Special Edition Aung San Postage Stamps to be Released in March

By Wai Wai Lwin 15 February 2017

RANGOON — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is issuing special edition Gen Aung San postage stamps to commemorate the ministry’s 70th anniversary on March 17, according to an official statement.

“It is the first time issuing stamps with the image of Gen Aung San at the ministry and it is a chance to honor him as well,” said U Kyaw Zaya, permanent secretary at the foreign affairs ministry, adding that a total of 300,000 stamps will be released, in cooperation with the Department of Transport and Communications.

The General served as Burma’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs—a position now held by his daughter, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He held the role from March 1947 until his assassination in July of that same year.

According to the foreign affairs ministry’s statement, anniversaries of the establishment of diplomatic relations, summit meetings, and Asean annual meetings have been used on commemorative stamps, but this is the first time that stamps bearing Aung San’s image will be released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for an anniversary.

U Ko Ko, secretary of Myanmar Philatelic Society, said that this marks the fourth time that Aung San has appeared on Burmese stamps.

“In 1948, the Department of Transport and Communications published Gen Aung San stamps for Independence Day and repeatedly in 1970. The last publishing was in 1972 for Union Day,” he explained.

“He was a great leader of the country and I am glad that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is publishing stamps with image of Gen Aung San,” U Ko Ko added.

The cost of each stamp is 500 kyats and they can be purchased at post offices throughout Burma on March 17.

Aung San is regarded as an independence icon in the country, and is remembered for signing the Panglong Agreement in 1947, which promised unity and equality to ethnic nationalities in a federal Burma.