Yangon, Myanmar: One of the famous artists, Saung Oo Hlaing, held a charity show on 17th February. He had planned to donate all funds received from selling tickets and other individual donations to Free Funeral Service, Student group from 1988 who have been put to jail for demonstration in 1988 election, and some orphanages across Myanmar. But, sadly, it did not go as planned. Due to some reports from students group from 1988 and staff from Free Funeral Service, they said they were challenged by government officials.
Ko Phyo Ko Ko from Free Funeral Service reported by email to one of the news blog that the authorities drove them away from the stage show. “We, about 5 of us from Free Funeral Service, were there to help Ko Saung Oo Hlaing as he had requested. We reached there about 1 hour earlier and had tea there. Then the stage manager ordered us to take off our Free Funeral Service uniforms and also asked to put away our car which has Free Funeral Service label on it”, written by Ko Phyo Ko Ko.
He also stated that even the singer, Saung Oo Hlaing, was confronted by the authorities, too. He was asked whether he wanted to continue as he had planned or wanted to leave his stage show with members from Free Funeral Service and students group from 1988. “We were not wearing offensive outfits but just our everyday uniforms provided by our organization, Free Funeral Service. It was completely nonsense but we didn’t want Ko Saung Oo Hlaing’s stage show to be spoiled just because of us. That was why we gave in to change our uniforms and parked our car outside the compound”, mentioned Ko Phyo Ko Ko in his email.
At the same time, students group from 1988 also faced similar challenges. Most of them are close friends with Saung Oo Hlaing but they were not allowed to present at their stage show, reported by one of the students who is a member of 1988 student group. The news blog has stated that Saung Oo Hlaing was told by the officials that they would not allow him to perform his stage show if his friends from 1988 student group are present in his stage show. Even though such prohibition should not be a sign in a country practising democracy, students from 1988 were not present there yesterday as they didn’t want to spoil their close friend’s charity stage show.
Saung Oo Hlaing is one of the members of Free Funeral Service and he planned to donate all money made from his charity stage show to above mentioned organizations. Even though there were some challenges from government official, online reporters reported that Saung Oo Hlaing charity stage show was accomplished peacefully and successfully.
