On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s army seized power as its top command moved to protect its own interests. However the people of Myanmar have demonstrated that they do not want a military junta managing their affairs. Democracy protests have since included an array of themes the most recent being poets defying the military through democracy verse. This article appears in First Post. Here is an excerpt:

Before he was killed, Khet Thi’s poems railed eloquently against Myanmar’s sudden coup, joining a deluge of protest verse celebrating democracy demonstrators and defying the military’s brutal war on words.

As soldiers unleashed a violent crackdown on resistance to the army takeover, he implored the public to stand firm against what he saw as an existential threat to the country’s future.

“We have to fight to win this battle,” he wrote. “If we lose: North Korea. If we win: South Korea.”

Read the full article here.