In Malay sub cultures, we were exposed a phenomenon where our ancestor heritage belived of mystical being and also ghost. Therefore, in our life we are very familiar with the names of Hantu Raya, Pelesit, Langsuir, Toyol and etc.

Religion never deny the existences of these demon. We can reveal about them from Quran and Hadis, it mentioned this situation as black magic and demon (jin)

As a person that grow up in Malay society and culture . I also being exposed to this kind of belief. For me I have 2 types of thinking about this matter.

1)Childhood time was full of imagination, fantasy and play. Children are very easy to be influenced with this kind of stories. They can easily fear to anything because their imagination are very high and in same time they create their own world regarding this matter.
During my childhood time, I feared to ghost even though I had never see them in real life. The belief came because I trusted certain people such as my grandmother, parents, relatives, neighbours and friends.
Majority of us belief the ghost story but at the same time majority of us had never see this demon in real life. For me life is bored without fantasy.

2) Second opinion is the moral from this believed. When the old man said “ada hantu air” it mean that he doesn’t want his children to play by or in river @ sea. Most of the drowned cases are children. When they told that don’t play during noon time this is because he want their children to come back for lunch. If they said don’t walk during night it mean he don’t want children to go out during night time and etc.

I don’t have specific answer regarding this matter because in holy Quran God Said.
“Apabila mereka bertanyakan kepada kamu tentang alam roh, maka katakanlah itu urusan Tuhanmu dan amat sedikit ilmu yang di berikan kepada manusia tentang roh”

My conclusion is mysterious things will remain mystery. The more you create fantasy The more things will be mysterious.