About 300 people attended Thursday’s June 4 vigil, commemorating the victims of the June 4 incident in Beijing.
Several participants in the annual activity stressed the importance of seeing young people at the vigil, saying the events leading up to the night in 1989 should not be forgotten and that the victims deserved justice.
Most of the participants were young people.
The 2 1/2 hour long vigil began in Largo do Senado outside the Holy House of Mercy at 8 p.m. A 58-year-old participant, surnamed Ng, said he took part in the vigil every year because he believed there was a need to remember them. “They sacrificed their lives…, this is heartbreaking,” said Ng. “
A 92-year-old participant, surnamed Cheung, told The Macau Post Daily it was very important for youngsters to learn about the incident. “We need to learn more about this part of history,” she said, adding the older generations needed to tell the younger ones about what happened.
Another participant, a recent university graduate surnamed Leong, said just because it was hard to get vindication for the victims did not mean that people would have to give up working for this goal. “My motto is, at the end of darkness, there will be a rainbow,” she said. “So I hope I can see that rainbow in my lifetime.”
Lawmaker Au Kam San commented there were still people who hold the belief that if the central government did not crack down that night, there would be no social stability and economic prosperity in the mainland today.
Au described such arguments as absurd. “Do you want to have your sons and daughters killed in exchange for the nation’s stability? Is it really necessary to kill people to achieve prosperity? These arguments are hypothetical and there’s no way to prove them. So no matter how you refute them, people still believe them,” he said.
The vigil ended at about 10:30 p.m. without incident. Reporters put the number of participants at about 300.
Separately, the University of Macau Students Union (UMSU) showed videos in a room on the new campus on Hengqin Island about the June 4 incident last night.(macaunews/macaupost)
