Signs of change as tv newsman 'Talks' to deaf

Signs of change as tv newsman 'Talks' to deaf

Bo Bo Kyaing is breaking ground as the first interpreter for the hearing-impaired to appear on the country's broadcast airways, but he says that when it comes to wider rights for people with his disability, the authorities are not listening

Bo Bo Kyaing and his colleagues at the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) are having an animated discussion at a Chiang Mai eatery. Bo Bo, deaf since he was a teenager, is using sign language, while a few of his colleagues who are not well-versed in using it, pretend to respond in kind.

SIGNING OF THE TIMES: Bo Bo in the Democratic Voice of Burma studio.

Bo Bo, also known as Maung Lu Nge, laughs, unoffended. Coming from Myanmar, he knows real prejudice and considers Thailand a relative haven for the hearing impaired and disabled. He is attempting to fight prejudice against the deaf in his home country, and breaking ground with DVB, by appearing on its news broadcasts delivering the news using sign language for the first time in the country's history.

It's Bo Bo's proudest accomplishment and one he did not foresee given the view the majority of people in Myanmar have of deaf people.

"When disabled or deaf people are born, people say they must be suffering for bad deeds committed in their previous lives. It's hardly a humanitarian view. They see us as useless and a burden on society," said Bo Bo.

Myanmar's Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement says that there are 1.3 million disabled people in the country who are eligible to vote, but many put the true number of disabled at three million, including 90,000 suffering from total or partial deafness.

Along with the general attitude towards them, the deaf in Myanmar are also held back by their lack of access to news. News broadcasts, whether from state or exile media, are inaccessible, The literacy rate among the deaf is low, which means that print media are out of bounds. Those who do read usually have access just to government-sponsored outlets.

"Deaf people in Myanmar get a very one-sided view of political issues because they only have the chance to read newspapers and other publications that are little more than propaganda," said Bo Bo.

But every evening at 8pm, at DVB's Chiang Mai office, Bo Bo works to change this situation. Since March of last year, he has been appearing on DVB's satellite TV rolling-news programme, providing simultaneous sign-language interpretation of the main news items.

"Deaf people back home are hungry for news. They don't know the breaking news stories because there are so few people who can explain the news to them with sign-language," said Bo Bo.

"Now they are much happier. Some have written to me, saying that now they understand the news and know what is happening in Myanmar."

GROWING UP WITH DEAFNESS

Bo Bo was not born deaf _ he lost his hearing at the age of 15 after being hit by a high-pressure hose during celebrations surrounding a water festival in Yangon.

It was a cruelly ironic accident for Bo Bo, as both of his parents were born deaf. Unlike many of Myanmar's deaf, they were fortunate enough to attend the private Mary Chapman School for the Deaf in Yangon's Dagon Township, which has 350 students from the ages of five to 18.

In addition to lip reading, finger spelling and sign language _ skills his parents learned and passed on to Bo Bo _ the school teaches the same standard curriculum as government schools as well as vocational skills such as knitting, book binding, cooking and massage.

It's one of only two schools for deaf children in Myanmar, the other being a government facility in Mandalay.

Following his accident, Bo Bo went on to attend university, and graduated with a degree in the Myanmar language.

"Only a handful of deaf people graduate from university in Myanmar. Most just have primary school education," he said. It was after graduation that he began to experience first hand the degree of discrimination the deaf face.

"When I first applied for a job, the manager said it was very good I had a university degree, but the company had no positions for the deaf or disabled," said Bo Bo.

Some job adverts even specifically bar the deaf and disabled from applying.

When he did apply for jobs, Bo Bo said it was not uncommon for employers to openly mock him.

"The cultures of the hearing and the deaf are not same. Communication is a problem, with the few hearing people being able to sign, and misunderstandings are common," said Bo Bo.

He said living in Thailand has made the discrimination he faced in Myanmar all the more apparent.

"Here people are broad-minded and there is a place for the deaf and disabled. Have you ever seen a toilet for the disabled in Myanmar? Here in Thailand you can find them everywhere. This is a basic need. There is even a blind senator in the Thai parliament [Monthian Buntan]."

Bo Bo, who has been living in Thailand for one year, has become part of the local deaf community and is impressed by the opportunities available here to the hearing impaired that would be mere dreams in his home country: "Here they [the deaf] can work. I have a deaf Thai friend who earned enough to buy a laptop computer," said Bo Bo.

OFFICIAL INERTIA

Despite the wave of reforms sweeping through Myanmar since the country held its first elections for 20 years in 2010, there is still little being done to help the disabled. In some ways, the situation seems to be getting worse.

On Dec 20 last year, the Myanmar Physically Handicapped Association released a statement denouncing a decision by authorities in Magway Region, the largest of Myanmar's seven administrative divisions, banning physically handicapped people from standing in elections for village-level administrative posts.

And sometimes mistreatment can take on more violent forms. The Irrawaddy website reported Nyunt Nyunt Thein, the head of the Mary Chapman School, saying that some of her female students have been victims of rape. She told the website that her students were singled out because they were seen as easy targets. "People should be aware that rape is an inhumane act. To rape a disabled person is unthinkable," she told the website.

Shwe Min Tha Foundation president Myat Thura Win called for laws to better protect and support the disabled in Myanmar. No such law currently exists. "We physically impaired people face discrimination and abuse," he said. "Whenever we are in that situation, we are helpless."

THE WAY FORWARD

Chapter 1, Article 23 of the 2008 Myanmar constitution states: "The Union shall care for mothers and children, orphans, fallen Defence Services personnel's children, the aged and the disabled. The problem is there is nothing there that enacts laws or protects the disabled. Instead they just use the word 'care'," said Bo Bo.

Bo Bo said he reads widely on disabled issues, and has written for the Yangon-based Popular News Journal, trying to explain some of the difficulties the disabled face in Myanmar. He has also written to President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party urging them to discuss five issues pertaining to the disabled in parliament: forming a ministry for the disabled to oversee their rights; amending the constitution to protect their rights; guaranteeing 5% of seats for the disabled in the Union Parliament; enacting a disabled rights law; and recognising Myanmar sign-language in the same manner as the Myanmar language and literature.

Bo Bo says that although he is yet to receive a reply from Thein Sein or the NLD, he is willing to discuss the issues with politicians and religious leaders to further understanding of the problems the disabled face.

"Members of parliament have no experience of the disabled. I would like to remove all obstacles that face both the mentally and physically disabled.

"And discriminatory words and terms of abuse for the disable also need to be banned," said Bo Bo with an activist's gleam in his eye.

PART OF THE COMMUNITY: Bo Bo chatting with a deaf Thai friend in Chiang Mai.

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