Remembering Naing Ko Ko

ANU RegNet alumnus, dedicated scholar and human rights advocate Naing Ko Ko passed away on 11 April 2024. We pay tribute to his courageous spirit and tireless struggle for the people of Myanmar.

Naing Ko Ko was a Burmese (and Mon) scholar, human rights advocate and advisor to Myanmar’s former National League for Democracy (NLD)-led civilian government. He was an alumnus of The Australian National University (ANU) School of Regulation and Governance (RegNet) (PhD, 2023).

Naing Ko Ko’s life of purpose was cut short by the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, after being exiled for a second time from his homeland. As a member of the ’88 generation – the first wave of students protesting decades of authoritarian military rule – he was arrested in 1992 for distributing political pamphlets and organising high school students. He was imprisoned, tortured and held in solitary confinement at the infamous Insein Prison in Yangon. He recalled:

I was kept [in solitary] for six months for illegally learning English... Using plastic as paper and a stick as a pencil I learned to write, which was illegal. When I was in prison, no political prisoners were allowed to read and write. However, I was determined to study English and decided to study overseas after being released from prison. I requested my parents to bribe the prison wardens in order to get a basic English-Burmese dictionary, a grammar book and magazine like Time. Most of my days in prison were spent studying at night and sleeping during the day to keep it secret.

After his release, Naing Ko Ko fled across the Thai Myanmar border in 1998. A scholarship from Prospect Burma (funded by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize) allowed him to undertake a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Rangsit University in Thailand (2006). He was accepted as a refugee by New Zealand and completed his MA in Politics at the University of Auckland (2009), receiving the Human Rights Defender Award from Amnesty International (New Zealand) in 2010. He often spoke with gratitude about the support that he received from New Zealand.

He came to Australia to undertake a Master of International Studies as a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Queensland, graduating in 2013. He was introduced to ANU by Janelle Saffin MP, a lawyer and long-time supporter of democratic reform in Myanmar. He began his PhD at RegNet in 2014, working with Professor Veronica Taylor, Professor Peter Larmour (and later Associate Professor Grant Walton) and Professor Sean Turnell (Macquarie University).

As a student and scholar, Naing Ko Ko was a prolific writer of op-ed and scholarly articles (e.g., Ko Ko, N (2018) ‘Politics of human rights in Myanmar’, in F de Varennes & C Gardiner (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia, 89-100). He was also an energetic networker linking Burmese activists and supporters in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. He first returned to Myanmar in 2013 to support Professor John Braithwaite’s ‘Peacebuilding Compared’ project (Ko Ko, N & Braithwaite, J (2020) Baptist policing in Burma: Swarming, vigilantism or community self-help?, Policing and Society, 30:6, 688-703).

He then undertook challenging fieldwork in Myanmar to write his PhD thesis, How Can Myanmar Effectively Regulate Corruption in its Banking and Public Finance Sectors?. Characteristically, it combined his perennial hope with clear-eyed realism, reflecting his ambition for change in his country, which was sharpened by anger towards the military and their cronies who seemed determined to thwart it. One of his examiners wrote:

The analysis of cronyism is detailed and richly contextual, and the concept of “constitutional corruption” provides an answer to Theodore Lowi’s classic question, “What is this case a case of?” The candidate’s regulatory and legal recommendations are sensible… although the prospect of major application of his agenda is sadly remote. A final strong point worth noting is the candidate’s emphasis on deficits of trust, both as a long- running problem in Myanmar and as an integral part of our understanding of corruption problems and possible remedies.

Naing Ko Ko was tremendously proud of being an ANU ‘RegNetter’. He worked to propagate the ideas of responsible and responsive government that he was exposed to in Australia and New Zealand. He had an immensely wide-ranging intellectual curiosity.

When the NLD won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election in Myanmar, Naing Ko Ko returned to Myanmar to support Aung San Suu Kyi. He would later be disappointed by her efforts to placate the generals. He provided professional development for Members of Parliament and senior leaders of the NLD and advised on policy reform for anti-corruption, economic and financial policy, state transition and governance issues. He held part-time teaching positions at a number of major universities in Myanmar and was widely expected to move into a regulatory role for the new government following completion of his PhD studies. 

Those plans evaporated when the Myanmar military seized power in February 2021. Naing Ko Ko’s colleagues and friends were arrested and tortured, including one of his supervisors, Professor Sean Turnell. He evaded arrest and changed his name to remain in hiding and support the post-coup resistance. With him was his wife May Thant Zin, a bioengineer and policy advisor, who had interrupted her PhD studies to accompany him to Myanmar. Their son Alexander (Alex) was born while they were in hiding. Tragically, this also meant that Naing Ko Ko would suffer undiagnosed and untreated cancer.

Naing Ko Ko and his family escaped into Thailand, returning to New Zealand in 2023 with the help and support of friends in human rights organisations, the Australian and New Zealand governments, the New Zealand labour movement and the ANU. Sean Turnell was released in November 2022.

Naing Ko Ko and his family moved from Wellington to Auckland later in 2023 to be closer to a larger Burmese diaspora community. By this stage, his cancer was well advanced. He battled it with great determination and without a trace of self-pity. He completed his PhD thesis in time to graduate in person in December 2023. He was very proud to have his family present for the ANU graduation and a celebration with the PhD cohort at RegNet. Although he held multiple degrees, this was his first and only opportunity to walk the stage at a university graduation. It was a fitting public celebration of great intellectual courage and practical commitment to the values of democracy, accountability and equity.

Naing Ko Ko is survived by his wife May Thant Zin and son Alex, and by siblings in Myanmar and the United States.