Burma’s Constitution

This is an attempt to study and interpret the Constitution of the Union of Burma which has now passed its tenth year. A constitution read outside the context of constitutional history is incomplete, and I have, therefore, tried to trace the developments which culminated in the constitution; then study its important features with reference, where necessary, to the background in which they took shape and form; and, while studying how the constitution has been working, touch lightly on contemporary events and trends. It is a vast canvas I am trying to cover and what I am able to draw on it would inevitably be sketchy. But I do not write as a historian whose focus is on detail in a narrow area. Rather, having dug and gathered the facts, I trace their sweep in history. The details I willingly and happily leave to the historians, hoping only that my study will be of some use to them, if only as a target for their learned criticism. Some of the events and people I describe are still too near, and a clear perspective is therefore difficult. What is nearest appears biggest, and I often find it tempting to see and accept that Burma's history as a new independent nation began with the students' strike of 1936 or the resistance movement during the Second World War. In his former work, Burma in the Family oj Nations, Dr. Maung Maung has already gained an international reputation as a student of public affairs in Burma; in this new book he earns fresh laurels. It is mainly in two parts. In Part I he traces the genesis of the Constitution and in Part II he explains it. The first part outlines the constitutional progress of Burma under British rule, the changes under Dr. Ba Maw during the Japanese occupation, and further developments until the attainment of independence by the Anti Fascist People's Freedom League. Nowhere else can one find such a clear and comprehensive account of the political evolution of Burma since 1931, doubly significant by the Saya San rebellion and the birth of the Thakin movement; its value is enhanced by the reproduction of three documents not otherwise readily the interim Constitution under the Japanese; the Panglong Agreement, in which the Hill Peoples undertook to co-operate in framing the Constitution for the Union of Burma; and the original draft Constitution which the AFPFL published in May 1947 for consideration by the Constituent Assembly. Front Matter....Pages I-X Front Matter....Pages XI-XI Annexation and British Rule....Pages 1-47 War and Japanese Occupation....Pages 48-67 Liberation and Fulfilment....Pages 68-87 Front Matter....Pages 89-89 Form of State....Pages 91-93 Fundamental Rights....Pages 94-106 Peasants and Workers....Pages 107-110 Directive Principles of State Policy....Pages 111-115 The President....Pages 116-121 Parliament....Pages 122-128 The Union Government....Pages 129-147 The Union Judiciary....Pages 148-168 The States....Pages 169-194 Amendment of the Constitution....Pages 195-196 International Relations....Pages 197-205 General Provisions....Pages 206-210 Transitory Provisions....Pages 211-213 Epilogue....Pages 214-216 Postscript....Pages 217-218 Back Matter....Pages 219-325