KUALA LUMPUR, 11 Sept 2008: Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will only allow the use of the national language for road signs in the city.
DBKL director-general Datuk Salleh Yusup said any road signs having a different language would be taken down.
"People just cannot put up signs. Only the local authority can do that," he said when contacted today.
Salleh said several road signs in ‘Jawi’ (Arabic characters) had been accepted in Kampung Baru, Bandar Tun Razak and Datuk Keramat and as such were not taken down.
He was asked to comment on the action of Seputeh Member of Parliament, Teresa Kok Suh Sim, who wanted to replace ‘Jawi’ road signs with signs in Chinese, Tamil and English.
A local newspaper today showed a photograph of Kok beside a road sign that was put up by her DAP party in Bukit Bintang written in the national language, Chinese and Tamil but with no ‘Jawi’.
The road sign had not been approved by DBKL.
Meanwhile, Cheras Umno division chief Senator Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee said Kok’s action was to defy the existing laws on the matter.
"We have procedures and laws of local authorities on the matter. Do not change languages at will as it can heat up racial sentiments," he said.
He said Kok should rather discuss with DBKL and give her views if she was not satisfied with ‘Jawi’ road signs.
Syed Ali urged DBKL to address the matter quickly.
"DBKL cannot keep quiet. If this goes on it is not impossible that it will happen elsewhere," he said. – Bernama
