Winepak Corporation Sdn Bhd has agreed to discuss renaming their ‘Timah’ whisky and changing the image on the product label with their board of directors and stakeholders.
Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi, Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, said in a statement today that the company has requested one week to make a decision on the matter.
“This was the outcome of yesterday’s meeting between government and company representatives.”
“The meeting yesterday was a follow-up to the first meeting on October 25 between Winepak Corporation and the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO),” he explained.
Timah, a Malaysian-made whisky, drew criticism from a number of Malay Muslim netizens who thought the name “Timah” was a shortened version of the Arabic name Fatimah.
Some also claimed that the image of a bearded man wearing headgear on the bottle’s label was of a Muslim man.
The company, on the other hand, was quick to defend its decision.
According to a statement posted on Facebook on October 15, the product was named “Timah,” which means “tin” in Malay, due to the historical origins of whisky liquor brought into Malaya by British colonial during the tin-mining era.
According to the label, the bearded man on the liquor bottle is a depiction of Captain Speedy, a former Assistant British Resident in Larut, Perak, who was a key figure in introducing whisky during the colonial period.
The company denied any other interpretation of the product’s name and emphasised that Timah is intended for non-Muslims of legal purchasing age.
Winepak Corporation Sdn Bhd representatives told BusinessToday that all updates and decisions would be shared as soon as possible.
