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Home arrow The Blogs arrow News/Commentaries arrow Multi-lingual signboards go up in Penang today

Multi-lingual signboards go up in Penang today PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 21 November 2008 19:28

Opalyn Mok, The Sun

Fending off criticisms and even an impending law suit, the Penang government today went ahead and started installing dual-lingual road signs in the heritage zone here.

Lim looking at the new signboard.
Visiting the first two roads within the heritage zone here which have the new dual-lingual road signs up, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government will keep its word in putting up road signs with two languages regardless.

“As you can see, the Bahasa Malaysia words are still here and the additional language is inserted at the bottom, so there is no question of insulting the national language at all,” he said, while showing one of the road signs to pressmen.

He explained that these signs will prove useful to tourists and related an anecdote where a Taiwanese tourist who was here went back to Taiwan and told his friend of the places to visit.

“One of the road names he told his friend was 'Jalan Sehala (one-way road)'. This shows that our road signs can be confusing to foreigners,” he said.

Lim said having dual-language road signs in certain tourist areas will be able to promote George Town as an international city that welcomes everyone just like the Penang international airport.

As for criticisms and objections from Umno leaders and some groups against these road signs, Lim said it is their choice to continue to be narrow minded.

“Let them remain in their coconut shell (katak bawah tempurung) but we don't want to be under the coconut shell,” he said.

The new road signs put up are along Lebuh Carnavon and Lebuh Acheh.

Lebuh Carnavon has an additional Chinese translation below the main wordings in Bahasa Malaysia while along Lebuh Acheh there are four road signs, one with only Bahasa Malaysia and the three others with additional Chinese, Tamil and Arabic translations.

It costs RM150 to put up the new road sign board and RM150 more if a new stand is needed to take the board.

On another issue, Lim, as the DAP secretary-general, said he is now awaiting a full report regarding the arrest of a councillor from DAP in Taiping over alleged
possession of pirated VCDs.

“We do not know whether the arrest is politically motivated or not so he does not have to step down because of this yet,” he said, adding he is waiting for a report on this matter.

He said national Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who had been charged in court, does not need to step down as the charge was obviously politically motivated.

Comments (17)Add Comment
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written by PeacefulMalaysia, November 21, 2008 19:34:56
I admire you guys Keep it up
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written by penangboi, November 21, 2008 20:03:05
LGE, you are doing fabulously well... keep up the good work, and just ignore all those BN idiots who haven't got the faintest idea about the principles of CAT; but instead harp on petty issues to gain political mileage.

The way things are going, BN will never take Penang back ever again. The way has been shown and the rakyat know what is best for them.
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written by simply_say, November 21, 2008 20:36:35
"If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that 9 will run into the ditch before they reach you." - Calvin Coolidge 1872-1933, Thirtieth President of the USA

Nice signboard

Easily insert famous quotes and jokes in your writings at http://www.xlpert.com/quotes.htm
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written by shamadz72, November 21, 2008 21:31:50
That is the beginning of ketuanan Cina
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written by Kopi37, November 21, 2008 21:38:50
Bravo to CM LGE for doing what is right! As Razak Baginda had said, any people have their right to do what they feel it's right! So, if those monkeys here in Penang wish to jump up and down, let them be and let us be amused! They can go and F Razak Baginda for what he said was truth! We will then have the opportunity to educate our grandchildren what it is liked - monyet kena belacan! After all, that Vet Dr. Hilmi had also said, DAP is now the Government, their job is to run the administration for the State, what has it to do with the opposition Umno now, they can only jump up and down like monkeys like we had seen in Ahmad Ismail's division, they even jumped up the table, climbed the wall, fantastic job!.......

That's their job to jump, as the monkeys with pea he***! It's the job of LGE to do what the Penangites welcome! We welcome your move, YB LGE! Do more good deeds, forget about the monkeys! We will continue to support you, now and until next GE, if you always do to please the genuine Penangites! You can F--k all those bigots and ask them to go and pack and fly kites!
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written by Qcumber, November 21, 2008 21:43:57
I know y they are so against multilanguages road signs.... They feel threatened, they feel inferior, they feel people belittled them, all becos they can only read one language. (May be a little bit of English). I am glad I can read 3 languages and a little bit of Jawi. smilies/grin.gif
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written by Qcumber, November 21, 2008 21:46:39
shamadz72..

