ABCs in MOT

More than 6 months as a civil servant, I have come to realise that gomen-speak is littered with acronyms. It is something which one needs to get used to. Coming from a journalism background, I thought it wouldn't be all that difficult. How wrong I was.

Sure, some journalists have caught on to the commonly used ones. Like KSU (Ketua Setiausaha or sec-gen), or KP (Ketua Pengarah or director-general). The less common ones I took a while to get used to. They include SUB (setiausaha bahagian or undersecretary, a fairly senior post in the service) or PSU (Penolong Setiausaha). Others are like KPSU, PT or LO, which I am not bothered to translate.

I had no problems figuring out that YBM stands for Yang Berhormat Menteri but it took me a while to realise that YBTM referred to the Deputy Minister. I had to ask a colleague to find out that PUU stands for Penasihat Undang-Undang.

Sometimes, English acronyms are preferred, despite Malay being the official language. We hear "MOT" everyday, never "KP" for Kementerian Pengangkutan. I guess it due to practical reasons as the "P" can refer to anything from Pertahanan to Pelajaran. In the same way, "MOF" is more commonly used to refer to the Treasury, not "KK" which can also be taken as the Health Ministry.

Letters and internal memos are littered with these acronyms, making the documents appear more "official" than they already are. Even we staff are known by acronyms. Sometimes, we say: "SUSK has gone out for lunch", without even referring to the person's name.

True, acronynms are also used in the corporate sector, like MD, CEO or CIO. Or even in journalism (GE, EIC, OC). But the use there is not as widespread as in the civil service.