DECEMBER 4 — The decision of the Federal Housing and Local Government Ministry to implement Federal guidelines for road sign has received criticism from a lot of Sarawakians including MPs from both sides of the political divide.
Many Sarawakians expressed their displeasure over the purported imposition of an alien value that is non-existent in Sarawak, as road signs and advertisement billboards bearing Chinese words have existed in Sarawak for decades.
Multilingual road signs are common in Sarawak and is one of the characteristics of the Sarawakian culture and the Sarawak way of life which we proudly make known to our visitors.
Just like Sarawak has its immigration autonomy in regulating the entry of non-East Malaysians into its land, it too has autonomy in regards to local government affairs pursuant to Local Authorities Ordinance 1996.
Since Sarawak formed Malaysia in 1963, English has always been one of the official languages in Sarawak as under Section 161(3) of the Federal Constitution, any Act of Parliament that terminates or restricts the use of the English language shall not come into operation unless it has been approved by an enactment of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly.
The National Language Act 1963/1967 which requires the use of Bahasa Malaysia for official purposes has no legal effect in Sarawak as the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly has not approved the Act by enactment as required under Section 1(2) of the Act. Accordingly, as far as Sarawak is concerned, road signs can either be in Bahasa Malaysia, English or Chinese.
The ministry’s federal guidelines do not sit well with the federal government’s promise of devolution of powers which allows Sarawak to enjoy greater autonomy.
The motive of those guidelines which is said to promote and strengthen the use of Bahasa Malaysia does not contribute to nation-building because the furtherance of multilingualism is a necessity in a multilingual society like Malaysia.
Singapore has shown that it is able to manage its ethnic diversity successfully by making four languages, i.e, English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil its official languages.
To merely encourage the use of Bahasa Malaysia in this country is to ignore and to turn a deaf ear to the wishes of our many communities for a multilingual and multicultural society.
Leaders must not be insensitive to the sentiments on the ground in Sarawak and any decision that affects Sarawak must be deliberated cautiously in accordance with the wishes of Sarawakians, and recognising the fact that Sarawak has different socio-cultural and political make-up.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
