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FEDERALISM

In response to my recent article, ‘The Promises of Panglong’, a young(?) Burmese person commented: “It is interesting and informative to read of Panglong Agreement. Being a student who had walked along the Science stream, I am not at all familiar with history. But the word secession and autonomy made me pick my ears up. To my simple mind, Finance and Internal Security should be in the hands of the Central government. But should the Autonomous Ethnic Regions which constitute the frontiers and boundaries of Burma forge various pacts with other countries, the Ethnic Groups could easily rise up against each other and disintegrate. Thus how are we to form a Central Government without the 'Union' of the Ethnic Races.”

This was much to my regret, because the comment confirmed to me that the Burmese Military Regime (s) have been successful in indoctrinating the young peoples of Burma to believe that Burma’s disunity and problems are mainly due to the “uncivilized, unruly, war mongering” ethnic minorities who if given the chance will always be attacking each other, if they were not controlled or killed off by a central government.

The more open minded and well-informed of the young will know in their hearts that these were/are all lies, and as long as there is such an attitude and propaganda successfully influencing the minds of the youths of Burma, the country will keep on regressing instead of progressing, and democracy or federalism will not have a chance of success.

The Burmese regimes have also been misleading the peoples of Burma to believe that the Shan Sawbwas were privileged and held undeserved power over the peoples of Shan State and were the root of all the ills of Burma. After the coup in 1962, the government controlled Burma Weekly Bulletin reported “Like vampires thriving on the blood of others, the Sawbwas had no intention to relinquish their stranglehold on the people”!

For the sake of the youth of Burma, I would like to point out one or two facts, so that their pure minds will not be filled with fictional nonsense.

Firstly, the Sawbwas were stripped of all power by the British, all but in name, long before the 1948 independence. Despite their loyalty to the Burmese government during civil war, the Burmese establishment dragged their names through dirt and mud. “They were vulnerable to anyone with stones to throw” – Chao Tzang Yawnghwe in “The Shan of Burma”. The Sawbwas had long since concluded that the division of the Shan State into principalities was no longer viable, therefore in 1952 they gave up what was left of their power to a new Shan power centre, Taunggyi, and by 1957, they had accomplished this.

The constitution drawn up by the Burmese politicians was a great disappointment to the Sawbwas, because they regard “Union” as a union of equals, which Aung San believed in. However, the constitution when finally completed was contrary to what all the ethnic peoples wanted. “It was not a union of equal states but colonial in structure, with Burma Proper constituting a mother state while the others were subordinates.” - CTY in “The Shan of Burma”. It was totally unbalanced with the ethnic peoples having very little say in running of their own states. At that time the Shans and the others did not raise any objections because firstly, they fully trusted Bogyoke Aung San and his sincere aspirations, and secondly, they were told this was an interim constitution, and any changes will be made after independence.

After Aung San’s assassination, the Shans rallied and supported U Nu’s government and stemmed the tide of rebellion.

Soon after that, because of the Kuomintang’s (KMT units) invasion on the northern borders of Shan State, the Burmese Army was sent to Shan State to deal with them.

While the Burma Army was in Shan States, their soldiers raped the Shan women, looting their homes and possessions, torturing and killing many Shan civilians, and forcing whole villages to work as coolies, or slaves. There were marauding soldiers everywhere, and the Shans deeply resented this.

During that time there was much unrest with fighting, uprisings and rebellion throughout Burma, some due to the discontentment and anger of the ethnic peoples. Soon after the declaration of independence, Burma’s retreat from democracy had begun. Countless numbers of Burmese soldiers entered Shan State. The Burma Army accused many Shan people of sympathising with the communist and ethnic organisations, and arrested and confiscated all their weapons. Anyone who was not allied with the power centre in Rangoon was an enemy.

This was one of the reasons why the Shan leaders reasoned that they should counteract the rebellion in Shan State by creating a much more balanced power between the non-Burmese and the Burmese.

Meanwhile, the Burmese establishment carried out an anti-Sawbwa campaign, stating that the Sawbwas were preparing to stage a rebellion.

The Sawbwas had little power but they had moral authority, and with their British training as administrators and their conservative nature, it was not in their temperament to plot an armed rebellion.

The Federal Movement was not a plot to take Shan State out of the Union, as alleged by the Burmese establishment, but to amend the constitution, restructuring it along the lines as practiced in the US.

These were equal representation in the Upper House (as in the US Senate) and elevation of its power; a state legislative list like that of the United States; a different status for the Burmese State to that of the mother state; and a genuinely federal government.

With equal rights for all the states, it was constituted within the legal and constitutional framework of the responsible, civilized and moderate elements of Shan society aimed at avoiding civil war and armed rebellion.

Sao Shwe Thaike’s deep desire was to solve the ethnic issue once and for all. He was optimistic; this was their last chance to create a new Union. All of Burma’s minority and state leaders came to Rangoon for the meetings, ready to give up talks of secession in favour of a re-composed political structure.

General Ne Win, however, was against federalism; especially the statehood for the Mons and the Arakanese (Rakhines). At that time, he was relegated into the background when U Nu called for a Federal Seminar in Rangoon on 24th February, 1962 Sao Shwe Thaike attended the seminar daily, and the democratic process was coming along quite well, or so it seemed. “In fact, Burma was developing an international reputation for moderation and fairness, highlighted by the 1961 appointment of one of their own, U Thant, as the UN Secretary-General. The election and the UN connection gave people a sense that they were making progress, and that somehow they would work through their problems in a reasonable manner.” – Patricia Elliot – “The White Umbrella”.

However, life is unpredictable and unexpected things happen.

On March 2nd, 1962, General Ne Win and his army staged a military coup and arrested Sao Shwe Thaike at his home at gunpoint, killing his 17 year old son Myee in the process. Later Sao Shwe Thaike was poisoned to death at Insein jail. At the time, all the other prominent leaders of Burma were also arrested, many spending years in prison.

So this was the end of democracy and for the dream of federalism to materialize, for the time being, at least.

Feraya

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