Bottles of Special Song Singha, a “liqueur” produced by Teo Seng Chan Liquor Merchants. PHOTO/WWW.TSC-LIQUOR.COM
A diplomatic contretemps may be brewing as anger spreads over the alleged use of the Shwedagon Pagoda’s image on the label of a brand of hard alcohol.
Special Song Singha is a “liqueur” produced by Malaysian company Teo Seng Chan Liquor Merchants, which describes itself as a producer of “high-quality, exquisite” alcohol. Some of its other exquisite offerings are SOLID Vodka, Winner Dry Gin, and Jim Berry whisky.
On the label for Special Song Singha is a gold-colored rendering of what appears to be the Shwedagon Pagoda, considered Myanmar’s holiest religious site. The product came to the attention of social media users after Tomorrow journalist Kyaw Swar Myint, who has more than 55,000 followers on his Facebook page, posted a few images of the bottles to his account on Sunday, immediately stirring up emotions.
“Please share this post,” one commenter on Kyaw Swar Myint’s page wrote. “People should not be doing bad things to our highest Shwdagon pagoda [sic], and government please find out the company and do something.”
Another user urged the government to sue the liquor company. Teo Seng Chan Liquor Merchants could not be reached. Special Song Singha is also listed as a “Thai liquor” on the Malaysian company’s site.
Sacred images used in non-sacred settings have triggered angry emotions before, sometimes with severe consequences.
In March, three men – one New Zealander and two Myanmar nationals – were convicted of insulting religion after an image of the Buddha wearing headphones appeared on the Facebook page of their bar to promote a cheap drinks night. They were sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
So far, the journalist’s post about the liqueur has been shared more than 10,000 times.
However, not all those who commented are up in arms about it.
Addressing the “bro who shared this photo,” one user said that the “foreign minister also make a cake like shwedagon and he break the cake with a knife.. so I don’t think they care about it.”
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