Jalan Taman Seputeh
In the near future, all the roads in Kuala Lumpur will be erected with the road signs with Bahasa Malaysia and Jawi words. Most people in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia cannot read Jawi. This made us wonder why DBKL erected so many road signs with Jawi words.
In the Seputeh constituency, the residents in Taman Seputeh were the first to make noise over the road signs with Jawi words. I found out that many roads in Taman Tan Yew Lai have Jawi words now. I then called a second press conference a few days ago.
Taman Tan Yew Lai
Today, the four DAP MPs in Kuala Lumpur presented a multilingual Muhibbah road sign board and a memorandum to the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur.
Penghantaran Memorandum kepada Datuk Bandar di DBKL
Tan Kok Wai showed a road name plate design plan of DBKL to the press. The plan
shows the Islamic design of the name plate.
The 4 DAP MPs presented the Muhibbah road signboard to En Shaari,
the PA to Datuk Bandar of Kuala Lumpur.
14 Februari 2008
Kepada
Y Bhg Datuk Abdul Hakim Borhan
Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur.
Y Bhg Datuk,
Memorandum Berkenaan Dengan Papan Tanda Jalan Yang Mengandungi Tulisan Jawi di Kuala Lumpur
Kami, bekas Ahli Parlimen DAP di Kuala Lumpur ingin membentangkan isu berkenaan dengan banyak papan tanda jalan telah ditukar kepada papan tanda jalan baru yang mengandungi perkataan Jawi bagi pihak ramai pembayar cukai di Kuala Lumpur.
1. Apakah rasional DBKL menukar banyak papan tanda jalan yang masih baik kepada papan tanda jalan yang mengandungi tulisan Jawi? Kuala Lumpur merupakan ibukota yang mempunyai pelbagai kaum, ramai penduduk di Kuala Lumpur langsung tidak faham tulisan Jawi, kenapakah DBKL memasukkan tulisan yang kebanyakan orang tidak faham dalam papan tanda jalan di Kuala Lumpur?
2. Sehubungan dengan itu, kami perhatikan juga bukan sahaja papan tanda jalan digantikan, tetapi tiang besi dan konkrit papan yang baru juga digantikan. Bukankah ini melibatkan lebih perbelanjaan dan apakah ini perlu dilakukan oleh DBKL?
3. Papan tanda baru memaparkan tulisan Jawi mengurangkan ruang bagi tulisan Rumi, ini menyebabkan orang ramai sukar untuk membaca papan tanda jalan berkenaan.
4. Kualiti papan tanda jalan: — papan tanda yang baru diperbuat bahan plastik yang tidak setinggi mutu kualitinya berbanding dengan papan tanda dahulu yang diperbuat bahan aluminiam.
5. Di beberapa tempat di Kuala Lumpur, misalnya Taman Seputeh, banyak papan tanda jalan ditegakkan pada beberapa bulan yang lepas. Para penduduk di Taman Seputeh tidak faham kenapakah DBKL menurunkan papan tanda jalan yang masih baru untuk digantikan dengan papan tanda yang mengandungi tulisan Jawi, khususnya kebanyakan penduduk di Taman Seputeh langsung tidak faham tentang tulisan Jawi.
Persoalan kami:
1)Kenapakah DBKL tidak berunding dengan wakil rakyat dan persatuan penduduk sebelum menegakkan papan tanda jalan?
2) Ramai penduduk dan pembayar cukai di Kuala Lumpur merasa kecewa terhadap DBKL kerana tidak mengisi lubang jalan (potholes), membaiki parit, membina pejalan kaki, memotong rumput dan mengadakan kemudahan lain walaupun banyak aduan telah dibentangkan kepada DBKL, tetapi DBKL sanggup menggunakan berjuta-juta ringgit untuk menukar kesemua papan tanda jalan di seluruh Kuala Lumpur. Bukankah ini menunjukkan DBKL salah meletakkan keutamaan (priority)?
