Threatened Scholars: Kyaw Moe Tun on Outrunning a Coup While Building a Liberal Arts University for Burmese Students
“We didn't know whether I would be arrested, detained, or investigated but I still wanted to stay in Burma,” says TSI Fellow Kyaw Moe Tun.
Kyaw Moe Tun’s description of the day in February 2021 when Myanmar’s democratically elected government was overthrown by a military coup provides a chilling reminder of how quickly a political crisis can morph into personal tragedy and profound social upheaval.
A Precarious Journey from Myanmar to the US
In 2021, Kyaw was poised to break ground on a new site in Myanmar (Burma) for what was then known as the Parami Institute. Currently a fellow with OSUN’s Threatened Scholars Integration Initiative (TSI) and president of Parami University, he was beginning to hear disturbing reports of a military coup taking place and elected government officials being arrested throughout his country. Soon, all contact with the outside world was cut off and a few days later, violent clashes between military police and student protesters began.
The local office for Open Society Foundations (OSF), was raided by government forces and all OSF funding documents related to the burgeoning liberal arts institution were confiscated. Many of Kyaw’s colleagues and friends were arrested and detained. During the political upset his parents contracted COVD-19 and his father, who had helped to build the institute, passed away. As Kyaw grieved, his legal status became increasingly more precarious.
“We didn't know whether I would be arrested, detained, or investigated but I still wanted to stay in Burma,” says Kyaw.
As the regime closed in on more colleagues, Kyaw and his partner decided to drive from Yangon to the north of Myanmar and then east to Bangkok. Border police confused Kyaw with the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the UN, who shares his name and who has an arrest warrant, creating a serious obstacle. After several weeks of staying indoors to avoid migration officials, the couple was able to cross the border through the jungle and into Thailand. After waiting for one stressful month in Bangkok, Kyaw was able to secure a J-1 visa, which allowed him entrance into the US for educational exchange purposes.
A New Home and a New Role
TSI offers fellowships to OSUN scholars, writers, and teachers, such as Kyaw, who are forced to leave their home countries due to threats from authoritarian regimes or other types of persecution related to their work or their identity. The initiative offers fellows a safe haven and a place where they can integrate into the local community while they pursue their work. It also benefits students and faculty at the host institution, giving them valuable exposure to the various global perspectives visiting fellows provide.
Kyaw says he will apply for humanitarian asylum status in the US, as he would face arrest if he went back to Myanmar under the current regime. For now, he is living with his partner in Queens, New York, serving as president of Parami University and head of OSUN’s Liberal Arts and Sciences Collaborative.
Living in a large city and renting an apartment are all new experiences for Kyaw, but he says he has acclimated, finding a degree of security in Queens, where there is a vibrant Burmese community. He is also putting a lot of time and effort into both of his jobs.
Empowering Burmese and Displaced Students
Parami University is a private, not-for-profit university “with a vision to empower Burmese and other Southeast Asian students via liberal arts and sciences education,” according to its website. Since Parami University’s establishment in 2017, Kyaw and fellow faculty, staff, and supporters have made a great deal of progress in fulfilling that vision.
Kyaw says Parami University’s classes were originally designed to accommodate the delicate political situation in Myanmar. Courses were modular and were only eight weeks long. With this format, students who got arrested and held in detention for several weeks for protesting the government could still access educational opportunities and connect to a community of learners upon release.
Now the university offers fully licensed Bachelor of Arts degree programs in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics and Statistics & Data Science, as well as many non-credit continuing education certificate programs. The classes are fully synchronous and delivered using advanced education technologies with world-class faculty.
“Everything happened last year,” says Kyaw, referring to the institution finally receiving its license to operate as an online university in 2022. “We now have 57 undergrads in the class of 2026 and 89 undergrads in the class of 2027,” he adds with pride.
The university now provides education beyond Burmese students, also serving Rohingya (displaced ethno-religious minorities from Myanmar living in Bangladesh), and several refugee students from Kenya, who joined via OSUN's Refugee Higher Education Access Program (RhEAP). Kyaw hopes that the university will eventually offer an even higher level of access to education to displaced students in locations all over the globe.
“The TSI has been crucial to all of this,” says Kyaw. “Without TSI funding to support my activities, I wouldn’t be able to create all these civically engaged educational opportunities for Burmese students and other students from displaced and refugee populations.”
In addition, Kyaw’s second position, as head of the Collab, has allowed him to organize multiple public gatherings and workshops to facilitate consultations between personnel at OSUN institutions as they adapt liberal arts and sciences educational models for their faculty and students. The Collab is currently reviewing proposals to create strengthening guides to promote liberal arts and sciences as well as research articles on liberal arts and sciences.
Both the Parami University and Collab efforts speak to OSUN’s commitment to expanding liberal arts education in places where it has traditionally not been possible. TSI provides crucial support for scholars experiencing threats to their academic freedom, or worse.
Kyaw Moe Tun’s experience, while harrowing, is an inspiring example of the personal and institutional commitment necessary to sustain liberal arts higher education where it is needed most. OSUN congratulates him and his TSI colleagues on their sacrifices and brave efforts to carry out this challenging work.
Post Date: 11-14-2023