Last Sunday, 7 February, Shans in Chiangmai gathered together to remember the Shan National Day, also known as Shan State Day, and the events surrounding it which took place 69 years ago.

The some 50 participants attending the event were made up of both Shan migrants and Thai-born Shans. Many were either too young or uninformed about the day.

It was Hsai Lern Kham, 67, who, as a young student in Rangoon had participated in several annual commemorations of the day, acquainted the audience with its history. “It wasn’t easy to hold a ceremony to observe the day under the military government in those days,” he recalled. “I remember that one of the students was detained and imprisoned for six years soon after he delivered a fiery speech at an event in 1963 in Taunggyi.”

Mai Hawng, also 68, admonished his audience with a warning. “Jews that didn’t have a country to call their own founded one. But the Shans who have it appears to be losing it.”

A young participant strongly agreed with him. “If you look at the demands for separate statehoods today you will find that only three (out of 55) townships remain with the Shans: Mongyai, Kehsi and Monghsu,” he said. “It’s time they start to shed their Terng Man La/Zarng Man (Let it be) attitude.”

Meanwhile, at the event in Loi Taileng the main base of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), also known as the SSA South, leader Gen Yawd Serk urged thousands of his admirers who were gathered there not to let go the opportunity offered by the turn of events in the country to negotiate. “Whether there is trust or not is not the point,” he said. “The point is we have this opportunity to resolve our political issues by political means and we should seize it.”

The Shan National Day, as it was officially termed by the Palaung prince of Tawng Peng Sao Hkun Pan Sing on 11 February 1947, became Shan State Day during the years under military rule.

The event marks the day when Shan leaders set up their own Shan States Council to oppose the British president Federated Shan States Council.