Huge problems such as violence and corruption still threaten reform.

Sceptics inside and outside Burma suggest the reforms are cynical window-dressing designed to end Burma's economic isolation and rehabilitate the regime within Asean and internationally.Commentator Min Zin pointed out that the president suffered from heart disease and recently received a new pacemaker.

If the president's grip on power weakened for whatever reason, " past experience suggests  there are likely a rise of hardliners and an intense power rivalry … If the death of a key player complicates Burma's fragile political transition, a number of scenarios are possible: splits or purges, the emergence of a new autocrat, military intervention or a popular uprising … These scenarios are not mutually exclusive."