On 27 March, I attended Burmese comic Zarganar’s extraordinary show at People’s Park, one of Rangoon’s major public spaces. The elaborate production, broadcast on independent TV channel Sky Net, included dancing, music, and harsh and free-flowing satire throughout. The show featured comedians who went into exile following Zarganar’s arrest — for drawing attention the Burmese government’s lack of response to Cyclone Nargis — in 2008.
Watching the comics performing so freely on stage, it was extraordinary to think this would have been impossible only two years ago, when Zarganar was facing the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. His comeback was full-on and uncompromising.
The event took place against the backdrop of heightened tensions following violent clashes from between Buddhists and Muslims in Middle Burma that left 40 dead and at least 8,000 displaced. Tensions spread to Rangoon, and eventually Burmese authorities issued a ban on public gatherings and a partial curfew in three townships surrounding Rangoon.
I was in the offices of one of the many new journals that have started up since the abolition of pre-censorship for print media when we received news of the move. Some of the journalists and activists present were relieved, having felt unrest in the city, and one of the paper’s owners said that his staff who live in areas with high Muslim populations were afraid to go home. Some were even changing the locks on their doors.
Human Rights Watch has called upon Burmese authorities to help end violence against the country’s minority Muslims, and the United Nations has warned that the violence will only endanger Burma’s new wave of reforms.
On 1 April, private dailies returned to Burma once more; but on the same day, members of the newly independent media were not invited to cover the visit of the Singaporean president.
Artist Htein Lin summarised what it is like to be in Burma at such a crucial time, saying, “This is Burma: unstable one day, stable the next.”
Julia Farrington (Head of Arts, Index on Censorship) and artist Htein Lin are in Burma to deliver a symposium on artistic freedom of expression with Zarganar and his new company HOME (House of Media and Entertainment)
