Opium Smoking Suppression Campaigns and The Role of Anti-Opium Movements In The Federated Malay States, 1906-1910

This article studies the history of opium smoking and anti-opium \nmovements in Federated Malay States (FMS). By the end of the 17th \ncentury, the Chinese community consituted the majority of opium \nsmokers due to the British and Chinese capitalists greed to gain profits \nthrough the rapidly growing opium trading. The emergence of anti-opium movements in FMS was triggered by a number of key elements \nsuch as the development of anti-opium movement in Britain and \nChina, and the spirit of nationalism among local Malayan Chinese \ntowards their Mainland China which was gradually weakening due \nto escalating number of opium problems. Spearheaded by Chinese \ncapitalists and a few Europeans, the anti-opium movement was \ntransformed into several anti-opium organizations that carried out \nvarious initiatives to suppress the opium smoking habits. This study \nfound that the anti-opium movement in FMS had played an important \nrole in influencing the British government to change its view and \npolicies on trade and smoking opium habit by 1910.