Constitution of Myanmar

Myanmar's first constitution adopted by constituent assembly was enacted for the Union of Burma in 1947. After the 1962 Burmese coup d'état, the 1947 constitution was suspended and a second constitution was enacted in 1974 for the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, which was also suspended after the 1988 coup d'état.

The 2008 Constitution, the country's third constitution, was published in September 2008 after a referendum, and came into force on 31 January 2011, having been amended in 2015 and 2020. Under this current constitution, the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces, officially the Defence Services) retain significant control of the government, even before their coup of 2021. Under the constitution, 25% of seats in the legislature, Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, were reserved for serving military officers. The ministries of Home Affairs, Border Affairs and Defence were headed by serving military officers who were appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. The military also appointed one of the country's two Vice Presidents. Hence, the country's civilian leaders have little influence over the security establishment.

History

1935 and 1943 quasi-constitutions

Before independence, Myanmar had two quasi-constitutions, "The Government of Burma Act, 1935" (under British rule) and "Constitution for Government of Burma, Act No. 1 of 1305 B.E." (1943, for State of Burma under Japanese occupation), which are recognized as the former constitutions. After independence, Myanmar adopted three constitutions: in 1947, 1974 and 2008. The 2008 constitution is the present constitution of Myanmar.

1947 constitution

The 1947 constitution, officially the Constitution of the Union of Burma (ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ၏ ဖွဲ့စည်းအုပ်ချုပ်ပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ), was drafted and approved by the Constituent Assembly of Burma in 1947, and was used from the country's independence in 1948 until the military seizure of power during the 1962 military coup. This constitution was developed in consultation with different ethnic groups including the Chin, Kachin, and Shan people. In return, these groups were to receive full autonomy in internal matters. The constitution also granted the right for ethnic states to secede from the new Union of Burma if so desired after ten years following independence in 1948. The national government consisted of three branches: judicial, legislative and executive. The legislative branch was a bicameral legislature called the Union Parliament, consisting of two chambers, the 125-seat Chamber of Nationalities (လူမျိုးစုလွှတ်တော် Lumyozu Hluttaw) and the Chamber of Deputies (ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော် Pyithu Hluttaw), whose seat numbers were determined by the population size of respective constituencies. The 1947 constitution was largely based on the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, as several Burmese officials had visited Yugoslavia earlier that year. Just as Yugoslavia at that time was a federation, so was Burma under the 1947 constitution. Despite this, the country was governed in practice like a unitary state, and not a federation. Other influences of the socialist Yugoslav constitution were the sections establishing a welfare state and codifying a heavily centralised government. The 1947 Constitution had eight amendments and five temporary amendments: six amendments and one temporary amendment by parliamentary legislation according to the Chapter XI (Articles 207 – 210), four temporary amendments by presidential orders according to the Article 230, one amendment by the authority of the constituent assembly president given by a proposal of the constituent assembly and one amendment by another proposal of the constituent assembly itself.

1962–1974

The 1947 constitution was suspended when the military seized power in 1962 and formed the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma, led by General Ne Win.

1974 constitution

The 1974 constitution, officially the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (ပြည်ထောင်စုဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ), was the second constitution to be written, was approved in a 1973 referendum, and was adopted on 3 January 1974. It created a unicameral legislature called the Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly), represented by members of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) as the only legal party. Each term was 4 years. Ne Win became the president at this time.

According to David I. Steinberg, this constitution was modelled after the constitutions of the Eastern Bloc. Gone was the language of federation found in the 1947 constitution. In its place, the 1974 constitution codified a unitary, centralized state, under the complete control of the military, through the BSPP. "Even the modest autonomy previously granted the minorities was rescinded. The periphery was without effective voice. Although 'elected' representatives were obligated to return to their constituencies to learn the problems of their electorate, the system did not work, as fear prevented criticism of the military hierarchy and its policies and programs." The 1974 Constitution had been amended twice.

1988–2008

Upon taking power in September 1988, the military, under the guise of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) suspended the 1974 constitution. In 1990, they issued a declaration stating that they are not observing any constitution at that time and that a new constitution should be drawn up. However, many viewed their abuse of the constitution-making process as simply a delaying tactic to remain in power. The SLORC called a constitutional convention in 1993, but it was suspended in 1996 when the National League for Democracy (NLD) boycotted it, calling it undemocratic. The constitutional convention was again called in 2004, but without the NLD. Myanmar remained without a constitution until 2008.