Have you ever heard of "Diego Garcia?"

No, it is not a man's name. It is an island, part of the Chagos archipelago and belong to British Indian Ocean Teritory (BIOT).

The shoking thing about that name is what happened to its population. Within the 1960s, the Anglo-American decided that this island was perfect for American military base. So to cut the long story short, they (British Foreing Office and its overseas governors and soldiers) shipped the whole 2,000 individuals out of their homes into the unknown Mauritius. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garcia

I am just reading this story in John Pilger's Freedom Next Time chapter one "Stealing a Nation". So I am no expert in this part of the oppressed world history. But this story makes me wonder...

Does my partner Andy who is English know about this? Has he ever heard about the forced depopulation by his government? If yes, what version has he heard it? I shall ask him tonight.

This brings me to the thought of Timor Leste. I was lied to by my government and my history and social sciences teachers (I am sure most of my teachers were lied to as well). I grew up believing that in 1975 when I was 3, my government come to save the Timorese people from the ‘evil’ Portuguese coloniser.

Only in my early 20s that I learned that it was not true. My very government invaded the land. We were not the heroes, we were the baddies! Just then that I realised that history is just a construct written by the powerful and the winner.

With that I realised that the 'Indonesian communist upheavel' film (Gerakan 30S-PKI) that we had been watching all our lives every 30th October was not history. It was a story told by one side – the winner who ran the country and controlled the media.

By now I know very intimately that there is almost no justice in the world. It is just daily fact that we accept and then from time to time we fight against. But to accept one history book as The History... I think it is wrong. (After all, it is not only "his" story, not even "her" story, it should be "our and their" stories). I will make sure that when my son start learning the modern history of Britain, he will read the stories of the forcedly evicted people of Diego Garcia - just like I've shown him the other side of the Indonesian history.

I am going back to my reading. I once hoped to be someone like John Pilger who tells the story of the voiceless people, the 'unpeople' as he puts it. I am not sure about that hope anymore as I am now an unwanted non-European living in Britain with my unmarried partner. But one thing I am sure, is that I should never forget the stories of the 'unpeople' that I have met.

The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting (Milan Kundera as quoted by John Pilger)