Young Peacocks Charged and Arrested for Telling the Truth and Telling Jokes

Illustration for Peacock Generation by K. Wong

Increasingly, people in Burma seem to be getting sued, arrested, and sent to jail for mainly two things: telling the truth and telling jokes. That makes the long-established Burmese new year tradition called than gyat a risky act. Simply put, to perform than gyat is to tell the truth in a series of jokes.

Peacock Generation's than gyat

In the days leading up to the water festival, members of the Peacock Generation could be seen rehearsing their act. Clad in white shirts with black armbands, they launched into a call-and-response routine. First, they took a swipe at the country's constitution reform, challenging the Army seats in the parliament.

To change the constitution ...
Let's change the color first;
Let's change the color first ...
Rewrite the whole thing.
What if it cannot be changed?
Break the whole thing up, 
Burn the whole book down. 

Next, they took aim at Myitsone Dam, a controversial project supported by the Chinese government, but vehemently objected by the locals.

Every five years the Irrawaddy wonders ...
Who should I call Big Daddy?
When a new government takes over, the Irrawaddy wonders ...
Who should I call Big Daddy?

Then they touched on the raging civil war that has killed and displaced many.

Our kids' education ...
Got lost in the battles.
The classroom hasn't seen ...
Chalk writings on blackboards for quite some time now.
And the bells in our schools ...
Have not been heard from for quite some time now.

This blend of sociopolitical criticism and synchronized dance, performed to the recurring beat of couplets, is ubiquitous during the Burmese new year. Different teams drive around in decorated trucks and perform their sets of than gyat on the stages in the major intersections for prize money. They try to outdo one another with their edgy humor, costumes, and shticks.

During the military era, the general public's frustration and anger seeped out in the form of than gyat, like steams escaping through a tight lid. Heavy-handed and repressive as the military regime was, it tolerated the than gyat acts, perhaps recognizing the people's need to vent at least once a year.

Submit your jokes for review

This year, the Yangon regional government demanded the than gyat troupes submit their materials before the public performance. The Peacock Generation and a few other student-led groups balked at the rule.

As reported by RFA, when the Peacock Generation arrived in a soccer field for their scheduled perform this Monday, they found themselves in front of a tough crowd.

"There were a lot of police, with guns. They surrounded us," said group member Paing Ye Thu in his interview with RFA. "They wanted to know who the than gyut leader is. There was a commotion. People were gathering in the soccer field. They told us, we're being sued by the Army. We told them, we have a performance. Then they said, after your act, come with us."

Four members of the group -- Zeyar Lwin, Paing Ye Thu, Dee Yay, and Su Yadanar Myint -- are named in the suit. But the show must go on, evidently. The group managed to deliver a performance before being led away. They were released later that night from Ma Yan Gone Police Station, according to group member Su Yadana Myint's Facebook post.

On the morning of the 18th, the arrests began. According to Generation Peakcock's Facebook page, one of the members, a nurse called Kay Khaing Tun, was taken away in the middle of her shift; two others were arrested at home.

Kay Khaing Tun was released after her supporters and activist groups stepped in to post her bail -- a whopping 10 million kyats (U.S. $6,500), according to BBC Burmese.

Censorship returns under cover

In theory, censorship in Burma is now a thing of the past, abolished when president Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government came to office in 2011. Many had hoped the trend would continue, perhaps even accelerate, when the democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD assumed office in 2016. But in practice, the suppression of satirists, cartoonists, and journalists is creeping back, right under the NLD's red peacock banner.

According to a report published by Athan (Voice), an activist group tracking the prosecution of government critics and dissidents, "There are 39 cases under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, in which 142 activists are facing trials, within two and a half years under the current [NLD] government." (The bilingual report is available for download here.)

The list of persecuted individuals include a columnist from The Voice Journal who penned "The Republic of the Upright Bullets," which makes fun of the government's seemingly futile efforts to secure a nationwide ceasefire agreement; and the editor and a satirist from Thanintharyi Journal responsible for "The Campaign Smile," which exposes a regional minister's misdeeds and improper conducts. The case against The Voice Journal was dropped; the case against Thanintharyi Journal went to trial and the paper was fined 500,000 kyats.

Recently Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent director and organizer of the annual Human Rights Human Dignity film festival, was hit with a law suit for his Facebook posts mocking the Army's presence in the parliament. In one post titled "A message of love to the cows," the director wrote, "The truth is, the people have been wanting to kick you all out of the parliament, the way they would have kicked dogs out, you cows." The suit was brought by an army officer from the Yangon Division, under the Telecommunications Act 66 (d). His bail denied, he currently sits in jail.

According to BBC Burmese, this week, the editor of the local paper Irrawaddy got hit with a 66 (d) suit, for reporting the fighting between the Army and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the two Reuters reporters who exposed the Army's summary execution of Muslim civilians in the troubled Rakhine region, were convicted and sentenced to jail for seven years. Their families and supporters had hoped they would be among the government's new year amnesty, an annual practice even under the military regime.

This week, President Win Myint pardoned 9,535 prisoners "for the peace and pleasure of the people, and taking into consideration humanitarian concerns," as reported by Reuters here. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were not among them.

A note before jail

In a Facebook post published before the members' arrests, Peacock Generation wrote, "From our debut in 2013 to 2018, we had lots of supporters. This year, because we chose not to submit our materials to the censor, we hardly have any support. It has been difficult because we weren't able to perform on stages or enter competitions. We'd like to thank our dedicated fans who stood by us during these difficult times ..."

In one grainy footage of the group's routine posted to YouTube, they belched out:

Don't stay silent, you people;
You'll get caught in cobwebs. 
Don't stay silent, you people;
You'll get caught in cobwebs.