Panglong Agreement, Panglong Promises and the Panglong Spirit
During the 2 year long negotiations for the
Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) between the government-army’s Union
Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC) and the Ethnic Armed Organization (EAO) s’
Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team- Special Delegation (NCCT-SD), one of
the major hurdles that the negotiators had to overcome was reportedly the
choice of words in connection to Panglong acceptable to both sides for the
text. They were:
§ Panglong Agreement
§ Panglong Promises
§ Panglong Spirit
Let us therefore examine each of the terms, briefly
but not exhaustively.
The Panglong Agreement, as we all know, is the 9 point
treaty signed between Burma, the Federated Shan States (which later became the
Shan State), the Chin Hills (which became the Chin State) and the Kachin Hills
(which became the Kachin State), a pact between 4 equal partners.
The gist of the agreement:
Point 1-4. Shan, Chin and Kachin representatives
will be appointed as minister and deputy ministers respectively responsible for
matters relating to Frontier Areas affairs (now
known as Border Affairs)
Point 5. Full autonomy in internal affairs
Point 6. A
status of state for the Kachins in the future independent Union. (The Chins
then did not request the same status)
Point 7. Rights
and privileges fundamental in democratic countries (which is interpreted by the
author as Human Rights and Democracy)
Point 8-9. Financial autonomy as in the Federated
Shan States for Chin and Kachin
It is quite significant that the UPWC had refused to
adopt the term.
Panglong Promises
During the 4-day negotiations in Panglong, 8-11
February 1947, the following demands were made by the Joint Chin-Kachin-Shan
Committee, officially dubbed Supreme Council of the United Hill Peoples
(SCOUHP):
§ The right to secede if and when we choose
§ Equal status
§ Joint responsibility for common subjects
such as foreign affairs, defense and coinage and currency
Gen Aung San reportedly had accepted all in principle
but requested that they be included in the Union constitution to be a drafted
by the upcoming Constituent Assembly instead. His solemn word of honor thus
became known as the promises of Panglong.
It is significant that the UPWC has also refused to
employ this term.
Now the last one.
The Panglong Spirit
The NCA, both in the text and its attachment, which
contains 36 resolutions passed in the 9 formal meetings, doesn’t have anything
to say about what the word means.
However, Judging by what the Burmese leaders have
repeatedly said, the much-vaunted Three National Causes (Non-disintegration of
the Union, Non-disintegration of National Solidarity, and the Perpetuation of
National Sovereignty) appears to be their interpretation. To the non-Burmans,
this summing-up means they have to live under Burmese domination as second
class citizens whether they like it or not.
Their own interpretation: Equal status, sense of joint
ownership and sense of joint responsibility, has not been sought out, let alone
agreed.
As long as this ambiguity continues, it is a doubtful
a genuine union will be realized. It will therefore be the job of the Union
Peace Conference which began on 12-16 January and is being planned three times a
year for at least 3-5 years to clear up the enigma, if the Union is meant to be
everlasting.
By SAI KHUENSAI / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)
All views expressed are the author’s own
Tags: Opinion
