WAITING FOR MY FATHER

Before 88 uprising we did have a great family live with my father, mother, my elder brother and my little sister.Like other families we used to go pagodas, playgrounds and so many places in weekends.But our family has been destroyed for nearly 18 years as my father has been arrested in 1990 for his participation in provisional goverment.At frist, we expected to release our father before my little sister got into primary school but she is now in 3rd year.We had to pass so many weekends without father and attend some special occasions like convocation ceremony just only with my mother.

When my father has been arrested, we don't know where he was.
After couples of moths, my mother heard humour that my father had been already arrested so,She went to Insein prison in Rangoon and try to meet with her. This is the hardest time of our family as my mother had to struggle with us ( At that time my elder brother is in 4th standard and my sister is just about 1 year old). She had to earn money to keep alive our family and had to go to Rangoon regularly to meet and feed my father. Whenever she went to Rangoon, she had to get her daughter to Rangoon so that my sister can get breast feeding enough. We could meet our father once a year as we had to attend the school .Only in summer holidays, we could go to our father and meet him. Before that, I had never seen a prison and at the first time, it was strange feeling. I cried. i was young. I was so scared that there were a lots of people there and we were very sad as we saw that our father had to wear the iron chains in the feet. We had to meet with our father for just 15 minutes in the very small space crowded with many other prisoners and family members though we took the train for 16 hours from Mandalay to Yangon and we couldn’t even shake his hand as there was a big iron mesh between us. Before, we used to study with my mother. My mom had to look after her patients as well as had to do all the work because my father was not there. She couldn’t look after us properly. So we had to study our own. I have affection for him as a father. My mom always working in hospital. I used to cry every day.


At that time my sister was not weaned off breast milk yet. So, when my mom was working in the clinic, my sister would come to mom and demand milk from her.She had to carry my sister on the one hand to kiss her and on the other she had to tend her patient with syringe in her hand.

For us, there are a lots of impacts on our lives. In education, some teachers who are supporters of military government were intentionally discriminated us as the sons of politicians and we did not get good marks although we did well in the exam. Moreover, the Military intelligence was constantly watching our family and they interrogated my mother for many times. Whenever the anniversary days of the oppositional group (NLD), they usually come to our family and asking questions and making unease for our family member. As we group-up without father, sometimes we feel unease for our lives leading to psychological trauma. Sometimes, we don’t have father to attend the special occasions like convocation and we crave for family life.

Furthermore, I did remember the day when we were very young that the Military intelligence came into our house and got my mother and brought my mom to interrogation centre as my mother was alleged to distribute the letter that my father had been sent to United Nations. At that time my brother and me got very angry and wanted to do something to these officials as we depended on my mother. My sister was also very sad about mom and she cried a lots. At that night, we had to comfort ourselves and we three slept together so that our little sister was not so afraid. We live under pressure anytime. This is just an iceberg of the story of a political related family in Burma. There are many untold hardships and there are many stories like ours. At the moment my father has been in Myitkyinar prison (northern part of the Burma and the transportations are very difficult to get into there). He is very ill and has gastric ulcers, piles and hypertension. Although we tried for many times, my father did not get access to medical access fully. He can eat only 7 teaspoons of ground rice for lunch and dinner.

We hope to meet with my father in open air but how many years we have to wait ? Who knows?How many weekends we have to pass without my father!