and contacts among the national people of different regions resulting in deeper friendship among them. The State is creating sound material environments for the development of the agriculture sector, the main pillar of the national economy, and other economic sectors.

In order to bring a harmonious development to various regions of the Union, the three development projects — Project for Development of Border Areas and National Races, Project for Special Development Regions and Rural Development Project — are being simultaneously carried out. Moreover, strategies for national reconsolidation, vitalization of patriotic spirit, propagation of Union Spirit, uplift of morale and morality of the entire nation and uplift of national prestige and integrity have been laid down and are being translated into reality.

The Union of Myanmar is rich in natural resources. In addition, Myanmars are a people of sound personalities. Plenty of historical records have proved this fact. However, national unity was jeopardized due to various kinds of instigations and machinations. Thus, the nation lacked stability and was left behind the neighbouring countries economically and socially.

This being the case, it is necessary for all the national people to realize, in line with the political, economic and social objectives, the aims of building a peaceful, modern and developed nation on a par with the other nations.

Destructive elements within and without the nation cannot bear to see the flourishing of national solidarity and the development of sound political, economic and social environments. Therefore, they are using various ways and means to constantly hinder and sabotage our development tasks. This being so, the entire national people must always remain vigilant against these elements and ward off the dangers posed by them.

Finally, I would like to urge the entire national people to strive for the constant flourishing of patriotic spirit and Union Spirit and to actively and unitedly realize the objectives of the 56th Anniversary Union Day:

— For all the nationals to safeguard the national policy—non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of the national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty;

— To keep Union spirit always alive and flourishing among the entire national people:

— For all the nationals to strive in harmony for the emergence of an enduring State Constitution that will pave the way for the building of a new discipline-flourishing nation;

— To ward off, with national solidarity, the danger of destructionists from inside
and outside the nation who are disturbing the stability, peace, modernization
and development of the State.