quickly developed into a policy of close governmental scrutiny over the movement (Arraiza & Vonk, 2017). It is at this point in Burma’s history that the slow process of increased population control tactics began under the aegis of the central government, even during the early years of Burma’s independence (despite formally calling itself a parliamentary democracy). Although the 1949 act might be considered to be somewhat like a census, the more openly involved the Tatmadaw became with the political and economic operations of the country, the more closely Burma’s citizens were monitored. As Arraiza and Vonk (2017) explain, following registration citizens were outfitted with National Registration Cards (NRCs): Males were issued with green cards and females with pink cards. By the end of 1960, the government claimed to have registered most of the population and have issued them with 18 million NRCs. While these NRCs were not strictly speaking citizenship certificates, they were de facto, as foreigners were registered through the Registration of Foreigners Act. In addition to the NRCs, there were also Temporary Registration Cards (TRCs), widely known as the “White Card.” TRCs were issued only temporarily and with a fixed deadline in cases of loss, damages or pending applications in order to provide with a document while the new one was processed. (pp. 6-7) Once again, actions taken in the early years of Burma’s sovereign existence laid the foundation for the behavior of the future military-dominated government. Despite the fact that post-World War II Burma was largely a parliamentary democracy, the use of NRCs and the differentiation between male and female, gave added legitimacy to the Tatmadaw’s future population control measures. For example, White Cards were later used to denote minority ethnicities that were not officially recognized by the central government and therefore not legally protected by Burmese law (Arraiza & Vonk, 2017). 65