DECEMBER1 — “In Kuala Lumpur, traffic is congested along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim heading to Petaling Jaya. It is bumper to bumper along Lebuhraya Sultan Iskandar to Jalan Tun Razak and traffic is starting to build up from Jalan Sentul all the way to Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah. Traffic ranger Alvin reports there has been an accident in Persiaran Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin while a burst pipe in Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra has caused a 3km traffic snarl in the area.”
Huh? What? Where?
Imagine listening to such a traffic update during rush hour. You look at your watch, and it’s already 8.30am and you start considering your options.
Get your co-driver to Google it up? Ask friends on Facebook? Wake your fiance up and ask for help?
If you are lucky, and if your loved ones are awake at 8.30am, then you can try calling them asking for directions. 
“What is the new name for Lebuhraya Mahameru? I am not familiar with the new road names and I need you to help me check, so I don’t get caught in traffic.”
“It’s 8.30am and you are asking me for directions? Hold on, let me check and I’ll let you know,” your fiance replies.
You continue driving as you wait for your better half to return your call. But even before you can say haiyo, you realise that Lebuhraya Sultan Iskandar is actually Lebuhraya Mahameru the moment you get stuck in the long massive snarl.
Such is the dilemma many road users have been and will be facing for the next three months (some even more) before it is etched in our head that Persiaran Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin is the new name for Persiaran Duta and Jalan Semarak is now known as Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra.
Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor had over the weekend clarified saying the idea to change the road names last week was a suggestion by the ministry and not made upon the request of the Conference of Rulers as reported earlier.
The minister said the renaming of roads was done with the aim to remind city dwellers, and Malaysians as a whole, of the names of our former Yang diPertuan Agong as they are a part of Malaysia’s monarch system.
One wonders what were the guidelines which were set by the ministry before it shortlisted the the roads which would be given new names.
While celebrating and remembering the names of our rulers is something which every Malaysian should know without a doubt, questions are being raised on whether more thought should have been put into the entire exercise to ensure the roads which were renamed befit a king.
While Jalan Duta is a major road in the city which used to, as the name suggest, house many embassies, the same cannot be said about Jalan Khidmat Setia (Jalan Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin) or Jalan Khidmat Usaha (Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah).
Why didn’t the authorities rename more famous roads like Jalan Raja Laut (which houses City Hall’s headquarters), Jalan Raja (which houses Dataran Merdeka) or Jalan Ampang (which was previously suggested to be renamed Jalan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) instead?
In any case, why didn’t the ministry reserve new roads for our kings or rename several roads in Putrajaya to honour our monarchs?
Imagine unsavoury activities in certain areas being reported in the press and our beloved monarch gets dragged in. There are certain areas in the city with high number of vice activities including prostitution and surely we do not want the names of our past rulers, for example Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah to be published in the papers for the wrong reasons.
What about roads like Jalan Raja Chulan or Jalan Raja Bot? Will our younger generation one day think these roads were also named after our kings?
What assurance do we have that people will know and appreciate the names of those plastered on road signs?
I have my utmost respect to our monarchs. And as such, we must understand the roles and contribution of our rulers.
Knowing our rulers better is more than just placing their names on road signs.
An individual does not simply change his or her name without a clear reason and same can be said about the exercise here.
A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
