DAP deputy secretary-general Teresa Kok questioned if the matter of offensive brand names was under Tuan Ibrahim’s job scope, urging him to focus on matters related to his own ministry instead.

The Seputeh MP said top world leaders and ministers were currently attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, but Tuan Ibrahim seemed to be more concerned about other matters not pertaining to the environment.

“Is the name of a Malaysian whisky going to increase carbon emissions in Malaysia or pollute the water sources?

“As Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said, all ministers will be evaluated within 100 days. I wonder what Tuan Ibrahim’s performance report will be like?

“Is he going to present the list of brand names of products which sound sensitive to Muslims that have been barred from being sold as his 100-day KPIs (key performance indicators) as the environment and water minister?” she said in a statement today.

Kok urged the PAS deputy president to instead focus on enhancing public awareness on environment protection and climate change, rather than sensationalising trivial issues based on race and religion.

Yesterday, Tuan Ibrahim announced that the Cabinet had agreed to bar the production of goods with brand names that can affect the sensitivities of any race or religion, following the controversy over the name of a whisky brand.

In recent weeks, several parties had voiced their unhappiness over Malaysian-made whisky “Timah”, claiming it sounded like a shortened version of the Arabic name Fatimah and that the image of the man on the bottle looked like a person wearing a “kopiah” or a Muslim skullcap.

The word “Timah” refers to the Malay word for tin. Its manufacturer, Winepak, however, has said it plans to change the whisky’s name following a meeting it attended with representatives of various ministries.