Following the arrest of the five leaders of the ‘88 Generation Students’ earlier this month, a petition campaign was organized by their colleagues to call for the release of the detained leaders. In less than two weeks, and under difficult circumstances due to the relentless intimidation by the authorities, the petitioners were able to collect more than 200,000 signatures.
In a country where no form of dissent is permitted, the petition campaign was an extraordinary bravado of the petitioners and the signatories. The ongoing campaign, which has not yet met its ultimate objective, has been a success in terms of escalating the political consciousness of the Burmese people.
The next step came in white. On October 10, the 88 Generation Students launched the ‘White Expression’ and called for ‘national reconciliation’ and the freedom of all political prisoners.
‘Whiteness’ represents purity, sincerity, honesty and altruism in Burmese culture. ‘‘Burmese students have been at the forefront of the democratic struggle generation after generation. We have been sincere, honest and altruistic in our struggle on behalf of all the ethnic peoples of Burma. With this ‘whiteness’ that we urge the people of Burma to work for national reconciliation.’’ declare the group. The students urged the Burmese people to show their support by wearing white clothes, or, at least, white handkerchiefs, white triangular brooches or badges.
The White Expression is significant in its timing, tactic and tangibility. It is happening at the same time when the junta has unilaterally resumed the national convention which will draft the future constitution of Burma.
The adoption of the colour white is tactically significant since schoolboys and girls wear white shirts and blouses in Burma. The members of the junta’s political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, also favour white. The laymen who dwell in Buddhist monasteries are clad in white robes. The campaign in that respect can be called ‘the re-appropriation of the whiteness’ by the students for their good cause.
Instead of challenging the junta head-on as it has been done in the past, the students this time decided to work within what they perceive as ‘the toleration limit’ of the regime. Their call for ‘national reconciliation’ shows the political astuteness of the former firebrands who called for the overthrow of the military regime 18 years ago. Jailing of their top leaders has not deterred the movement but added more passion to their cause.
The White Expression is set to end on the 18th October, the day the arrested leader of 88 Generation Students, Min Ko Naing, turns forty-four. As a Rangoon-based political analyst points out, the most important thing for the activists will be to keep the fire burning; that is to keep shaking the political conscience of the military regime and to keep escalating the consciousness of the Burmese people in ways they already have.
