Military authorities announced that they had detained a Yangon resident this week after he criticised a film poster’s portrayal of people of Indian descent, accusing him of inciting instability.
Shein Htet Aung, also known as Vee Htet Kumar, a Hindu man in his 30s living in Yangon’s Hlaing Township, had expressed his disapproval on Facebook after seeing a poster for a newly released film.
The first half of the film’s title translated to “Have you ever ridden a jeep?” in Burmese, while a second phrase was a stereotypical mimicry of the language or accent of Myanmar’s Indian minority.
Although many critics have been arrested in the years since the coup, Shein Htet Aung is the first to be detained for his opinions about a film.
