‘Rambo is Hilarious’: Military Mouthpiece

Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board has ordered all journals and newspapers in the country to publish a government article criticizing the movie, Rambo, this week, according to a source close to the media in Burma.

A customer looks at a DVD of a "Rambo" film being sold by a road-side vendor in Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)

The editor of a local journal in Rangoon said recently that he seen the said article in weekly news journal The Voice. He predicted that his publication too will soon be ordered to publish the regime’s propaganda about the Hollywood action film.

On Monday, The Voice printed an article titled “Speaking seriously, it is hilarious,” [sic] lampooning Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone and his new movie Rambo, which features a US war veteran, John Rambo, who rushes in to save Christian missionaries captured by Burmese troops in the jungle of eastern Burma.

The author of the article passed judgment on all four Rambo movies, describing the protagonist as a terrorist and a puppet of US government propaganda.

“Rambo is a man who does not smile. He is an aggressive, hot-blooded man who seems to have a mental illness,” the author opined. “The movie made me cry in my heart watching this poor man who is obviously crazy. But I will tell you seriously, the movie Rambo is as humorous as the “Bruce,” “Evan” and “God Almighty” movies.”

The article has, so far, only appeared in The Voice, which operates out of Rangoon. The journal, together with Living Color and the Khit Myanmar Weekly are run by publisher Nay Win Maung.

Nay Win Maung is a member of the so-called “Third Force,” a group founded during the International Burma Studies (IBS) conference in Singapore in mid-2006 with the aim of ending the political deadlock between the regime and opposition forces.

The group includes Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing, o¬ne of the coordinators of the IBS conference in Singapore, academic Robert Taylor and Dr Zarni, formerly of the Free Burma Coalition.

However, their movement failed to gain favor with Burmese opposition groups due to its close relations with the ruling junta.

However, despite the article in The Voice, many Burmese people say they are accustomed to reading between the lines in stories appearing in what are seen as government mouthpieces.

“We sometime read the government propaganda with the purpose of understanding the background history to the country’s politics,” said a former agriculture student from Yezin University. “We get to know about Burmese politics and the exiled Burmese politicians and their activities through government propaganda.”

The Burmese military regime has been notorious for their restrictions on press freedom. The government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board strictly monitors the media and censors any articles criticizing the military government and their policies. On the other hand, military statements and articles are forcefully included in publications.

The military authorities recently ordered the privately owned Myanmar Times, an English-language weekly, to suspend operations for one week after the newspaper published a story that had not been authorized by the government’s censorship board.

Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan recently warned Burma’s national association of printers and publishers that they should work toward improvement of the national economy and against all people who undermine the country’s interests.

He also warned that the censorship board would “take action” if Burmese media reported “news that could discourage national interests.”