Shan draft charter presented for team approval

Politics

Shan draft charter presented for team approval

A long wait after it was formed in the year 2000, the Shan Constitution Drafting Commission in exile, has come up with its "bottom-up" first draft to be debated and adopted prior to the release for public review, said the Commission's chairman on Saturday, 18 December.

"The reason for the delay was that we were doing our best to make it a document of the people that is written collectively by the people for the people," declared Sao Seng Suk a.k.a Hkun Kya Nu, 69, son of Hkun Kya Bu, a signatory of the historic Panglong Agreement of 1947. "The Commission, especially myself, is only putting their wishes together."

The 106-page "outline" has 8 chapters (Characteristics, Bill of Rights, Legislature, Legislative powers, National Executive, Judiciary Power, General Provisions and Amendment of the Constitution) 19 sections and 295 sub-sections.

Apart from being a bottom-up draft "made up of copious feedbacks from the people inside", it also boasts of 4 other prominent features:

• The Shan State will be a federal union composed of states, sub-states and autonomous regions. ("It will also hopefully serve as a model for the Federal Union of Burma")
• The people of Shan State will decide whether it will be part of the future Federal Union of Burma or a separate nation.
• The Shan State government will be chosen by the Upper House i.e. the House of Nationalities and not by the House of Representatives.
• The role of local governments, Shan State being a multi-ethnic state, has been especially focused. Three separate sections with 31 sub-sections have been devoted to the subject.

According to the resolutions of the 36th monthly meeting of the SS-CDC on Saturday, the draft would be translated into Burmese before it was considered by the 11-member Commission.

"I hope it will stir up constructive debates among all those concerned to produce a draft agreed by all," Sao Seng Suk, who is concurrently President of the Shan Democratic Union, said.

The SS-CDC was elected at a meeting attended by 50 representatives from various organizations from Shan State, 8-11 September 2000, that had commissioned its task as the incorporation of a federal structure and a democratic decentralized administrative system for the Shan State.

Among the seven non-Burman states of Burma, Karen, Karenni, Chin and Mon have already completed their first drafts and are in the process of gathering more feedbacks. The authors hope the whole process will eventually lead to the emergence of a genuine federation and national reconciliation, according to the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe (1939-2004), who was credited as the originator of the concept.

Fore more information, please contact Sao Seng Suk, Chairman of the Shan State Constitution Drafting Commission, Email <syammax@cscoms.com> Tel: 66-1-595 0351.