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It feels so painful to see my country so left behind from other nations,” said 44-year-old Burmese activist Khin Maung Win, expressing his frustration about the conditions in his homeland during the sixth meeting of the World Movement for Democracy forum this month in Jakarta.

Having fled Burma more than 20 years ago, Maung Win is now the deputy executive director of a Norway-based nonprofit media organization called the Democratic Voice of Burma, whose missions is to “provide accurate and unbiased news to the people of Burma,” as written on the organization’s Web site.

The organization’s struggle has been crystallized into a documentary film: “Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country” by Norwegian director Anders Ostergaard.

Praised as an inspiring story by film critics and winning more than 40 international movie awards worldwide, it received its ultimate recognition when it was nominated for best documentary category at the 2010 Academy Awards.

Maung Win said the documentary succeeded in its goal of finally bringing the issue of Burma into the international spotlight again. “People started to give more attention to the unjust conditions that people in Burma have to face every single day,” he said.

The documentary is compiled from footage shot by video journalists working inside the nation for the Democratic Voice of Burma. Under the threat of the military regime, Burmese journalists, using cheap handheld and mobile-phone video recorders, reported on the Buddhist-monk-led demonstrations of September 2007, known as the Saffron Revolution.

But before the raw footage could be edited into a film, their material had to be smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma and out to the rest of the world by the Democratic Voice of Burma.

“The Burmese VJs risked their lives so that people can see how cruel the military regime in Burma really is,” Maung Win said.

Run by Burmese nationals who live in Norway and other countries, the Democratic Voice of Burma has been broadcasting radio programs to people in Burma since 1992 and satellite TV programs since 2005. Maung Win said that through the programs the organization wants to provide the Burmese people with information that counteracts the heavily censored version of reality they are fed by the repressive government.

Maung Win said the Burmese government has duplicated Suharto’s style of dictatorship, known as the New Order, which ruled Indonesia for 32 years. But, he said, Indonesia finally transformed in 1998 after pressure from the people, and has since become the world’s third-biggest democracy.

“Tragically, Burma is still on the same old track,” Maung Win said.

Beginning in 1962, the country was ruled by the Burma Socialist Program Party as a one-party state. The regime used Soviet-style of governance to control its people. During the spring and summer of 1988, the country was racked by large demonstrations resulting in violent, often fatal, government crackdowns.

As a student activist, Maung Win took part in the massive demonstrations. He told himself he had to join the movement to bring change to his beloved country.

At a large protest in Rangoon, then the capital city, in August 1998 demanding reforms, Maung Win said, at least 3,000 people were killed by soldiers, and none being held responsible in court.

“It was one of the worst human tragedies the world has witnessed,” he said.

Maung Win didn’t get to see the change he dreamed of. With about 10,000 other Burmese citizens, he had to leave the country as the military helped the regime regain power.

Maung Win spent several years in neighboring Thailand before finally settling in Oslo. Having the privilege of experiencing life in Norway, Maung Win vowed that he would never forget where he came from, and that he would keep spreading the news of democracy to Burma.

As a person who believes in the spirit of freedom, Maung Win said Burma should recognize how Indonesia is implementing its democracy at the moment, and take note.

“It’s true that Indonesia is still having many problems, such as poverty, but with democracy, people have hope things will be better in the future.”

He added that although Indonesia may not be the most prosperous nation in the region at the moment, because of democracy it is the most politically stable country in Southeast Asia, and that’s a good foundation for the future.

“Burma has to be like Indonesia one day,” he said.