One Humanity Award

Maung Thura (known publicly as Zarganar), is a widely celebrated Burmese comedian, poet, actor and director. He is regarded as Myanmar’s most famous satirist and an outspoken critic of the military regime. He was awarded the One Humanity Award in 2008.

The following story was originally published in the 2011/2012 PEN Canada annual report, Protesta. It was written by Becky Toyne, a PEN Canada board member at the time.

To Open Many Mouths

Zarganar delivers an impressive one-liner.

A satirist originally sentenced to 59 years in prison for criticising his government, Burma’s most prominent opposition figure has, to joyous reception, happily been released after less than four and, as is his instinct, is engaging his audiences by making the most serious of subjects—for a brief moment at least—a laughing matter. Censorship and imprisonment may not seem the stuff of joke-telling, but for an hour on stage in Toronto, they were. Zarganar’s presence in Canada was a proud moment for PEN— the chance to meet in person a man previously known only through reports, statements on petitions, pictures propped up on symbolic empty chairs.

On stage with author Karen Connelly, academic Arne Kislenko, and actor Zaib Shaikh on March 3, Zarganar talked of Burmese theatre, of comedy, and of his hopes for his country’s future government and transition away from decades of military rule. Though Zarganar is out of jail he is not yet out of the woods—his sentence suspended, not overturned. Under current Burmese law he could be arrested and returned to jail for writing an email deemed subversive or for cracking the wrong kind of joke in the wrong kind of crowd, and so his release is partly cosmetic. “This is not amnesty,” he said in a characteristic bon mot. “This is show business.”

The man whose name means “tweezers” originally trained as a dentist. But as he told his assembled audience, when the time came to practice he had a realization: “If I was a dentist I have a chance to open one mouth at a time, but if I was a comedian I can open many mouths.” To open many mouths on behalf of the silenced few is PEN’s daily work. To hear the subject of a PEN campaign at liberty to voice the idea was a singular pleasure.