In late May, a popular poet supporting Myanmar’s resistance movement published a 400-line, 25-stanza poem on his Facebook account. Titled “To…Ma Ma Nu Gyi,” the poem is an elegy describing a long-distance bus ride into the country’s central Dry Zone, or Anyar heartland, during which the narrator vividly portrays and laments its destruction.
From its introduction and up to the seventh stanza, the narrator sets the scene of the bus ride into Anyar in hopes of finding the titular Ma Ma Nu Gyi. The poem references the aerial bombing and burning of villages, extortion at checkpoints, hurried pitstops reminiscent of prison routines, and the scars of war inflicted upon Anyar.
From the eighth to 15th stanzas, the poem goes into vivid descriptions of the destruction of rural villages by regime forces. The narrator describes how villagers fled with bare necessities, and the landmine craters littering the roads, along which hawkers rush like bees to sell food or hunker down when bullets fly. It also describes how the military repeatedly abuses the country and its people with impunity.
Contrasting the Anyar inhabitants’ reputation for charity and tenacity in the face of chronic poverty, the poem provides evocative snapshots of how the Dry Zone has become a living hell: homes built piecemeal over the years with frugal savings and remittances now burnt down or abandoned; a farmer wailing as he hugs his dead ox and asks how he will manage to plant his next crop; men brooding over the charred multipurpose village truck and motorbikes; an elderly woman crying about how “they” (i.e. regime troops) cooked her chicken with the very fire they used to torch her home; and another finding solace in the fact that her Buddhist altar was left unscathed while the rest of her home burned down.
The poem starts wading into controversial territory from the 16th stanza. This states how, just as horned animals tend to use their horns, “some people” with “horns in their hands” are now bullying villagers and that “revolutionaries” are acting like “colonizing ghouls.” The narrator then laments seeing how people “given horns by Ma Ma Nu Gyi” are oppressing villagers and how he has had to swallow his anger out of fear for “the nearest sword.”
The next stanzas turn acerbic. The narrator chastises Ma Ma Nu Gyi’s “two elder brothers” and requests that the titular character bring the people she has armed back into line, as they had “turned their horns onto the people.” The poem goes on to denounce factionalism alongside the resistance lobbyists and influencers who the narrator accuses of profiting from the war, and expresses wishes for the earth to swallow up all who draw their authority from the barrel of a gun. The narrator says that he expects Ma Ma Nu Gyi to be neither unfaithful nor an opportunist “skimming the top off people’s sweat, blood, and tears.”
The poem is infused with anti-war sentiment. The narrator argues that war is easy when waged with words but is brutal when done with human lives. He invokes cannibalism to describe civil war, saying that it is akin to using bits of fish to lure more fish or cutting off a mouse’s tail to use as bait in a mouse trap.
The last four stanzas present a medley of emotions, stating that the people of Anyar still had hope for Ma Ma Nu Gyi but have been abandoned by “mercenary lobbyists” harping safely from far away. It tells how the Anyar of yesteryear is now forever lost, with empty seats at meals, traumas to process, and much to rebuild. The poem ends by pleading for Ma Ma Nu Gyi to see the “reality of Anyar,” to provide the sounds of doves and to extend an olive or thabyay branch (symbolizing victory) very soon, and warns the titular character “to not lie to Anyar.”
Split Reactions
From the title alone, it takes very little imagination to see that the poem is referring to the opposition National Unity Government (NUG). It adapts the “Nu Gyi” moniker coined by pro-military trolls to refer to the NUG, but now used in some revolutionary circles and adds the colloquial “Ma Ma” prefix denoting “sister” or “Miss.” Readers quickly divined that the two “elder brothers” were an allusion to senior NUG leaders and that the “horned people” referred to anti-junta People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and the NUG’s grassroots-level administrative organs, the People’s Administration Teams (Pa-Ah-Pha), which have mushroomed across the Dry Zone since the coup.
A flame war immediately erupted in the Facebook comments section and the author deleted the post containing the poem a few hours later. The poet later clarified to his half-a-million followers that he had no intentions of insulting the NUG and apologized that “poor writing” had led to misinterpretations, as he only wished to bring attention to Anyar’s chaotic situation. Yet by then, activists, journalists, and netizens had copied and shared the poem thousands of times. The deletion generated further interest and videos of recitals garnered hundreds of thousands of views. The poem also became a boon for pro-regime channels, which happily shared it on their platforms.
