Burma?s rulers will continue to lean heavily on the judiciary to impose their vision of a ?discipline-flourishing democracy?... "After decades of military rule, many Burmese are no longer aware that their country had one of the most progressive judicial systems in the region after independence in 1948. Judges had secure salaries and could only be removed for misbehavior or incapacity. The courts were not afraid to challenge the executive, and the Supreme Court proclaimed that the 1947 Constitution should be interpreted in a ?liberal and comprehensive spirit.? Even at the height of insurgencies against Rangoon in the late 1940s, the Supreme Court ordered police to release men who had been detained illegally. ILLUSTRATION: HARN LAY/THE IRRAWADDY The slide from a judiciary with integrity to its present role as defender of the military began when the late Gen Ne Win seized power and imprisoned Chief Justice Myint Thein for six years—longer than he imprisoned former Prime Minister U Nu. When Ne Win drafted the 1974 Constitution, he removed any remaining separation between the judiciary and the government. He packed the Council of People?s Justice, which replaced the Supreme Court, with members of the Burma Socialist Programme Party. The Constitution required the court to ?protect the socialist system? rather than the rights of Burmese citizens. Although the military revived the Supreme Court in 1988, Human Rights Watch maintains that judges still ?serve at the whim of the SPDC and must follow the directives of the military.?..."