Nai Seik Ong, the first chairman and the co-founder of Monland Restoration Council (MRC),  passed away in Akron, Ohio on August 1, 2008, at 4:20pm local standard time. Nai Seik Ong was born in 1965 in Mon State of Burma and  became a Buddhist novice since he was 11 years old. He studied at Kaban Htaw monastery in Moulamein. As a Buddhist monk, Nai Seik Ong  participated in  8888 General Uprising in Burma in 1988.  After the Burmese military took a coup  and cracked down on the demonstrators on September 18, 1988 , he and other 20 Mon monks  fled to the Three Pagoda Pass in Thai-Burma border and joined All Burma Young Monks' Union. After the Three Pagoda Pass was taken by the Burmese troops in 1990, he fled to Bangkok and formed Overseas Mon Young Monks' Union.  He served as  the Secretary General of the organization. After he was granted political asylum to the U.S, he disrobed from a monkhood and immigrated to the U.S in 1993. Without giving up his struggle for the freedom of Mon people, he and his colleagues formed Indigenous Mon Council of Burma (IMCOM) and served as the chairman of the organization. The name of the organization was changed to  Monland Restoration Council (MRC) in 1994 at the 1st  annual conference of IMCOM. Nai Seik Ong continued to serve as the chairman of MRC. In 1996,  he resigned from the chairman position and joined the U.S. army with the aim of forming  modernized Mon national army in the future. During his service in the U.S army, he was sent to frontline in the Middle East. After he resigned from the U.S army in 1999, he served as the chairman of Mon Community of Akron from 2001 to 2007.  In 2004, he married to Mi Aye Mon and has a three year old daughter named Haymar Sorn. He passed away in August 1, 2008 at age 43.