KUCHING, Aug 21 ― Former Stampin MP Julian Tan and Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (Dapsy) Kuching called on the state government to install multilingual road signs throughout the state, especially in places of interests such as places frequented by tourists.
Tan believes that many areas in the city needed to have multilingual road signs (Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese) as they have a significant connection to Sarawak Chinese heritage.
“In areas near the Chinese History Museum at the Kuching Waterfront, for example, there is a need to have road signs in both BM and Chinese because we are expecting a lot of Chinese tourists to visit,” he told reporters near the museum yesterday.
Head of Dapsy Kuching Dapne Ting and other members were also present.
Tan expressed his disappointment that the local authorities seemingly did not realise the importance of multilingual road signs.
Tan and Dapsy Kuching members have taken the initiative to paste Chinese characters on several monolingual road signs in and around the city.
“Sarawak has long been a multicultural place for various groups of people to co-exist peacefully with each other. We hope this uniqueness can be reflected in many things such as road signs,” said Tan.
He also hoped that the Sarawak government would continue to promote multi-culturalism in the state, since its people were already very tolerant of each others’ culture for many years. ― Borneo Post
