This spring, deep in the sweltering jungles of Burma, a rebel commander stood before 241 recruits for the first day of basic training.
According to the criteria of
Commander, Ko Maung Saungkha, has assembled an army of a thousand soldiers—part of a resistance fighting against an unpopular military dictatorship. But his background is not military. Instead, he is a poet, one of at least three leading rebel forces in Burma and inspiring young people to fight in a brutal civil war.
“In our revolution, we need everyone to join in, including poets,” Maung Saungkha said.
But Maung Saungkha gave his new recruits a speech devoid of literary embellishment. The soldiers may have been drawn by his social media presence, which was carefully crafted to appeal to romantic ideals of resistance, or by the military junta’s order to recruit all young men and women. But no rhyming verse would save them in battle; they had to learn to shoot and fight.
Over the next few hours, more than a dozen recruits would collapse from heat, exhaustion or nervousness. Ko Rakkha, a poet who is Maung Saungkha’s chief drill sergeant, kept the soldiers moving. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be ready for the front in three months, he said.
Burma is fascinated by poetry. Poets are celebrities who receive the kind of adulation that would elsewhere be reserved for actors or athletes. And the verse, delivered in forceful rhymes facilitated by the Burmese language, has long been political and used to unite the masses.
Before Myanmar’s military junta seized full control of the country three years ago, 31-year-old Maung Saungkha had built a reputation as a literary prodigy, standing in front of City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, reciting his anti-war poetry.
But the 2021 military coup, which ousted civilian leadership and ended all political reforms, changed that. “Words are powerful weapons,” he said. “But against the military, we need real weapons because they don’t fight fairly.”
In the tradition of Burma’s poets, Maung Saungkha was quick to oppose the junta’s takeover. Previously, when much of the country’s political leadership ignored or justified the military’s persecution of Rohingya Muslims, Maung Saungkha stood up for the minority group. In 2015, he served six months in prison for writing a poem juxtaposing a national leader with male genitalia.
Since the coup, at least half a dozen poets have been killed as the junta crushes dissent. More than 30 poets have been imprisoned as a result of the coup, the National Union of Poets reports.
With the help of long-time ethnic militias, the rebel movement now claims control of more than half of Burma. Following a concerted offensive last fall, the resistance now threatens important urban areas. Still, the heart of the country remains under junta control. And while the resistance claims that the number of casualties in Burma’s military is high, many rebel soldiers are also dying.
Maung Saungkha’s Bamar People’s Liberation Army, or BPLA, does not fight as an independent army, but instead its troops are seconded to other rebel armies. Since the force was formed in April 2021, more than 20 BPLA soldiers have been killed in combat.
At basic training in May, Maung Saungkha pointed his finger at a female soldier. Her war cry was not one for a soldier, he said. The young recruit, barely 5 feet 1 inch tall, blinked. Her jaw tightened. A trickle of sweat ran down her cheek.
“If you feel tired, think of the people who have been killed and imprisoned,” Maung Saungkha said. “We fight for them.”
He softened his voice. She would be fine, he assured her.
#poet #leads #rebel #army #military #dictatorship #Burma