Essay on Malaysia: Game of Thrones is Malaysia (Part 3)

     Welcome to the third and final part of my essay, "The Game of Thrones is Malaysia". I shall be covering the last 2 regions of the Seven Kingdoms, The Stormlands and the North, as well as that itsy bitsy area sandwiched between the North and the Riverlands along the Trident, known as the Crossing, and how they are connected to particular states in Malaysia

  8) The Stormlands and the North-Eastern state of Kelantan

    “Ours is the fury”

   The words of House Baratheon, Lords Paramount of the Stormlands

     Cersei Lannister once remarked to her father that Robert Baratheon was not very rich. Indeed, the Stormlands, which Robert’s family ruled since the days when Orys Baratheon took Storm’s End from the last of the Storm-Kings, was renowned for its martial culture more than anything else. The Stormlands were self-sufficient in terms of farming, and there were a few fishing villages and towns supporting the larger military forts in the region, but as Robert Baratheon once commented to Ned Stark, “All I wanted to do was crack skulls, and fuck girls.” The Stormlands produced good warriors, who epitomized the fury of the relentless storms that lashed their coasts, but not good kings.

     The state of Kelantan is known as the ‘The Land of Lightning’. It is a coastal-bound region in the East, renowned for the deadly lightning and crackling thunder following the monsoon rains striking its coasts at year’s end. And like the Stormlands, it was a fertile land, filled with rice paddy fields and fishing villages. In terms of martial culture, Kelantan was known for producing more Silat champions than any other Malaysian state. Silat is a traditional Malay martial art resembling Tai-Chi, emphasizing wavy, rippling movements and strikes to redirect an opponent’s attacks against them. There was something about the storm-rocked beaches of Kelantan. Practising Silat along its rough waves, as lightning flashed, and thunder crackled in the distant horizon. It was a different experience entirely.

9) The Crossing, and the State of Negri Sembilan

  “The Freys have held the Crossing for 600 years. And for 600 years they have never failed to exact their toil.”

  - Catelyn Stark, nee Tully, on her father Hoster Tully’s Bannerman, House Frey of the Twins.

     While not an official constituent region of the Seven Kingdoms, the Green Fork of the Trident River was one of the primary crossings between the North and the Riverlands. The cunning founder of House Frey realized mountains of gold in toll collection awaited the man who built a bridge over the Crossing. Thus he commenced construction of this bridge, complete with a squat ugly keep on either side of the river bank, supported by arrow-slits, portcullises and murder-holes. It took the Freys three centuries to complete ‘The Twins’, but when it was done, farmers, lords and merchants moving between the North and the Riverlands had no choice but to pay the toll exacted by the Freys. Thus House Frey grew rich over the 600 years they controlled the Crossing.

     Similar to the Twins guarding the Crossing, there is a town, in the state of Negri Sembilan named Nilai. The royal family of Negri Sembilan must be thankful to their ancestors for conquering the land in ages past, allowing them presently to reap the riches from land taxes collected from Nilai. The main campuses of two of Malaysia’s most famous universities are located there: INTI University, and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, along with several other smaller colleges, that attracts thousands of international students bringing with them much needed foreign exchange into the country. Those students, practically all at the tertiary level, are attracted to the greenery of the natural environs surrounding Nilai, the low cost of living, and the fresh air of the town.  

     In addition the intense intellectual milieu, one can find rich Malay cultural heritage in Nilai too, in the form of a massive textiles center, where for a competitive price, one is able to find the widest range of silk Batik shirts, cotton sarongs, beautiful kebayas, and luxurious draperies for one's bungalow or palace. Across from the textile center, off the main trunk road, is the most loved McDonalds in the region. You know this McDonalds is special when you find Singaporean cars lined up in droves at the drive through, 24/7. 

     One might assume travelling Singaporeans would find it more convenient to pull over at any one of the highway stops for a quick bite of KFC,Basking Robbins or Pizza Hut, but they chose to stray from the North South Highway into this quaint little town called Nilai for their fix of McNuggets and Big Macs. 

     But just as how Walder Frey, present Lord of the Twins, conspired with Roose Bolton to murder the majority of the Northern and River Lords at the Red Wedding, earning himself the title of Lord Paramount of the Trident for his ‘loyalty’ to the Crown as a reward, there are dissident waves emitting from the royal household of Negri Sembilan as well.

