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Peace and National Identity in
Contemporary Myanmar
Dr. Ma Thida
Writer, human rights
activist, surgeon, and
former political
prisoner
Tuesday, April 7
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Asian Institute,
Munk School
of Global Affairs
1 Devonshire Place
North House –
Room 208N
»
Registration:
http://uoft.me/
mathida
After century-long repression, the Myanmar people have lost their ability to think about
their collective identity. Many people still cannot differentiate between race and ethnic
identity, between race and religion. The lack of quality education contributes to people’s
confused perception towards their identity. Repression has made minority groups lose
their identity, language, and literature. Therefore, when the current government makes
superficial reforms political system, all groups, either minority or majority, often
automatically revert to a claim of ethnic or religious identity, rather than a shared
national identity. Decades of state centralization, systemic poverty, and the lack of
freedom of expression has severely impacted everyday people's ability to question
governmental claims about ethnic and religious difference. Violent government
repression has taught the new generation that the only form of successful expression is
that of violence toward those with whom they disagree. A new articulation of a shared
national identity that is inclusive might help to alleviate some of the interethnic and
religious violence in contemporary Myanmar.
Ma Thida was born in Rangoon in 1966, where she later studied medicine. In the mid-eighties, she
began writing short stories that were published by different journals. The medical surgeon and
editor was involved in several democratization projects at the time. She edited pamphlets,
evaluated tapes and videos, and was a medical volunteer for the family members of political
prisoners. Because of increased censorship, it became more and more difficult for her to publish
literary texts. In 1993, Ma Thida was sentenced to twenty years in prison for supporting the prodemocracy movement, of which she spent six years in harsh conditions. She was awarded PEN
USA’s Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write award, Reebok Human Rights award and honor award
from American Association of Advancement of Science in 1995-96. After she was released in 1999,
Ma Thida spent a lot of time abroad and participated in medical training programmes,
international writers’ projects, festivals of literature and panel discussions dealing with freedom
of speech. Since 2009 she has been a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at
Harvard University. Vipassanā meditation techniques helped her cope while she was in jail. In
2011, she received the Norwegian ‘’Freedom of Speech Award’’, in particular for her novel ‘’The
Roadmap’’ (2011), which she published under the pen name Suragamika (tr.: Brave traveller).
Based on two families’ stories, the book describes two decades of the Burmese democracy
movement. Ma Thida also published an anthology of translations of Japanese poems by writers
from three decades. Her prison memoir in Burmese named ‘’Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard’’ was
published last November and is continuously in print, and will be translated into English with
support from the Luce Foundation. She recently published a collection of editorials from The
Myanmar Independent news journal. She still writes articles and short stories in English and
Burmese. Ma Thida is now editing Pae Tin Tharn journal and is currently the president of Pen
Myanmar. She continues to practice family medicine at a free clinic for Muslims and is one of the
few public intellectuals who have spoken out against the anti-Muslim violence in the Rohingya.
She still owes thirteen years of her prison sentence to the government.