Shan State key to Burma's future

No.17 - 7/2007
31 July 2007
Politics
 
Shan State key to Burma's future
 
If a constitutional government doesn't work in Shan State, it won't in the rest of Burma, as the country is ethnically diverse with Shan State being its most diverse region, according to an American academic during a review of its first draft constitution last Sunday, 29 July.
 
"Shan State may be the most important (non-Burman) state in the whole union," commented Dr David Williams of the University of Indiana during his one-day meeting with Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission appointed by a constitutional conference in 2000. "The drafting of its charter therefore must be the hardest."
 
Its first draft, completed in 2005, following a series of consultations, field trips and surveys, is still going through the next phase of gathering feedback and input before the second draft is to be drawn up.
 
"The goal," said a drafter, paraphrasing the late American senator Patrick Moynihan, "is to make Shan State – and Burma – safe for and against ethnicity."
 
Shan State, forming a quarter of military-ruled Burma (676,553 square kilometers), has 11 main national groups apart from Shan: Akha, Danu, Intha, Kachin, Kayan, Kokang, Lahu, Lisu, Palaung, PaO and Wa plus smaller minorities. According to official count, it had 33 races (during the socialist era, 1962-1988). But under the present military regime, the number has increased to 76. Academics however have kept the number well below 22.
 
"In summary, the 135 races (of Burma) put up by the SPDC (the ruling State Peace and Development Council) have 77 races that are being repeatedly counted," wrote Gamanii in his research paper 135: Counting Races in Burma.
 
The Shan draft, prepared under two guidelines: a federal structure and a democratic decentralized system, recommends Proportional Representation for women and Positive Discrimination for minorities.
 
Alone in the whole of Burma, the Shan State has a history of experience with federalism. For 22 years, 1922-1948, its 33 (later 34) princely states (21 Shan and 13 non-Shan) operated as a federation under British rule.