Ko Ko Gyi

Ko Ko Gyi (, born 18 December 1961) is a Burmese politician. He was one of the country's most prominent democracy activists during the period of the State Peace and Development Council military government, and spent over 17 years in prison on multiple occasions between 1989 and 2012. He was considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He is one of the country's most prominent activists.

Political activism

1988 protests In 1988, Ko Ko Gyi was a final year international relations major at Yangon University when the 1988 Uprising began. Ko Ko Gyi, together with fellow student leaders, led a peaceful rally on the campus of Yangon University on 15 March 1988. On 16 March 1988 he was among the students who were beaten by the police on the main street in front of the school while they were attempting to march to the Yangon Institute of Technology. On 28 August 1988, he became the vice-chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABSFU) led by Min Ko Naing. On 13 January 2012, he was released as part of a mass presidential pardon of political prisoners with nearly 600 other political prisoners from custody.

Political career

He was an observer to peace talks at the Myanmar Peace Centre. He was a member of Rakhine Investigation Commission to investigate the deadly 2012 sectarian violence in Rakhine state. He supported a military intervention in favor of the Rakhine, and blamed the situation on the Rohingya people, an ethnic group native to Myanmar, being made up of people entering from "neighbouring countries". Generation 88 denied the existence of the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group of Myanmar. On 28 August 2012, Ko Ko Gyi published a collection of political interviews entitled Free Expression (ပြောချင်လို့ပြောခဲ့တာတွေ).

He had planned to run for a seat in 2015 elections from the National League for Democracy. But, to the surprise of many, his name was omitted from the NLD’s candidate list. In response, he formed a new party, the People's Party in 2018.

Since the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, he has publicly engaged with the military junta, signalling his intention to participate in the junta's planned elections.

On 27 January 2024, he opened the People's Party's new head office in Yangon after registering on December 29, 2023, and meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on Burmese Independence Day and January 6. However, the People's Party needs to recruit at least 100,000 members in three months and open 100 offices in half of all townships in six months to receive qualifications under the Myanmar Junta's Political Party Registration Law.

Ko Ko Gyi's People's Party was declared by the junta to be qualified for national competition in the 2025 Myanmar general election.

Personal life Ko Ko Gyi is married to Khin Thu Thu Win in 2014 and they have one child.