Historian Thant Myint-U sent out a tweet on Tuesday praising a “trenchant analysis” in Foreign Policy of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political maneuverings.
Two retweets, nothing more.
Perhaps reeling from the low tweet-to-retweet ratio, he came back into the ring yesterday to obliquely comment on the political situation by using popular television series references. This did much, much better, as you can see.
So it comes as no surprise that on the same day a Tumblr blog appeared called “Just Myanmar Gov Things,” with the subhead “Shit Myanmar Government Does.”
The first post?
“If Myanmar politicians are Game of Thrones characters.”
Here’s the opening: “This post is based on my limited knowledge of Myanmar politics scene and extensive knowledge of Game of Thrones. Some may or may not reflect in real-life scenario (except dragons, dragons are real).”
The writer goes on to compare Aung San Suu Kyi to the Mother of Dragons and Thura Shwe Mann to Tyrion Lannister (you know, because they both fall out of favor, though as far as we know Shwe Mann never shot anybody with a crossbow).
Game of Thrones comparisons aren’t new. In April, the Washington Post used the show to explain the Middle East, admitting that the complex plot lines and shock endings of the acclaimed series have already been applied to American presidential candidates and English soccer teams.
Even Myanmar’s fellow ASEAN member Malaysia has not been immune from the treatment.
Why do these comparisons? As the Post writer put it, “Yes, it’s a silly, hypothetical question.”
But we here at Coconuts Yangon specialize in silly, hypothetical questions. Have you seen our post comparing Myanmar’s reform process to a Vince Vaughn movie? That was a good one.
And so is “Just Myanmar Gov Things.”
It’s unclear if the blog will continue. So far that’s the only entry. But we hope it does.
Photo / www.justmyanmargovthings.tumblr.com
