A new junta-designed flag is flying across the country, the first time in 36 years since the former ruling Burmese Socialist Programme Party changed the 1947 independence-era flag in 1974.

Slide Show (View)

The new flag will represent the Republic of the Union of Myanmar [Burma] under the junta-backed 2008 Constitution, adding a third flag to the history of the post-colonial Southeast Asian nation.

The new flag was an issue of controversy during the National Convention which drafted the 2008 Constitution, particularly among delegates from ethnic minority groups who said the flag symbolizes a unitary nation rather than a federal union.

Previously, the two flags of independent Burma were symbolically expressing “equal rights in the union” with stars representing ethnic minorities, a major difference in the new flag's design.

In September 2007, a new flag was proposed at the National Convention. The current flag, unveiled it at the end of the 14-year-long National Convention (1993-2007), consists of four colors— green, yellow and red horizontal stripes with a white star in the center of the flag.

Green symbolizes peace and tranquility as well as Burma’s verdant environment; yellow for solidarity; red for valor and decisiveness, and white represents the consolidated union. Some observers said the flag is similar to the flag of Ghana.

A flag with a peacock in the center was used by the pre-war anti-colonial front of the We, Burmese, Association. During the World War II, the Burma Independence Army and the  Japanese-backed regime led by Ba Maw, used the tricolor flag with a peacock as the flag of the State of Burma.

A number of Rangoon residents told The Irrawaddy that the previous two flags of Burma under the 1947 Constitution and the 1974 Constitution better represented the country.

“I do not know about politics. But I feel the new flag is quite ugly, and it seems like the national flag from another country,” said a 22-year-old NGO staffer in Rangoon.