Ever since the independence, however, the Union of Burma has been suffering more than five long decades of civil war, in which thousands of lives were sacrificed. In the name of civil war the successive governments of the Union of Burma have violated not only basic human rights and civic rights but also all kinds of collective rights. In the name of national sovereignty the right of self-determination for the ethnic nationalities who joined the Union as equal partners are rejected; in the name of national integration the right to follow different religions, to practice different cultures, and to speak different languages are deprived; and in the name of national assimilation the rights to up-hold different identities and traditions are denied. As a result, the entire population in Burma has miserably underwent for forty years of human rights abuses, the demise of democratic principles, the plummeting of nation’s economics and its attendant poverty and hardship under the authoritarian rule of BSPP and present military dictatorship.

The people of Burma especially the ethnic nationalities felt an urgent need to rebuild the “Union of Burma” based on the spirit of Panglong, which General Aung San and ethnic nationalities leaders had anticipated in 1947. The Panglong Spirit is for “democracy, equality and self-determination”. The “Federal Union of Burma”, is being envisaged to be built upon the spirit of Panglong, which will guarantee the fundamental rights for all citizens including the principles contained in the United Nation’s declaration of universal human rights, political and ethnic equality for all nationalities and the rights of self-determination for all member states of the Union.

The idea is to produce “Basic principles” for Future Federal Constitution of the Union of Burma as General Aung San did in 1947 that could be used as the most effective means of responding to SPCD’s National Convention (the 6 objectives including 104 Articles) and Road Map; a “Basic principles” for the future of the country serve as alternative to the SCDC’s National Convention and its Road Map, a “Basic principles” that could bring peace and democracy to the country.

The process of formulating the “Basic principles” for Future Federal Constitution of the Union of Burma began in May 2004. In September 2004, Joint Action Committee (JAC) was formed for formulating the Basic Principles with 9 members by National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), National Council of Union of Burma (NCUB), National Democratic Front (NDF), United Nationalities League for Democracy Liberated Areas (UNLD-LA) and Women League of Burma (WLB) in collaborating with the Federal Constitution Drafting Committee (FCDC) and Supporting Committee for State Constitutions (SCSC).

Between October 2004 and February 2005, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) conducted five meetings-cum-workshops. JAC worked as neutral body rather than as group of political organizations, and the main task of the JAC was to produce the legal framework of the principles by identifying unbiased historical facts, objective truth and the very principles when the Union of Burma was founded at the first place in 1947 at Panglong Conference. JAC applied three dimensional approaches in formulating the Basic Principles for the Future Union of Burma;

Identifying the Original Principles of Union of Burma in 1947;

Collecting Historical Facts and Supporting Documents;

Defining and Writing a Concept Paper on the Basic Principles for the Future Union of Burma.

With this framework, JAC identified eight (8) Basic Principles for the Future Federal Union of Burma;

JAC assigned Dr. Lian H. Sakhong, General Secretary of UNLD-LA and ENC, to write a concept paper of the Basic Principles, which was produced in November 2004. The concept paper is divided three parts;

1. the first part identified the basic federal principles that reflected principles of Gen. Aung San and ethnic leaders during the course of struggle for independence

2. the second part covers the period from 1948 to 1988, with special references to the struggle for restoration of federal system, and how ethnic leaders in particular strived to amend a federal constitution based on genuine federal principles as founders of the federal union of Burma aimed and hoped for and

3. the third part presents the continuous efforts after the famous tetra-eight nationwide democratic demonstration in 1988 by the democratic forces as well as ethnic nationalities, with special references to the statements, policy papers and agreements released by political parties, ethnic armed groups, students and activists from both inside and outside Burma.

The concept paper was sent out to all the political parties and organization, including women and youth groups (not only to those who are in Thailand but also to India, Japan, USA, Germany and other countries as well as inside Burma), to be discussed within their own organizations and parties. Between December 2004 and January 2005, at least five group discussions on Basic Principles were held in Thai-Burma border alone.

In 12 February 2005 on the Union Day of Burma, representatives of the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Myanmar (Burman), Rakhine (Arakan) and Shan (more than 106 representatives from 42 organizations, including elected MPs, senior leaders of ethnic nationalities and political parties, and representatives of women and youth organizations) met and agreed that the political crisis in present Burma is not ideological confrontation between a democracy and totalitarianism, but a constitutional problem rooted in the question of self-determination for non-Burman nationalities who joined the Union of Burma as equal partners in 1947 at Panglong Conference and therefore, the best way of solving the political crisis in Burma is to establish a genuine Federal Union based on the principles of equality for all ethnic nationalities, the right of self-determination for all member states of the Union, and the democratic rights for all citizens of the Union of Burma.

In this meeting, the “Basic Principles” identified by JAC, for the Future Federal Constitution of the Union of Burma was adopted. It was also unanimously decided to form a new committee that would work towards forming the Future Federal Constitution of the Union of Burma with the identified Basic Principles. Thus, “Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordination Committee (FCDCC)” came into existence on 19 April 2005; based on based on NCGUB, NCUB, NDF, UNLD, WLB, Nationalities Youth Forum (NY-Forum) and Students and Youth Congress of Burma (SYCB).

The FCDCC committee members are;

The outlines of the constitutional framework are:

The FCDCC presented the first draft of the Federal Constitution of the Union of Burma at the Federal Constitution seminar held from 6 - 9 April 2006 and was adopted by 101 participants from 52 organizations including democratic forces and ethnic nationalities.

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