Sai Lin, the founder of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), also known as Mongla Group after the town where it is based in eastern Shan State near the Chinese border, died of lung cancer in China on Thursday evening. He was 76.
Ethnically Han, Sai Lin (also spelled Sai Leun) and also known as Lin Mingxian, was born on the Chinese island of Hainan. During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, he moved to what is now Myanmar through Yunnan Province and joined the Communist Party of Burma (CPB).
He became a commander in CPB zone 815 or present-day Mongla near the border.
He married a daughter of Peng Jiasheng, the founder of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDDA), the ethnic Kokang group which recently defeated the regime’s Northeastern Command in Lashio.
Sai Lin was a brother-in-law of Peng’s son, Peng Daxun, who is now the MNDAA leader after his father’s death.
Sai Lin joined his father-in-law Peng Jiasheng when the latter led a mutiny with the CPB in 1989, forming one of the largest breakaways from the CPB, the NDAA.
The NDAA was one of the first groups to sign a ceasefire with the then-military regime, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council. The regime refers to the area as Shan State Special Region 4, granting almost complete autonomy to the NDAA. The area underwent an economic boom following the ceasefire.
The NDAA celebrated the 30th anniversary of the signing of the ceasefire on June 30, 2019.
Sai Lin’s wife Nan Yin reportedly holds jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in high esteem. She presented Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with her portrait.
According to the Shan Herald news agency, Sai Lin’s body is being taken back to Mongla but the funeral details are unknown.
