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New Mon State Party (NMSP) was formed in July 1958 under the leadership of Nai Shwe Kyin (alias) Nai Ba Lwin just after a big surrender under the leadership of the Mon People’s Front (MPF) which took up armed resistance since 1948. Nai Shwe Kyin himself was a Central Executive Committee of the Mon People’s Front. There was dissension amongst the Mons on the promise given by U Nu who was Premier of the then Burmese government. U Nu promised that his government would help create an autonomous Mon State if Mons surrender and accept legality. With the lurking political intrigues by the military, few leaders of the MPF who were not convinced of the surrender parted ways with MPF and formed up the New Mon State Party to continue carrying on armed resistance. U Nu’s government allowed a yearly display of Mon culture and permitted its revival while it considered the revival of an autonomous Mon State. But General Ne Win shattered these plans after his seizure of power in 1962. The reason given by General Ne Win for annulling whatever facilities given to the Mons by U Nu’s government was that Mons and Burmese are inseparable because most of the Burmese are Mon-blooded and so separate ethnic rights need to be given to the Mons!
Released after six years of detention, U Nu under pretext of ill health went to India and then around the world pleading for aid from sympathetic supporters to oust General Ne Win. He finally took political asylum in Thailand in 1968.
After over two years of secret negotiations agreement was reached between U Nu’s Partiamentary Democracy Party, Mahn Ba Zan’s Karen National Union and Nai Shwe Kyin’s New Mon State Party to form a United National Liberation Front (UNLF) on 25th May, 1970 to fight against General Ne Win’s government. A copy each of an appeal to the people of Burma and a joint statement by the three political parties are attached as Appendix A and B. The Shan Patriotic Party and the Chin Democratic Party joined the Front later. U Nu, President of the Parliamentary Democracy Party (later renamed as People’s Patriotic Party) became the Patron; Mahn Ba Zan, President of the KNU, the Chairman; and Nai Shwe Kyin, President off the NMSP, the General Secretary of the Front. When the Karens and the Mons pushed for the recognition of right off self-determination inclusive of right of secession, U Nu backed out and left the Front. Later, dispute on authority in Tavoy district, between the Burmese contingent headed by Bo Yan Naing and the Karen contingent, started a row between the PPP and KNU which finally led to the Front dwindled off. Had there been tolerance on both sides, with the internal situation ripe for change, the Front could have seized power, through violence, from the military dictatorship. But fate was destined the other way. The UNLF decided to create 3 more states in the Union of Burma, namely, the Arakan, the Chin and the Mon states.
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