A 23-year-old poet from Yangon has gone into hiding after sharing a lyric online in which he claims to have the president’s face inked onto his penis.
“I have the president’s portrait tattooed on my penis / How disgusted my wife is,” wrote Maung Saungkha.
He has become the third person sued for criminal defamation over a Facebook post in the past two weeks.
While the line doesn’t specify which country’s leader has the honor, the poet was informed, shortly after posting it on Facebook on October 8, that the President’s Office had taken offence.
Director Zaw Htay, also known as Hmuu Zaw, wrote on his own Facebook page that the young director of the Poetry Lover Organization should be “prepared to take responsibility for what he did.”
That would appear to mean writing the poem, unless authorities believe he actually has this tattoo.
Police turned up at his Shwepyithar township home that night but Maung Saungka wasn’t there – and hasn’t returned in two weeks – he told the Irrawaddy.
Local officers confirmed that a case has been filed against the poet under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail.
That same provision was used twice last week, against Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, a Kachin aid worker, and a ruling party official.
Peace activist May Sabe Phyu, the wife of Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, said her husband was simply tagged in a controversial post.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party official allegedly shared an image of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s face transposed onto a naked body.
Earlier in the week, Chaw Sandi Tun was charged under the Electronic Transactions Law after sharing a photo collage that compared military garb to Suu Kyi’s htamein, the female version of a longyi.
She faces up to five years in prison.
Maung Saunghka, who was earlier this year active in a grassroots movement against police violence on student protesters in Letpadan, Bago Division, said he suspects his activism might have drawn attention.
“I think I have been on their list since then,” he said.
He also disputes the idea that the lyric – inspired by pictures of opposition supporters inked with the visage of leader Aung San Suu Kyi – is about President Thein Sein.
“It could be about Saddam Hussein, or Assad,” he argued. “The government doesn’t understand poetry. They are afraid of poets as poetry carries public voices.”
Photo / Facebook
Reader Interactions