My book review of Ko Nyo's memoir--

Book review of Ko Nyo's Refugee in Their Words, Freedom Fighter in Mine (in Burmese--thutoe khaw tau dokekha the, koeko ko tau, taw hlan ye thamar)--Hninzee Sarpay, redrosebookhouse@gmail.com--in USA $15 order from Khin May Zaw Khin--

I've finished reading his book in 3 days. 

This memoir, written in Burmese by a 1988 mass democracy demonstrator who fled to India (Manipur) outlines the hardships he suffered in the course of 2 years which culminated in arrest in India for "immigration offenses."

It describes the high hopes the "refugees" felt when they arrived in Manipur, as Rajiv Gandhi had "invited them"--but then they were placed in a camp which was much like a prison.

Unlike some fiction set in Burma where the names or characters are slipshodly "done" and therefore don't sound authentic, this memoir, though only covering a few years, is real and riveting.

Ko Nyo uses real names and these, such as Ma Swan Pii, Ma Ei, Ko Gyodu (Elder Brother Manmade Satellite), and the place names themselves, Mizzoram, Aizawl, Moreh, the Kathe People (Manipuris) are romantic and evocative, and yet--the Reality is so harsh.

Until a great human rights lawyer comes along to rescue them.

During the course of my nearly 20 years combined, in the Overseas Burmese Democracy Movement, and international broadcasting and consultancy, I've met a lot of 1988 students, now in their mid to late 40s, who managed to flee and gain asylum in third countries.

Most fled via Thailand, as by 1988, the black market routes to Thailand were well worn, and it is closer.  A lot closer to Rangoon, where most of the mass pro-democracy demonstrations took place. 

Those stories, some of which are woven into my upcoming novel Wolf, are fascinating because Burma has a long and complex history with Thailand, earlier called Siam or Syam.

The routes the freedom fighters used are the same as the Burmese kings used over 200 years to attack Ayuthia (Siam), the same routes described in Maurice Collis' Siamese White, about an English adventurer and pirate, Samuel White, who based himself in Mergui and traded with Ayuthia during the reign of King Narai.

The Burmese monarchs were great bullies too, and during their heydey (the extent of the Burmese empire was largest under Bayinnaung, but it too disintegrated within a few years of his death) they bullied Manipur and Assam too.

As late as the 19th century, Burmese kings and generals were still raiding Manipur and Assam.

So Ko Nyo's memoir is interesting.  As he says, there are few stories concerning the western borders of Burma.

I've known Ko Nyo at a distance from about 1997, when he started to work as an India-based stringer for the radio station for which I also worked for 3 years, the same notorious one that would later fire all of us talented stars.

But I didn't work directly with Ko Nyo then, and the -- station kept us all working our butts and brains off so extremely, I seldom had time to listen to anyone else's programs.

The only time I spoke to Ko Nyo between last week and 2001, when I was forced to leave the station, was in 2003 when I was attending a conference in Souel, South Korea, and Ko Nyo called (from India?) to interview me at midnight, S. Korea time.

In the meantime, I heard many good things about him from our mutual friend and colleague.

That radio station has a bad habit, sometimes a fatal habit, a tragic habit, of making its local stringers work on the ground, risking their lives for low pay, without any insurance that I know of.

Ko Nyo's famous program was one in which he nearly drowned, in a whirlpool and a cold mountain stream in the Chin Hills.

When he called me last week and we spoke extensively on the phone, because I have undertaken to translate his book into English, Ko Nyo said that chapter 12 was from another book and was printed in this by mistake.

At that time I had only read about 2 chapters of his book, so I was a bit confused about the chronology, so I told him he might have to rewrite.

He was very cheerful about it, not like me if someone told me to rewrite something, and said it might take him 2 years to redo.

Then I read on, and if I read on, that means the book is good and does not need to be re-written.

I even had the proverbial moments when it made me cry three times.

Then I got to chapter 12 and I realized it was the famous near-drowning incident.

So now I think he does not need to re-write the whole book, and chap 12 should perhaps be kept in, as it is so strong.  I might translate it first.

I don't think it will be a big deal even though there is a time jump, as it is right in the middle and shows the life-changing moments he went through later.

I've seen at least one memoir which does not go chronologically, nor describe "everything"--and that is Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family, which has what I consider his best poem, The Cinnamon Peeler, plunk in the middle.

So buy and read Ko Nyo's book.

You will love it.  You won't regret it and like another DC based person, you might read it a second or a third time even.

But it's in Burmese only for now.

In English, I am afraid you will have to wait for me.

So don't annoy me folks with little mosquito bites, because then my concentration will be shot and I will waste time responding to little things.

Kyi May Kaung3-23-2014