Constitution of Myanmar in the context of Ministry of Defence (Myanmar)

Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာစကား (or) ဗမာဘာသာစကား) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar, where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar, the country's largest ethnic group. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English, though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese, after Burma—a name with co-official status until 1989 (see Names of Myanmar). Burmese is the most widely spoken language in the country, where it serves as the lingua franca. In 2019, Burmese was spoken by 42.9 million people globally, including by 32.9 million speakers as a first language and 10 million as a second language. A 2023 World Bank survey found that 80% of the country's population speaks Burmese. Burmese dialects are also spoken by some of the indigenous tribes in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, China's Yunnan province, and India's northeastern states, as well as by Burmese diaspora.

Burmese is a tonal, pitch-register, and syllable-timed language, largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order. Burmese is distinguished from other major Southeast Asian languages by its extensive case marking system and rich morphological inventory. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Burmese alphabet ultimately descends from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet.

Burma was under the military dictatorship of Ne Win from 1962 to 1988. Ne Win and his allies in the Tatmadaw – the country's armed forces – overthrew the government of Prime Minister U Nu in a coup d'état on 2 March 1962. A day later, the coup leaders established the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma as the country's governing body. In April 1962, the Revolutionary Council introduced the Burmese Way to Socialism and declared it Burma's state ideology. The Revolutionary Council then founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) as the country's vanguard party on 4 July 1962. In 1974, Ne Win introduced a new constitution and replaced the Revolutionary Council with the Pyithu Hluttaw, which consisted solely of BSPP members. The country's official name was also changed from the Union of Burma to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

Ne Win's governance of Burma was characterised by totalitarianism, isolationism, superstition, xenophobia, and a rejection of Cold War politics. Ne Win ruled Burma as a dictator, serving as both Chairman of the Revolutionary Council (later President of Burma) and Prime Minister of Burma, the country's head of state and the head of government, respectively. The nationalisation of major industries and rejection of foreign investment led to catastrophic declines in economic growth and living standards.

Freedom of the press in Myanmar refers to the freedom of speech, expression, right to information, and mass media in particular. The media of Myanmar is regulated by the law of Myanmar, the News Media Law which prevent spreading or circulating media bias. It also determines freedom of expression for media houses, journalists, and other individuals or organisations working within the country. Its print, broadcast and Internet media is regulated under the News Media Law, nominally compiled by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and international standards on freedom of expression.

The law of Myanmar compiled by the constitution, prohibits publishing fake news through online or offline such as social, mass media, or otherwise newspaper and could lead to imprisonment of a journalist, newspaper ban or may be fined Ks.1,00,000/- to the maximum of Ks.3,00,000/- if found guilty in such offensive activities. However, media is free to express their views, share options, and criticize government policies under Article 9.

The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော် [pjìdàʊɰ̃zṵ l̥ʊʔtɔ̀], lit. 'Union Assembly') is the national-level bicameral legislature of Myanmar established by the 2008 National Constitution, which has been dissolved temporarily since 2021. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is made up of two houses, the 224-seat Amyotha Hluttaw, or "National Assembly," and the 440-seat Pyithu Hluttaw, or "People's Assembly". There is no mention in the 2008 Constitution of any ‘lower’ or ‘upper’ houses: both the Pyithu Hluttaw and the Amyotha Hluttaw enjoy equal power to initiate, review, amend, and pass legislation.

Each of Myanmar's fourteen major administrative regions and states has its own local Hluttaw: Region Hluttaw (Region Assembly) or State Hluttaw (State Assembly).

The Supreme Court of Myanmar (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စုတရားလွှတ်တော်ချုပ်) is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of Myanmar, existing as an independent judicial entity, alongside the legislative and executive branches. The Court is legally mandated to have 7 to 11 judges, including a Chief Justice.

The General Administration Department (Burmese: အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန, abbreviated GAD) is a civil service body that staffs all regional and state-level governments in Myanmar and provides administration for the country's myriad districts and townships.

It also plays a central role in administering the country's administrative capital of Naypyidaw, as the Constitution of Myanmar stipulates that the head of GAD is the secretary of the Naypyidaw Council and that the GAD offices are to be co-located with the Naypyidaw Council offices.The directors of State and Region GAD offices are also the secretaries of State and Region governments. On 28 December 2018, it was reorganized and reinvoked under the Ministry of the Office of the Union Government after being detached from the Ministry of Home Affairs. On 5 May 2021, the SAC reorganized it under Ministry of Home Affairs.