UCSI University’s Tajuddin Rasdi said he saw no harm in Nga apologising over what he described as “a misunderstanding of intentions” to quickly put the issue to rest.

“Just apologise, it’s not a big deal if we apologise for our misunderstanding of intentions. Discard the bad and take the good,” he said.

Nga drew brickbats for reprimanding an Utusan Malaysia reporter at the pre-launch of the “I Lite U” project in Kuala Lumpur yesterday after he was purportedly asked why the name of the programme was in English instead of Malay.

The DAP minister responded by asking the name of the media company the reporter was from, and said he would “call your chief editors because this concerns national interests”.

He said the project was aimed at attracting tourists ahead of the Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign, and the English name would give foreign visitors a “sense of belonging”.

Tajuddin said both the minister and reporter involved needed to do some self-reflection following the issue.

He said the reporter should have understood the purpose of naming gimmicks in such projects, adding that there should be no issue over the “I Lite U” name in the first place.

He pointed out that English has been used for various government programmes or projects in the past.

“If these are accepted by the rakyat, why should the ‘I Lite U’ project be an issue?” he said.