Zarganar, Hold on, We Know You Are Alive: Comedian of Burma Jailed for 45 Years

Writing today about Kathy Griffin and other comedians in the USA, I thought for the millionth time about dear Zarganar; the great comedic heart of Burma who just two months ago was insanely punished by the bloated multi-millionaire dictator of Burma, Than Shwe…

Than Shwe, surely the lost twin brother of Mugabe in Zimbabwe… Than Shwe, the walking talking roasted pig with his rotten teeth stuffed with diamonds from loot taken from his organized cocaine trade …

Than Shwe, it is said, was spiritually eaten by demons via his withholding of foreign aid, medical supplied, rice, water and doctors from the suffering Burmese whom he purposely injured in the Aug 2007 uprising of Buddhist monks and nuns…

and attacked relentlessly by demons again when he, Than Shwe, the walking corpulent corpse denied foreign aid again, denied doctors entry to treat the victims of the Nargis cyclone in 2008 that killed over 100,000 tribal and city Burmese and injured millions more.

And now Than Shwe in another of his Jabba the Hutless excesses, sentences a mere comic soul to 45 years in prison. Zarganar is 47 years old. Oh how great Than Shwe must be the power of the comedic to bring you down, how weak you must be to fear such a mere comic soul.

Could it be Than Shwe, that so fraught is your clawing lust for power, so malignantly filled with dukka is your mind, so bent you are on consigning yourself to everlasting vajra hell, that you have to silence one who makes others laugh?

Little Zarganar was found to have violated a mockery of justice written at Than Shwe’s behest… “the Electronics Act,” which regulates electronic communications in Burma… essentially bleating that no one is allowed to say anything to disparage the demonic infestations of Than Shwe.

Round, diminutive Zarganar was detained earlier in 2008 for criticising the government’s slow response to Cyclone Nargis. More than 100 activists who rose to prod the government and to deliver mercy to the Burmese, have been sentenced over the past 8 weeks in what amounts to a suspension of Burma’s pro-democracy movement.

“Zarganar led a group of entertainers who organised private aid deliveries to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit in May 08. An outspoken satirist of the military government, Zarganar had already been arrested and jailed four times before he was forced from his home again by the authorities in June 2008.”

The gentle but sharp witted Zarganar had said just prior to Than Shwe’s flying monkeys coming to arrest him: “No, we never encounter any problems, because we negotiated with [soldiers], and we just want to pass [out] our donation parcels. We just want to encourage our people. This is our duty.”

And Zarganar, through various groups outside Burma, including Amnesty International and PEN, the writers’ group that supports imprisoned artists and petitions for their release, we have a duty too… to not forget you.

Also convicted along with comedian Zarganar, are key members of the so-called ‘88 Generation of activists,’ all sentenced to 65 years… and a total of 68 years imprisonment was brought down against Ashin Gambira, leader of the monks’ alliance that led last year’s anti-government uprising.

I know Kathy Griffin would know just what to say about all this.
All free comedians throughout the world would know just what to say about Than Shwe.
I hope, for Zarganar’s sake, they will say it. Than Shwe needs MORE, not less, comedians on his case. Relentlessly. Publicly.

Comedians have ever been one of the few cultural groups strong enough, equipped enough with the weaponry of wit, to consistently speak truth to lies.

Semper fi.