In the Sārandada Sutta of Anguttaranikaya Pali scriptures the Lord gave his attention to the Licchavī princes and pronounced the seven rules of Aparihāniya, which are

1. Consultation in a body

2. Acting by consensus

3. Behaviour in accordance with the law

4. Respect for the admonishments of superiors

5. No oppression of women

6. Respecting the rites of the spirit guardians of the towns and villages

7. Protection for the monkhood.

The meaning of the word Aparihāniya is “what cannot be diminished or destroyed”. It can be said therefore that the rules of Aparihāniya are the rules of progress. Among these elements of progress, that which is called Sannipāta, the rule of the assembly; that which is called Samagga on the conduct of business in agreement; that which is called paññatta on the drafting and enactment of laws, are all essential parts of what in our own time is the legal system known as “democracy”. 

“If a country is ruled by the authority of only one or two men, there will be much wrong and distress done to what common people there are, and therefore the authority must not lie with one or two men.

If there is a general meeting between the Prince and his ministers and officials, there will be no chance of wrong and distress.” We adduce this as good evidence of how the aim should be government by the will of the majority. A basic law that government is carried on by the will of the majority is of the first importance. 

However, while the institution of government by the will of the majority and the rights of the people are both of great importance, of no less importance is the responsibility lying upon the people. For those who submit to the government to be in debate with the governors is a distribution of rights, and the responsibility is equally divided.

The ministers gave great importance to the legislative system, and in explaining it based on the experience had accumulated of the British parliamentary system. It explained how the British parliament consists of two Houses, one of a “group of important people selected by agreement from the towns and villages of the country”, and the other of “a group of people who entered it according to their lineage”. 

In their legislating duty the two Houses had to work so as to preserve sannipæta and samagga, to be united in keeping the rule of aviroddhana, and to set in place the four rules of sangaha. 

In this demonstration he also showed how in forming a consensus of the will of the majority of the people, both government newspaper houses and popular newspaper houses had responsibilities. In the matter of newspapers, in 1868 (1230) under King Mindon the Yadanabon Nwespaper first appeared. 

က်မ္းကုိး ...

သုတ္မဟာဝါ၊ ၃။ မဟာပရိနိဗၺာနသုတ္၊ ႏွာ၊ ႒-၂။ ၁၀၇

အဂၤုတၱရနိကာယအ႒ကထာ၊ ႏွာ-၃။ ၁၅၁

Among the Burmese the virtue of Hirø and Ottappa is recognised. This is a double rule separated out the two parts for discussion of their essential natures. Hirø applies to oneself. It means to be ashamed for oneself. Ottappa on the other hand applies to the external, the outside, another person; it is the fear arising from bad conduct when an ill deed is brought into the open by another. Put otherwise, Hirø is the shame that is felt when you know that you have behaved badly; Ottappa is the fear from knowing that you will be blamed by others for your bad behaviour. To speak in modern terms, it is the respect that one has for public opinion.