Myanmar actor Khar Ra, who walked away from a decade-long career in the entertainment industry to protest the 2021 military coup, has brought his fight for democracy to Canada.
Recently arriving in the Canadian capital, the prominent star took a leading role in a protest outside the Myanmar Embassy and Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
The demonstration was part of a growing global movement led by Kim Aris—the son of jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi—calling for her immediate release, demanding independent verification about her life and health, as well as raising international awareness of her unjust imprisonment over the last five years.
Khar Ra opened up to DVB about his personal sacrifices, his message to artists still working under the military regime, and his desperate plea for global solidarity in what he describes as a dire humanitarian crisis.
‘Silence helps oppression survive’
Before the February 2021 coup, Khar Ra had spent ten years building a highly successful acting career in Myanmar. When the military seized power, he faced a life-altering decision.
“Are you going to live comfortably while people are suffering, while people are being killed, or are you going to take part in this movement?” Khar Ra reflected.
Choosing the latter, he joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and protested alongside the 88 Generation pro-democracy activists.
His high-profile involvement quickly drew the ire of the military regime, resulting in an arrest warrant that forced him to abandon his life and flee the country.
Despite losing everything he had built, he stated he is “really proud” of his choice because it was for the country and its people.
Today, he uses his massive social media platforms to ensure the international community does not look away as the news cycle moves on. “Silence helps oppression survive,” he warned.
Three demands in Ottawa
A protest outside the Myanmar Embassy in Ottawa on May 5 carried a clear, multi-faceted message to both the military regime and the international community. According to Khar Ra, the demonstration focused on three primary goals:
- Demanding ‘Proof of Life’: Protesters urgently demanded verifiable information regarding the health and whereabouts of 80-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since the coup. “We don’t really know if she is alive, or if she is healthy, or where she is,” Khar Ra said.
- Condemning Embassy Complicity: The movement called out embassy staff for acting as mouthpieces for the military regime. Khar Ra criticized them for “covering up” the realities on the ground, such as arbitrary killings, the bombing of schools and hospitals, and the burning of villages.
- Showing Unwavering Resolve: To remind the world that the people of Myanmar will never surrender their fight for freedom, democracy, and basic human rights.
A warning to complicit artists
Khar Ra delivered a blistering critique of fellow celebrities and artists who continue to work within Myanmar’s entertainment industry under the military regime.
He argued that true art requires freedom and must reflect reality. By working for the oppressor, he stated, these individuals are actively normalizing the regime’s atrocities.
“If you are using that power to normalize the killing, the oppression, then what you’re doing is you are on the same side with the murderers. You are on the same side with the people who bomb the kids, who bomb the hospital, who bomb the school. … The history will not forget what you’ve done, what you stand for.”
Khar Ra reminded his former colleagues that while fame and money are temporary, “human dignity and integrity” are permanent.
A final plea for humanity
Turning his attention to the youth and resistance fighters still on the ground in Myanmar, Khar Ra expressed profound gratitude for their immense sacrifices, lost youth, and separated families.
“In order to get the thing that you never have, you have to do the thing that you never done,” he encouraged them, expressing his strong belief that the resistance will ultimately be victorious in what he called “the last fight for all of us.”
Khar Ra stressed that the situation in Myanmar transcends regional politics; it is a fundamental issue of humanity. Echoing the famous words of Aung San Suu Kyi, he asked citizens of free nations across the globe to not take their rights for granted.
“Please use your liberty to promote ours,” he urged.
