LETTER | How about Tea Mah for the home market?

LETTER | More than enough have been said regarding the name of a local whiskey that won international accolades recently. Sadly, the furore again exposed many at the highest level to be intellectually challenged and overwhelmed by emotions.

Their pronouncements and rationale have succeeded in making our country a laughing stock around the world. While other societies continued to progress at a slow but steady pace after the Second World War, I have witnessed ours regressing from the 1970s.

While science and technology have improved by leaps and bounds, particularly in recent years, our society is moving at an equal pace in the opposite direction.

Many people have become insular and narrow-minded instead of tolerant and broad-minded, thanks to our education system.

If I am the bottler, I would ramp up production of Timah for the export market without changing the label. As for the home market, I would use a different name from among the thousands that could be submitted by running a naming contest.

In this way, I could gain handsomely in both the international and home markets from all the publicity, which no advertising and promotions could match for effectiveness.

But I would rather trade all the extra profits for the good name of my country and progress of our people.

As for the name to be used in the home market, may I suggest Tea Mah, words which many Malaysians can relate to. For connoisseurs of whiskey raising a toast, ending with Tea Mah would be more hilarious than saying cheers.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.