Pe Khin ( my, ဖေခင်; 27 August 1912 – 25 February 2004) was a Burmese diplomat. He was one of the main negotiators at the

Panglong Conference The Panglong Conference ( my, ပင်လုံညီလာခံ), held in February 1947, was a historic meeting that took place at Panglong in the Shan States in Burma between the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minority leaders and Aung San, h ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and the architect of the historical

Panglong Agreement The Panglong Agreement ( my, ပင်လုံစာချုပ် ) was reached in Panglong, Southern Shan State, between the Burmese government under Aung San and the Shan, Kachin, and Chin peoples on 12 February 1947. Aung Zan Wai, Pe ...

Early life

Pe Khin was born in Swehman village,

Pyawbwe Township Pyawbwe Township is a township of Yamethin District in the Mandalay Division of Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only ...

Mandalay Division Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region to ...

to A.A. Khan (U Bo Galay) and Daw Toke on 27 August 1912. He studied

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Wesleyan School Wesleyan School is a private college-preparatory nondenominational Christian school located 20 miles north of Atlanta in the suburban city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1963 and has existed on its current ground ...

and matriculation examination at the Kelly School in

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

. He also stayed at the Bago Hostel, together with future founder of modern Burma

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his go ...

, and received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

B.L. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

. He worked at the labour office in the

Chauk Chauk ( my, ချောက်) is a town and river port in Magway Region, north-central Myanmar (Burma), on the Irrawaddy River. It is located across the river from Seikphyu (ဆိပ်ဖြူ) and is connected by a bridge. History In 1902, ...

Petroleum oil field in 1938.

Political beginnings

In January 1946, he attended the first convention of the

Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), ; abbreviated , ''hpa hsa pa la'' was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations. The league evolved out of t ...

(AFPFL) as a delegate from the Burma Muslim Congress. The seventh proposal at the convention was made by Pe Khin, who proposed that the frontier areas and ethnic groups be joined together with the Burmese interim government to achieve independence. It became one of the main points of the

. Pe Khin later became a Central Executive Member of the AFPFL and was appointed as their secretary for ethnic minorities in Burma. He was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the Phaw Bawl Township in the April 1947 constituent assembly elections. He was the main lobbyist behind a letter by Mandalay leaders requesting that Aung San appoint U Razak for a cabinet post.Dr. Nyi Nyi - U Razak of Burma, p. 37 After Aung San left the

disappointed and frustrated on 12 April 1947, Pe Khin was able to persuade Aung San to stay for another night and to allow him to negotiate with the ethnic minority leaders. Pe Khin successfully negotiated with them and so, U Aung Zan Wai, Bo Khin Maung Galay, U Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung, Myoma U Than Kywe all signed the subsequent

, an important document which would eventually lead to independence from the British and the creation of the Union of Burma. Aung San and several members of his cabinet were killed while meeting in the Secretariat on 19 July 1947, in an assassination orchestrated by

U Saw U Saw, also known as Galon U Saw ( my-Mymr, ဦးစော or my-Mymr, ဂဠုန်ဦးစော, lit. Garuda U Saw, ; 16 March 1900 – 8 May 1948), was a leading Burmese politician who served as Prime Minister of British Burma dur ...

, a conservative pre-war Prime Minister of Burma. Pe Khin then became a minister in the newly formed cabinet of

Thakin Nu Dobama Asiayone ( my, တို့ဗမာအစည်းအရုံး, ''Dóbăma Ăsì-Ăyòun'', meaning ''We Burmans Association'', DAA), commonly known as the Thakhins ( my, သခင် ''sa.hkang'', lit. Lords), was a Burmese national ...

Diplomatic career

Pe Khin was appointed as Burma's first Ambassador to Pakistan in 1947. He was then sent as the Ambassador to Thailand from 1953 to 1956.The view of a Myanmar citizen Ambassador to Thailand article. The Myanmar Times/July 15–21, 2002/ Vol. 7-No. 124 and New Light of Myanmar 22.07.2002 republishe

In 1964 he was transferred to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and in 1966 to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. After 25 years of diplomatic service he retired in 1972.U Thudaw, p. 3

Activities in NGOs

Pe Khin was active in the Burma Muslim Congress from 1945, together with

U Razak U Razak (Urdu: ; ; my, ဦးရာဇတ်, ; also Abdul Razak; 20 January 1898 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese politician and an educationalist. He was a Bamar of Tamil ancestry and also was a cabinet minister in Aung San's pre-indepe ...

and Khin Maung Latt.U Thudaw, p. 4 He was also a patron of the Burma Islamic Council and Burmese Muslim Organization.

Published books

* ''Panglong, An Inside Story'' * ''AFPFL convention'' * ''Seed of the Panglong Conference'' * ''Burma and the Non-aligned policy'' * ... and numerous articles in English and Burmese

Awards

* "Maha Tharaesithu" in the First Honours list given out by the Burmese government after independence. * Country's Honour First Grade on 7 June 1980.

References