08.08.88

How well do we remember things?

Some of us list down tasks or birthdays in our calendars. Others put on alarms in their cellphones. A lot more are downloading over-rated stuff on the net just to help them keep score with things they want and do not really need.

Burmese people do not need to download anything because they will always remember. It only takes four digits: eight-eight-eighty-eight (8-8-88).

That was when the students of the All Burma Student Democratic Front led protest actions together with many groups against the State Peace and Development Council, known to many as the infamous, dictatorial and fascist military government. That was the first time that a unified action has been taken by the people of Burma against its government since the latter took over in 1962.

Weeks after the protest actions, the military started arresting, killing, detaining, torturing, abducting, hamleting, subjugating, oppressing the people they have until the present mouthed to protect and serve.

Twenty years after, the same things are happening and yet the people have not wavered. They continue to fight for the memory of loss, of devastation, of hunger, of struggle, of resistance remains as graphic as the present day.

For no memory was lost. It was carried on.

This Friday, August 1, I will be joining friends in the Hong Kong Coalition for a Free Burma in setting up the banners (see pictures) along the busy streets of Hong Kong to show our solidarity with our Burmese brothers and sisters, to help the local people continually remember the ongoing situation in Burma, and to remind the Burmese government that we have not and will never forget.

The 8th of August, 2008 marks the opening of Beijing Olympics. For the Burmese people, it is the memory of a struggle unfinished. And to be continued. And won.

Numbers are not easy to forget. When they mean so much to a people.