Mahn Ba Khaing

Mahn Ba Khaing was born on October 26, 1903, in Hinthada into an influential Karen family. Dedicated to inter-ethnic harmony, he founded the Karen Youth Organization (KYO), rejecting colonial divide-and-rule tactics and allying Karen communities with Aung San's anti-fascist independence coalition.

Ba Khaing played a crucial role in drafting the 1947 constitution, ensuring minority rights and representation. On the morning of July 19, 1947, while attending a cabinet meeting in the Secretariat Building in Rangoon, he was gunned down alongside Bogyoke Aung San at age forty-three, remembered annually on National Martyrs' Day as a symbol of Karen-Burman unity.