By A Writer (MWA)
* The power of literature, the power of life.
Thoughts and feelings flow, Life, spirit and soul aglow.
* Luminous jewels of the land, subtly and craftily interwoven in radiant strands,
A shining legend going down in history, the SEA Write Award is glittery.
* Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
* Ten realms with names of splendour and elegance,
Literary gems of glittering eloquence. ASEAN glorious in glamourous age, united in the great power of shared realms of grace.
The title of the poem is ‘The Power of ASEAN’, composed by Naowarat Phongphaiboon, SEA Write Awardee and National Artist (and translated by Associate Professor Surapeepan Chatraporn). It is excerpted from the pamphlet of the SEA Write Award (2024-2025) distributed to the awardees who attended the Award Presentation Ceremony held at Sukhothai Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday, 16 December 2025. At this ceremony, Alinka Kyawswa Myinmu Maung Naing Moe was presented the SEA Write Award from Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya.
SEA Write Awards for Southeast Asian Writers Awards, or more popularly known as “The SEA Write Award”, which is designed to honour leading poets and writers in the ASEAN region. The ten countries which comprise the ASEAN region are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Its Background
“The SEA Write Award” was established in early 1979 to encourage writers in the ASEAN countries and to bring recognition to the creative literary talents of the region. The idea emerged from discussions amongst the management of Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, Thai Airways International Public Co Ltd, and the Italthai Group of Companies. HH Prince Prem Purachatra was elected as the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee. The Organizing Committee also received valuable support from the PEN International Thailand-Centre under the Royal Patronage of HM The King and from the Writers’ Association of Thailand, who took the role of setting the criteria and selecting the winning work and author from Thailand each year. Later on, the Jim Thompson Foundation, Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd, Thai Beverage PLC, and a number of other private and governmental organizations joined the Organizing Committee. The annual Awards Presentation and Gala Dinner has always been presided over by a member of the Thai Royal Family.
The objectives are:
-To recognize the creativity of writers from countries of the ASEAN region;
-To create a wider awareness and understanding of literary wealth among the ten ASEAN Countries;
-To honour and promote the literary talents of the ASEAN creative writers;
-To bring together the many talents of ASEAN writers.
The uniqueness of this award is that the awardees are selected by their own peers in each of the ten ASEAN countries. In Thailand, the Selection Committee members are nominated by the PEN International Thailand-Centre in collaboration with the Writers’ Association of Thailand.
In order to enable the readers to get a picture of the SEAWrite Award, I must tell you about the brief history of the emergence of ASEAN. The ASEAN was originally founded with five-member nations Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand on 8 August 1967. Brunei Darussalam on 7 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997 and Cambodia on 30 April 1999 became the ASEAN members respectively. Consequently, the winners from the ten member nations were awarded from 1999 onwards.
The sponsors were those from private foundations, business companies, economic enterprises and so on. Besides, the return tickets and hotel accommodations (including meals) given to the awardees, each awardee reveives Plaque to commemorate the distinction as prizes. The programmes for the delegations to the ceremony include visits to historical places. The award presentation ceremony is held on a grand scale with a Gala Dinner on the night after the end of visiting historical places. A world-renowned writer or poet is specially invited to the ceremony to make a speech. (As for the 2024-2025 SEA Write Award Presentation Ceremony, world-famous Italian writer Dacia Maraini was invited as guest speaker.)
The nature of Maraini’s work evolves in line with women’s changing position in Italian society and exposes the use and abuse of power and its effects on women. Maraini’s progressive works helped change the general impression that women should solely fulfil domestic roles.
Myanmar and the SEA Write Award
When ASEAN was founded on 8 August 1967, Myanmar did not become a member of the Association. She became an ASEAN member country only on 23 July 1997. To honour the membership of ASEAN, a prominent writer from Myanmar was offered to receive the
SEA Write Award in 1998. (As the award presentation ceremony was usually held in September or October, the Organizing Committee hardly had enough time to offer Myanmar for 1997.)
Myinmu Maung Naing Moe (U Ohn Maung), the recipient SEA Write Award for 2025, was born to U Tun Nyan and Daw Tin Hla in 1952 in Myaung Township, Sagaing Region. He earned a BCom Degree from the Institute of Economics, Yangon University in 1973. He joined the Army in 1975 as a Second-Lieutenant and served as a Lieutenant-Colonel up to 1997.
In 1965, he entered the Literary arena and has written over 2,000 poems and 200 articles, with 24 poems translated into Malaysian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Cambodian. He also translated “Selected Chinese Poems through the Ages” into Myanmar. (The book won the National Literary Award for the translation genre for 2024.) He has won the National Literary Award nine times in 1981, 1991, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2023, and 2024. Because of his literary activities, he received the National Lifetime Award for Literary Achievement, Myanmar’s highest literary honour for 2021. A year later, to honour his outstanding literary works on nation-building endeavours, he was conferred the Title of “Alinka Kyawswa”. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Myanmar Writers Association (MWA), and currently, he is serving as the Chairman of the Association.
Being a member of the MWA, I am personally proud of being a recipient of the SEA Write Award (for 2025) and regard it as the success of the MWA. Previously, as soon as the offer of the SEA Write Award reached the MWA through the Ministry of Information(MOI), the Myanmar awardees were selected systematically by the unanimous decision of executive committee members of the Association under the guidance of the MOI from 1998 to 2015.
Between 1998 and 2015, the programmes for Myanmar awardees to receive the SEA Write Award were officially conducted by the MWA under the guidance of the MOI. In other words, the MWA, being a sole literary organization existing under the leadership of the successive governments, has been taking the responsibilities of the processes of receiving the SEA Write Award for Myanmar writers.
In those days, the noble aims and objects of offering the SEA Write Award sponsored by Thailand were seen and heard through both print and electronic media of Myanmar. However, from 2016 onwards, Myanmar literati did not know about the work programmes with regard to the SEA Write Award simply because the programmes were not publicly carried out. That was why Myanmar writers had lost the chance to know whether the SEA Write Award was offered to Myanmar writers or not.
Today, the Myanmar Writers Association(MWA) has been officially contacted by the SEA Write Award Organizing Committee, as a result of the efforts made by Saya Myinmu Maung Naing Moe. At the Award Presentation Ceremony held on 16 December this year, he was specially requested to recite the following poem composed by Saya Myinmu Maung Naing Moe: –
The Wish of the Poet
I had opened the door of the cage that hath confined thee, Wherever you may want to go, Wherever you may want to alight, You, gold and emerald bird.
From inside my heart.
All obstructions had now been cleared,
So to the lush, shady, green and young forest, Sweet and smooth, I want to flow,
You, cool spring waters, from inside my heart.
Now with no overhanging shadows,
All around the skies, the sweet fragrant smell of thee, I want it purely to fill.
You, white flower from inside my heart.
The sweet song of the gold and emerald bird dear, may it be pleasant and rejoicing to hear
To the steady melody of the cool spring waters, let all be instilled with new strength inborn.
Like the emerald bird or the blue spring or as an emphasis, the flower,
That gently moved forth and blossomed from the heart, a short poem and verse that the man of literature composed, are for this world of man
To be cool and pleasant,
With a noble benevolence, sweet and fragrant, With pure love I donate in charity,
So that the world be peaceful in redolence.
In reality, Myinmu Maung Naing Moe has already paved the way for us, of Myanmar Writers Association, to have access to the SEA Write Award in future.
Reference:-
(1) Pamphlet on SEA Write Award (2024-2025)
(2) Through the Window of Sarpay Beikman by Maung Swe Ngae
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