and almost all the seats were won by Aung San’s AFPFL. When the assembly
convened, Aung San presented his draft constitution for deliberation. However, he
did not live to see the constitution adopted as he was assassinated on 19 July 1947 .His
successor, U Nu, signed the independence treaty with British prime minister Clement
Attlee in October 1947 and on 4 January 1948 Burma was proclaimed independent.
The new constitution provided for a republican form of government with
three autonomous states: Shan, Kachin and Karenni. The bicameral legislature –
Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Nationalities – jointly elected the president.
Akin to other Westminster constitutions, the prime minister was accorded extensive
powers and the Supreme Court chief justice and judges were appointed by the
president, with parliament’s approval.
Post-independence Burma
Post-independence Burma faced several serious problems.
8
The first was ethnic
strife and secessionist movements from the minority ethnic groups, especially the
Karens and Shans. These minority groups sought independence, opposing
the government’s insistence on a unified state. A civil war broke out between the
minority groups and the central government. The second problem was a poorly
trained civil service, which often resulted in failed government initiatives and
government incapacity.
9
By 1958 , the situation had become so chaotic that
President U Nu voluntarily turned over the state’s administration to a caretaker
military government headed by General Ne Win.
The military government restored law and order, and reorganised the
bureaucracy. In 1960 , President U Nu was re-elected to power. The highly popular
president was committed to democracy and announced his plan to make Buddhism
the official state religion. This declaration caused more uprisings among the non-
Buddhist ethnic minorities. President U Nu sought to turn Burma into a federation,
giving the hill tribes greater autonomy. This proposal upset the military, who felt
this would bring greater civil strife. On 2 March 1962 , General Ne Win overthrew
President U Nu’s government in a coup d’e ́tat. General Ne Win disbanded parlia-
ment, banned political parties and arrested President U Nu for his political failures
and restrictions of civil liberty. He then established the Burmese Revolutionary
Council (BRC) comprising seventeen military leaders and announced a programme
of radical economic and political reforms called the ‘Burmese Way to Socialism’.
10
(^8) See generally Clark D. Neher,Southeast Asia: Crossroads of the World(DeKalb, IL:
Northern Illinois University Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 2000 , pp. 95 – 100 ; and
Tin Muang Muang Than, ‘Myanmar: military in charge’, in John Funston (ed.),Govern-
ment and Politics in Southeast Asia(Singapore: ISEAS, 2001 ), p. 203.
(^9) On Burma’s lack of state capacity, see Neil A. Englehart, ‘Is regime change enough for
Burma? The problem of state capacity’ ( 2005 ) 45 ( 4 )Asian Survey 622.
(^10) Neher,Southeast Asia,at 98.