Ohn Myint

{{short description|Burmese journalist}}

{{for|the Burmese minister|Ohn Myint (politician)}}

{{family name hatnote|lang=Burmese|Ohn Myint}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Thakin

| name = Ohn Myint

| native_name = {{lang|my|သခင် အုန်းမြင့်}}

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth-date|21 April 1918}}

| birth_place = Letpadan, Pegu Division, British Burma

| death_date = {{death-date and age|17 September 2010|21 April 1918}}

| death_place = Yankin Township, Yangon, Myanmar

| death_cause =

| resting_place = Yayway Cemetery, Yangon

| nationality = Burmese

| known_for =

| occupation = Journalist

| parents =

| spouse =

| children = Four

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}}

Thakin Ohn Myint ({{langx|my|သခင် အုန်းမြင့်}}) was a notable Burmese journalist, best known for his political involvement in British Burma.{{cite news|url=http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4377-spectrum-of-colleagues-pay-last-respects-to-ohn-myint.html|title=Spectrum of colleagues pay last respects to Ohn Myint|author=Myint Maung|date=20 September 2010|publisher=Mizzima|accessdate=8 April 2012}} In 1933, he joined the Dobama Asiayone, an indigenous anti-colonial organization where he earned the honorific "Thakin," (lit. "master"), which was used in protest of British colonialism (since it was customary practice to address the British as "Thakin"). After passing the matriculation exam in 1934, he went on to the Rangoon Medical College (now UM-1 Yangon).{{cite news|url=http://www.mmtimes.com/2011/news/594/news59414.html|title=Remembering Thakin Ohn Myint|author=Maung Thway Thit|date=26 September 2011|publisher=Myanmar Times|accessdate=8 April 2012}} However, he dropped out and pursued journalism instead.

Throughout his journalism career, he wrote for the Kyipwayay ("Growth") magazine, and the Totetyay ("Progress"), the Journal Kyaw (along with Chit Maung), and the New Light of Burma newspapers. In 1958, soon after Ne Win first declared emergency martial law, he was imprisoned in the Coco Islands for two years, under the Public Order Protection Act, for his leftist political activism. In the mid-1960s, he was detained again in Insein Prison.{{cite news|url=http://www2.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=19497|title=Suu Kyi’s Mentor Dies|author=Wai Moe|date=17 September 2010|publisher=The Irrawaddy|accessdate=8 April 2012}}

Ohn Myint is widely considered to have influenced Aung San Suu Kyi, and the two had a close friendship.

In 1989, he was arrested for another 5 years and once again in 1998 for allowing himself to be interviewed by researcher Aung Htun, who was writing a book on the history of Burma's student movement. Although he was sentenced to 7 years of hard labor, his sentence was commuted the following year, after the visit of American congressman Tony P. Hall.

He was cremated at the Yayway Cemetery in Yangon.