Section 3 | RULES OF THE GAME RULES OF THE GAME: Institutions and Norms This section will describe relevant state and nonstate institutions, formal and informal institutions, and rules and norms that affect digital access, skills, and benefits derived from ICTs for women and girls in Myanmar, especially those who face additional obstacles due to poverty or rural residence or as members of marginalized groups. The analysis of institutions maintains the focus on education as a key driver of change for addressing the gender digital divide, and covers national and regional governance institutions, patronage networks and other incentives, educational institutions, private-sector interests, and civil society. 3.1 National and Regional Governance Institutions Changes to the Constitution adopted in 2008 paved the way for the relaxation in military control that began in 2011 and subsequent NLD landslide in the November 2015 parliamentary elections, but they also ensured that the military retains considerable powers. These include control of the three key security ministries (defense, home affairs, and border affairs), and a 25 percent bloc of unelected legislators (providing veto power over any proposed constitutional change). Despite its popular mandate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration is in “an uncomfortable cohabitation with the military”150 that complicates the pace and content of political and economic reforms, including those affecting the “In Burma it’s not simply getting the military out of the business of government. It’s creating the state institutions that can replace the military state that exists.” —Myint-U Thant, 2007 gender digital divide. MILITARY: TATMADAW The Tatmadaw (national armed forces) remains the most powerful institution in the political economy of Myanmar. After seizing control in a coup in 1962, the military ruled Myanmar for five decades in a closed, socialist planned economy renowned for its human rights abuses, including use of ICT-related legislation such as the Electronic Transactions Law of 2004 to incarcerate citizens for online sedition. Its proposed constitution was ratified by what many deemed a fraudulent referendum in 2008, and the regime’s first parliamentary elections were allowed in November 2010. Noting that 89 percent of new legislative members that year were still military, regional experts concluded, “Although there has been no shift in who rules (male, Burman retired or active-duty military officers) in elite level positions of authority, there exists a new political fluidity that potentially may change how they rule” (emphasis in original).151 The potential for this fluidity to extend to who rules appeared in October 2013, when, after more than fifty years of formal exclusion from the Tatmadaw, the rules were changed to allow women to join.152 International Crisis Group, “Myanmar’s New Government: Finding Its Feet?” Report No. 282/Asia, July 29, 2016. 151 Callahan and Steinberg, Drivers of Political Change, 1. 152 ADB, Technical Assistance to Myanmar. 150 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 47