A local youth told Narinjara that the township authority summoned the organizers of the public lectures that were held with well-known Arakanese writers last week to his office and ordered them to submit the records of the lectures.

“Our township administrator U Aung Thu summoned our youth leaders who organized the public lectures with well-known Arakanese writers to his office and interrogated them about holding the lectures in the area. And as he had ordered them to submit all records of the lectures that include documents, audio and video recordings to his office, they had to send the records to him yesterday” said the youth.

He however said the township administrator had not taken similar actions to the public lectures that were recently held by the well-known Burmese writers in the area and the administrator himself had attended to listen to the lectures by the writers.

“Burmese well-known writers who included Nunjar Thaing, Gitar Phay Win and Annawar Soe Moe came and held their public lectures before the end of last year in our Ramere Township. Then the administrator himself attended the lectures and he did not take any actions like he has done to the lectures of our Arakanese writers. The peoples here are now feeling sorry because they are being discriminated against by the Burmese authorities” said the youth.

According to the youth, the administrator of Ramere Township U Aung Thu is an ethnic Burman and he told the youths that he had to send records of the lectures to the district and state level administrations.

The well-known Arakanese writer U Kyaw Htun Aung (Tak Tun Ne), U Hla Myint of the Rakhine Thar Gree Publishing House, U Saw Kyaw, and the teachers of the Scholar School in Rangoon Daw Nhin Yu Shwe and Daw Htoo May were said to be the main speakers at the public lectures in Ramere Township.

“They have not given any lectures that are opposed to the government and nation in our township. They have just given the lectures on the subjects of our development, preserving our own cultural heritage and values, our unity and our native land, our literature, history and international education and development”, said the youth.

He said not only the youths, but also many local people who include writers and admirers of literature had attended in the Arakanese writers’ public lectures that were held for the first time in the Ramere Township from the 7th to the 9th of February.

An elder from the area also said the public lectures are very significant for widening the knowledge of the general public and the authorities should not restrict such events either directly or indirectly.

“I am very upset to know from our youths that our government authorities have taken such actions against the public lectures in our township. I believe those actions are nothing more than an indirect threat in order to restrict the public lectures in our area. They should not restrict such events either directly or indirectly because public lectures are very important for widening the knowledge of general people”, said the elder.