Union Constitution Ratified

Union Constitution Ratified  

Back To The Past - Today 
24 September 1947

The three month long Constituent Assembly ended today, 24 September 1947, with the ratification of the draft union constitution. 

The Constituent Assembly, formed with the aim to draft the constitution, met first on 10 June. 
Representatives of the non-Burman then called the Hills Peoples, were reportedly somewhat uneasy towards the end. 

"It didn't conform to the terms of agreement made at Panglong", U Htoon Myint of Taunggyi, who was to write several political treatises in the coming years, said later. "We had agreed on the principle of full autonomy in the internal affairs of each constituent state. But there were many clauses in the draft which were in contradiction of the principle". 

It was also in contradiction to Aung San's Seven Directives, which were the guidelines for the drafting of the constitution, several participants pointed out, especially Directive No. 2 which says, "(T)he individual states ... shall enjoy the powers of autonomy ...". 

However, U Nu, Aung San's successor after his assassination on 19 July, told the non-Burman leaders as he was in a hurry to meet Clement Atlee, then the British Prime Minister, in order to finalize the agreement for independence, he would like it to be approved before his London visit. 

"After Independence, we could amend it anytime we wanted it", he was reported to have spoken. 
Independence was declared on 4 January 1948. But it was twelve years later before the task of amending the constitution could be seriously tackled. 

When it did, the Army led by Ne Win seized power and overthrew the elected government on 2 March, 1962.