Lucas Stewart's Blog, page 20

Myanmar Launch of Hidden Words Anthology

Last weekend, the British Council launched the English edition of the Hidden Words, Hidden Worlds anthology at an event in their library.

Contributing author and translator, San Lin Tun started the event with a rundown of the project’s five year history, followed by two panel sessions.

‘Ethnic Short Stories’ featured Shan writer and cartoonist Sai Sang Pe, Chin writer and editor June Nilian Sang and ethnic Mon writer Daw Mi Chan Wai in discussion on the past, present and future of short stori...

In Conversation with Letyar Tun and Lucas Stewart

Many thanks to Kate Griffin and the Writers Centre Norwich for the chance to talk about the Hidden Words, Hidden Worlds anthology and ethnic language literature from Myanmar in general.

Listen to the podcast on soundcloud from the WCN’s website here or on player.fm here

Image credit @

San Lin Tun

San Lin Tun is the only writer I know in Myanmar who writes exclusively in English.  His story, ‘An Overheated Heart’ which appeared in Hidden Words, Hidden Words: Contemporary Short Stories from Myanmar, was, I think, the first he had published in Burmese.  This has made him an unknown quantity among literary circles in Yangon as his contemporaries, mostly unable to read his English work, are uncertain how to rate him as a writer.

This feature by Zon Pann Pwint in the Myanmar times is an ove...

Myanmar Literature: Burmese or Ethnic?

For the final post of 2017, I thought I would look more generally at the position of ethnic literature and its place in a wider definition of Myanmar Literature.

Though there has been little mention of it the English language press, (for a good blog piece, read Kate Griffin, who attended on behalf of the Writers Centre Norwich) the Yangon Literary Conference 2017 was held between the 13th and 16th December at MCC Hall with bookstalls, poetry recitals and exhibitions displayed by the City Hall...

Biographical Dictionary of Myanmar Writers

Every so often I read an article from one of the Myanmar newspapers and think, why couldn’t they have done that a little sooner.  Too late for me now, but Sarpay Beikmann have come out with a much needed book, an English language biographical dictionary of 20th Century Myanmar writers.

Compiled under the watchful eyes of literary legend U Thaw Kaung, the book contains the life and words of 137 dead and living Myanmar writers.  It apparently also critiques their works which is a nice touch con...

Scholarship Opportunity for MA in Literary Translation

Here is a great opportunity for anyone in Myanmar who wants to study creative industries in the UK in 2018/2019.  Prospect Burma and the University of East Anglia is offering two fully funded scholarships to pursue a Masters in Literary Translation or a Masters in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies.  Applicants should be a Myanmar citizen, have an undergraduate degree from a recognised university (though special circumstances will be taken into consideration for those without) and the requi...

Ethnic Literature Finds Support Elsewhere

One of the many touted reforms of the Thein Sein administration was the recognition of the right to teach ethnic language and literature.  Commitments were made to incorporate literature lessons into the syllabus with a monthly stipend for the teachers, commitments that were endorsed by the successor NLD government.

But as this article by the Karen Information Centre explains, promises are easy to break.  Ethnic literature is still only taught between regular lessons, in lunch breaks and afte...

The Arrest of Wa Lone

It’s not often I wander into Myanmar journalism here, the field is ably covered by all the major media outlets in the West, and Sadaik is after all a home for authors and poets.  Occasionally though, something tragic will happen which demands a response.

Yesterday two Reuters journalists were arrested in Yangon.  Kyaw Soe Oo I don’t know, but Wa Lone I do.  Though Wa Lone was familiar to many as a journalist, I knew him more for his work in literature.  As a co-founder of the Myanmar Storytellers Association, he worked to instill the love of reading and telling stories to youth in and outside of Yangon.  As a contributor to the Third Story Project, he helped to publish and distribute hundreds of thousands of locally written children’s books to monasteries, churches and IDP camps across the country.

His arrest is a shock, the fact that it happened whilst he was doing his job wasn’t.  More and more, journalists in Myanmar are working under conditions that are not so dissimilar to that under the Junta.  Pre-publication censorship has gone, but this undefinable need for those in authority to clamp down on freedom of speech through ancient laws, threats, intimidation and imprisonment hasn’t.

In April, publisher and editor Wai Yen Heinn (Iron Rose) was murdered in Yangon

In May, reporter Maw Oo Myar (Kayah Li language Kantarawaddy Times and DVB) abducted and injured in car crash in Loikaw.

In June, editor Kyaw Min Swe and columnist Ko Kyaw Zwa Naing (The Voice) arrested for publishing a satirical article that mocked a military propaganda film, charged under Article 66 (d) of the Telecommunications Law.

Also in June, Lawi Weng (Irrawaddy), Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Naing (DVB) arrested after visiting  a TNLA drug eradication ceremony, charged under Unlawful Association Act.  All released in September.

