By Lian Uk

We, the non Burman ethnic people do need now to rewrite or amend the constitution of the Union of Burma (UB) 2008. But we need to amend or rewrite it only if we can have some kind of Accord with the ruling government of USDP outside the Parliament.

I forward to you here some kind of accord which I think is to be good to propose for the ruling government and the UNFC (United Nationalities Federal Council) and other stake holders to have this agreement between them to base on in rewriting or amending the constitution of the Union of Burma 2008. You may please see whether it could make sense and please give feedback which you think we need to have between the lines.

The Working Group for Ethnic Coordination (WGEC) formed during the last ethnic conference in Chiangmai is also proposing to the UNFC and other stakeholders how to approach the matter in their negotiating with the ruling government. It seems to be so complicated that there seems to be nothing we can do before 2015 general election.

It seems as if they adopt this road map to wait whether Daw Suu party is to win in the 2015 general elections. So the approach seems to buy time till 2015 general elections with the hope that Daw Suu party will win and the constitution is amended under her government. The road map seems to miss what we suggest here.

I send you this suggestion as for food for thought which I believe you might have some idea on it.  Panglong Agreement was signed among the Burmese provisional government represented by General Aung San only and the representatives of Shan, Kachin and Chins.

So we could say that General AungSan then represented Karens, Mons and Arakans as those three groups were included in the Burma Provisional Government. Thus Burmese/Burmans territory, Arakan territory and Karen territory were once one entity as a country known as Burmese kingdom or Burma and that was why they were represented only by General Aung San as an entity at the Panglong  Conference’. When Karen and Kaya (Karenni) joined, the Union of Burma in that way as two constituent states of the UB it seemed as if they had ratified the Panglong Agreement. In the same way when the constitutional Government of the UB Led by U Nu allowed forming Arakan Affairs Council and Mons Affairs Council in 1961, it also seems to indicate that they were allowed to ratify Panglong Agreement.

If Karen, Kaya(Karenni) , Arakan and Mons  claimed that they joined the Union of Burma constitution 1947  in ratifying Panglong Agreement, it will mean that the 4 states were allowed to ratify Panglong agreement by the UB government recognizing them that they were independent territories like the Frontier Areas territories at Panglong Conference.  That will in turn mean that the Burmese themselves recognized that the annexation of the territories of Arakan and Mons and Karens by the Burmese king with the force of arms had no justice.

Why we want to have this accord is expressed with the explanation for food for thought in considering an accord to sign with the ruling government of the Union of Burma in peace talk process as follows:

Explanation to # 1: No one can deny that the Union of Burma was formed basing on the historic Panglong Agreement.  Thus the constitution of the Union of Burma 1947, was actually supposed to be adopted based on Panglong Agreement though it never became a reality till today. It was provided in the Section 2 of the constitution of the Union of Burma that the territory of the Union comprises the whole of Burma including-

2. It shall be kept on forming on territorial basis to comprise:


(Here the first 4 territories were those which really signed the Panglong Agreement like the 13 territories in US which originally signed to form the United States. The agreement to form the USA is now ratified by over 50 territories as States of the constituent States of the USA and so are the other states and regions in the UB to ratify Panglong Agreement)

Explanation to # 2 (4): There was historically   Burma provisional government territory including   Arakan territory and Mon territory, which were previously  two independent kingdoms  annexed  by the early Burmese kings to be the Burmese territory before the British  annexed the Burmese kingdom in 1885. This Burmese/Burman territory also included Karen inhabited areas mixed of fluid population with the Burmese/Burmans population in Delta region and these territories and Areas were formed as Burmese province under the Burmese provincial government by the British. This Burmese provincial government was represented by General AungSan as the Chief Minister of the Burmese provincial government in signing the Panglong Agreement with the representatives of Chin territory, Kachin territory and Shans territory.

All the 7states including Chin State, Arakan State and Mon State were formed in name sake having no State legislature, executive and judiciary under the constitution of the Socialist Republic of Union of Burma 1974.

In the constitution of Union of Burma 2008 there are now seven States. But all states are just in name sake too making them in political power equivalent to only the seven administrative Regional/Divisional power of Burma proper or Burman territory. All the posts and the title names given in the State establishment are all in name sake very limited with small power not worth mentioning.

Though there are 3 kinds of Legislatures such as  State Parliament, Chamber of Nationalities(Upper House)  and Chamber of Deputies (Lower House), the provision of  both Upper and Lower Chamber to pass any law in joint seating under S. 96 of the Union constitution 2008 . More over the legislative list for the States is just very minor few laws which could be given only to administrative Division. These two facts make the whole constitution to be a unitary form of constitution as if there is only one Chamber of Parliament in the whole country.

