KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Shah Alam’s road signs that are in both Malay and Chinese languages will have to be replaced with versions using only the national language, the Selangor Sultan has decreed today.
Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s private secretary Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani relayed the decree to the Selangor government in a letter today, and said the move must be completed before the ruler’s birthday.
“The operations to change these road signs have to be done immediately and be completed at the latest before the Selangor Sultan’s 73rd birthday, that is on December 11, 2018,” said a copy of the letter sighted by Malay Mail, that was also copied to the Shah Alam mayor.
The letter comes after a recent controversy over road signs in Shah Alam that had featured both the Malay language and Chinese characters.
On November 15, Twitter user @khairulryezal had questioned the use of road signage that also featured Chinese, besides the Malay language.
The Twitter user claimed the Shah Alam city where he stayed was “unique”, saying the majority of its residents are Malays unlike Kepong, Bukit Bintang and Seputeh in Kuala Lumpur.
The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) had then via its official Twitter account @sacitycouncil informed the Twitter user that the Selangor government had previously decided to use dual-language signages based on the local community.
MBSA had then said that the Selangor government’s local government executive committee had on January 13, 2017 decided that besides using Latin script in dual-language road signs, Jawi script would be used in traditional villages while Mandarin characters will be used in “new villages”.
Yesterday, local daily Sinar Harian reported Malaysian National Writers Association (PENA) president Mohamad Saleeh Rahamad saying that changing signs featuring road names written in Jawi script to other languages such as Chinese and Tamil was “rude”, and that it would allegedly amount to an attempt to remove Malay heritage.
Jawi script was formerly used in Malaysia to transcribe the Malay language, before the popularisation of the Latin script.
Malaysia’s foremost authority on Bahasa Melayu, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), today said it viewed seriously the use of languages other than the national language for road signs.
“DBP is of the view that this matter should not arise as the Federal Constitution’s Article 152, states that the national language is the Malay language and shall be used for official purposes,” it said.
“The language used on road signs are also covered as the language used in official matters,” it added.
It went on to explain that the National Language Acts 1963/1967’s Section 2 states that the national language should be used for official purposes.
It also highlighted the same law’s Section 9, which states that the national language shall be in the “Rumi script” or Latin script, “provided that this shall not prohibit the use of the Malay script, more commonly known as the Jawi script, of the national language”.
“DBP is of the view that based on the provisions of the Constitution and the National Language Acts 1963/1967, the national language should be used in all official government matters including the use of the national language on road signs,” it added.
Noting that the choice of language for road signs fall under the local authorities’ jurisdiction, it went on to say that it hoped all parties will uphold the Constitution’s spirit and comply with the National Language Acts’ provisions.
