In the sport of name-calling, intended insults can backfire. Dubbing the Emperor Napoleon the “Little Corporal” may have sought to put a physically unimposing Corsican in his place. Instead, it drew attention to the talent of a military genius who rose through the ranks on merit.

The Soviet Union’s propagandists made an equally grave error in dismissing the unflinching Margaret Thatcher as “the Iron Lady”.

So what are we to make of “The Driver”?

Within minutes of becoming the front runner to become President of Myanmar, Htin Kyaw had shot to international recognition as Aung San Suu Kyi’s old chauffeur. The reality was that the former computer scientist and National League for Democracy (NLD) stalwart had once been spotted driving his party leader to a meeting.

This hardly merits being confused with Lewis Hamilton. Given that Htin Kyaw’s background, intellect and personal qualities make him well-suited for the presidency to which the Myanmar Parliament yesterday elected him, it is easy to see how insulting the motoring mix-up may appear.

But if a governing party nominates as head of state a candidate that the international media knows almost nothing about and then neither briefs the media nor makes him available for interview, then you can see how reporters can grasp the wrong end of the crankshaft. This was no conspiracy; even some of the Myanmar media got his biography wrong.

The public relations mistake may nevertheless create a powerful metaphor for the man who will now be the first President of a truly democratic modern Myanmar.

If he steers his nation towards peace and plenty then he will be the driver that Myanmar has long sought to put behind the wheel.

But there is also the unmistakable imagery of a chauffeur who is merely following the directions of Myanmar’s ultimate backseat driver, Aung San Suu Kyi. It is “The Lady” who has made clear that she will be “above the President”.

For Myanmar-watchers, this raises two questions. The first is will a proxy presidency work? If Myanmar had a constitution like Singapore, Italy or Britain in which the Head of State was a constitutional guardian, legally distanced from the overtly political Head of Government, then Ms Suu Kyi (who is denied by the constitution from being President) could run the country and Htin Kway could attend the official functions.

However, Myanmar’s constitution invests political executive authority in the office of the President. So we will be treated to an intriguing double act in which Htin Kyaw endures the responsibility and The Lady enjoys the power.

This will only work if Htin Kyaw lives up to his reputation as a profoundly decent man unburdened by a sense of self-importance. It nevertheless takes a disciplined self-denial to know your place when everyone keeps saluting you.

WHAT NEXT FOR THE DRIVER?

The second question is concerned less with who drives the national limo than with what direction the vehicle will travel.

The NLD is not a conservative party. Nor is it a liberal party or a socialist party. It has no predominant ideology beyond a clear rejection of the military-guided authoritarianism against which the NLD’s leaders bravely set themselves.

Defining itself by what it is not was good enough for the NLD to win around 80 per cent of the seats in last November’s general election. But it cannot fuel a predetermined route through all the troubles and controversies that must necessarily lie ahead.

For such a journey, anyone looking for the NLD’s political sat nav would not have found it in the party’s election manifesto.

To its credit, the NLD did not misuse the luxury of opposition to promise the earth in return for being elected. Instead, the manifesto offered a list of relatively uncontentious aspirations, prefixed with the qualifications “to work towards” and “to encourage”. No targets were set, no costs were provided. The only figures cited in the NLD manifesto are its page numbers.

Fortunate is the party that gets triumphantly elected without offering hostages to fortune. But this leaves great ambiguity. Have the people of Myanmar actually elected what they thought they were voting for?

Last November’s election was a clash, not of ideas but of outlooks. The incumbent USDP of President Thein Sein fought (and lost) on its recently gained reputation for liberalising and liberating: liberalising Myanmar after decades of the state-directed control of goods and services and liberating Myanmar from the state control of information.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) offered the old men with the new methods. The NLD offered The Lady, and a clearer break with the past.

It is nonetheless tempting to resurrect the popularly misquoted phrase from Giuseppe Tomasil di Lampedusa’s historical novel, The Leopard, that, “everything must change so that everything can stay the same”.

The NLD will carry on with the reformist policies of the USDP administration that it replaces. Half-completed legislation will be made comprehensive.

Half-hearted stabs at reform will be given greater thrust. Foreign investment will be encouraged — as it was by outgoing President Thein Sein. This is completion, not revolution.

Perhaps a more generous attitude will guide ministers in how they handle some of the most contentious issues, among them the treatment of aggrieved protesters over land rights issues.

Given the international goodwill that Ms Suu Kyi commands, few incoming governments will receive a more respectful hearing or witness a greater willingness of leading foreign powers to be seen to help.

Many will rush to open the backseat car door for Ms Suu Kyi to step out into the light.

But history offers worse vantage points than to be the driver making sure she arrives on time and in good spirits. For Mr Htin Kyaw, the journalists’ initial mistake may prove not such an unfortunate metaphor after all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Graham Stewart is Partner and Managing Director, Myanmar, at Bell Pottinger and has been based in Yangon since 2014.