Isn't the sufficiently determined government with the ability to compromise an organization's computers almost as much of a threat to carry out 51% attacks on its private blockchain as to successfully target distributed copies of database checkpoints?

(In practice, I think the Myanmar government's strategy would simply be to disregard the database rather than to attack it anyway, on the basis the local prejudice against the Rohingya isn't based around their numbers or individual identities but the claim that they are actually Bangladeshi illegal immigrants lying about Myanmar ancestry and land)

Yes, it is a threat. That's why I'm not sure why they're not just using Ethereum. Well, I think I know why -- "let's use Ethereum!" isn't a fundable startup idea. But it's too bad, because I have a feeling Myanmar doesn't have even enough compute power to double-spend a single CryptoKitty.

And yeah, a government would certainly try to ignore facts it didn't like.