KUALA LUMPUR: The Environment and Water Ministry has urged for its full name to be used pending an official decision on the abbreviation.
This was following claims that the acronym for the ministry, 'MEWA', was akin to a word in the Kelantanese dialect meaning confused or stupid (bingung or bodoh).
In a statement, the ministry urged the media to maintain its full name since the acronym was still "in discussion".
On Thursday, the Ministry of Environment announced that it had been rebranded as the Ministry of Environment and Water (MEWA) in line with the government’s decision to allocate the responsibility of water management and environmental sustainability to it.
After the announcement, a news portal reported that ‘Mewa’, which is short for the ministry’s name meant confused or stupid in the Kelantanese dialect.
The portal reported that its minister Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the acronym for the ministry would only be decided at a cabinet meeting later.