The Mon National Day Committee, based in Mudon Township, Mon State, reported to IMNA last week that it has indeed removed the Burmese text from Mon National Day posters at 80 sites throughout Mon and Karen State, in accordance with recent orders from the Mudon Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC).
The Mudon TPDC ordered the committee to remove a paragraph of Burmese language that had been included in the Mon language posters. The paragraph in question described rise and fall of the Suwanabumi, the ancient Mon Kingdom, in what is currently Thanton District, Mon State. Members of the committee informed IMNA that they have issued a request to the Mon State Peace and Development Council that a speech about Suwanabumi history be allowed on the agendas of Mon National Day ceremonies in Mon State; the authorities have yet to respond.
“We obliterated the Burmese language as they ordered it last week, but we reported the agenda of Mon National Day, to ask about the speech in the Mon National Day ceremony”, a committee member in Mudon Town explained to IMNA last week.
He informed IMNA that the committee first reported their agenda for the 63rd Mon National Day, to be held on January 30th of 2010 to Township authorities in mid-December 2000; they confirmed their agenda a second time on January 12th of this year. Reportedly, the offending posters were first hung up in various locations on the 26th of December 2009; by the 29th, the Mudon TPDC had summoned committee member to the TPDC office in Mudon Township to order the removal of the Burmese text.
IMNA reported on the Mudon TPDC’s mandates ordering the removal of the Burmese language from Mon National Day posters otherwise written in Mon. The official explanation for the TPDC’s orders was that the text could endanger ethnic unity in Burma. This marks the second incident of government censorship on Mon National Day propaganda; authorities ordered the removal of offensive sections from Mon educational pamphlets and ceremony speeches prepared for last year’s 62nd Mon National Day, an incident covered on February 11, 2009 by IMNA.
