Myanmarese author's harrowing chronicle of protest published in Korea

Myanmarese author Pencilo, right, and the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi / Courtesy of Publication Morae-al LLC

By Park Han-sol

The cover of Korean publication “Burma Spring Revolution” by Pencilo / Courtesy of Publication Morae-al LLC

The beginning of the year 2021 marked a deadly turning point for Myanmar. While it seemed that an inkling of hope arrived for the Southeast Asian country gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic with the gradual rollout of the vaccine, the Feb. 1 military coup changed everything.

Having deposed the democratically elected members of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta began its nationwide crackdowns on anti-coup street protests, eventually resorting to mass killings and the detention of civilians.

Two weeks after its takeover, the regime issued arrest warrants for seven high-profile figures, many of whom were core supporters of the NLD and vocal critics of the military rule, for inciting unrest against the state using their influence on social media.

Ei Pencilo, a 31-year-old who has become a Facebook personality and best-selling writer, was one of them.

“Burma Spring Revolution,” Pencilo’s first book to be translated and published in Korea, captures her harrowing journey from hiding in the wake of the coup until her eventual escape to Thailand, and later, the United States. It does so while chronicling the development of the pro-democracy protests throughout Myanmar up-close ― an important record for the country that suffers from an ever escalating media crackdown.

Pencilo first went into hiding in the capital city of Yangon and later moved to the countryside following the creeping threat from military forces. However, throughout her monthslong escape, the writer-activist, with more than 2 million Facebook followers, never stopped sharing the stories of the mobilized street demonstrations and raising her voice against the junta.

It was during this time that publisher Publication Morae-al were able to reach the author, after a series of attempts made through the help of civilian groups in support of the Myanmar protests in Korea.

“It was around April, while Pencilo was in the middle of her escape, when we got in contact with her” Kim Si-yeon, CEO of Publication Morae-al, told The Korea Times.

The publisher had originally aimed to make a request to the author to translate one of her previous bestsellers into Korean to introduce more Myanmar books to the domestic literary circle. However, since those pieces were written and printed well before the coup, Pencilo suggested instead publishing a timelier piece based on the draft she was working on then.

And so “Burma Spring Revolution,” the draft of which was completed after she fled to the U.S. as a political refugee, came to be released in Korea marking one year since the military took control. Kim said the book is also scheduled for an English publication in the U.S.

Protesters raise their hands in the three-finger salute during a protest against the military coup, held outside the U.N. office in Yangon, Myanmar, in this Feb. 17, 2021 photo. EPA-Yonhap

In the book, the author writes that despite being able to seek refuge in a place far away from her troubled home country, she still finds herself trapped: “The public remains locked up in a prison-like nation … I cannot dare say that I have found my freedom. My soul is still stuck in Myanmar’s hot summer days under the scorching sun.”

Pencilo’s testimony is meaningful in more ways than one. One of the noteworthy features is her introspective reflection on Myanmar’s long, troubled history about the conflict between the Buddhist Burmese majority and ethnic minorities.

The status of the stateless Rohingya Muslims, for example, had been largely marked by decades of ignorance, persecution and even the traumatic genocide in 2017.

The author confesses that previously, she herself used to name the Rohingya as illegal aliens like other members of the Burmese majority. But after becoming subject to the brutal military crackdown and being forced to illegally cross the border to Thailand to gain her freedom, she writes with heartfelt regret at her past actions for condemning the minorities so swiftly.

According to Kim, the publication of “Burma Spring Revolution” can be significant for both Koreans and Myanmarese.

“In the domestic literary circle, there hasn’t been any book delving fully into the reality of Myanmar in the wake of the coup,” he said, expressing hope that Pencilo’s writing can build interest in the Southeast Asian nation’s political reality and the spirit of solidarity among Koreans.

“For the Myanmarese, the fact that the writings drafted by the high-profile figure in their country are being translated and reaching beyond their own borders all the way to Korea can send a powerful message that they are not cut off from the outside world.”