Pegu residents barred from celebrating national day in public place

Chan Mon, IMNA
February 13, 2006

Mon people residing in Pegu (Honsarwatoi) have been barred from celebrating their national day in the Mon-San-Pya quarter. They have also been banned from staging shows at night, according the celebration committee.

“We have been ordered to shift the celebration venue to the Kyait_Mut_Tao (Shwe Maw-Hdaw) public ground. We have to do so silently like husband and wife whispering in bed,” a community leader explained.

Residents held the celebration in the Mon hall of Kyait Mut Tao and Mon's offered food to monks and concluded their ceremony.

“Every year we hold the celebration in our quarter with stage shows day and night. Now we have been totally barred,” a Mon youth said.

The authorities tried arresting Mon youth raising funds to hold the national day celebrations. But the committee talked to the authorities with a recommendation letter from the Mon Literature and Culture Committee in Rangoon .

Local resident held stage shows with Mon bands and organized traditional dances at night in the past. They were banned from staging Mon theatre for the past five years.

Now Pegu residents have been banned like the Mon's in Rangoon from holding Mon national day celebrations. During the U Nu government, Mon residents in Rangoon held the national day widely. But after the military seized power the Mon community in Rangoon was totally banned from celebrating.

Presently the Burmese junta has banned the Mon community in Mon State from staging Mon drama performances during their celebration.