Ludu Daw Amar, one of Myanmar’s most renowned writers and journalists and an outspoken critic of the military junta, died yesterday at the age of 93, her family said.
She died in hospital in Mandalay, where her family set up the town’s first publishing house in the 1940s.
“She died from heart disease at Mandalay General Hospital this morning. We brought her body back to our home,” her son Nyi Pu Lay said.
Ludu Daw Amar was a famous figure among reporters and writers in Myanmar, where the media is tightly controlled.
Her birthday was celebrated with all the reverence of a public holiday each year by writers, journalists and artists throughout Myanmar.
“It is a big loss for us. She was not only a leader for our press society, but also for the people,” said a local journalist who did not want to be named.
Ludu Daw Amar and her husband published a pro-independence political journal, the Ludu Daily News, in the 1940s.
“She was a very progressive woman at the time,” Myanmar expert Win Min said. “You didn’t have many women writing articles.”
The journal eventually fell foul of government censors and was shut down in the 1960s, but this did not silence Ludu Daw Amar, and she carried on giving interviews criticising junta policy into her old age.
She also translated foreign works and wrote books on women’s issues and Burmese culture, Win Min said.
“She has been very critical of the government along the way,” he said. “She is like the mother of all journalists, she is the ethical symbol. People are very proud of her.”
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