same failures when seeking to gain and maintain public support. Both leaders saw popular uprisings against their governments—the Four Eights movement in 1988 under the BSPP, and the Saffron Revolution in 2007 under SPDC— and both leaders had to determine a way to maintain military and state perpetuity while also pacifying the population in a way that would keep the state from falling into total disarray. For Ne Win and the BSPP the answer to this problem was to step back from governance after the Four Eights and ultimately turn over power to Than Shwe and the SLORC. This was an effort to persuade the general public that the democratic change they demanded was around the corner. In reality however, it was a tactic used to manipulate the country’s domestic situation in a way that would eternalize the hegemony of the military-government apparatus. Under Ne Win, over 15,000 enterprises were nationalized and private property was turned into state property. New positions were created for military officials to manage the newly nationalized stores creating opportunities for individuals to become rich while leaving the national economy in ruins. Control was such a major concern for the BSPP government that even the flow of consumer goods was managed through ‘People’s Stores’ (Seekins, 2011). It is important to note that in addition to these strategic maneuvers, both the Revolutionary Council and the BSPP enacted strict censorship laws (e.g., the Printers and Publishers Registration Law) making it nearly impossible for the civilian population to access any information outside of state controlled media. This only bolstered cultural isolation and assisted Ne Win in his quest to assert a homogenous national identity. 29