In July, Chief Correspondent Ko Swe Win (Myanmar Now) arrested for a FB post calling for nationalist monk U Wirathu to be disrobed, charged under Article 66 (d) of the Telecommunications Law

In October, Malaysian national Mok Choy Lin and Singaporean national Lau Hon Meng (TRT) arrested for flying a drone over the capital without permission, charged with violating Section 8 of the Import Export Law, along with their interpreter and driver.

And finally, in December, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo (Reuters) charged under the 1923 Secret Officials Act.

In the last 6 months alone, 10 journalists, one interpreter and a driver arrested.  These figures are comparable to any year under the previous military regime.

A closer scrutiny of the list reveals the three most common fetters used to censor those who dare to write in Myanmar.

The Unlawful Association Act of 1908 is a popular tool with vague, grey terms that allows for 2 to 5 years imprisonment for any contact with an illegal organisation.  Given that many of the ethnic armed organisations are considered illegal, it is those in the ethnic states, in Kachin, Shan, Rakhine and elsewhere that bear the brunt of this Act.  Many of these convictions see little attention in the media, though as a recent example, in October, a 14 year old Taang boy was arrested at a pagoda in Namhsan, Shan State, accused of connections to the Taang National Liberation Army.  He was held in a local military encampment for seven days and beaten.  On the eighth, he was brought before a closed military law court, where, without trial, without a translator (the boy doesn’t speak Burmese), without family or witnesses, was convicted under the Unlawful Association act and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment.  A 14 year old political prisoner under a NLD government.

The Telecommunications Act of 2013 and in particular the sinister Section 66 (d) went from relative obscurity to the most popular tool of online censorship.  According to the Research Team for Telecommunications Law (co-founded by the poet Maung Saung Kha, jailed under the law for his ‘penis’ poem in 2016), as of last August there have been a total of 85 prosecutions in the court, 7 brought under the previous Thein Sein administration and 78 since the NLD came to power, a massive spike.  In a neck and neck race to the bottom, 7 of those 78 were filed by the military and 7 filed by the NLD themselves.

The ugly use of the Official Secrets Act to imprison journalists is best seen in the fate of the ‘Unity 5’ back in 2014.  Five journalists from the Unity newspaper were sentenced to 10 years of hard labour under the Act for disclosing the location of secret military installations which the military denied even existed.  They all served 2 years.

Given the seriousness the Tatmadaw place on this Act, and with jail terms that often outstretch the Telecommunications Law, it sadly does not look good for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

I hope I’m wrong.

 

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: Freedom of speech, Official Secrets Act, Telecommunications Act, Unlawful Association Act, Wa Lone

Burmese Translation of Ne Win Biography

Robert Taylor’s biography of General Ne Win attracted some controversy after its release in 2015.  Many Burma-watchers, including Bertil Lintner in a biting review for the Irrawaddy, criticised the book for being too lenient on the dictator and his disastrous socialist policies in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with Taylor instead pushing the perceived influence and importance the former strongman once held regionally among his contemporaries.

Whatever angle the book has taken (I have yet to read it) and even with its detractors, as the first biography of Ne Win by a foreigner academic – and one with decades of experience in Myanmar – it was clearly going to be of interest to a Burmese readership.  Tackling the translation of a plus 600 page book is a mammoth task, yet last month, U Khin Tun and Than Aung released the Burmese edition.  At 15,000 Kyat though, it’s probably out of reach of most Burmese.

Image Credit@Wikipedia

Filed under: News Tagged: Irrawaddy, Ne Win, Robert Taylor

Imprisoned with Books in Myanmar

So many of the formerly imprisoned writers and publishers I worked with have remarked on the impact the International Centre for the Red Cross made on their lives towards the beginning of the millennium.

Those writers imprisoned in the 20th Century were denied the basic right of pen, paper and books, devising creative strategies such as mixing water with brick dust to create ink, and hiding scraps of paper in the cracks of the walls of their cells.  Prison guards were bribed to bring in newspapers; news, often months out of date, was passed around in codes.

As the ICRC were granted access to the prison system, they were able to bear pressure on the government to allow books and writing materials which often changed the lives of those incarcerated.

At first, book packages were allowed from families and visitors, though screened before being handed to the prisoner, then, as this this thoughtful Myanmar Times interview with former prisoner and poet Saw Wai shows, books became libraries.

One writer I know, like Saw Wai, used books to teach first himself, then others, English.  Blogger, writer and now NLD parliament member Nay Phone Latt reminisced of the stories he was able to write; writer/comedian Zarganar spoke once of a literary magazine he started in Myitkyina prison which was shared around the inmates.  These freedoms often provoke a wry sense of humour among earlier prisoners who refer to those imprisoned after the 2007 Saffron Revolution, as the ‘Golden Generation’, thanks to the improved standards of their incarceration in comparison to the past.

 

Image Credit at Wikipedia

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: Burma, Imprisoned Writers, Myanmar, Myanmar Times, Myanmar Writers, Saw Wai