Mon people in Burma and across the world celebrated their National Day yesterday, in spite of censorship by government officials in Mon State.
Mon National Day (MND) Celebrations of various sizes took place on February 10th in most villages in Mon State, as well as other parts of Burma and at least 7 countries internationally. The celebration has been held for 62 consecutive years, with the largest event this year attended by over 15,000 people at Kamamo village Chaungzone township on Belukyn Island, near Mon State’s capital city of Moulmein.
The large event was affiliated with the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), which won 5 seats in Burma’s later-annulled 1990 election. A smaller event was also held by the New Mon State Party (NMSP), Burma’s largest Mon political party, in NMSP controlled territory at Nyi Sar camp, near the Thai-Burma border.
The celebration at Kamamo, as well as many of the other celebrations in Mon State, took place with the permission of government officials. This sanction came with a cost, said a source close to the central MND Working Committee (MNDC), the central body responsible for organizing the large event on Belukyn. The MNDC also distributed speeches and an agenda for the event to 19 townships in Rangoon, Pegu, Tenasserim Division, Mon and Karen States.
According to the source, the MNDC also submitted a copy of speeches and the event agenda to Mon State officials more than a month before MND. No complaint was made to the MNDC, but local MNDC members report being pressured to censor one speech and one document distributed at the event.
“The report on our plans for MND was submitted on January 7th and the chairman of the assembly gave his speech according to that submission,” said the source. “[The central MNDC] also said to the township-level MNDC members to give their speeches according to what was submitted. [The MNDC central] said to them ‘we will solve it if the authorities make a problem.’”
At least three major township celebrations, however, agreed to make the changes demanded by local township officials and police. Both edited sections, which have been reviewed by IMNA, appear relatively innocuous. The first, which was given un-edited by the chairman of the assembly in Kamamo, dealt with national unity. The objectionable section featured the speaker referring to an old proverb that reminds the listener that the strength of 1,000 individuals cannot match the strength of 1,000 people united.
The second piece of objectionable material was contained in a pamphlet discussing education. The offensive passage described the history of Mon language education, which was banned from schools and universities in 1962 and from monasteries in 1985. Mon language exams were permitted to return to monasteries in 1985, noted the censored section before urging Mon people to struggle for further Mon language education rights.
This is not the first time authorities have tried to censor MND speeches, a veteran Mon political analyst told IMNA. But in the past, single words rather than entire paragraphs were changed. According to the source, the censorship has occurred over the last 4 years, though the MNDC had made reports on their agenda in years prior as well. Those reports were just to inform the government of the MNDC’s plans, the source said, and were not made to ask permission.
MND celebrations in NMSP territory, meanwhile, were conducted with less government oversight, though security concerns meant that the party did not invite outside visitors. Handfuls of westerners have attended the NMSP-lead central celebration in the past. The NMSP celebrations were more overtly political, said sources who attended the events, and the NMSP re-iterated that it will not participate in the coming 2010 elections. “If the SPDC doesn’t review the results of May 2008 referendum, we will not participate in the 2010 election,” said an NMSP officer who spoke at a celebration attended by approximately 1,000 people in party controlled territory in Kawkareik Township, Karen State.
The Mon community outside of Burma also held MND celebrations – or will hold this coming weekend – in countries including America, Australia, England, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
