Public rally to protest against KTVs in Kalaymyo

25 November 2013: Residents from at least two wards of Sanmyo and Tet-oo-thida in Kalaymyo, Sagaing Region, are to stage a public protest against the establishment of karaoke bars in their areas.

Organizers said that they planned to hold a rally against those lounges, better known in Burma as KTV (karaoke television), in the near future as they had negative effects on their local communities.

According to the vcth news, leaders of the Sanmyo and Tet-oo-thida communities had submitted a letter to the authorities, complaining of loud noises from the KTVs at night and ‘dirty’ nightlife situations in their neighbourhoods.

The leaders said that the main reason behind the upcoming protest was because no action had been taken by the authorities although they had been informed of the situation before.

According to local media reports, at least three KTV lounges have been opened in Kalaymyo in the names of a deputy battalion commander of Burma Army military based in Tedim, a retired deputy station commander of Kalay Police Forces, and a high-ranking official from the Military Affairs Security Unit in Kalewa.

Workers in Rangoon and Mandalay said that the use of alcohol and methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant that strongly activates certain systems in the brain, were common at KTV lounges and nightclubs.

Ma Sandi, 27, said in the Myanmar Times that she began working at a KTV lounge before she ended up as a prostitute.

“At first I worked to entertain guests but I have changed because of the money and I think environment also pushed me towards it,” she said.

Angel Lay, a staff member of an international NGO working to help ‘sex workers’, said that they were regularly threatened with violence or even attacked, and sometimes cheated by clients.

She indicated it was poverty that drove women to take such risks and work in dangerous and unsafe environments.

“It’s not easy to make money. Some barely make enough to buy food and so they have to keep selling their bodies” added Angel Lay, according to the Myanmar Times.

Police in Rangoon said that crimes, in most cases at night, were committed by revelers coming out from KTV bars and nightclubs, according to the Eleven news.#