represented a step further toward complete military control and surveillance over the Burmese populace. Furthermore, similar efforts have been taken to prevent those not eligible for citizenship from obtaining cards in order to protect the central authority’s vision of national race and religion—an additional tactic to control the appearance of Burma as a nation (Aung, 2007). Today the Tatmadaw employs a National Verification Card scheme based on the Citizenship Scrutiny Cards introduced by the 1982 law. Specifically targeting the Rohingya, these so-called “genocide cards” are “part of a systematic campaign by Myanmar authorities to erase their identity” (Milko, 2019). Discussed in further detail below, this scheme is used to legitimize the Tatmadaw’s actions in Rakhine State. White cards were distributed to Rohingya as a form of identification. This allowed them to participate in the 2008 referendum to reform the constitution and the 2010 general elections, both meant to signify the official beginning of the country’s democratic transition. Following ascension of the USDP to power, “these white card holders’ vaguely defined legal status was being bused by the USDP and government for political gains” (Ullah, 2019). It should be noted that white cards (officially called Temporary Registration Certificates or TRCs), used as another tool of the national verification process, also have been used as a legal tool to further marginalize the Rohingya minority group: In 1995, TRCs were given to large numbers of Muslims in Rakhine as well as persons of Chinese and Indian descent across the country. This was a clear example of the flexibility and political expediency used in citizenship matters and the tendency to find temporary, legally uncertain solutions . . . the TRCs were treated de facto as an official ID card which allowed its holders to vote in subsequent elections (Arraiza & Vonk, 2017, p. 9) 69