Dr. Ba Maw
Dr. Ba Maw (8 February 1893 – 29 May 1977) was a Burmese political leader.
Ba Maw was born in Maubin, Burma (now Myanmar). Ba Maw came from a distinguished family of scholars and lawyers. One of his elder brothers, Dr Ba Han (1890-1969), was a lawyer as well as a lexicographer and legal scholar.
In 1924 Ba Maw obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Bordeaux, France. Ba Maw wrote his doctoral thesis in the French language on aspects of Buddhism in Myanmar. (Ba Maw's elder brother Dr Ba Han also obtained his doctorate, from a UK university, and Ba Han's doctoral thesis was entitled 'The Mysticism of William Blake').
From the 1920s onwards Ba Maw practised law and dabbled in colonial-era Burmese politics. He achieved prominence in 1931 when he defended the rebel leader, Saya San. Saya San had started a tax revolt in Burma in December 1930 which quickly grew into a national rebellion against British rule. Saya San was captured, tried, convicted and hanged. Ba Maw was among the top lawyers who defended Saya San. One of the presiding judges that tried Saya San was another Burmese lawyer Ba U (pronounced 'Oo'). Ba Maw became Head of State in 1943 when the Japanese created a puppet Burmese government during the period of Japanese occupation of Burma. Sir Ba U became the first 'fully-fledged' President of Burma in 1952 and Ba U served in that post until 1957. (Ba U 'returned' his knighthood to Her Brittanic Majesty on his assumption of the Presidency, for under the 1947 Burmese constitution, a President could not accept titles, especially a knighthood which has colonial overtones.)
Starting from the early 1930s Ba Maw became an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule. He at first opposed Burma's colonial separation from India, but later supported it. After a period as education minister, he served as the first Prime Minister (or perhaps more appropriately Premier of Burma (during the British colonial period) from 1937 to February 1939, after first being elected as a member of 'hsin-yè-tha', the Poor Man's Party, to the Legislative Assembly. He opposed the participation of Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition on 6 August 1940. Ba Maw spent over a year in jail. He was incarcerated for most of the time in Mogok jail which is situated in a hill station in Eastern Burma.
Ba Maw was released from prison by the Japanese when they invaded Burma in 1942. The Japanese convinced him to head a coalition government, a "Burmese Executive Administration" being set up in Rangoon on August 1, 1942. A Japanese-drafted Burmese "Declaration of Independence" was issued exactly one year later, and Burma declared war upon Great Britain and the United States, while concluding a Treaty of Alliance with Japan. Ba Maw was made head-of-state of Burma in a Japanese-backed government in 1943. His rule is most bitterly remembered for its use of forced Burmese labour to help the Japanese (the so-called Sweat Army).
This government fell in early 1945, and Ba Maw fled via Thailand to Japan, where he was captured later that year and was held in Sugamo Prison, which was run by the American occupation authorities, in Tokyo until 1946. He then was allowed to return to Burma and he remained active in politics. He was jailed briefly during 1947, for suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Aung San, but was soon released.
After General Ne Win (1910-2002) took over power in 1962 Ba Maw was again imprisoned (like many of the Burmese luminaries of the period who were detained during the time of Ne Win regime, from the 1960s to the 1980s, his imprisonment was without charge or trial) from about 1965 or 1966 to February 1968. During the period of his imprisonment Ba Maw managed to smuggle out a manuscript of his memoirs of the War years less than two of which (from August 1, 1943 to March 1945) he was 'Head of State' (in Burmese naing-ngan-daw-adipadi) (literal translation 'paramount ruler of the State').
He never again held political office. His book Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution 1939-1946 was published by Yale University Press (New Haven) in 1968. It was a partisan — if well-written — account of his role during the war years. In the post-war period he founded the Mahabama (Greater Burma) Party. He died in Rangoon.
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