When Myanmar gained independence in 1948, the promises of the new constitution and the previous year’s Panglong Agreement were still fresh in the minds of ethnic leaders. Famously, Bogyoke Aung San told them during the Panglong Conference in February 1947, “If Burma receives one kyat, you will also get one kyat.”
But these promises were never fulfilled. Politically, power remained centralised in the capital, and in the hands of ethnic Bamar leaders. Ethnic minority areas were – and some still continue to be – ravaged by decades of civil war.
Ethnic minorities were also blocked from sustaining and promoting their culture and language for more than five decades, said Mon National Party vice chairman Nai Ngwe Thein. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
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