Some 88 Generation leaders now eyeing seats in parliament
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The parents of Win Maw Oo still refrain from making Buddhist merit for their daughter, a 16-year-old student mortally wounded 25 years ago in an army crackdown on protesters.
“She told me not to do so until our country gets democracy,” said her father Win Kyu, 60, referring to the offerings and prayers that gain merit. “We are very proud of what she did.”
Like many others, he wonders if true democracy has arrived in Myanmar despite dramatic reforms in the past two years, given the ongoing role of the military in government.
Win Maw Oo was one of hundreds of thousands of students, Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens who took to the streets on August 8, 1988 – 25 years ago tomorrow – to protest against the regime of former strongman General Ne Win.
Anti-military protests that had begun in March, sparked by a tea-shop brawl, became a well-organised mass movement by August headed by student leaders now known as the 88 Generation.
On September 18, the military moved in, killing at least 3,000 people in a massacre that rivalled China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown the following year.
In the aftermath, Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as the pro-democracy leader at the head of the National League for Democracy Party (NLD).
Her party, which went on to win the 1990 general election, owed much to student sacrifices.
“That victory was mainly because of student support,” said Ko Ko Gyi, a former student leader. “We tried not to split the ballot to help NLD’s landslide victory.”
But the military refused to recognise the election results. Hundreds of student activists were arrested and jailed. Thousands fled to the Thai border and set up such rebel groups as the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, which finally signed a ceasefire with the government on Monday.
In 2005, after years in prison, former student leaders established the 88 Students Generation Group in Yangon. They played a key role in the “Saffron Revolution” of 2007 – street protests led by Buddhist monks – for which many received 65-year-jail sentences.
Myanmar has undergone dramatic political changes since an election in November 2010, which brought to power the reform-minded President Thein Sein, an ex-general, and the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Thein Sein paved the way for Suu Kyi and her NLD party to contest by-elections in April 2012, in which they won 43 seats.
Imprisoned leaders of the 88 Generation Students Group were released under an amnesty in January 2012.
Their political direction remains uncertain, as Myanmar heads for another general election in 2015.
“After our release, we discussed whether to form a political party and join parliament or not,” said Min Ko Naing, one of the founders of 88 Generation.
“We don’t trust the government all the time, so we decided to go our own way as a civil society organisation, but we keep our eyes on politics.”
They have formed the Open Society group, which travels across the country to raise awareness of democracy and human rights.
But they have avoided public protests.
“This is not time for street politics, but the time for parliamentary politics,” Ko Ko Gyi said. “For sure you will see some of us in parliament in 2015,” he said, hinting at the formation of a new political party.
As a sign of the times, the 88 Generation Students have invited President Thein Sein and House Speaker Shwe Mann, another former army general, to a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising on Thursday in Yangon.
Not all former students groups agree with the gesture.
“Instead of inviting these former generals we should force them to apologise for what they did to the people,” said Kyaw Ko Ko, a leader of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, which decided to boycott the event. But some former student activists have returned from abroad to attend the event.
“We all united together to fight against junta in 1988,” said Moe Thi Zun, a former student leader living in exile for decades who has returned for the commemoration.
“We can forgive them for what they did to our people, but we cannot forget it.”
