It was a remarkable day in Burma. 8.8.88.
The main streets were full of hundreds of thousands of people who were doing protests. They were asking for democracy and freedom.
As Aung San Suu Kyi said, the quest of democracy in Burma was the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community.
They want Freedom from Fear. They want to get their Freedom of Expression. They want to have their Freedom of Assembly and Association. So they asked for their rights by means of protests.
The responses made by the military regime were brutal. The peaceful protests were turned into a blood bath. The protests were survived only for 40 days. Then the darkness came with the dawn of SLORC (SPDC) military regime. Since then, people were deprived of their freedom.
18 years now. It should not be the end. What people of Burma asked were the fundamental human rights and the democratic system; the only ideology that is consistent with freedom.
A new chapter of the Burmese History should be opened. The Solidarity uprising in Poland in 1980 failed to accomplish its political aims. But it was successful in 1990 and People of Poland got what they had asked for.
What about the Burmese People? Will they get freedom and democracy what they have asked in 1988 protests?
Burmese New National Protests have not come yet; however, with the strength of the People Power, it won’t be much longer to wait.
In the end, people shall get freedom by means of protests.
Khin Ma Ma Myo (13/8/2006)