Speaking at a youth gathering in Chiangmai, Col Hkun Okker, one of the leaders of the 12 member grouping, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), illustrated his point by a power point presentation, “A table has 4 legs and a cow too has 4 legs. So one may say a cow is a table and vice versa.”

Hkun Okker (Photo: PI)

If one uses that logic to look at Burma, one may find just as a federal system has at least two levels of government: federal (also called central, national) and state, the 2008 constitution has them too. “But in reality federalism and the 2008 (constitution) each goes its own way like mercury and iron,” he explained. “All 3 constitutions drawn up since Independence are only federal on the surface.”

Hkun Okker heads the federal constitution drafting team formed by the UNFC at the ethnic conference held last year.

He picked up his copy of the 2008 constitution and turned up the first page of the Preamble. “If you read it in Burmese, you might not notice its significance,” he said after reading the word “တစျသားတညျး” (ta-tha-dee), which generally means ‘without discrimination’. “However, its meaning becomes crystal clear as well as sinister when it was translated as ‘oneness’.”

The word goes hand in hand with the single star in the new national flag adopted by the military junta that preceded the current government. “All the other stars in previous flags have been dropped,” he said. “That can only mean one thing: They are still obsessed by their initial aim of welding the inhabitants of this country into one nation under ‘one blood, one voice and one command’.”

Another speaker Khuensai Jaiyen, Editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) and managing director of the newly established Pyidaungsu Institute (PI) for Peace and Dialogue, said, “Today we have dialogue without peace (as the Burma Army and the ethnic armed resistance movements are still fighting). On the surface, it looks as if the government is pushing for a peace without dialogue. We should therefore demand that there be peace as well as dialogue.”

The resistance’s Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) and the government’s Union Peacemaking Committee (UPWC) are scheduled to meet in Rangoon the first week of March, although no definite date has been fixed. “It’s probably be after the 1st of March, when the nationwide census taking event is to be officially launched in Naypyitaw,” said a UNFC member. “All the ethnic armed resistance movements have been invited to attend it.”