94 year old Sao Noan Oo  was born in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. She has been fighting for the rights of the Shan people for almost all of her long life.  And she hasn't given up yet.

Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar.  She married an Englishman and is now known by most people as Nel Adams.

Nel has written her life story entitled "My Vanished World".  The book is currently out of print but some second hand copies can be found in ebook sites like Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/My-Vanished-World-Story-Princess/dp/189931024X

Nel firmly believes the fate of the Shan as an independent country was sealed by the signing of the Panglong Agreement on 12 February, 1947.  Some, but not all, of the spirit of the Panglong Agreement was contained in the first Burmese Constitution which was agreed to on 24 September, 1947 by its Constituent Assembly. This Constitution is known as the 1947 Constitution, although it only came into effect upon independence from the British on 4 January, 1948.

According to the 1947 Constitution, the peoples of the Shan and Kayah States were bound to be part of the Union of Myanmar (then Burma) but under Article 201 each would have the right to secede after 10 years at a referendum approved by a majority of 2/3rds of its "eligible voters".  

Nel has carried out substantial research into the history of the Panglong Agreement and, if you click on the link below, it will take you to the detailed document she has produced.  There are some minor points where I differ with Nel in that, in my opinion, the Panglong Agreement did not give the  specific right of the Shan (and Kayah) State to withdraw from the Union.  That was contained in Article 201 of the 1947 Constitution.  But certainly the full spirit of the Panglong Agreement was lacking in the 1947 Constitution and General Ne Win's coup in 1962 suspending the Constitution ignored the specific rights of the peoples of the Shan and Kayah States to withdraw from the Union.  These rights have been ignored ever since.

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0c9XsZXa2Lg5ucDP_9haboOjg#Unravelling_the_history_of_the_Panglong_Treaty_by_Sao_Noan_Oo-Nel_Adams_2025.  You may need to copy and paste this address into your browser to download the document.

Nel as a 16 year old was present with her family at the Panglong Conference leading to the signing of the Agreement in 1947 and her memory of that conference is contained in My Vanished World and I will read the relevant chapter for this podcast.

Thank you for listening.

Peter Church

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