Voices.sg

Popular Burmese comedian and activist, Zarganar, has been slapped with a total of 59 years in prison for critising the ruling junta government’s slow response in a May cyclone which killed more than 84,000 people.

Zarganar was given a 45-year prison sentence last week after he was convicted on charges related to interviews he gave to foreign media outlets, expressing disappointment over the way the government has dealt with the disaster.  A court inside Burma’s Insein prison sentenced him to 14 more years on Thursday, bringing his total prison term to 59 years, his lawyer said.

Burma’s military, which has held power since 1962, tolerates no dissent. It frequently arrests artists and entertainers regarded as opposing the regime.

It has further ramped up its crackdown on dissent since Buddhist monks led pro-democracy protests in September 2007.

The government holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the demonstrations, according to international human rights groups.

The military government’s wave of harsh sentences has been condemned worldwide by Western governments and human rights groups. They contend that the sentences make a mockery of the ruling junta’s professed plan to restore democracy with a 2010 election.

Zarganar’s lawyer, Khin Htay Kywe, said he was convicted Thursday for causing public alarm, a reference to his interviews with foreign media, and for communicating with exiled dissidents, among other charges.

Zarganar, whose birth name is Maung Thura, was among at least 100 people to receive sentences of two to 65 years since early November. Many of the trials were held in closed sessions, sometimes without defense lawyers or family present.

He has been imprisoned several times before, including a three-week stint for providing aid to those who demonstrated last year.

Compare this to the Kangaroo T-shirt activists, and you understand why not many people pay any attention to Singapore’s political activism efforts.

SDP Assistant Secretary-General, Mr John Tan, along with Shafi’ie and Isrizal, were slapped with a $5,000 fine and sentenced to 15 days and 7 days imprisonment each, respectively, for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a kangaroo in a judge’s gown during the defamation hearing between Lee Kuan Yew and the Singapore Democrats.

Compared to the Burmese case, the penalties imposed here seem almost paltry. And compared to Zagarnar’s actions in speaking out for the 84,000 countrymen who have died, the wearing of Kangaroo T-shirts is a ludicrous, laughable attempt at activism.

Then again, do visit Chia Ti Lik and MollyMeek, who have such wonderful perspectives on the Kangaroo T-shirts.

Anyhow, votes and public opinion are not won when you do something silly like that, then make a lot of noise when you get — expectedly — arrested and convicted.

Until Singapore activists stop these farcical acts they call “civil disobedience”, Singaporeans are going to continue to believe they deserve what they got coming.