During the 2 year long negotiations for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) between the government-army’s Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC) and the Ethnic Armed Organization (EAO) s’ Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team- Special Delegation (NCCT-SD), one of the major hurdles that the negotiators had to overcome was reportedly the choice of words in connection to Panglong acceptable to both sides for the text. They were:

• Panglong Agreement
• Panglong Promises
• Panglong Spirit

Let us therefore examine each of the terms, briefly but not exhaustively.

The Panglong Agreement, as we all know, is the 9 point treaty signed between Burma, the Federated Shan States (which later became the Shan State), the Chin Hills (which became the Chin State) and the Kachin Hills (which became the Kachin State), a pact between 4 equal partners.

The gist of the agreement:

Point 1-4.         Shan, Chin and Kachin representatives will be appointed as minister and deputy ministers                                respectively responsible for matters relating to Frontier Areas affairs (now  known as Border                            Affairs)

Point 5.            Full autonomy in internal affairs

Point 6.           A status of state for the Kachins in the future independent Union. (The Chins then did not                                 request the same status)

Point 7.           Rights and privileges fundamental in democratic countries (which is interpreted by the author                         as Human Rights and Democracy)

Point 8-9.         Financial autonomy as in the Federated Shan States for Chin and Kachin

It is quite significant that the UPWC had refused to adopt the term.

Panglong Promises

During the 4-day negotiations in Panglong, 8-11 February 1947, the following demands were made by the Joint Chin-Kachin-Shan Committee, officially dubbed Supreme Council of the United Hill Peoples (SCOUHP):

• The right to secede if and when we choose
• Equal status
• Joint responsibility for common subjects such as foreign affairs, defense and coinage and currency

Gen Aung San reportedly had accepted all in principle but requested that they be included in the Union constitution to be a drafted by the upcoming Constituent Assembly instead. His solemn word of honor thus became known as the promises of Panglong.

It is significant that the UPWC has also refused to employ this term.

Now the last one.

The Panglong Spirit

The NCA, both in the text and its attachment, which contains 36 resolutions passed in the 9 formal meetings, doesn’t have anything to say about what the word means.

However, Judging by what the Burmese leaders have repeatedly said, the much-vaunted Three National Causes (Non-disintegration of the Union, Non-disintegration of National Solidarity, and the Perpetuation of National Sovereignty) appears to be their interpretation. To the non-Burmans, this summing-up means they have to live under Burmese domination as second class citizens whether they like it or not.

Their own interpretation: Equal status, sense of joint ownership and sense of joint responsibility, has not been sought out, let alone agreed.

As long as this ambiguity continues, it is a doubtful a genuine union will be realized. It will therefore be the job of the Union Peace Conference which began on 12-16 January and is being planned three times a year for at least 3-5 years to clear up the enigma, if the Union is meant to be everlasting.

By SAI KHUENSAI / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)

All views expressed are the author’s own