Thank you all for inviting me to speak at this great event – the 72nd anniversary of Chin New Year. Even though I cannot be there to celebrate with you face to face, I am celebrating with you heart to heart, and mind to mind. I hope that today all Chin around the world, no matter how far fate has scattered them across the world, can gather in spirit and meet brother to brother and sister to sister to celebrate this important milestone as one unified Chin people.

I take great pride, as a Chin, in the ability to commemorate our culture openly and confidently. Sadly, for too long, this commemoration has been suppressed in my country by the military junta. The same military who today wage an inhumane and illegitimate war against the Chin people, burning our villages and churches, driving our people from their lands, murdering indiscriminately with artillery barrages and machine gun fire.

In these dark times, I take inspiration and comfort from our new years commemorations, just as I know our ancestors did in times past. Centuries ago, before the military junta, and before British occupation the Chin were a proud and fiercely independent people. Making their own way in the world, beholden to no-one, and taking care of each other when times were tough. As the calendar turned, our ancestors prepared to bring in the year’s harvest, the very literal fruits of their labour. Our people took comfort in the harvest. A good crop meant food for the coming year. Come what may, good or bad, there would be food, and the people would endure. But more than comfort, our people took pride in their bounty – their very blood, sweat, and tears transformed into the food that would sustain their people. It showed that all the pain, and sacrifice, and backbreaking labour had amounted to something. As we sow, so shall we reap. To the Chin this is more than a metaphor, it is a literal axiom of life. More than mere food, the harvest was proof that we could sustain ourselves. That we alone could take care of our lands and our families. That we owed nothing to no-one, that we could stand on our own two feet, a proud and independent people.

And this was the story of the Chin people for most of our history. Empires rose and fell all around us, and yet we remained independent and free. Our freedom is our most cherished treasure, and the loss of that freedom is a painful wound. This is a dark time for our people. The genocidal military seem intent on subjugating and breaking us. In this, they will fail, but their ultimate retreat will not bring back the innocent lives they have stolen, the lands and homes they have destroyed, the heritage they trampled to dust, the hearts they have ripped out of families who now have one fewer place at the table.

This year our new year celebration is marred by the military’s greed and cruelty. Driven from their homes, with their fields destroyed, thousands of our people have nothing. For the past year, they sowed, and toiled, and cared for their fields to bring in a harvest that would support them through the coming year. Now, with the advance of the military and their criminal scorched earth tactics, thousands of our people have fled to the jungles, losing not only their homes, but the rice and vegetables they worked all year to produce. Those who could not bring in the year’s harvest will see their crops burnt to cinders, and those who already completed their harvests will doubtless see their bounties stolen to fill the bellies of the very military that drove them from their homes. Countless of our people are stranded with no shelter, empty bellies, and no food for the coming year. Hardworking dedicated people who cannot provide for their children and their communities. At this time of year, when we are blessed with a great bounty, the insidious cruelty of the military, depriving our people of the basic necessities for which they worked so hard, cuts even deeper.

I am ashamed that I have no words to express the indescribable death, destruction, and suffering of our people. No description could ever do justice to the inhumanity and horror of the atrocities committed by the

military, and no eulogy could be sufficient to honour our courageous martyrs. I am certain that our ancestors weep with us when they look down and see what has befallen their children, the horrors the military subjects our people to. The howling and wailing of generations reverberates through time. And yet, the steadfastness and resilience of our people moves me deeply. As our people suffer and grieve, they endure. They wake each day, they work, they build, they sow, they reap, they tend one an other. They put one foot in front of the other, leaving footprints and tears in the dust of the past, marching through sweltering heat and torrential rain to a brighter future. Never faltering, never failing. With this determination we sow today the seeds of a prosperity, freedom, democracy, and peace that we will reap one day very soon.

