Bawk Ja Lum Nyoi ( my, ဘောက်ဂျာ, born 4 December 1967) is an ethnic Kachin

land rights Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use ...

activist and politician from

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(Myanmar). She serves as the chair of the

National Democratic Force The National Democratic Force (NDF), is a political party in Myanmar (Burma). It was founded by former members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who disagreed with the party leadership's decision to boycott the 2010 general election ...

Kachin State Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet and Yunnan, specifically and respectively); Sh ...

branch. She lives in Aungya village,

Hpakant Township Hpakant Township"Myanmar States/Divisions ...

Early life and education

She matriculated from Basic Education High School in

Kyauktada Township Kyauktada Township ( my, ကျောက်တံတား မြို့နယ် ) is the center of downtown Yangon, Myanmar. The township consists of nine wards, and shares borders with Botataung Township in the east, Seikkan Township and ...

, Rangoon. In 1993, she graduated from

Yangon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in History.

Career

In October 2010, she led a group of

Hukawng Valley The Hukawng Valley ( my, ဟူးကောင်းချိုင့်ဝှမ်း; also spelt Hukaung Valley) is an isolated valley in Myanmar, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State i ...

farmers whose lands had been confiscated (over of farmland), and sued

Yuzana Company Yuzana Company Limited ( my, ယုဇနကုမ္ပဏီလီမိတက်) is a Burmese company involved in the construction, agriculture, hospitality, real estate and fishery industries. Yuzana Company was established in 1994 by Htay My ...

and its chairman

Htay Myint ''Wunna Kyawhtin'' Htay Myint ( my, ဌေးမြင့်) is the chairman of the Yuzana Company, a major conglomerate in Myanmar (Burma) and served as Member of Parliament in the Pyithu Hluttaw for Myeik Township Myeik Township ( my, မ� ...

(MP), over the illegal land confiscations. Her advocacy work brought her national attention. In the

2010 Burmese general election General elections were held in Myanmar on 2010, in accordance with the new constitution, which was approved in a referendum held in . The election date was announced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on . The elections were the ...

, she contested the a seat in the

Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တော်, ; House of Representatives) is the ''de jure'' lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 440 members, of whic ...

for the

Hpakant Township Hpakant Township"Myanmar States/Divisions ...

constituency, running against

Ohn Myint Thakin Ohn Myint ( my, သခင် အုန်းမြင့်) was a notable Burmese journalist, best known for his political involvement in British Burma. In 1933, he joined the Dobama Asiayone, an indigenous anti-colonial organization w ...

, a former military general. The

Union Election Commission The Union Election Commission ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စု ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ကော်မရှင်, abbreviated UEC) is the national level electoral commission of Myanmar (Burma), responsible for organising an ...

(UEC) declared Ohn Myint the winner, despite fraud allegations and voting irregularities. Ohn Myint had won the election by a margin of 7,793 votes, with a massive 13,255 votes declared invalid. On 7 January 2011, she submitted an official grievance to the UEC. As part of a bargain between Ohn Myint, she agreed to withdraw her complaint contingent on Ohn Myint's commitment to pave roads in the township and suspend the

Myitsone Dam The Myitsone Dam ( my, မြစ်ဆုံ တာတမံ ; 'Confluence Dam') is a large dam and hydroelectric power development project which was planned to be built in northern Myanmar (also known as Burma). The proposed construction site i ...

project. In the 2012 Burmese by-elections, she announced her intent to contest the same seat (as Ohn Myint had vacated it to become a cabinet-level minister), but her constituency was among three withdrawn by the government following renewed fighting between the Burmese military and the

Kachin Independence Army The Kachin Independence Army (KIA; Kachin: ''ShangLawt Hpyen''; my, ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးတပ်မတော်) is a non-state armed group and the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), a pol ...

(KIA). In July 2013, she was arrested on politically motivated charges of

negligent homicide Negligent homicide is a criminal charge brought against a person who, through criminal negligence, allows another person to die. Examples include the crash of Aeroperu Flight 603 near Lima, Peru. The accident was caused by a piece of duct tape ...

of a man killed in 2008. The deceased victim's wife, Kai Am, asked to withdraw the charges in September 2013. She was freed on 24 January 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bawk Ja 1967 births Burmese politicians Burmese activists Living people University of Yangon alumni Burmese people of Kachin descent People from Kachin State