What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
By any other name would smell as sweet
- W Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
In its article Malay NGO sues Penang over signboards, Malaysiakini tells us that Gabungan Graduan Melayu Muda (GGMM) or Young Malay Graduates Federation is a newly-formed Malay graduates non-government organisation (NGO).
Today GGMM’s launched its first action by filing a suit seeking a High Court injunction against both the state government and the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) from erecting multi-lingual signboards for heritage-listed thoroughfares in old Georgetown.
In its suit GGMM claimed that the Penang State government in implementing the list of Penang heritage names on road signboards, has violated Article 152 of the federal constitution, which upholds the official status of Bahasa Malaysia.
Today GGMM’s launched its first action by filing a suit seeking a High Court injunction against both the state government and the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) from erecting multi-lingual signboards for heritage-listed thoroughfares in old Georgetown.
In its suit GGMM claimed that the Penang State government in implementing the list of Penang heritage names on road signboards, has violated Article 152 of the federal constitution, which upholds the official status of Bahasa Malaysia.
Malaysiakini photo
When I look at the above example of what has been done by Penang, I don’t see any evidence of our national language Bahasa Malaysia being replaced or even relegated to an inferior position by non-Malay road signs, so do wonder how GGMM could allege Article 152 has been violated.It’s a shame that young graduates would indulge in such ethnocentric posturing rather than promote better relationship among the various ethnic groups.
Another bunch of loony Mamaks...
ReplyDeleteYou know how I always bitch about our inferior education? This is precisely why.
ReplyDeleteDamned these MotherFuckers ie the Mamaks !
ReplyDeletexiean
ReplyDeleteI still need to discuss on the market , call me at 0164819529 . If it is not on leave a message , thanks .
Quote: It’s a shame that young graduates would indulge in such ethnocentric posturing rather than promote better relationship among the various ethnic groups.
ReplyDeleteMaybe these are the famous unemployed and unemployable local graduates who have too much free time on their hands.
Wow looking at the sign, I feel like I'm in Beijing/Shenzen as the sign in chinese stood out
ReplyDeleteWell what the hell...maybe we should declare Penang as Chinamen land..then everybody's happy
We're in Malaysia...by putting the chinese sign are you telling me there are still alot of chinese (who call themselves Malaysian) can't speak Malay?
Sori la but I can see how chinese are the ultimate racist lot, no respect to the majority and so racist to spend unnecessary public money to have chinese sign...there are a lot of issues in Penang such as the road BUT making this remeh issue SHOWS what are chinese/DAP priority.....
ps: I wonder who get the contract of chinese post?....$$$$$$$$
I do not agree with justmy2sen. However, he made a fair observation of the Malaysiakini picture. The Chinese sign do look more prominent and the Visit Malaysia logo prioritize it even more.
ReplyDeleteFrom the picture, I do get the impression that Lebuh Pantai is a Chinese area or is of Chinese heritage. It is like a territorial claim. I can see how that is divisive.
And this may be out of context but can somebody tell me WHY:-
ReplyDeleteWHEN A MALAY CALL CHINESE PENDATANG (WHICH IS TRUE), EVERYBODY IN THE BLOG WORLD (MAJORITY CHINESE) MAKE A BIG NOISE OUT OF IT BUT WHEN A CHINESE CALL MALAY PENDATANG (which is another tactic done by Lee Kuan Yew to get Singapore apart from Malaysian Malaysia), ALL YOU PEOPLE JUST KEEP QUIET..SENYAP..SUNYI..nice eh can choose sides like that
AND YOU CALL MALAY THE RACIST ONE?
fikir-fikirkanlah
BTW, BEFORE YOU GET TO CALL MALAY PENDATANG, CHECK OUT FACTS, DO RESEARCH, PROVE IT TO US...AND EVEN IF YOU WANT TO PROVE THAT ORG ASLI IS THE SON OF SOIL BUT IF IT WEREN;T FOR KESULTANAN MELAYU PROSPERITY, BRITISH WON'T INVADE AND BROUGH YOU LOTS HERE...IF MALAYSIA WERE STILL HUTAN, YOUR ANCESTORS WILL NOT EVEN TEMPTED TO COME HERE...FIKIRLAH..JANGAN MAIN CAKAP IKUT SEDAP MULUT JE
I'M GETTING TIRED OF SITUATION WHERE MALAYS NEED TO MENGALAH AND BEING BULLIED...WHERE MALAY CAN'T SPEAK THEIR MIND LEST BE CALLED UMNO TOTOK AND RACIST..
