(Rage.com.my) Yanu (not his real name) took his first sip of alcohol at seven years old, and didn’t want more.
His next alcoholic encounter was not quite so tame – he was 16, and in a bar on New Year’s Eve and couldn’t back down from a dare.
“A friend’s older cousin placed two bottles of whisky on the counter at the bar and said that if we (three of them) didn’t finish the bottles before midnight, we’d have to pay for them,” recalls the 22-year-old college student.
By the end of that night, they were all wasted – and Yanu was intoxicated with the “high” he experienced.
Yanu was only a teenager, but he was big and tall for his age. He somehow managed to buy alcohol even though the legal age to do so is 18. What’s more Muslims are banned from consuming alcohol under the Syariah Law.
Just last year, former model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was fined RM5,000 and ordered to be caned six times for drinking a glass of beer.
Many teenagers start trying out alcohol a little later than Yanu. Most of them probably start drinking towards the end of their seconday school years, when they are given more freedom to go out partying with their friends (but that of course also depends on the groups they hang out with).
Clubs usually do not admit those who are below 18, but there are so many avenues for youngsters to get their hands on alcohol – from raiding their parents’ alcohol stash to buying beer from the sundry shop to getting contraband alcohol from the “kedai balak” (slang for back-door liquor stores).
Yanu and his friends were regulars at their local contraband liquor shop. They drank in their homes when their families were not around. Otherwise, they’d head to public parks and pubs that wouldn’t ask for identification.
Yanu’s parents knew he drank alcohol, but he always played down the amount he consumed.
“I lied to them that I only drank a bit of beer. At times when I came home drunk, I would just say that I have a low tolerance for alcohol,” says Yanu, who also used mints and deodorants to mask the scent of alcohol on him.
In school and college, his teachers and lecturers pretty much left him alone because his grades were decent.
“I kept a low profile to deflect any suspicion, and my girlfriends never complained because they, too, were drinkers.” Being able to boast about how drunk he got gave him a rush, and Yanu drank through secondary school and his early days in college.
Within some circles, consuming alcohol is seen as some kind of a rite of passage to adulthood, and those who can hold their alcohol best are seen as being more macho.
By the age of 18, many youths admit to attending house parties and pooling money together to buy drinks at clubs.
Student Nicholas J. reveals that in college, the groups that are considered “popular” or “lively” are the drinkers.
“Pressure is definitely there if you are trying to fit into that group. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming,” says Nicholas, 19. Nicholas says that friends will not push someone to drink if they say they need to stay sober to drive home – but not without some censure.
“There will be a certain degree of isolation, which is no surprise,” he says.
“No point inviting someone who doesn’t drink to a drinking party, right?”
For Adrian Tan who started binge drinking at 18, it was all about the bragging rights. “There was no pleasure in drinking, only in boasting about it the next day and saying ‘I have such a bad hangover’. When I went to Britain to further my studies, it was more of a ‘social lubricant’ that helped us loosen up and express ourselves,” says Adrian, who drinks more moderately now that he no longer feels the need to prove anything.
There is less pressure for girls to drink themselves silly, but if you don’t drink along with the rest, you are considered a party pooper.
“You will be coaxed into drinking a lot, and most times the group will only be happy if you take a huge gulp,” says Magdalene Jane Chalil, adding that they loosened up with drinking games.
“You lose, you drink. Naturally, if you could hold your liquor well, you will also be deemed quickly as one of the ‘boys’ or a ‘tanker’,” says Magdalene, 25.
But for the girls who party, getting drunk and losing control of their senses could lead to potentially dangerous situations.
Magdalene was a seasoned drinker before she even stepped on college grounds, but was still very careful about how much, and where she drank.
“Drinking was mostly done at a club or at a friend’s place. The girls will encourage you to go along, one of the reasons being that the guys will pay or it’s ladies’ night. But at the club, the ‘girlfriends’ will never allow you to take drinks from other people we do not know even if it’s free,” she says.
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