In Myanmar, returning exiles show capacity for forgiveness
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, November 21, 2012 YANGON, Myanmar--Maung Thura, a comedian known as Zarganar, is a barrel of a man, stocky with a shaved head and a deep, forceful voice that seems out of place among the fluorescent lights and office furniture of the Home media group he recently helped found.
Zarganar's biting wit and open criticism of repression in recent decades often irked Myanmar's government, which jailed him for 11 years on such charges as "public order offenses," including five spent in solitary confinement. In a joke the generals running the country didn't find particularly funny, he told of a man who traveled to India for dental work and was asked why he didn't see a dentist back home. The punch line: We have dentists in Myanmar, but no one's allowed to open their mouths.
Released in 2011 under a general amnesty, Zarganar expresses little rancor for his former captors, including those in Myanmar's civilian government prominent in the former military leadership.
"This is not a time for revenge," he said. "Otherwise, it becomes a circular motion that never ends."
Zarganar's willingness to forgive--seemingly incomprehensible to many outsiders--if not always forget, is shared by thousands of dissidents and student leaders released from prisons or invited back to Myanmar, also known as Burma, after years in exile.
This flexibility on both sides offers hope the country can move more quickly toward national reconciliation, avoiding a settling of scores and crippling divisions seen in other countries struggling to emerge from decades of totalitarian rule.
"It's amazing; I can't fully understand it," said Matt F. Smith, Southeast Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch. "It is definitely a fascinating phenomenon to see people back and showing no bitterness."
Among those not in a particularly forgiving mood are Myanmar's ethnic minorities, many of whom have waged armed struggles against the government for decades. Although the government recently signed cease-fire agreements with most of them, relations remain strained, distrust runs deep and social prejudice remains among majority Burmans, who make up about 70% of Myanmar's population.