3) Kami tidak faham kemasukan tulisan Jawi dalam papan tanda jalan, padahal tulisan rasmi Bahasa Malaysia pada amalannya adalah tulisan Rumi.
Cadangan Kami:
Memandangkan Kuala Lumpur merupakan ibukota yang mempunyai pelbagai kaum yang memahami 3 bahasa utama, iaitu Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Tionghua dan bahasa Tamil, maka kami mencadangkan supaya DBKL menegakkan papan tanda jalan MUHIBBAH, iaitu papan tanda jalan yang mengandungi tulisan Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Tionghua dan Bahasa Tamil.
Kami berpendapat papan tanda MUHIBBAH ini bukan sahaja boleh difahami oleh orang ramai, ia juga boleh membayangkan kepelbagaian kaum dan bahasa di masyarakat Kuala Lumpur kepada pelancong asing kita.
Sekiranya DBKL enggan menyahut cadangan kami, kami bagi pihak para persatuan penduduk dan para pembayar cukai di Kuala Lumpur juga ingin menyeru DBKL untuk menghentikan kerja penggantian papan tanda jalan yang mengandungi tulisan Jawi tersebut dengan serta-merta.
Kami sebagai pembayar cukai di Kuala Lumpur ingin menyeru DBKL untuk menggunakan wang cukai rakyat dengan cermat dan jimat. Kami juga menyeru DBKL untuk menggunakan berjuta-juta ringgit yang sepatutnya dibelanjakan pada papan tanda jalan tersebut kepada projek kerja awam yang benar-benar membawa manfaat kepada semua penduduk di seluruh Kuala Lumpur.
Sekian, terima kasih.
Yang benar,
Dr Tan Seng Giaw Tan Kok Wai Fong Kui Lun Teresa Kok
The amount of money that went out, the approval process and the money trail will make interesting reading.
Agree that the muhibbah road sign is the way to go. In Singapore and Sarawak, road signs reflect the multiple ethnic. They even have Thai language signs in area where may Thais live and work.
In the company I used to work for, we take care to speak languages that can be understood by all present.For example, when a few Chinese and a Malay sit together, the Chinese do now speak mandarin or dialects and speak English or Malay instead. It shows respect.
The assessments and road tax should be used to clean up rubbish, put up more dustbins, clean up the streets, put up more lights to promote safety and repair roads instead. These are priority. I don’t think the previous road signs created any problem so why waste money replacing them and I think the Auditor General can give his opinion on the degree of care in terms of allocation of resources.
I am all for local council elections and indeed the annual budgets and financial reports of each local authority should be publised in news papers. There should be nothing secretive or related to national security about it.
This is not a fresh issue in Muar, Johor. We used to see all road signs with both Bahasa Malaysia and Jawi right here since I was very young. But still we were with our very own ‘Taman’ signs before for most of the ‘Taman’ right here. Mostly of them was with Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Cina before.
But since last year, MPM was standardizing signs for all ‘Taman’….Removed all old sign, which completed with Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Cina….Yet replaced with black background sign with golden yellow words on all signs. Still there is with Bahasa Malaysia on it, but no more Bahasa Cina and replaced with Jawi… Some ‘Taman’ neighborhoods spent own bucks and made small Bahasa Cina signs for their very own ‘Taman’… Sadly some sign was been removed right after few days or few weeks later.
Personally I am very sure that all Malays know Bahasa Malaysia, so who else gona read Jawi? All are Chinese staying in my ‘Taman’, majority of them were senior citizen and dun really know how to read others than Chinese words. How can you expect them to read Jawi if they dun even know how to spell our ‘Taman’s name in Malay?
Perhaps the motive behind is not for reading of general public…………
Yesterday evening, I noticed that the jawi words are missing from some of the road signs in Tmn Seputeh. I think this is due to one of the following:-
1) The “quality” of the road sign which is so bad that the wordings started dropping off after 2 weeks or
2) It is election time. So, remove it for time being and put it back after that or
3) Result of vandalism.
The impact of 1) – this means the road signs has to be replaced and the contractor will make more money.