3. The UB be thus formed of at least not less than 8 constituent states of the Union such as.:


(The term “territory state” is here purposely used to make clear how States be formed in territorial basis)

These serial #s 2 (7) and (8) territories were allowed to form Arakan Affairs Council and Mon Affairs Council respectively in the interim period to give the two territories the times to prepare to become full-fledged State status by the constitutional government led by the former Prime Minister U Nu in 1961 like the Chin territory had formed Chin Affairs Council in the constitution of the Union 1947 before becoming full-fledged Statehood.

Additional explanation to Serial # 3: All individual person big or small have equal rights in humanity, so are they to have equal rights like in humanity too since they are personified.*[In this way all the states in the Union to have equal right of legislative, executive and Judiciary no matter they may be different in size in geographical area and population so long as each state have clear-cut boundary of territories. That is why Russia, India and China and Brunei and Singapore are treated equal in the UNGA. In the same way, China and India though large in territory and in population are not made to dominate over the UN member nations. So is to the Burman not to dominate the rest of the Union constituent member states though they may be the largest in population and geographical area.

So the Chin territory, Kachin territory, Shan territory, Kayah territory and other territories   mentioned here do deserve to have self-governing territory equally with the Burman by forming the Union of Burma constitution in federal form.

Historically, the territory known as Ministerial Burma or Burma Provincial territory in the S.2 of the constitution of the Union of Burma 1947 was the original Burma or Burmese kingdom. The other three territories to the agreement were Chin territory, Kachin territory and Shan territory .The three of them were together known as Burma Frontier Areas (BFA). Each of the three territories was ruled by native rulers with the law passed by the Governor General in Council which ruled then both British Burma and British India though the two were separated into different province in 1935-1937 as British India and British Burma.

The reason BFA were ruled outside Burma provincial government was because the BFA were annexed differently as independent territories outside the Burmese kingdom not ruled by the Burmese King. Had the BFA were the territories annexed under the last Burmese king Thibaw, the BFA would also be part of Burma provincial territory like the territory of Mons and Arakan as the two territories were annexed by the earlier Burmese kings  to be the Burman territory as we mentioned above. Those two territories were part of Burma province under the Burma provincial government as the British annexed the two under the Burmese kings. The Burmese will not be able to show any evidence that the last Burmese and previous kings had ever ruled the present Chin state territory and so were also claimed by Kachin, Shan, and Kayah (Karenni)
The BFA areas were ruled by native rulers by each native ruler. Kachin rulers in Kachin territory were known as Duwa and Shan rulers in the Shan territory were called Saunbwa and Chin rulers were called Ram-ukbawi or ukpite etc. Leaders of the BFA who signed the Panglong Agreement were those BFA representatives and General Aung San, representing Burma provincial government.

Had the BFA were not ruled outside Burma province, there would be no need of holding Panglong Conference and Panglong Agreement? The United Nations declared that no country should rule people who were not the same people with the colonist countries. Such countries which rule different people should give independence to those people which could have self-governing territory and those people which the ruling countries considered not to be able to have self-governing territory because of their backwardness should be given to the UN Trusteeship system so that they could also have self-governing territory after the UN trusteeship system would train them to become self-governing territory. So the British had considered the BFA to be given to the UN Trusteeship system after Burma took independence from the British.

The BFA signed Panglong Agreement as General Aung San promised them that they (the BFA) would have self-governing territory  in their respective territories and could secede again if they were not happy in the federal Union.[Chapter X of the Constitution of the Union of Burma 1947. That was the reason why there was secession clause in the Chapter X of the constitution of the Union of Burma1947). Thus the BFA had an option to join the UN Trusteeship System to be able to have self-governing territories even to become as sovereign independent countries at that time.

4. All Constituent states of the Union shall have equal power of Legislation, Executive and Judiciary. [This is what usually termed as Chin, Kachin and Shan will get one Kyat if Burmans get one kyat].

5. Though there may be Lower House or Chamber of Deputies based on population, all states shall have equal representatives in the Upper House of the Union Parliament to have Legislature, Union Executive and Union Judiciary on which the Union shall have power of legislation namely:

6. The states and the Union shall have some concurrent powers of Legislation in certain subjects. The reason is there will be some subjects which the Union and the state all have similar power in each of the two entities.

7. The rest of the residuary power of legislation is in the legislative list as Union Legislative list and constituent states Legislative list. Each state should have its own constitution which is not against the Union constitution.

