Nai Hong Sar, Chair of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) spoke online, at the 75th Mon National Day Celebrations in Nagoya city, Japan, on Saturday.
“I want to say that the Mon people living in foreign countries should not just enjoy life abroad. After living there and getting married and having children, they become foreigners again. Some Mon from the United States and Canada do not speak Mon language with their children, so their children cannot speak Mon language. Only a small number of Mon people can speak our language. So do not just enjoy living abroad.”
Nai Ohn Lwin, a resident of Nagoya, Japan, told the Mon News Agency, that,
“We have around 1,500 Mon people in Japan. Nearly 300 young people attended the 75th Mon National Day celebrations,”
In his 25-minute speech Nai Hong Sar called for the establishment of a federal state, even if the sovereign Mon state could not yet be fully established. The pursuit of a federal system, he argued, would give Mon people the right to decide on their affairs, to create good destiny and allow for the preservation of the Mon language, literature and culture. Nai Hong Sar called on all generations to undertake this responsibility.
“The lowland Mon area is a good place to live because there are good jobs, so a lot of Burmese people came in. This is a very serious danger. If our people continue to do this, the nation will disappear. ”
Nai Hong Sar warned that some Mon villages are becoming dominated by large numbers of Burmese people. He cited the example of changes to electoral laws as an indicator of how shifts are taking place. The government enacted a law allowing people the right to vote in communities where they have migrated for work. Ethnic groups have been critical of this law as large numbers of migrant workers from other ethnic groups were able to impact the electoral outcomes in areas that had traditionally voted along ethnic lines.
Mon National Day is celebrated on the first full moon of Tapotwe Sasana (Buddhist) Sakkaraj in 1116, which was founded about 1,500 years ago by Hanthawaddy (Bago), the capital of Mon Country. According to this year’s Mon calendar, it falls on February 16, 2022.
