How much is the military going up to allow the country to become a “democracy” (and a federal union)?
Not much, according to the latest research study published by the Asia Foundation this month, Administering the State in Myanmar: An overview of the General Administration Department, a sequel to  its last year’s State and Region Governments in Myanmar.

Going through the 59 page report, it appears the military is now “a game without the name” instead of its former status of “a game with the name.” Instead of overtly running the country, the military has only gone behind the scenes.

The GAD is an integral part of the home ministry, itself one of the 3 “military ministries” where the President has little or no say. It “supports the coordination and communication in the Government’s 36 ministries and also connects the capital, Naypyitaw, to approximately 16,700 wards and village tracts” (under which are 63, 968 villages) within the union. It “plays wide range of roles-ranging from tax collection, to land management, and assorted registration and certification processes.”

At the state and region level, “the GAD provides basic administrative and coordination functions for the region/state government, the region/state hluttaw (legiclature), as well as Union ministries and state/region departments. The senior GAD administrator for each state and region is the executive secretary of the state/region government (Deputy Director General level), and currently supervises 283 GAD employees staffing a General Administrator Office, a state/region Government Office, and a state/region Hluttaw Office.”

One consequence is that “there are no independent state/region ministries to carry out the functions assigned to the states and regions under Schedule II of the 2008 Constitution. Instead, there is a combination of departments with mixed accountability relationships with both Union and state/region governments on the one hand, and state/region units of centralized Union ministries on the other. The executive and legislative structures of a state/region government continue to rely on the key building block of the country’s pre-existing governance structure: the GAD.”

Clearly, the states and regions are not happy about this and have been pushing for amendment of the 2008 constitution. According to the reports coming from Naypyitaw, the debates on the amendments will begin next month.

So let’s hope that the post 2010-military is a new breed and thinks the way we do: that the best government is the least government and let the states and regions decide for themselves how they should administer themselves. The outcome of the amendment will then be a welcome boost to a lasting peace in our land.