Salleh teaches critics the meaning of ‘prefer’

In row over Internet speed, minister replaces it with 'rather' or 'choose'.

KUALA LUMPUR: Communications minister Salleh Said Keruak has taken to giving a lesson on semantics and English in the face of criticism of his comments about the Internet speeds in Malaysia.

He said his critics had chosen to make arguments based on semantics against his recent statement that 71 percent of Malaysians preferred the 386Kbps entry-level broadband packages offered by Telekom Malaysia.

It referred to their preference of choices as opposed to their satisfaction. “I was not using the word ‘prefer’ in the context of liking. I was referring to statistics where 71% subscribers choose the lower package over the others. And statistics do not lie. Cost is certainly the main consideration here and Malaysians put cost as the prime consideration when choosing any service.

“Therefore ‘prefer’ does not mean the liking of a lower Internet speed but about putting cost as the preference to speed.”

He criticised his critics for playing with words and meanings and said that “I retract that word and replace it with ‘rather’ or ‘choose’ … they all more or less mean the same.”