   The second son of the Sultan of Negri Sembilan, Tunku Abidin Muhriz, is an articulate, sharp-witted young noble educated by the British, who desired the reformation of Malaysia’s Parliament. Tunku is the word for Prince in Bahasa, and Tunku Abidin is the president and founder of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), a Malaysian think-tank serving as a medium for the proposal of market reforms and policy changes. He published a number of books, amongst which his third publication, ‘Roaming Beyond the Fence’ stands out, a collection of the Tunku’s libertarian ideas collected and published together in one tome. It remains to be seen, however, if like ‘The Late’ Walder Frey, will Tunku Abidin succeed in overthrowing the current status quo, and achieve his noble ambitions. 

     For the record, I do not advocate inviting the current members of Malaysia's parliament to a palace banquet in Negri Sembilan, and have them all poisoned over dessert. I am suggesting more conscientious intellectuals, and people of moral courage dedicated towards the creation of a better Malaysia, participate in and actively support  Tunku Abidin's endeavors. 

9) The North, and the Northernmost State of Perlis

“The Northerners will never forget”

  Tyrion Lannister, to his father Tywin, when King’s Landing received news of the Red Wedding.

     Here’s where George R R Martin proves his salt as a best-selling author. The northern-most state of Perlis is the smallest state in Malaysia, bordering Thailand. Perlis is a boring little state. There’s nothing much to talk about it. Except for the fact Malaysian border police was extremely vigilant there, as smugglers of arms and drugs journeying through Thailand’s jungles stop at the small towns in Perlis for a bit of R and R along the way into Malaysia.

    But his imagination clicked, and George R R Martin made Perlis interesting. He turned Perlis into the North, and made the North a cold, unloving place that was the largest region of the Seven Kingdoms, and he set the North as the background for some of the key plot-drivers for his story. He throws in all kinds of syrup and sprinkles over this delectable sundae of a tale, including stuff about a huge WALL, constructed by a mythical hero named Bran the Builder in the Age of Heroes, with the aid of Giants and magic, and guarded by the Night’s Watch, a ragtag band of misfits, criminals and high-born outcasts, against willy, spirited wildlings, giants, and of course, WHITE WALKERS.

    There is a possibility George R R  Martin may have based the idea of the White Walkers on the skeletal old drug mules scurrying about like rats at the Malaysian-Thailand Border, attempting their best to avoid capture by Malaysian border police. Over years of drug abuse, those mules became skin and bone, their eyes shining not an icy blue, but a sparkling grey that’s somewhat similar.

    Those drug mules are left with a few paltry strands of white hair over a balding head, and they are indestructible: Bullets pinged off them, blades bounced off them. Only tranquilizer darts of the heaviest potency were able to take them down. That’s probably where George R R Martin came up with the idea the White Walkers should be impervious to every normal weapon, save those made from Dragon-glass or Valyrian Steel.

      George R R Martin probably thought to himself, ‘I’m an award-winning author. I should add in a lot more depth and richness to the story.  So he sets the invasion of the White Walkers in a greater historic setting, that House Stark, along with the rest of the First Men defeated the first coming of the White Walkers with the aid of the Children of the Forest, and banished them into the True North, erecting a great WALL to keep them out, and establishing the Night’s Watch to make sure the White Walkers stayed out. So therein lay the origins of the words of House Stark: ‘Winter is Coming’.

     But what were the origins of the phrases ‘The North Remembers', and  ‘The Northerners will never forget’? George R R Martin, whilst on holiday in Perlis, clad in a cool blue Hawaiian shirt with windy palm-trees, three-quarter length khaki shorts and a comfortable pair of Crocs, must have witnessed first-hand, a successful drug bust by the Malaysian police, as the mules must have stayed at a motel near his. Walking out from his room with his favorite smoking pipe in one hand, and a dark-haired beauty clad tastefully in a local sarong in the other, George must have seen the deadly glares the drug mules directed at the police when they were caught, and that sent a chill down his spine. 

     It must have dawned upon him those drug gangs will bear a grudge against the police to their graves, and one day, those gangs will come for the police when they least expect it. That probably served as inspiration for the destruction and dispersal of House Stark, but the Starks will prevail, and there will come a time, House Stark shall return, and wreck terrible vengeance upon those that wronged them.

     That concludes my essay 'The Game of Thrones is Malaysia'. There are five states of Malaysia I have left un-discussed, but I like to propose that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad be engaged as a consultant for any future ASOIAF novels, as Malaysia's diverse environment, rich culture and long history serves for great inspiration for Mr George R R Martin. But like any other hardcore fan, I eagerly await the release of  the next season of Game of Thrones, due for broadcast on HBO in  April 2016, and I shall observe how George R R Martin steals more ideas from my great nation, and I shall update my research and you folks accordingly. 

     Thanks for reading! And have a good day!