On This Day

Gen. Aung San’s Ill-fated Economic Plan for Myanmar

Gen. Aung San announces his economic plan for Burma to the British Chamber of Commerce on March 1, 1947.

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By The Irrawaddy 1 March 2019

Seventy-two years ago today, at the request of the British Chamber of Commerce looking to know the future economic policies of Burma which was about to be granted independence, Gen. Aung San announced his economic plans for the future government. He planned to nationalize important industries, and revealed that plans had been drawn to revamp the damaged economy. He vowed that the government would not neglect public subsidies and would deal with the financially troubled transportation projects. He said he was not in favor of the excessive growth of capitalism and that conditions of Myanmar workers were not as satisfactory as those in developed countries.

Four months later, Gen. Aung San was assassinated. Due to the involvement of some British army officers in the case, Britain itself was on trial in the eyes of the public, as rumors swirled that figures in London supported the plot. Later, in an interview with the BBC, his counterpart from the Thirty Comrades Brig-Gen Kyaw Zaw surmised that it was they who machinated the murder, saying, “It was the British Government that actually assassinated Gen. Aung San. It was their conspiracy.”