This abomination, this unspeakable execration that calls itself the tatmataw will be defeated. They will be crushed, decisively. In their unprovoked inhumane campaign of terror against our people they have sealed their fate. They have woken a sleeping giant, and have inspired immeasurable loathing and hatred. Through their abhorrent and detestable acts they have united the Chin people behind a singular cause – the eradication of Min Aung Hlaing and his evil from the Earth. As they sow, so shall they reap, and the junta cannot yet imagine the reaper that is coming to exact justice. We will end the military’s reign of terror. We will end the war crimes, the bombings, the arbitrary executions, the village burnings. We will end the genocidal junta. And we will rebuild. From the ashes, we will raise homes, bigger, stronger, and better than we ever had before. We will craft a glorious future for our people, for our children, and for their children, together, as one people. Not only as Chin people, but as all the people of Myanmar. We will unite with our brothers and sisters from the Kachin, the Shan, the Kayin, the Rakhine, the Bamar, and all the other nations of our great country. The Chin take care of their own, and now united together we must take care of ALL of our Myanmar brethren. United by the whip lash and boot heel of the sadistic and cruel military, we must band together in solidarity, and defeat our common enemy so that we may drive out the darkness of the dictatorship and once again feel the light of freedom shine on our faces. 

The same light that shone on the faces of our ancestors. A freedom that was not given – but was taken; and was fought for. It was defended tooth and nail. Those who came before us never shied away from what is right, and what is necessary and we will honour our ancestors’ memories, and follow in their footsteps to liberate our people. Lest we forget that we even took up the fight half way across the world in 1914, to defend free European people from the German onslaught. Now, hundreds of our people’s bodies lie in the battlefields of France, a silent testament to the courage and resolve of the Chin to fight for what is right. To take up a just cause, anywhere, and to defend a wronged people, whoever they may be. This is the legacy of the Chin. And it is a legacy we must never forget. It is our solemn duty, borne in our blood, to live up to and carry on the great work of those who came before us. It is our privilege, to which we are bound by honour, to protect and preserve our heritage, our culture, and our identity. 

Our people are like seeds, scattered by fate to every corner of the Earth. But the Chin take root and bloom anywhere in the world. We carry our heritage in our hearts and our minds. Although we may be far from our ancient homeland, we are united by our shared identity. No matter where life has taken us, no matter what fate has wrought for us, no matter what has been taken from us, we are and will always be Chin. This is something we can never lose, something that can never be taken, something we will carry with us to the ends of the Earth and to the ends of our lives. On this special day, let us reflect on our unity, despite our distance. Let us never forget where we come from. Let us never turn our backs on our heritage, language, and culture. Let us always stand up for our homeland and our people. No matter where we are, let us unite in love and care, let us pledge support and solidarity for our brothers and sisters who have suffered the tyranny of the junta for so long. Let us on this day find strength and motivation to end the terror against the Chin.

And so, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Chin a happy new year. May all your dreams, hopes, and visions come true. May we all be delivered swiftly from the cruel and murderous military. May our pain be eased. May our mourning bring us closure. May we once again enjoy the freedom and peace our ancestors fought for. As we usher in a new year, let us also usher in a new chapter in the history of the Chin people, and of Myanmar. As the last year fades from memory, so the sun sets on the might of the tatmadaw. Righteousness will prevail. Love will prevail. Freedom will prevail. The dawn of a new year shines on 

Myanmar, and in its light, darkness can find no refuge. We will pick up the broken pieces and craft a new Myanmar with freedom and prosperity for all, where dictatorship can never again take root. Oppression, dictatorship, cronyism – these are weeds which we must tear out, root and stem, so that we may once again live side by side in harmony, and sow the seeds of a federal democratic union. And from those seeds, our cultures, ethnicities, values and ways of life will bloom as flowers more beautiful than any that our great country has seen before.

Myanmar will be a land of hope, prosperity, freedom, and stability. This is is not my wish for the Chin people – this is my promise to you. We are winning the revolution. We are pushing back darkness and tyranny. The future of Chinland and of all Myanmar are in our hands. 

Once again, I wish you all a happy new year. May God bless you all, and may God bless Chin land. Thank you.

Sincerely,

H.E. Dr. Sasa
Union Minister of Ministry of International Cooperation
Spoke Person of Nation Unity Government
Former Special Envoy to United Nations