YANGON - In a classroom on the outskirts of Myanmar’s biggest city, a thin, bespectacled university student led about a dozen peers in boisterous chants of “Censorship is a shame!” and “We don’t believe in censorship!”
The tradition, featuring a mix of comedy and slam poetry set to drums, has sparked controversy this year, with troupes in Yangon, the commercial capital, saying the first democratic government in 50 years forced them to submit lyrics to a censor panel. The issue has ignited debate on social media and highlights Myanmar’s limits on freedom of speech under the government of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a year ahead of elections set for 2020.
The military junta that ruled Myanmar for decades outlawed thangyat performances but they resumed in 2013 after a return to semi-civilian rule. Many supporters of Suu Kyi’s party pushed for the revival. “There is freedom of speech, but we can’t allow obstructive ways, can’t speak harmful words about individual people or organizations,” he said.
Thant Zin’s troupe, and members of others, said they had refused to submit their lyrics to the panel and planned to perform on the street anyway.His troupe is one of several planning lyrics that criticize the government’s failure to amend the 2008 constitution, which reserves power for the military, as well as lackluster economic growth and controversial development projects.
Men in skirts (longyi's) and flip-flops, will never defeat men in pants and boots ... just sayin'
NGOs paid by christian/western money. You can crucify me if I am wrong.