Of all the weird areas into which Game of Thrones occasionally spills over (fashion, tourism, etc), my favorite is politics. It just makes so much sense for a show about how the attain and maintain a grip on power has been embraced by politicians, the real-life people who spend their days doing just that.
With that in mind, this story doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Nazir Razak, the brother of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, posted a Game of Thrones-themed message to his Instagram account early this morning, only a day after his brother dismissed several of his advisers amid an ongoing corruption crisis.
Nazir—who works for the CIMB Group, a powerful international bank—sounds like a loyal brother willing to overlook his sibling’s compromised moral values. We’ve got a real-life Tyrion and Jaime, here.
As mentioned, the Prime Minister is in the midst of a corruption scandal, the gist of which is that he’s accused of funneling around $700 million worth of money from a special government fund into his personal accounts. Various officials have called for him to resign over the scandal, and even his own Deputy Prime Minister asked him to clarify what happened with the money. Rather than answer him, the Prime Minister abruptly replaced his deputy, along with several other members of his cabinet, including the attorney general, who was part of a task force investigating the fund.
In other words, this is some Cersei-level financial mismanagement, so the Game of Thrones reference is oddly appropriate.
In other Game of Thrones-themed political news, political illustrator Steve Brodner recently drew a political cartoon in the Observer depicting New York governor Andrew Cuomo as King Joffrey. We’re thinking this isn’t a compliment.
With the show entering a new era, one where White Walkers and dragon invasions will presumably become more important than political scuffles, it’ll be interesting to see if the show keeps showing up in political rhetoric. Then again, when sitting U.S. presidents reveal that they’re fans, we can probably take that as a sign that the Game of Thrones-political complex is here to stay.
H/T The Malaysian Insider, Vice
Next: Reader poll results: And the best line of Game of Thrones Season 5 is...