Arthur Bottomley

Union Day: Anniversary of the 1947 Panglong Agreement

Myanmar's Union Day, which falls on 12 February, marks the anniversary of the Panglong Agreement of 1947. There is considerable mythology surrounding the Panglong Agreement and it is helpful to remember what it was and what it was not. The Panglong Agreement was primarily an agreement on transitional arrangements in the lead up to Burmese independence after World War Two. Of its nine paragraphs, four deal exclusively with the new position of "Counsellor to the Governor to deal with Frontier...