Buddhist monks have criticized the junta for arresting a Swiss director and 13 amateur actors including a 12-year-old girl after alleging their movie blasphemes Buddhism.
“Don’t Expect Anything” was written and produced by Swiss director Didier Nusbaumer and uploaded to the YouTube channel Isi Dhamma on July 24.
The regime vowed to take legal action against 14 people for using ‘offensive and disrespectful language’ in the movie, saying they had insulted the virtue of Buddhist monks. The junta also alleged that the film harmed Myanmar’s culture and Buddhist traditions.
Buddhist monks opposed to military rule were quick to counter the allegations, pointing out that Buddhism encourages critical thinking and rejects blind acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings.
They also accused the regime and its supporters of misusing Buddhism.
The 75-minute film shows the 12-year-old protagonist questioning certain Buddhist customs and criticizing monks who do not follow rules.
The military regime alleged the character uses “rude and insulting words against the culture and tradition of Buddhists by harming the good virtues of monks.”
However, Buddhist monk U Kovida from Mandalay said he perceived no insult in the character’s statements and questions.
“In my view, [the arrests] are just oppression on the pretext of [the response to] insulting Buddhism. Dictators have no faith in religion, they only have faith in power,” said the monk.
In a statement released last week, the junta said: “Despite the main characters being Buddhists themselves, their behaviors and words were reckless to the point of insulting the dignity and morality of Buddhist monks.”
It added that harsh action will be taken against them in line with law.
Fellow Buddhist monk U Min Thonenya said: “Buddhism encourages critical thinking. There is the Kesamutti Sutta, which discourages blind faith. The statements made in the Kesamutti Sutta could not have been more explicit. All Buddhist monks know that this is the essence of Buddhism. [The regime] is itself harming Buddhism by ordering others to believe in Buddhism on the threat of imprisonment.”
The detained Swiss director holds a meditation visa and had been practicing at Phaung Daw Oo monastic school in Mandalay since 2016. He shares educational videos about Buddhism on the Facebook page “Dhamma Pictures.”
Phaung Daw Oo Monastery has asked authorities to limit their action to having the director lectured by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, the highest-level Buddhist authority in Myanmar.
The Swiss Embassy told AFP that it had managed to contact the director in detention.
Junta media published photos of only 11 of the 14 detainees and remained silent on the charges they face.
The regime, on the other hand, has torched and bombed religious buildings including Buddhist pagodas and temples.
It has also arrested and killed Buddhist monks who oppose military rule. Over 60 Buddhist monks have been confirmed killed since the 2021 coup, and dozens more are missing, according to monastic sources.
U Kovida said: “In my view, the bombing of religious buildings and Buddhist monasteries by military authorities who have forcibly seized power is a genuine insult to religion. Jailing of Buddhist monks without investigation is a genuine insult to religion.”
U Min Thonenya said that Myanmar’s successive military dictators have all been killers who kill civilians including monks and students while disguising themselves as promoters of Buddhism.
“No matter how many pagodas they have built, they do so only for show. The Buddha did not preach that [governments] should harm their own citizens, but should improve their well-being. Now, the whole country is in turmoil because of Min Aung Hlaing. Their houses are being torched. This violates the Buddha’s teachings,” said U Min Thonenya.
Min Aung Hlaing has overseen numerous war crimes against civilians while portraying himself as a champion of Buddhism in the Buddhist-majority country.
The junta chief has consecrated several pagodas at home and abroad and built a colossal marble monument touted as the world’s tallest sitting Buddha statue on the outskirts of Naypyitaw.
