Cracks in constitution divide
Myanmar By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Myanmar's military regime is
under fire for the language in a new constitution
to be approved at a national referendum on May 10.
The full text of the charter was made public only
a month ahead of the plebiscite.
Articles
that have aroused anger deal with attempts by the
junta to legitimize its role as the supreme
political authority in the troubled country. Such
clauses make the constitution's promise of a new
democratic landscape meaningless, say critics.
Article No 445 tops the list of concerns
for the Burma Lawyers' Council (BLC) and groups
like the US-based Global Justice Center (GJC). "No
legal action shall be taken against those (either
individuals or groups who are members of SLORC and
SPDC) who officially carried out their duties
according to their
responsibilities," states
this article.
Tha SLORC (State Law and
Order Restoration Council) and the SPDC (State
Peace and Development Council) are the official
names the governing arm of the regime has been
known by since military leaders staged a
power-grabbing coup in 1988. The regime that it
overthrew was itself military-based and had come
to power following a 1962 coup.
"That
clause is to provide immunity to the junta for all
the human rights violations it has committed since
1988," says Aung Htoo, general secretary of the
BLC. "The new constitution will be meaningless if
the perpetrators of violence can enjoy immunity
after it is approved. What is the difference for
the people, who are the victims? Nothing."
It also undermines the hope of Myanmar
transforming from a dictatorship to a democracy,
he explained in an interview. "A constitution for
a post-conflict society has to give justice and
genuine national reconciliation a priority. That
is what happened in South Africa. But the new
constitution offers little to move Burma [Myanmar]
away from its current conflicts."
On
Monday, the BLC and GJC issued a statement
denouncing the military regime for trying to evade
"criminal prosecution" through the constitution.
"There is ample evidence that the military regime
has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity
and potentially even genocide through forced
relocations, torture, rape, enforced disappearance
and extermination," they said.
Leaders of
the Myanmar's ethnic communities are perturbed
that the junta's much-vaunted promise to create
regional assemblies through the constitution
amounts to essentially toothless legislative
bodies. The new charter is set to create 14
assemblies in areas that are home to the major
ethnic groups, marking the first offer of
political space to the non-Burmese minorities
since the country gained independence from the
British in 1948.
"The regional assemblies
will be under the junta, which has the power to
appoint a fourth of the members and the chief
minister for the region," says David Taw, joint
general secretary of the Ethnic Nationalities
Council (ENC), an umbrella body for the seven
major ethnic groups. "Most of the people would
like to choose their own chief minister through a
ballot."
The space for economic activity
to meet the needs of the ethnic communities is
also restrained, Taw added in an interview. "The
local people will not be able to pursue their
economic activity freely. It is a setback to our
hope of achieving a federal system of government."
The unresolved question of genuine
political representation for Myanmar's ethnic
communities has dogged the country since
independence, resulting in bloody separatist
conflicts that have lasted over six decades. "The
attempt to adopt a constitution to lengthen the
military dictatorship will [create] more
problems," the ENC declared in a recent statement.
"It will also lengthen the 60-year-long civil war
caused by breaching the self-determination rights
of the ethnic nationalities."
The current
constitution has been 15 years in the making. Some
say the delay was created by the junta to stall
the country's democratic parties, led by detained
Aung San Suu Kyi, in claiming a stake in running
the country. The junta refused to recognize the
outcome of a parliamentary election in 1990, which
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won
in a landslide. Instead, the military created a
national convention soon after to draft a new
constitution.
The current charter is
Myanmar's third, following the 1947 document,
which was drafted by the country's resistance
fighters ahead of independence from British
colonialism, and the 1974 document, which was
shaped by the military dictator at the time,
General Ne Win.
The second constitution,
which established a one-party state to promote a
socialist agenda, was torn up in 1988 by the
current military regime. Consequently, the SLORC
and SPDC governed without constitutional authority
and were seen as lacking political legitimacy by a
domestic and a growing international constituency.
The only advance the new constitution has
made over the 1974 document is its promise to
create a multi-party democracy. But the prospect
of such inclusive features has been undermined by
the junta's move to limit the drafting of the
charter to military-appointed delegates and its
harsh restrictions on public discussion of the
document.
"The military has made sure that
any amendments to the constitution introduced by
political parties in the future will be harder to
be approved," says Aung Naing Oo, an independent
Myanmar political analyst living in exile in
Thailand. "The conflict in the country will go on
without the prospect of change and improvement."
The likelihood of the constitution adding
to the political fires already burning in Myanmar
arises from the deep divisions that plague the
country. "Burma is a different country today than
it was in 1974. When the constitution was passed
then, we were not so divided," Aung Naing Oo
added. "Now it is different, and now the entire
world is also watching."
The junta, for
its part, appears confident that it has drafted
the best constitution for Myanmar. "Approving the
constitution is the responsibility of all citizens
in the country. All who support our national
interests must vote in favor," declared the
page-one headline of a state-run newspaper on the
week the referendum campaign was officially
launched.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