The impact of 2) – this will also involves money because someone has to be paid to remove this and another round for putting it back
The impact of 3) – the authority has to act on it to prevent further damage on the road signs. Again, this also involves money because they need to replace new ones and also probably hire someone to safe guard the road signs.
Whatever it is, the entire exercise is a total waste of public funds!
I think it is a common misunderstanding of Malaysians that Jawi is very “Islamic”. Jawi is but a form of writing used by the Malays originally to express their language, and has nothing to do with Islam or the Koran. Had Malaysia (Malaya) not been ruled by the British for that several hundred years, the Malay Language would still be written in Jawi today. It was romanized to suit the needs of the British and what we study and use today is in fact a mutation.
Teresa Kok Menulis…
“3) Kami tidak faham kemasukan tulisan Jawi dalam papan tanda jalan, padahal tulisan rasmi Bahasa Malaysia pada amalannya adalah tulisan Rumi.”
Jawapan:
Bahasa Melayu adalah Bahasa Kebangsaan Malaysia termaktub dalam perlembagaan. Bahasa Melayu wujud dalam 2 bentuk tulisan iaitu Tulisan Rumi dan Jawi.
Sebagai bekas Ahli Parlimen yang memahami perlembagaan, sepatutnya dia mempersoalkan kenapa baru sekarang nak letakkan jawi, bukannya mempersoalkan kenapa ada jawi.
Anyway, the road signs today do not serve their original purpose but found a new “utility”, serving as public notice boards for adhering advertisements of “loan sharks”. Most of the road signs in KL have gone to such use and it is impossible to read what was originally written on such signs. Shouldn’t action be taken against such vandals? They are destroying public property. It would be easy for the authorities to nab these culprits since the phone numbers are indicated on these advertisements and with the compulsory registration of handphones (prepaid), nabbing these culprits would be an easy job for the police.
why need muhibbah sign? indian and chinese cant read Malay? please abolish vernacular school then ….
It is very much not acceptable that Chinese and Indian cannot read BM. Send them back to C****
BM in its original form exist in jawi, and latter after British occupation, also in rumi.
If you take out jawi because you say that you cannot understand it, how about the signboards in Chinese ? We MAJORITY Malaysian cannot understand that too. Take that off too.
And please also stop cakap Cina in your ceramah. I dont understand a s*** what you’re saying.
If you don’t understand the basis of it, please ask the less Chinese cauvinist member of DAP. They can alleaviate misunderstanding.
You Theresa, is a good UMNO campaigner. It was babi then, now this jawi thing. Your name equals “burden” for Pakatan Rakyat. Stop being Chinese P**.
the act to wipe out Jawi characters and replace them with chinese and indian characters can be mis-intepreted, or questioned, despite the memorandum given.
Reason: ramai penduduk di Kuala Lumpur langsung tidak faham tulisan Jawi.
This is unreasonable. Adakah semua penduduk faham tulisan cina dan india yang tertera?
Another Reason: Papan tanda baru memaparkan tulisan Jawi mengurangkan ruang bagi tulisan Rumi, ini menyebabkan orang ramai sukar untuk membaca papan tanda jalan berkenaan
And adding two more languages doesnt make it crowded? unreadable? i really can’t make sense out of this.
Roman characters (Bahasa Melayu) should be the only language used in these signboards. It is after all the national language. It is every citizen’s RESPONSIBILITY to understand it. In countries like Japan, China, they maintain the use of national language on signboards regardless the fact that many tourists dun understand these boards.
Removing one and adding two more (not national language) to these boards doesnt potray muhibbah at all. It is more likely to show that Malays read malay words, Chinese read chinese words, Indians read indian words… (although even some chinese n indian can’t read these characters). It look like a separation than muhibbah.
It’s weird how small issues like signboard can cause a lot of stir in our country… even makes me think again what muhibbah is all about in this country….???? I love the everything about multiracial… but today…. implementation vise.. it scares me how ppl make use of small issues like this to cause racial discomfort to certain groups.
ms teresa, can u help us to resolve our problem?.
