Approximately 90 Kwan Hlar villagers staged a protest at Kan Thar Yar Gardan, in Mudon Town on September 17th. Organizers of the demonstration called for action to be taken regarding what they view as unresponsive, repressive and unjust actions of the village Administrator.

According to one participant in the protest, the Administrator has not taken any action, since January of this year regarding directional signs in the Paung Kala quarter in Kwan Hlar, Mudon Township.

“After the committee meeting, [we] planned to re-install the direction signs, but [he] did not accept that at first. We [urged the Administrator] to take action on the case. We decided to protest after discussing with the locals in our town,” said protester Daw Than Htay.

At the demonstration, the protesters shouted, “Don’t want [unjust] administrator for Kwan Hlar! Don’t want exploiter administrator of Kwan Hlar! Please elect a new qualify administrator for Kwan Hlar! The people’s right!”

Another local resident, Nai Aung noted frustration with directional signs issue, “We installed seven direction signs in our quarter and named the main road as Thammazadi, and the rest with Paung Kala one, two, etc. [They] have removed five poles and left only two.”

The uprooted direction signs were found at the office of the village Administrator.

Although 150 representatives from the village signed and sent a complaint letter about the village Administrator to the Mon State Minister and related government departments and representatives of Parliament dating back to February 2019, there has been no response.