Shan Herald Agency for News |
Federalism: Should Burma learn from Ethiopia? Posted: 05 Mar 2015 01:56 AM PST That's the question posed by a young Finnish intern at the Pyidaungsu Institute (PI) for Peace and Dialogue, Ms Sabina Saramo, in her paper, "Effective Participation of Ethnic Minorities." Burma and Ethiopia are considered old countries, though the former, not being recorded in the Holy Bible, is less known. According to historian Dr Than Htun (Shwebo), it used to be known as "Brahma-desa" or "Brahmadesh," which later distorted into what is universally known today, "Bamar" or the anglicized "Burma." "Myanmar" is said to be a later, and poetical, corruption which has nothing to do with the non- Burmans such as Shan, Kachin, Mon etc. Both countries claim to be federal. In fact, the latter officially fashions itself as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. How federal and how democratic each is can be observed from the following table:
Burma's 2008 constitution, by this standards, can be said of having federal aspects, but not a federal one. It has a "good framework" but "the substance needs a reform". Compared to Ethiopia, it has no assurance of ethnic representation. Minorities within minorities opportunity to participate in decision-making is very small. Moreover, Burma is far from being a democracy, because the military is still the real power in the Union. With that conclusion, she has answered her own question: Should Burma learn from Ethiopia? |
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