Now a question mark over Timah manufacturing licence

 

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said the authorities should not play politics over Timah whisky.

PETALING JAYA: The manufacturing licence of the company behind the controversial ‘Timah’ whisky has yet to be renewed, says Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

She said the licence of the whisky producer, Winepak Corporation Sdn Bhd, had expired in October and urged the authorities “not to delay (the renewal) or play politics”.

When contacted, Winepak Corporation director Kenny Yeo said the minister for domestic trade and consumer affairs, Alexander Nanta Linggi, “has given them his word that it will be renewed” and the company expects that it will be done “as soon as possible”.

The question over the licence renewal came in a statement by Kok welcoming a Cabinet decision to allow the use of the brand name Timah.

Kok said “it’s about time to end this nonsensical episode”, a reference to a controversy over the alleged similarity of the brand name Timah to the Muslim name Fatimah, and the use of an image on the label which was assumed to be that of a Muslim man.

Yeo had confirmed earlier today that the Cabinet had agreed to allow the manufacturer to continue to use the brand name Timah. However, it must include an explanation on the label that “Timah” was a reference to tin ore.

Last week Winepak had said it would have consultations over whether to change the brand name and logo after complaints that the use of Timah was tantamount to an insult of Islam because of its similarity to the name of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah.

However, Winepak had said that the name was derived from the Malay word for tin, while the man on the label was Captain Tristram Speedy, a 19th century explorer and adventurer who brought peace to the tin mining area of Larut, Perak. - FMT