Playing Scrabble with General Ne Win
Sunda Khin, daughter of U Chan Htoon, embodies a unique perspective on Burma's history. Growing up amid the elite, she shares insights into key figures and events. Her narratives interweave personal anecdotes and broader context, offering nuanced glimpses into luminaries and their roles. Sunda Khin's recollections provide a distinctive lens into her nation's past, reflecting her family's connections with figures like Sao Shwe Thaik and S.N. Goenka, encapsulating Burma's multifaceted evolution.
“When I went to the house to play Scrabble, I did notice one thing, that General Ne Win did not have the same background as Katie did, because I went to school and all that.”
“General Ne Win, yes, I knew closely, because of his second wife, Katie, my mother's, I would say, cousin in English. Her father, a leading surgeon, Dr. Ba Than, is related to my mother, who was related and was her cousin. A second cousin or a first cousin maybe. So, Katie was my mother's cousin, but she would call my mother Auntie because of the age difference. We knew her, when she went to England and all. Then she married General Ne Win.
During the years of the military, what we called the ‘housekeeping’ or ‘caretaker government,’ as they were called, at that time, they were living in the Government House, which I believe now they purchased, on Ady Road. I used to go there; they would send the car to pick me up and I would go play Scrabble with him and my cousin, Khin May Than. She studied in England. She studied nursing. She’s a very attractive woman, a very charismatic kind of person. We all looked up to her among our relatives. She's beautiful. She was very intelligent, and she could talk; she spoke English, of course, fluently.
When I went to the house to play Scrabble, I did notice one thing, that General Ne Win did not have the same background as Katie did, because I went to school and all that. We would play Scrabble, and we would be lying on the floor. We would have all these cushions and everything. And then when it came time for him, when he didn't know a word, he would say well, he needed to be given the term. So, we said ‘No!’ But the thing is, you have to give up that turn and so on. And he was very, very much a military kind of a person. And yet, I noticed that he would always be aware of the household staff. They mostly were military people. And he would ask about them, ‘Katie, have they been given lunch yet?’ Or things like that. He really cared for these people. But I also know that he was sort of one day he might be like this, and another day maybe like that. I noticed this as a young person.
We teenagers would go to sell programs for the construction of the new hospital. All the young girls who are most, the pretty girls, and I because I was a relative and I liked doing these things, we would go there. General Ne Win would be there and Katie Ba Than. They had these raffles, and if the raffles were won, you could win sitting at the table with one of the pretty women. And my friend Louisa Benson was one of them. There was a movie star and all these things. And so they had that, but I did see his personality being that way.
I used to say to my parents, ‘Maybe he has this bipolar condition.’ I used to say that. And they would say, ‘Oh, no, no. He's just a military man, self-made,’ and so forth. ‘And he will be doing great things for the country.’ That was the ‘caretaker’ time and then everybody loved the army, the Tatmadaw, as far as I know, because there was regimentation. I later realized that because of that the city was clean, there was regimentation that every house bring out a broom, sweep the streets, and so forth. And then they built these restaurants along the Strand, and we loved it. You know, many people welcomed them. So, things were very good. But then, of course, we had the elections and so on.”