Burma's sixty-four year-long Historic Panglong Agreement has been ignored by the Burmese military regime so far. The said agreement has been disregarded by the generals as they rule the country highhandedly. The Panglong Agreement was signed on Feb. 12, 1947, between General Aung San and leaders of the Chin, Kachin and Shan ethnic groups.
The agreement basically guaranteed self-determination of the ethnic minorities and offered a large measure of autonomy, including independent legislature, judiciary and administrative powers. However, the dream of equality and a federal union is far from being realized some six decades after signing the Panglong Agreement. On the contrary, many ethnic groups are still engaged in an armed conflict with the Burmese junta, since Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, one of the longest civil wars in the world.
Burma's new 2008 Constitution put forward many
problems for political parties, ethnic cease-fire groups and exiled dissident
factions in quest of some common ground to the disagreements between ethnic
groups and the military despotism.
The newly designated government headed by President Thein Sein, who also is
chairman of the military-backed party the USDP, still controls the system of
government, including the courts and the armed forces. Actually, the new
government is acting much like the old one -- the decade-long old military
totalitarianism -- with freshly retired generals still making all the decisions.
If any solution is to be found for ethnic group problems, the military-back
current administration must review the mistakes of past leaders of the union
and respect the political aspirations of the ethnic communities. The root cause
of the nation's ethnic political catastrophe is the regime's resistance to a genuine
federal union. The late dictator Ne Win, who seized power in a military coup in
1962, opposed sharing equal power in a series of heated debates in the
parliament under U Nu's civilian government.
Ne Win supported a unitary state over a genuine federal union. The Military
Council headed by Ne Win declared that the military coup had taken place
because of the "federation problem," which he said could lead to the
disintegration of the nation. Equality of ethnic minorities with the Burmese
majority was to him out of the question. When Ne Win seized power, he shattered
the 1948 Constitution. At the same time, the Pang Long Agreement signed
on 12 February 1947, which promised autonomy of ethnic groups, was broken and
abrogated.
Actually, it is a reasonable demand for self-determination among the respective
ethnic minorities. The USDP-government should not use guns to govern ethnic
minorities. If we look back to 1960-61, many leaders from ethnic states
criticized the weakness of the constitution as well as the government's failure
to realize the political autonomy of the ethnic minorities.
They accused the central government of not allowing the representatives of
ethnic states to manage their own affairs in areas of the economy, judiciary,
education and customs and so on. The central government error was that it ruled
the ethnic areas as vassal states.
Sen-Gen Than Shwe has followed that tradition of his predecessor Ne Win and Saw
Maung, who both defended the single unitary state. "All the armed forces in the
union shall be under the command of the Defense Services," says section 337 of
the 2008 constitution." It means ethnic armed troops are under state control.
As a result, Kachin Independence Army (KIA)'s Battalion No. 27 opened fire when
a truckload of Burmese armed troops from Infantry Battalion No. 15, based in
Mohnyin, entered the KIA restricted area in Man Win in Bhamo (Manmaw) district,
at 10:30 a.m. local time.
A Burmese battalion commander, Lt-Col Yin Htwe, was killed and seven Burmese
soldiers- including a military doctor- were injured in the fighting, according
to KIA sources.
Proposals for a political solution, made by the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), the KIA political wing, have been rejected by Burma's
military government.
The KIO plays a major role in the recently formed Committee for Emergence of a
Federal Union (CEFU), which is calling for the establishment of a genuine
federal union in Burma.
The CEFU was formed by the KIO, Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National
Progressive Party (KNPP), Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), New Mon State Party
(NMSP) and Chin National Front (CNF).
The junta-sponsored parliament allows 330 civilian seats in the 440-member
House of Representatives. Under the 2008 Constitution, the remaining 110 seats
are filled with appointed military officers. In the 224-seat House of
Nationalities, 168 are elected and 56 are appointed by the boss of the armed
forces. Remarkably, 77 percent of the parliamentary seats have been seized by
the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the recent
polls which were distinguished for vote-rigging show.
According to new laws announced by head of the junta in November, members of
parliaments will not be permitted the freedom of expression if their presentations
jeopardize national security or the unity of the country. Any protest inside
the parliament is carrying a punishment of up to two years imprisonment. Anyone
apart from lawmakers that enters parliament while it is in session has to face
a one-year prison term.
In such a parliament, dominated by the military and former military, ethnic
representatives will have little or no chance to press the self-sufficiency and
equal status issues in parliament. Authentic ethnic representatives, who are
willing to push ethnic issues forward, may not occupy enough seats in the new
parliament to form an effective coalition.
National reconciliation and ethnic self-determination are two sides of the same
coin, and they must be addressed in the new parliament and in regional and
state parliaments.
Without addressing and honoring the ethnic people's political aspirations, the
new parliament-based fake civilian government will be unable to stop political
and civil strife throughout ethnic areas.