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
Ktemoc,
I choose to comment here coz you don;t filter comments as this comment wouldn;t get through if otherwise
How come in UK, there is no Urdu/Tamil signpost in a highly populated Indians/Pakistani area such as Bradford? They're happy and content with english sign post..I would imagine the fiasco if they actually demanded one...COST/WHO TO BEAR THE COST-PUBLIC FUND? would be utmost factor to be in consideration
ReplyDeleteDo you think a liberal government such as UK would allow that?..and if the liberal country doesn't even allow that, what makes you think it is neccessary in Malaysia...and public funds is better off used somewhere else like single mother charity or something
Judging by the Mkini pic, there's obviously something wrong. The BM one should be displayed prominently and the rest in same font size. Why is 'Beach St' hardly visible and the Chinese one looking even bigger than the BM one.
ReplyDeleteIf they were serious about tourism, what they would have done is do a thorough research and have more info detailing the origin, history and background of the street rather than just the name itself, even if Beach St is 'Ginhang Kay' or literally 'Bank St' in Hokkien it wouldn't make any sense to tourists.
why there isn't any Urdu/Hindi sign in UK is that there is no heritage (historical) reason to have such a sign. The heritage names in Penang relate to an historical era where the Malays, Chinese, Tamils had their own (language) names for basically roads and streets named in the Mat Salleh language.
ReplyDeleteSince large number of (mainly) Chinese at that time lived in the urban areas, and most couldn't pronounced the Mat Salleh name of, for example, Chulia Street, they coined their own Chinese (Hokkien) version according to their own commerical activity there (at that time), namely 'Gu-Garn-Tang' (or Cattle pen).
The naming of ONLY these heritage listed roads/streets (and not every road in Penang) is not so much to provide 'directions' to tourist, but to intrique/interest them in the history of Penang and its activites/events in those historical times.
Let's not be petty and split hairs over the size of the older/offical road signboards in the Bahasa version and the newer touristy versions for the heritage names. The State government can always upgrade the official versions.
BTW, 2 sens, Tunku kicked Singapore out of the Federation, not the other way around. If you read LKY's autobiography, he admitted that then he was quite panicky. Tunku thought Singapore couldn't survive without Malaysia and kicked Singapore out but only with the intention of frightening LKY, forcing him to crawl back with his tail between his legs, and be less troublesome in Parliament. But ... and the rest is history.
Nothing wrong about the additional languages, but it has to be done tastefully and with proper design and aesthetics.
ReplyDeleteI hate to repeat my comment but looking at the pic you provided, it looks out of place with the official version. Color was off and the font just does not match.
GGMM was wrong and so was the handling of the issue. Two loggerheads it seems. And two wrongs don't make a right.
Young Malay Graduates Federation? Or Umno lackey, seeing it was from just 2 weeks ago? We have this kind of 'graduates?' I wonder if they understand Article 152 in the 1st place.
ReplyDeleteA pro-tem committee member, businessman Nik Rizman Sapian, 33, from Kuala Lipis, filed the suit claiming that he felt obliged to stop the authorities from "belittling the official status of Bahasa Malaysia"
Belittling what again? Adding other languages below the existing Bahasa Melayu sign is 'belittling'? Then somebody should sue KLIA, KLCC as well.
The sign is done haphazardly. Placing a new plate for the Chinese name don't showcase Malaysian heritage, it only unfortunately shows Chinese heritage.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the Tamil name? Is Indian heritage not significant enough?
And who to say the Chinese name has more heritage than the English name?
If you wanna do something, do it right. Design an entirely new sign. Make the official BM name the most prominent followed by the heritage names in smaller but equal font size.
Constitutionally, legally and morally, if Bahasa is at the top of the sign, then there is nothing illegal or Unconstitutional about including signs in Tamil and Chinese, especially since it will augur well for Tourism.
ReplyDeleteThis is so in S'pore. So, what's the harm in doing it in M'sia?
The real issue is of course that these Racists will stir up these issues and so create an atmosphere of destabilisation to Divide and Conquer.
Did they protest when Jawi signs were put up in Selangor?
http:/donplaypuks.blogspot.com
I think its not UMNO this time--Its Independent Ibrahim Ali, 2 days ago his motion to discuss penang road signs was turned down in parliament.
ReplyDeleteIf we go back to Oct 10th 3 NGO's including GGMM asked the government
to take sterner action against Hindraf, with Ibrahim Ali echoing the same call.
