Phone Maw

Interview with Aung Myo Min
On the 13th of March, 1988, Ko Phone Maw who was a
fifth-year student at the Rangoon Institute of Technology
majoring in Chemical Engineering, was killed by
riot police at Kyogyone township, in the school campus.
This is considered to be the one of the major
factors contributing to the occurrence of the 1988
pro-democracy uprising. Since 1989, Burmese opposition
groups have named the 13th of March as
Burma Human Rights Day and celebrate it both inside
and outside Burma.
We searched for biographical material about Ko
Phone Maw, and conducted an interview with one of his
closest friends, Aung Myo Min, who is now a director of Human Rights
Education in Burma (HREIB).
“Ko Phone Maw was descended from Shan people - some of his family’s
relatives lived in Shan State. He was studying at Rangoon, he lived at Hlaing
Township with his mother and elder sisters. He was the youngest son of his
family. He said his sisters loved him too much and treated him like a child.
Although he was old enough to go out and stay with his friends overnight,
his sisters didn’t like it. Sometimes he didn’t go along with his sisters. Sometimes
he joked, ‘My sisters treat me as if I was a girl’. He was not a hostel
student, but he spent most of his time at the hostel with us.
Ko Phone Maw had a pale complexion, he was neither tall nor short,
his eyebrows were thick, his lips as red as Shan girls’ lips. He was a goodhearted
guy, he liked teamwork, and he was loved by his friends. They called
him ‘Phone Phone’ rather than his real name. He was a member of Lanzin
Youth, and of Myanmar Red Cross society.” Aung Myo Min recalled Ko
Phone Maw’s altruistic spirit:
“He was very altruistic, he liked to be so. When we were studying at Regional
College, Hlaing campus, we were members of the Burma Red Cross
Society. He was a senior member. After he passed second year at Regional
College, he was studying at RIT but there was no Red Cross Society in RIT,
so he was still involved in Hlaing Campus’s Red Cross Society. He taught
Sketch
junior students and he was a good trainer of basic military parade drill. He
was respected by many students.
Only clever students are eligible to study at RIT, so some students were
proud to be an RIT student. He was never proud of it. He treated us all
equally, regardless of him being a senior student, or of our different subjects
and schools.”
Aung Myo Min also recalled more about Ko Phone Maw’s remarkable
character. He said that they were very close because there were not so many
members of the Red Cross Society. Sometimes they stayed at camp, particularly
on World Red Cross Society Day, which is on the 8th of May.
“When we stayed together at camp, sometimes we talked the whole
night. Though he was older than me, he was fond of entertainment like us,
and sometimes he played the guitar. However, he had self-respect and cared
about dignity, and he cared about the Red Cross Society uniform. When he
wore the uniform, he acted like a gentleman. He warned us not to act like
lay people when we wore the uniform. I often remember it.”
He added that Ko Phone Maw was very smart. “Every year one of our
members was given an award as a distinguished member. He was nominated
for it, but he missed it that year - it was awarded to a girl.
At that time we were not too much interested in politics. As we were
members of the Red Cross Society, we were automatically made members
of Lanzin Youth, but it didn’t mean we believed in the BSPP or it’s ideology.
In fact, we didn’t care about it; we just wanted to be involved in doing
some social work. Frankly, we - Ko Phone Maw and I - were not interested
in politics at all.
However, sometimes we had to deal with poor people, particularly when
we went to a place where there was a fire. We noticed many people were
poor, and after we got back from there to school we talked about the world
not being fair. We were studying at the campus, wearing new shirts and driving
a state-of-the-art car, we were isolating ourselves and acting like an elite,
but not too far away from us, there were many very poor people. However,
we never thought it was a result of the political system and didn’t blame
BSPP mismanagement.”
Aung Myo Min said that when he heard that Ko Phone was killed, he
and all of Ko Phone Maw’s friends got a shock. “Honestly, at that time, I
was not yet aware of politics, but after he was killed we joined the demonstration
in Rangoon University. In fact, I was drawn into politics because
we lost our respectable and peaceful friend. He was arbitrarily killed by
the military. However, I have since become deeply involved in politics over
time. I am doing politics not only for him, but also for human rights and
social justice. Let me say frankly - in a nutshell - that I was involved in the
1988 pro-democracy uprising is because of him.