Phil Thornton meets a man who put down his gun and picked up his pen to lampoon Burma’s generals.
Cartoonist Harn Lay grins, draws a quick sharp line and Burma’s feared dictator, General Than Shwe, is skewered like a chicken, ready for roasting. Harn Lay says he detests General Than Shwe and his regime and it shows in the cartoons he draws for The Irrawaddy magazine, Democratic Voice of Burma and Voice of America websites and the Shan Herald Agency for News.
“Than Shwe’s a pumped-up bully. I try to show how ridiculous he is, a little fat man in a uniform. His only power, his gun.” Cartoons are often not taken as seriously as the editorial comment they appear next to, and this ability to sneak under the censors’ radar allows a certain freedom. Harn Lay says it is the role of the artist to point out the emperor is naked, even when it is the so-called “good guys”.
“It’s like a responsibility. I stand by the victims of the powerful and the ruthless, I try to make people not only laugh, but to be aware of how they can be manipulated.
Sometimes my cartoons have upset the pro-democracy and aid groups.”
Harn Lay, 44, is from Shan State. He has seen the mad and powerful of Burma up close and it isn’t pretty.
“When I was younger, I joined the Mong Tai Army (MTA) to fight for Shan freedom and independence. But it was an illusion.
Khun Sa [the MTA leader] was power mad, the same as Than Shwe. He was like a kid, no control, he wanted everything he saw.” Khun Sa, as well as being the leader of the MTA, was on the world’s most wanted list for running a vast drug-trafficking operation out of the Golden Triangle region that includes parts of Thailand, Laos and Burma.
“Khun Sa told us he was fighting for independence and the drug money would buy arms, but he used the money for himself. He said life would get better for the Shan people if we fought with him, but it only got worse.”
Harn Lay stops smiling as he remembers back to the days when he had to have his meals at the same table as the notorious drug lord and says being around Khun Sa was a nightmare. “He was moody. If he didn’t like you, it was off with your head. It was always personal with him, never political. There were no laws only his dark moods.”
Khun Sa, dubbed by international law enforcement agencies as the “Prince of Death” and Burma’s “King of Opium”, died in 2007. Harn Lay realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen.
“The gun kills, the pen doesn’t. I try to use cartoons to express my politics, the injustices people suffer and to make them laugh at the powerful – they can’t be too powerful if people are laughing at them.”
Harn Lay picks up a book of his cartoons, Defiant Humor (published by The Irrawaddy), and flicks to a drawing of two crumbling statues. The one chopped off at the ankles and lying on its side in the dirt is former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the other, still standing, is Burma’s leader Than Shwe. Than Shwe’s statue is falling apart and a bird has built a nest on its head. Harn Lay chuckles.
“Than Shwe doesn’t realise it, but he’s like an ant in the sugar bowl… one day he’ll die there. All dictators fall eventually and one day my daughter, like the people of Burma, will live freely.”
Harn Lay was encouraged to paint, read and draw cartoons by his father. “My father was a rice miller, but he painted, wrote poetry and short stories. He had a collection of cartoon books and we’d look at them together. My father’s library was big. He had English language magazines and they had lots of cartoons in them.”
Harn Lay studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rangoon and drew film posters for theatres before starting out as a cartoonist. Sai Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News and a former army colleague of Harn Lay’s, says the cartoonist has always been unafraid to voice his opinion.
“When we were in the MTA together, Harn Lay and others put themselves at great risk when they mutinied against Khun Sa. I regularly use Harn Lay’s cartoons in our paper. His cartoons are a powerful message. I hope Than Shwe sees them. His work is strong and good, but he’s not arrogant, he’s a humble man.”
If Khuensai thinks Harn Lay is humble, his ancestry is anything but. Khuensai leans in close, stirs his iced fruit drink and says Harn Lay is a direct descendant of the Shan royal family.
When I later ask Harn Lay about his royal connections he’s quick to dismiss them.
“My father was opposed to the monarchy, he was a republican, as I am, but it is true my uncle and grandfather were Shan (Tai) kings.”
But Harn Lay is more court jester. He’s chunky, his hands constantly on the move as they draw air pictures. He switches from impish grins to deep frowns as he discusses the dismal state of Than Shwe’s Burma. Harn Lay credits Australian artist Bill Leak’s hard-hitting cartoons as an inspiration.
“I look on the internet at many cartoonists, but I like Bill’s the best. He’s strong. He doesn’t hold back. I love the directness of his work. He doesn’t miss his targets.”
The feeling is mutual.
“I am so impressed by his drawing that I’m now a fan of his too,” says Bill Leak in a phone interview. “I’m in absolute awe of him and the work he does.”
But not everyone is in love with these cartoonists. Both Leak and Harn Lay receive their fair share of threats from the people they upset. Leak says he used to get abusive mail and threats daily.
“I wear them like a badge of honour. The intention is to upset the big and the powerful, stir things up a bit. I’m lucky the editor at The Australian newspaper gives me enormous leeway. The editorial group enjoys the idea that it [a cartoon] will cause an uproar.”
Likewise, Harn Lay’s cartoons have upset politicians on both sides of the Thai-Burma border. “I get many strongly worded letters. I even got one from a former prime minister, now dead.”
Harn Lay says his intention is to get under the skin of the ruthless and powerful dictators of Burma. “Translated my name means a leaf that causes irritation and itching. I want to make these powerful generals uncomfortable. I want to show people what they are really like without the protection of their uniforms and I want to show they are mortal.”
Harn Lay has the support of his wife Yuwadee and his daughter Wan Wan, but says they can be his harshest critics. “I met Yuwadee 16 years ago in Shan State. I test my work out on her for clarity. If she laughs, I know I’m on track.”
But the cruelty of Burma’s regime is not a laughing matter. “Every Burmese person has been hurt or touched by their brutality. In 2007 they killed my friend Nong Dang by pouring boiling water down his throat. I’ve given up the gun, but I’ll keep drawing and try to expose this regime for the criminals they are.”
Phil Thornton works as an investigative journalist in South-East Asia. He lives in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border
