something different, it will still retain power and control over political, legal, and economic aspects regardless of maneuvers attempted by the NLD. Furthermore, other mechanisms were put in place to further entrench military dominance and guarantee Tatmadaw control of governmental processes: They [Tatmadaw] added other constitutional assurances, including creating a coup mechanism in waiting that empowers the militarydominated National Defense and Security Council to seize power if it unilaterally declares a “state of emergency. (Robertson, 2015, para. 7) As it has done in the past, the military made sure that if at any time opposition force gained too much power or public support, the military could legally and easily reclaim total control. Robertson (2015) explains that the constitution also stipulates that legislative scrutiny of the Tatmadaw budget is forbidden and that only active military officials can act as head of the government’s most powerful ministries, which are: Home Affairs, Border Affairs, and Defense. By maintaining sole discretionary power over these three critical governmental junctions, the military maintains a veneer of democratic reform while still guaranteeing that all of its crucial operations continue unrestrained. With regard to legal extraction trades and the illicit black market economy, the constitution preserved individual Tatmadaw commanders’ privileged access, guaranteeing that any transition impacting economic relations would occur at the direction of the military (Felbab-Brown, 2017). The military crafted an image of Burma as a newly democratic country but in fact the central government remained tied to an entirely undemocratic constitution. A note should be made here regarding the military’s strategic constitutional entrenchment of power. According to Bunte, there are four key attributes of a democracy: 57