“To…Ma Ma Nu Gyi” received two very different reactions on pro-resistance social media. Some praised it for daring to broach important topics and to call out unsavory topics concerning the broad resistance camp that the NUG nominally leads. Others were incensed, accusing the poet of fabricating lies and harming the revolution while threatening to unfriend connections who liked or shared the poem.
One review defended the poem saying it was beseeching rather than criticizing the NUG. It noted that the poem had gained traction among resistance circles supporting the NUG’s reform. However, the reviewer also said that the poem suited the fancy of “non-violent activists, moderate revolutionaries and foreign governments seeking conflict de-escalation and political solutions to the civil war, [and] regime apologists and lobbyists.” He then warned that sober portrayals of conflict and the messy situation on the ground would only prolong the regime’s reign of terror.
Building on that review, another commentator said that the poem was co-opted by the regime and failed to mention the NUG’s achievements or provide policy suggestions, and asked the poet to pen an “unambiguous” sequel to clarify his revolutionary credentials. Another reviewer saw the poem as contrasting the chaotic situation in Anyar with the cohesiveness of the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that are fighting the regime.
The split reactions expose a minor rift among the various revolutionary groups. The poem struck a chord with the idealistic and progressive “wing” of the resistance, for whom winning the civil war is as important as how it is won. They prefer to have resistance groups including the NUG and PDFs alongside EAOs to be held to a high standard of accountability and have abuse allegations and poor performance called out. This camp wishes for the revolution to triumph but to remain true to democratic ideals as well. The fact that a bona fide pro-resistance poet who has long published popular anti-regime poems had to delete a poem drove home their point that the overall revolution was at risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
This aforementioned camp has always been in the minority with a more belligerent stance of unquestioned support having long dominated the resistance landscape. Rallied by militant influencers and news platforms serving as de facto propaganda outlets, this “bloc” is overly defensive of the NUG, the PDFs, and supportive EAOs to the extent of labeling pro-resistance pages, activists, and fellow supporters that raise questions or allegations against such groups as traitors to the cause. They believe that overthrowing the junta by any means supersedes all other considerations and contend that airing grievances serves the regime. Regarding criticisms of resistance outfits, members of this camp are outright dismissive or argue that such issues should only be brought up after the regime’s collapse.
Messy Realities
The poem encapsulated the messy realities unfolding in the Dry Zone, as well as the growing demand for NUG reform. Sky-high expectations and yearly proclamations of “victory within the year,” coupled with the three factors mentioned in the poem, have helped foster disillusionment with the parallel government, even as the military regime weakens.
The three factors are frictions and clashes among various resistance outfits; a steady trickle of abuse allegations against PDFs and Pa-Ah-Pha groups, alongside growing resentment against their tollgates; and the perception that optimistic proclamations made by faraway resistance entities are becoming harder to square with the lived realities on the ground. (I will expand on these issues in a later article.)
The NUG remains popular but protest leaders, activists, and commentators have called for it and associated organs to be reformed. They warn that failure to do so risks jeopardizing the course of the revolution in the Dry Zone and the country as a whole. Student unions and youth groups have also called out the NUG’s shortcomings in satirical Thangyat political skits in hopes of spurring change.
To be clear, it is the regime’s death squads that have butchered and burned their way through the Dry Zone while the NUG has taken great strides in rallying resistance against the regime. Furthermore, many outfits in Anyar operate beyond the NUG’s control, while the most effective groups like the EAOs and larger PDFs are increasingly pursuing their own goals. The parallel government is also working to address allegations against PDF units, with its Ministry of Defense having set up a complaints desk. However, the buck will inevitably get passed onto the NUG for all sorts of shortcomings and allegations given its positioning as the big-tent leader of the revolution, and the fact that Anyar is seen as the NUG’s main area of operations.
But as the poem showcased, its bothsidesism – its sentiment of fear toward anybody with a gun and its view that resistance entities could be as abusive as regime troops – is starting to take root. This does not bode well for the revolution and the NUG in the long run if these issues and divisions remain unaddressed.
Burmese social media quickly moved onto new topics and the poet has written new pieces including more emotive depictions of civilians fleeing regime troops. “To…Ma Ma Nu Gyi” may very well have been a storm in a teacup for some, but the poem offered a much-needed glimpse into the unfolding anarchy in Myanmar’s central Dry Zone and a reminder of the need for NUG reform.