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‘Not as per usual with the Shan State charter’
The first draft recently published by the Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission (SSCDC) has several thought-provoking features...
No.17 - 06/2006
28 June 2006
Politics
‘Not as per usual with the Shan State charter’
The first draft recently published by the Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission (SSCDC) has several thought-provoking features, according to a preliminary review of the document by non-members last weekend, 24 June 2006.
One thing most unusual is the section that says Shan State legislature is bi-cameral (Article 10.1), whereas other state constitutions normally allow for just one law-making body. “That couldn’t be helped,” said one of the drafting members. “The SSCDC wouldn’t have come into being (on 8-11 September 2000), if it was for a uni-cameral arrangement.”
Sao Seng Suk
The SSCDC was elected and formed under the chairmanship of Sao Seng Suk, 71, after 53 participants and observers representing 20 organizations, following a heated debate, agreed on a “federal structure and a democratic decentralized administrative system.”
Secondly, most of this 95 page--with only 46 main articles--draft is devoted to the legislative powers at all levels from the National Congress down to state, sub-state, township and village level, altogether 56 pages. “We want to illuminate the principle that the people are indeed sovereign,” explains Sao Seng Suk. “Powers in each level are therefore clearly spelt out.”
According, one of the powers of the local communities is “the right to reject the national legislation, if it deems unjust, for the protection of their livelihood, existence and their immediate environment, through local level referendum.”
Another most unconventional piece is Article 11.7 which stipulates that the Shan State’s president and vice presidents must be elected by the upper house, that is, House of Nationalities, instead of the House of Representatives, as is done in most countries with a parliamentary system. “It is to assure all of our people from different ethnic groups that their future is in their own hands,” says Sao Seng Suk, himself a Shan, the majority race in the State.
The draft also recommends the system of proportional representation in which each party in an election will be given a number of seats in relation to the number of votes it receives. “In this way, minorities will also have a say in issues that affect their lives,” he says.
In addition, the draft has called for the recognition of all indigenous languages each “applicable only in their local functional area” and that English be the official language of Shan State.
Shan State, once called Shan States, was a federation of 34 princely states, until 1947, when it became a co-partner in the formation of today’s Union of Burma through the Panglong Agreement. In 1960, it had called for a separate Burma state, which was responded by the military takeover in 1962. At present, the ethnic opposition is undergoing the process of drafting constitutions for their respective states. A federal constitutional draft has already been re-endorsed at a recent enlarged meeting.
For the full text of the Shan State draft constitution.
28 June 2006
Politics
‘Not as per usual with the Shan State charter’
The first draft recently published by the Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission (SSCDC) has several thought-provoking features, according to a preliminary review of the document by non-members last weekend, 24 June 2006.
One thing most unusual is the section that says Shan State legislature is bi-cameral (Article 10.1), whereas other state constitutions normally allow for just one law-making body. “That couldn’t be helped,” said one of the drafting members. “The SSCDC wouldn’t have come into being (on 8-11 September 2000), if it was for a uni-cameral arrangement.”
Sao Seng SukThe SSCDC was elected and formed under the chairmanship of Sao Seng Suk, 71, after 53 participants and observers representing 20 organizations, following a heated debate, agreed on a “federal structure and a democratic decentralized administrative system.”
Secondly, most of this 95 page--with only 46 main articles--draft is devoted to the legislative powers at all levels from the National Congress down to state, sub-state, township and village level, altogether 56 pages. “We want to illuminate the principle that the people are indeed sovereign,” explains Sao Seng Suk. “Powers in each level are therefore clearly spelt out.”
According, one of the powers of the local communities is “the right to reject the national legislation, if it deems unjust, for the protection of their livelihood, existence and their immediate environment, through local level referendum.”
Another most unconventional piece is Article 11.7 which stipulates that the Shan State’s president and vice presidents must be elected by the upper house, that is, House of Nationalities, instead of the House of Representatives, as is done in most countries with a parliamentary system. “It is to assure all of our people from different ethnic groups that their future is in their own hands,” says Sao Seng Suk, himself a Shan, the majority race in the State.
The draft also recommends the system of proportional representation in which each party in an election will be given a number of seats in relation to the number of votes it receives. “In this way, minorities will also have a say in issues that affect their lives,” he says.
In addition, the draft has called for the recognition of all indigenous languages each “applicable only in their local functional area” and that English be the official language of Shan State.
Shan State, once called Shan States, was a federation of 34 princely states, until 1947, when it became a co-partner in the formation of today’s Union of Burma through the Panglong Agreement. In 1960, it had called for a separate Burma state, which was responded by the military takeover in 1962. At present, the ethnic opposition is undergoing the process of drafting constitutions for their respective states. A federal constitutional draft has already been re-endorsed at a recent enlarged meeting.
For the full text of the Shan State draft constitution.
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