8. There shall also be division of Revenue list as Union Revenue list and constituent States Revenue list.

9. The constitution of the Union is in parliamentary form in multi-party system. (There will be freedom of democracy only if parliamentary democracy is adopted in all the constituent states. I f not, the more populated state will dominate the lesser populated. The state could have freedom to form each government only if the multi- party system is practiced in the Union).

10. The armed forces of the Union are under the control of the Civilian government of the Union of Burma according to the parliamentary law and according to these Accord Principles to be signed by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) of the Union of Burma, other stakeholders and the ruling government of the Union

The constitution must be framed based on the accord signed by the two sides. There shall be international body or countries to sign the accord as witness(s) to the Accord

11. Any aid given to the UB be handled in fair and square by the Upper House of the Parliament and not by the Presidential government or the lower House of Chamber of deputies in the Parliament of the Union as there is no representatives of the seven states to enable to balance the Burman ethnic representative votes in the presidential government and in the lower House of the Parliament.

The Chin territory, Kachin territory, Shan territory, Kaya territory and other territories   mentioned here do deserve to have self-governing territory equally with the Burman territory by forming the Union of Burma constitution in federal form.

It has been over half a century that the dominated Burmese has monopolized the Union politics only for Burmese/Burman territory and that has been the reason why the less populated ethnic territories especially like the under populated Chin State have not developed to become the poorest State in the UB as the Burmese ethnic nationality neglected totally the lesser populated territory as they monopolized the sovereignty of the whole Union to exploit others constituent states.

The situation which is supposed to be the transitionary period from military dictatorship to the democracy is now the only chance the constitution could be amended or re written to create equality among the several territorial states.

If there will be no  equality of all territorial states according to the accord proposed here, there will be no peace in the region as the states are to fight on. For those countries that are working for peace in the Union of Burma it is now the  best time  to intervene to create equal  rights of Legislature, Executive and Judiciary in all the territorial states of the UB to achieve real peace in Burma which is a very strategic region of the world.

We therefore need democratic countries like the US, India and many other democratic loving people around the world to help people of the Union of Burma how they could get their goal to achieve federalism and self determination according to the agreeable accord here by both sides. What we need now is to create steps how to approach to reach to our goal which are the accord we drafted here. The definition of self-determination and decentralization really is what is important in considering steps to reach to our set of principles towards our goal which is the accord proposed here.

Only then can we form genuine federalism and genuine democracy according to the accord that is suggested here.

Thank you so much,

Lian Uk

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Accord to be signed:-

1. The Union of Burma was formed on the territorial basis according to Panglong Agreement and so will it continue to be formed on a federal basis.

2. It shall be kept on forming on territorial basis to comprise:


(Here the first 4 territories were those which really signed the Panglong Agreement like the 13 territories in US which originally signed to form the United States. The agreement to form the USA is now ratified by over 50 territories as States of the constituent States of the USA and so are the other states and regions in the UB to ratify Panglong Agreement)

3. The UB be thus formed of at least not less than 8 constituent states of the Union such as.:


(The term territory is here purposely mentioned to make clear how States be formed on a territorial basis)

4. All Constituent states of the Union shall have equal power of Legislation, Executive and Judiciary in each state.

5. All states shall have equal representatives in the Upper House of the Union Parliament to form jointly Union Legislature, Union Executive and Union Judiciary on which the Union shall have power of legislation namely:


6. The states and the Union shall have some concurrent powers of Legislation in certain subjects. The reason is there will be some subjects which the Union and the state all have in each power

7. The rest of the residuary power of legislation is in the legislative list as Union Legislative list and constituent states Legislative list. Each state should have constitution of each not to be against the Union constitution.

8. There shall also be division of Revenue list as Union Revenue list and constituent States Revenue list.

9. The constitution of the Union is in parliamentary form in multi-party system. (There will be freedom of democracy only if parliamentary democracy is adopted in all the constituent states. I f not, the more populated state will dominate the lesser populated. The state could have freedom to form each government only if the multi- party system is practiced in the Union).

10. The armed forces of the Union be under the control of the Civilian government of the Union of Burma according to the parliamentary law or amended on these Accord Principles to be signed by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) of the Union of Burma, other stake holders and the ruling government of the Union. The constitution should be framed based on the accord signed by the two sides. There shall be international body or countries to sign the accord as witness(s) to the Accord.

12. Any aid given to the UB be handled in fair and square by the Upper House of the Parliament and not by the Presidential government or the lower House of Chamber of deputies in the Parliament of the Union as there is no representatives of the seven states to enable to balance the Burman ethnic representative votes in the presidential government and in the lower House of the Parliament.