Its immediate neighbors, wider region, and international community must also step up
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
For Myanmar’s democracy movement, this day, 37 years ago, was a turning point. Known as the “8888” uprising, Aug. 8, 1988, is as symbolic for Myanmar as the Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 1989, is for China, or the Santa Cruz massacre on Nov. 12, 1991, is for Timor-Leste.
Remembering such pivotal anniversaries is vital. Dictatorships would prefer we forget their crimes, erase their atrocities from the history books, and ignore those who have bravely challenged them.
But we must ensure instead that we honor those who sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom, take renewed inspiration from their courage, and pass on the lessons of history to future generations.
Throughout much of 1988, thousands of people took to the streets, triggered by dictator General Ne Win’s decision to demonetize banknotes on astrological advice, which wiped out life savings overnight.
Ne Win had ruled Myanmar for 26 years, since he seized power in a coup in 1962. Public anger mounted, growing into a movement demanding an end to military rule and the establishment of democracy.
In March, the regime closed universities and schools and launched a violent crackdown on protesters. Hundreds were arrested, jailed, tortured, or killed.
To the surprise of many, Ne Win resigned on July 23. But he was replaced by Sein Lwin, known as the “Butcher of Yangon.” Ne Win warned: “If the army shoots, it hits — there is no firing into the air to scare.”
Despite the military’s brutal repression, protesters were emboldened by Ne Win’s resignation and announced nationwide protests. A BBC correspondent, Christopher Gunness, spread the word through an interview he broadcast with one of the organizers, announcing that demonstrations would begin at 8.08 am on Aug. 8, 1988.
The time was chosen for its numerological auspiciousness. At precisely that time, dock workers walked out into the streets — and thousands of others from all walks of life across the country joined them.
It did not take long for the military to turn its guns on the people. The sound of machine-gun fire reverberated in Yangon’s streets, which were filled with blood.
In the subsequent days, thousands were arrested, many were bayoneted to death, and troops attacked medical staff tending the wounded at Yangon General Hospital. Yet despite the crackdown, protests continued and demands for democracy grew.
It was amid this carnage that Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as the leader of the democracy movement. Her status as the daughter of General Aung San, the leader of Myanmar’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule 40 years ago, gave her a unique platform.
On Aug. 26, she addressed a crowd of 500,000 people from the Shwedagon pagoda, and a month later, the National League for Democracy (NLD) was formed.
Myanmar’s history has a habit of repeating itself, but also taking surprising twists and turns.
Two years after its formation, in the first elections in three decades, the NLD won an overwhelming majority, but the military rejected the results, imprisoned the victors, and intensified its grip on power.
Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest, and the 1988 student leaders faced many years in jail. Yet 24 years later, under a new military leader, Thein Sein, who gave at least the appearance of reform, Suu Kyi and her party took their seats in parliament after winning 43 out of 44 by-elections.
Three years later, in the first credible elections in a quarter of a century, the NLD won another overwhelming victory, propelling Suu Kyi into power as de facto head of a civilian-led, democratically elected government, sharing power with the military.
In 2020, she won a new mandate and should today be approaching the end of her second term in office. Instead, she is back in prison, serving a 27-year sentence, after her government was overthrown in a coup d’état on Feb. 1, 2021.
Myanmar today is facing an even more severe human rights and humanitarian crisis. The 2021 coup was met with mass protests across the country, which in turn were met with gunfire and brutal repression.
Over 22,000 political prisoners are in Myanmar’s jails today. The military is conducting airstrikes and ground attacks against civilians, which have killed at least 6,800 and displaced over four million people. More than 100,000 homes have been destroyed, alongside thousands of schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, and temples.
So the challenge facing the international community today, as we commemorate the “8888” anniversary, is not only to ensure that we remember the past, but that we respond urgently to today’s crisis.
Myanmar’s immediate neighbors and the wider region have a key role to play.
The fate of 90,000 refugees in nine camps in Thailand hangs in the balance following US aid cuts. With the end of food rations for most refugees at the end of last month, there is a need for urgent action both to provide short-term assistance and a more sustainable long-term way forward.
The most obvious solution would be for Thailand to grant the refugees the right to work and begin a pathway to legal residency.
China should be held accountable for its provision of military, economic, and diplomatic support for the junta, facilitating its mass atrocity crimes.
India should end its campaign of unlawful deportation of Rohingya refugees, and should be encouraged to provide support for Myanmar’s displaced people and democracy movement.
And the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should take a stronger position and refuse to recognise the proposed sham elections which junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing plans, especially as they will exclude the NLD and other pro-democracy and ethnic parties.
No elections can be credible or legitimate if they are held while political prisoners are in jail, civil society and independent media are severely repressed, and civilians live under daily bombardment.
ASEAN’s current chair, Malaysia, has indicated skepticism about the planned elections, but the bloc as a whole should speak out against them. The Philippines, which takes over the chairmanship next year, should lead the way.
The wider international community must also step up.
The United States should reverse its recent lifting of sanctions and its aid cuts, and — together with the European Union, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom — intensify targeted sanctions and provide support for the people and their fight for freedom. Action should be taken to enforce a global arms embargo and to cut off supplies of aviation fuel that facilitate the junta’s airstrikes against civilians.
Efforts to hold the regime to account for its atrocity crimes should be accelerated.
Pope Leo XIV should follow his predecessor Pope Francis’ example, and speak up prayerfully and consistently for Myanmar, as should other worldwide religious leaders.
The events of 1988 in Myanmar deserve to be commemorated. But what is even more needed is international action to help the people of Myanmar today.
As the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, put it in his powerful remarks to the Human Rights Council in June, “At a time when the people of Myanmar need an enhanced level of support from the international community, they are getting the opposite. The cost of human lives and human suffering is staggering, and it is getting worse.”
He warned that this dangerous trend begs the question: “Do human rights matter? Because if human rights matter, if saving the lives of children in Myanmar matters, why are so many governments reluctant to invest even a modest amount of resources to save lives?”
As we reflect on “8888,” we must find an answer to that question.
As Andrews said, “Now more than ever … each and every one of us needs to affirm, with words and more importantly, with action, that human rights matter, in Myanmar and beyond. Because they do.”
This article was originally published in UCA News.