There will be a development of buddha temple called ‘Bodhi Temple’ in our ‘Taman’ call ‘Desa Alam’ which located at Seksyen U12, Desa Alam, Shah Alam. we have protest the development because:
1) Majority of resident’s (99%) is malay and muslim.
2) They claim, the temple is for local resident and people around it, but we as resident don’t need it. It is outsider who will come and congested our Taman/Desa.
3) The temple will be 150 meter from existing surau, for sure, in the future, this temple will complaint a lot, and a lot, about our surau
4) We are so curious and wonder, how MBSA can approve this project as they already know it is muslim area.
5) And we also wonder, how they can buy the land very cheap, more lower than our terrace house. it’s even not reach 100K. We suspect bribery and dirty agreement on this issue.
6) If they are desperate to develop ‘Bodhi Temple’. Please move it to an area where majority is buddhist.
If you can do that ‘amazing’ on the road sign. How about you help us here. Please come and see with your own eyes, how near the temple.
Nowadays people do not even know to prioritize. This goes to both, the MPs as well as the DBKL.
As for the DBKL if the Bahasa Malaysia’s signboards that have existed there for so long and if they are still in good condition, why bother replacing?
In our country everything must look pretty, nice, GRAND, EXPENSIVE and yet, lack of efficiency.
To the MPs, why do we need a so-called “Muhibbah??” signs for? I agree with HanizarH that it would look a disintegration rather than integration of the people of Malaysia.
Malay read malay words, Chinese read Chinese words,Indian, Iban, Kadazan and so forth. Might as well put all the dialects on the signboards too.
When they put up something in Bahasa Malaysia, it means for every malaysian or untuk semua rakyat malaysia. Why is it so difficult to be understood?
Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and etc, are some of the countries that are close to Malaysia. They have people from many ethnic backgrounds too but they maintain and uphold to their National Languages respectively. Why? Because they know their duty and responsibility for being the citizen of those countries.
There a lot of chinese, malays, indian ethnic backgrounds in Thailand but do you see your so-called “Muhibbah” signages everywhere over there? Absolutely NO!
Bahasa Cina and Bahasa Tamil are not the national language of Malaysia. These 2 ethnics are free to speak their mother tounge language in Malaysia (unlike our neighbouring countries, minus Singapore as Singapore is trying to create its image from scratch) but please respect others who do not come from your mother-tounge speaking background.
Speak Bahasa Malaysia or English among different ethnics. It is rude to speak a language that one does not understand it and moreoverly it is spoken in front of the person. Please understand this.
You can’t deny the fact that Malay or Bahasa Malaysia is the national language of Malaysia that its people are ought to understand it to qualify for its citizenship. Otherwise why bother becoming Malaysian? Tell me.
cheers
Hey, this is Malaysia, not China, not India and road signs therefore should be in Bahasa. It’s strange that we talk of wanting unity/Bangsa Malaysia but at the same time, we want everything to reflect all the different races. How can we achieve this if we have this kind of mindset?
If the protest was because of wastage of public funds, I agree but if you fight to put other languages in, it’s a big no. Save the money and help the poor.
And Teresa, you already know they are coming after you and will definitely look for trouble, then you should be more careful with your choice of words. Choice of words, especially for politicians is important. It can hurt or calm people even if you don’t mean it that way. Your opponents will use it to destroy Pakatan. Don’t fall into that trap.
God bless you and may you choose your words wisely.
At least with Jawi, the middle eastern and african can also understand. They are our major tourists now. Think from different perspective and angle. Show your creativity and smart thinking as MP – you are people rep. Otherwise what diferences you have with people that you are representing.
The roman word is understandable by all Malaysian (literate). If they don’t, send them to normal school not SJKC.
Saya fikir anda perlu muasabah diri sendiri dahulu sebelum menyalahkan orang lain. Dari apa yang anda lakukan dan katakan anda adalah seorang yang racist dan tidak memperdulikan perasaan orang Melayu.