New Museum to Highlight Burma’s Pro-Democracy Struggle

Tin Oo, a leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), an opposition party, looks at a photograph at an exhibition in August to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1988 uprising. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Leading democracy activists in Burma say they will establish a museum by the end of this year to maintain and display historical records from decades of struggle against dictatorship.

Photographs, documentary films, books and old newspaper clippings about Burma’s democracy movement will also be on display at the museum in Rangoon, said Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society group, at a press conference over the weekend. He called on members of the public to contribute to the collection.

“Records about the struggle for democracy, beginning from the 1962 student movement to events in the present day, will be displayed at the museum,†he said.

Zaw Thet Htwe, from the implementation committee for the museum project, said the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society group aimed to open the museum as soon as possible.

The group has not selected an exact location yet but plans to open the museum in the downtown area.

Mya Aye, another member of the group, said he hoped that by revealing accounts from the days of dictatorship, the country could avoid repeating similar events in the future.

“Depending on the attitude of the government, we will manage step by step until the museum has been founded,†the activist said.

Burma was ruled by military dictators for nearly half a century, from a military coup in 1962 until a nominally civilian government came to power in 2011.

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