၁၉၅၁ ဒီဇဘၤာလ ၂၂ရက္ ရန္္ကုန္တကၠသိုလ္ ဘြဲ႕ႏွင္းသဘင္ အခန္းအနား တြင္ ေျပာၾကားခဲ့ေသာ ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ ဦးႏု၏ မိန္႕ခြန္း

On December 22, 1951 Chancellor of the Rangoon University Prime Minister U Nu gave Convocation Address: “Today I am to confer degrees to the candidates who have succeeded in the University examination. But I want to do more than that. I want to confer a charge to all students, not only to the students here assembled, but to all students all over Burma. This charge is none other than to bring about in this country of ours a state of affairs which will no longer be fluid and unstable like the surface of the sea but as firm as terra firma”.

He added: “Before I expatiate on the magnitude of this charge let me go a little into the past history of our Union of Burma. Then only you will realize-

[1] how badly dilapidated this Union of Burma is,

[2] why she is so dilapidated,

[3] and how much hard work lies ahead of us to build her up again”.

He went on briefly dwelling into the history: “The history of Burma from the beginning at Tagaung of Abhiraja to the end of Thibaw's reign has been a history of kings and kingdoms. As you know, kings were not elected by the people but derived their power from their own might and succession, so that, apart from such great kings as Anawrahta, Bayinnaung, Alaungpaya and Mindonmin, most kings had very little to do with the mass of the people. They seldom bothered themselves about the five main pillars of Health, Education, Morals, Economics and National Solidarity, which must support a nation. It was the people themselves who had to build and tend these pillars as far as they were able throughout the course of history. Thus throughout the course of history these five pillars had never been well and truly set up. After Thibaw, there were the British rulers.

They too were not elected by the people. They were here not to bother about the five pillars but to exploit our country of rice, timber, oil and minerals. . . . Any country under the Imperialist regime, whether it be Burma, India or America, is sure to have its moral pillars shaken and dilapidated. In such a state unrest and disorders will be the order of the day. Therefore, in order to bring about a change from the fluid and unstable state of affairs to one which is firm and stable like terra firma, we have no other method but to rebuild and renovate to our utmost capacity the five pillars which are in a sorry state. Mere crying over this mess will not do. Mere clamoring to Government to restore immediate peace will not do. Heaping blame on others and launching attacks on Government in a spirit of desperado will not do. Longing for distant friends and beckoning them will not solve our problems. Such measures, instead of improving matters, will make them worse.

In fact mere guns will not solve our problems. Stability wrought by guns is never enduring. It will vanish once the guns are withdrawn. We do not want that type of stability brought about by means of guns. We want that type of stability which will endure whether there are guns or not, certain political organizations or not, certain leaders or not.

The nature of stability must be spontaneous and natural. Only then will it be safe for everybody. To achieve this type of stability it is up to every one of us in the Union to do our utmost to rebuild the sadly dilapidated five pillars which I have enumerated.

In this noble task of rebuilding the five pillars, you students with your brains and your background will form the vanguard. . .

To rebuild the pillar of Education, the country needs skilled technicians both in the mechanical and handicraft spheres, skilled educationists, skilled scientists, learned historians, men of letters and leaders of religions.

To rebuild the pillar of Economics, the country needs men and women skilled in Banking, Foreign Exchange, External trade and technicians who have a thorough knowledge of modern factories, administration, etc.

To rebuild the pillar of Morals, the country needs men and women who have made a life-long study of various methods of moral uplift. To rebuild the pillar of National Solidarity, the country needs able leaders who are endowed with foresight, forbearance, public esteem and exemplary character. Who are those architects worthy of being entrusted with the task of rebuilding these pillars? It is certain that ignoramuses cannot be our architects. It is you, educated men and women, who can play the role of the country's architects”.

Last but not least, Premier Nu reiterated: “I declare this both as Chancellor of this University and in the capacity of Prime Minister. . . . I know for certain that the vast majority of the students in this University are eager to discharge their responsibilities with the sincere desire for the good of the masses, free from political influences and political attachments. Let me address the leaders of these sincere workers. The task of rebuilding the five pillars is not small. Mere attainment of independence will not make these pillars strong. Independence merely entails opportunities for carrying out works for the good of the people. It is up to all of us to carry out these works in our respective spheres to our utmost capacity. You must bear this in mind”.