I find it highly suspicious that just 2 days after Ibrahim's motion was rejected, action came in the form of GGMM, makes one wonder how Independent the Pasir Mas assemblyman really is- from the Hindraf issue to Penang roadsigns it seems that there is a concerted effort to gain cheap political milieage, read the two mini articles below and form your own conclusions.
Motion to discuss multilingual road signs rejected
------------------------------------------------------------
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — The Dewan Rakyat today rejected a motion by Datuk Ibrahim Ali (Ind-Pasir Mas) that the session be adjourned to discuss the move by the Penang state government to put up the names of roads in the state in various languages.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, in rejecting the motion, said that after scrutinising the motion, which was submitted in writing on Oct 31, he felt that there was no urgency for it.
"I have studied the motion in detail and I find that there are specific matters which are of public interest. But I feel, there is no necessity for urgency," he said at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
In his motion, Ibrahim said the move by the Penang state government clearly insulted the position of the Malay language as the national language and insulted the constitution, angering Malaysians who upheld the constitution.
"According to Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, the national language must be used for official purposes, as such road names are considered official business based on the National Language Act 1963/1967.
"The use of various languages can also cause much confusion," he said. — Bernama
3 NGO desak hukum Hindraf
-----------------------------------------
Written by Syah
Friday, 10 October 2008 06:40
Tiga pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) mahu kerajaan mengambil tindakan tegas terhadap pertubuhan haram, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) yang dilabelkan sebagai mengganggu keamanan negara. Presiden Gerakan Graduan Melayu Muda (GGMM), Mohd. Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz menegaskan kerajaan bukan sahaja perlu memberi amaran malah perlu menjatuhkan hukuman terhadap mereka. Setiausaha Agung Pertubuhan Pembela Perlembagaan Persekutuan (PPPP) merasakan akan ada lebih banyak kumpulan seperti Hindraf akan wujud jika ianya tidak dibendung dengan awal.
''Kerajaan harus tegas dengan Hindraf kerana jika tidak, lebih banyak kumpulan yang akan lahir dan sesuka hati menggugat keamanan negara dengan cara yang sama. Mereka jelas melanggar undang-undang jadi mengapa kerajaan minta rakyat tidak melayan mereka yang telah mengganggu masyarakat negara ini," katanya. Sementara itu, Presiden Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia, Datuk Ibrahim Ali turut mengkritik keputusan Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar yang hanya meminta rakyat tidak melayan kerenah Hindraf. –Malaysia Today
Remember fellow citizens, nothing is as it seems.
Vijay Kumar Murugavell
Ibrahim Ali cukup pandai meluat
ReplyDeleteTiu na sing, si beh cia lat
velai illathu porriky (Tamilfor-good for nothing)
oh what a tragedy
There you have it a quadrulingual pantun, I was thinking of inserting some bengali and german as well but it didnt rhyme...lol
Vijay Kumar Murugavell
What kind of Bahasa Malaysia Usage?
ReplyDeleteChualia Street is translate as Lebuh Chulia. But in KL, Petaling Street (not road) is translated as Jalan Petaling but one can still have Leboh Amapng in little India. What happen dewan pustaka?
Tamil heritage road names would only be placed for roads having such historical Tamil names - some thoroughfares have historical Chinese names, some Malay and even Arab ones and of course some Tamil names.
ReplyDeleteIt may well be some roads and streets may have 2 or more such heritage monikers.
But heritage listing doesn't mean the road must automatically have all the 3 languages of (old) Malay, Tamil and Chinese if there is no such historical names for the specific local language. That's why it's called heritage (historical) listing. It's not an insidiously deliberate attempt to increase the number of languages for the names of roads in Georgetown.
But Indians do have names for these roads and like the Chinese names, they have their own history.
ReplyDeleteSure the history is not popular among Chinese but ask a senior Indian and they will know the story behind the Tamil names.
It reeks of racial supremacy for you to suggest that Chinese heritage is more significant. Much worse that because you, as a Chinese, dismiss what you dunno as non-significant.
It is not adding names in different language for fun. It is showcasing Malaysia's heritage. The names born from the three main communities and the English names. Ultimately showing that we, united as Malaysians, now know it by the name in the national language.
As I said earlier, if you gotta do something, do it right.
Now, where did I say Chinese heritage is more significant than Tamil's, and where was it that I had dismissed as non-significant (allegedly doe to my lack of knowledge)?
ReplyDelete