The Long Struggle for Constitutional Change in Myanmar

Abstract

The rigidity of the 2008 Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is rightly notorious, as this rigidity was proven at least three times through failed attempts at reform. Despite these failed attempts, the military disputed the results of the election held in November 2020, and conflict ostensibly over that issue led to a military coup on 1 February 2021. This coup purported to have been undertaken constitutionally as an ‘emergency’ but was the object of popular rejection. In this article, we focus on the struggle over constitutionalism that had its origins in earlier attempts to achieve democracy. In our focus on the current nature and implication of ‘constitutional struggle’ in Myanmar, we make use of analysis based on factual data collected by the second author, located in Mandalay, one of the epicentres of struggle against the military and their actions following the coup. Our argument is that this ‘praetorian constitutionalism’ in Myanmar absent a pre-agreed pact between the military and the civilian defies the basic logic of democratic or liberal constitutionalism and hence is unconstitutional in both spirit and text. This explains how a constitution drafted in order to protect the position and privileges of the military was ultimately in effect rejected by that same military. The article will argue that the praetorian constitutionalism of Myanmar during 2010–21 contains a necessarily built-in struggle between the civilian and the soldier that remains unresolved.