Southeast Asia, Student Economy Edition: Past and Present by D R SarDesai

Author:D R SarDesai [SarDesai, D R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429972683
Google: USZhDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-03T13:57:30+00:00

Efforts Toward Political Liberalism

Earlier, in 1967, the government released several hundred political prisoners, including U Nu. In 1968 Ne Win appointed thirty-three of the top civilian leaders to the newly created Internal Unity Advisory Board. The board’s report of May 1969, very likely drafted by U Nu and supported by eighteen members, recommended reversion to constitutional government by reconvening the remnant of the 1962 parliament, restoring the judiciary, and reappointing U Nu premier. The parliament would then appoint Ne Win as president, who would then call a national convention to draft a new constitution.

The rejection of the report by Ne Win’s Revolutionary Council was to be expected. In protest, in June 1969, U Nu left the country on the pretext of making a pilgrimage to India and from there going to Thailand to participate in a Buddhist ceremony. He used the opportunity to visit London and the United Nations, where he denounced the Revolutionary Council and announced the formation of a rival government on the Thai border. Despite such efforts, the anti–Ne Win movement failed to pick up any momentum because the authoritarian regime ruthlessly repressed any dissent or criticism of the government.

In the 1970s, the BSPP showed a new vitality in seeking the political, economic, and social transformation of Myanmar. In the political sphere, having failed to enlist the cooperation of U Nu and other politicians, Ne Win presented a new constitution in 1974 to the people, who approved it with 90 percent of the vote. The constitution stipulated a unitary state in place of the old federal polity. Along with a new citizenship act, it aimed at dismantling the traditional quasiautonomous relationship that had existed between the central government and the multiethnic society in Myanmar for nearly a millennium.

Both the promulgation of the constitution in 1974 and the adoption of the citizenship act in 1982 were preceded by a public discussion for several years. According to government count, the citizenship bill, initiated in 1976, drew suggestions from 1.9 million persons involved in diverse meetings. The three classes of citizenships were citizens, associate citizens, and naturalized citizens. Citizens included all ethnic groups residing in Myanmar before 1823, just before the first Anglo-Burmese war, thus excluding the Indians. The complex regulations were intended to keep communities from the Indian subcontinent and the Chinese out of the BSPP and the People’s Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw). Only citizens were eligible to sit on policy-making bodies and take charge of government departments. Anybody’s citizenship status could be reclassified or revoked by the “Central Body,” consisting of ministers of home affairs, defense, and foreign affairs, in effect three of the important military members of the cabinet.

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