An opinion piece that was published on February 24, 2017, which emphasizes on what Aung San Suu Kyi might possibly be driving at, needs to be looked at closely.

The crux of the problem in defining the Panglong Agreement, Promises and Spirit is the inability to accept the fact that that the said agreement is a founding historical document and genesis of the birth of the new political entity the “Union of Burma” in 1948.

The Panglong Agreement has to be read together with the 1947 Union of Burma Constitution and the 1961 Federal Amendment Proposal of the ethnic nationalities, as they are correlated and interconnected.

No one in his or her right mind would disregard a founding historical document and rewrite a new one to replace it.

As an example just look at the United States Constitution of 1787, it was a 4 page document with just 7 articles in it, and since then has developed with leaps and bounds to be the most modern constitution of our time.

The Bamar leaders should also treat the Panglong Agreement as such, as a country’s founding, historical document and should not try to nullify it, or replace it with a new document that reinterpret the history according to their preconceived ideas, but should add up innovations to be in tune with the modern time only.

It is time to give due respect to the country’s founding historical document, if the federal form of government envisioned by our founding forefathers should be realized.

Link to the story: http://frontiermyanmar.net/mm/news/4168