A Preliminary Study Of Khamr Drinking In The Malaysian Malay Societies

Abstract

The practice of khamr drinking during the pre-Islamic era in the Malay world is considered as part of tradition among the Malays and brought multiple social meanings. However, the arrival of Islam to the most regions in the Malay world, Malays are significantly known as Muslims who must refrain themselves from being khamr drinkers. Since then, drinking is seen as social deviance in the Malay society. The Malay Peninsular and later became Malaysia, at the time of pre- and post-colonisation introduced laws classifying khamr as one of the controlled substances. From the Malaysia context, Islam is gazetted as the official religion, Islamic laws were implemented explicitly on the issues of khamr among the Malays. Therefore, this paper aims to illustrate the scenario on khamr drinking in the Malaysian Malay society during and after the British ruling. Data was collected through library research, observation and interviews with related individuals and agencies pertaining to problems and issues regarding drinking in Malaysia and cases that involved the Malays. The main finding of this research is that the drinking culture among the Malaysian Malays was widely influenced by the British due to the effects of colonization that have been absorbed in the government system. The Malay drinkers are from upper, middle and lower classes. This scenario is considered as essential key points in order to study the background profile of the Malay drinkers and social factors that led them to be involved in khamr drinking.