Two things happened in Panglong on 7 February.
The first was the combined Chin-Kachin-Shan meeting which having concluded that their freedom “would be achieved sooner through the cooperation with Burmese,” had set forth the following conditions, among others:

• Same status, rights and privileges as enjoyed by the Burmese on democratic lines
• Participation in the Burmese government on the precondition that they (Chin-Kachin-Shan) “would be responsible for their respective internal affairs and would jointly be responsible for common subjects eg. Defense, Foreign affairs, Railway, Customs etc”
• The right to secede “if and when we choose”
• Formation of Supreme Council of United Hill Peoples (SCOUHP) to negotiate with the Burmese government

The second was the united response by the Shan ruling princes and the people’s representatives, backed by a mass meeting in the evening, to boycott the British-led Federated Shan States Council and supplant it with the Palaung-led Shan States Saophas Council (later renamed Shan States Council). Which was, to all intents and purposes, a declaration of Independence—a parting of ways with the British.
The two events had paved the way for the 9 point Panglong Agreement with the Burmese representative General Aung San 5 days later: Kip Kho Lian, who presided over the Chin National Conference late last year, had said, “Whether the 2008 constitution is amended or rewritten, the yardstick will be Panglong.”
Julian Gottinger, a highly respected Swiss social scientist, has also outlined another 6 point yardstick for Federalism:

• Separate constitutions for constituent states
• Independent state judiciary
• At least two levels of elections (federal and state)
• Central government’s powers derive from the states
• Top-down relationship as well as horizontal relationship between central and state governments
• Equitable share of wealth

The new government headed by U Thein Sein, during the past three years, has done a good though agonizingly slow job of delivering the goods. Now it’s time to really speed up, so that nobody can later undo what he has been doing. And we’ll all live happily ever after.