Selagi the cina keep making money and the melayu keep making anak, there will never be ketuanan cina, dont worry. smilies/tongue.gif
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written by Bosan, November 21, 2008 21:52:09
It costs RM150 to put up the new road sign board and RM150 more if a new stand is needed to take the board.

Wow! Reasonably cheap. If under BN government, I think they will charge RM1500 or more.
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written by scorpion, November 21, 2008 22:14:17
The signboard is to make easy for everyone to read and understand. Multilingual signboard is excellent and shows that Penang signboard has reach the standard of international airport which is also in multilingual. Therefore, please don't make it a religious or ketuanan issue.
Previously, lot of ro***ign using like 3/4, 3/5, 3/6 etc, at least when we were around that area for the first time and looking for friends, we can roughly guess if we are in the right area/direction or not. Later, lots of ro***ign has been changed to birds name or othername which make if difficult for the first timer to the area.
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written by asguard, November 21, 2008 23:13:50
We support you all the way despite some idiot morns whom cannot see clear or exploit the issues for their own ends... which only serve their interest and not for benefit of public...
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written by temanmu, November 21, 2008 23:34:05
"possession of pirated VCDs."
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Please proceed to arrest 70% of Malaysia's population ... grandfather, grandmother, maid, everyone in the house!... until the possessor is established!

Bodoh gomen!
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written by Kuku Burung, November 22, 2008 00:22:13
There is no real issue in the multi-lingual signs. the real issue is UMNO has no more issues to talk about. The more they open their mouths, the more they slap their own faces. Their mentality has dragged the rest of the Malays down with them.
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written by Wakeupmsia, November 22, 2008 01:31:55
shamadz72 wrote : That is the beginning of ketuanan Cina.

Mama Mia, which 'school' do you come from? There is no statement/explanation in any encycopedias nor wikipedias on "ketuanan Cina'. Perhaps, you are still in the twilight years of leaning to the stigma of "ketuanan Melayu' philosophy of the '40s. Wakeup, wakeup.......this is 2008 going into 2009.

Just to put a little grey matter to your head - This is the Ketuanan Rakyat philosophy. Viva Bangsa Malaysia.
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written by Kaneeneh, November 22, 2008 07:50:29
There is always opposition, that's human nature. Let them oppose, and take it down if they get back into power. They can oppose that non-Muslims are walking around and working during Friday prayer time. That's un-islamic and insulting to the Muslims. Anyone not in a mosque during prayer time must remain indoor so that Muslims are not insulted. And so on.
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written by KC Chin, November 22, 2008 09:06:47
shamadz72,
Since you are the "Ketuanan Melayu", that is your problem. For me, I am the boss of my own. I am "Ketuanan" of my family, business, life, and country. I don't see colour as long as the blood is red.
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written by shamadz72, November 22, 2008 10:13:42
KC Chin,

I am against 'Ketuanan Melayu' as well as against 'Ketuanan Cina'. In the last GE I have personally campaign for PR by distributing close to two thousands opposition pamphlet. Where were you at that time, if I may asked?

If you can't see what LGE and DAP is trying to do than it is probably you are too young to remember that it has been 1 of the DAP main campaign since their existence to have Chinese language on a road sign and that is a long-long time ago when China citizen is more concern on having foods on their table rather than thinking of going holiday on foreign land.

FYI, Tourism is only used by DAP as a smokescreen. If they have tourism in their mind, they could probably have used Thai character instead of Chinese character since tourist from Thai outnumbered tourist from China & Hong Kong or probably use bahasa Indonesia, since Indonesian tourist outnumbered both Thailand and China even if you combine both of them. The number of tourist coming from China is more a less same as the number of tourist coming from Brunie. Go and read statistic and statistic does not lie to us. To be a true bangsa Malaysia, we should go back to our constitution and in our constitution, it is already well mentioned the position of bahasa Melayu in article 152. So why this inferiority complex coming from the Malaysian Chinese?

Now what DAP is doing is just giving some ammo to UMNO to woo Malay voters back into UMNO folds. UMNO just need to print out the picture of LGE next to the road sign or picture of Theresa Kok smiling next to the road sign at Bukit Bintang and that will do the trick to get back Malay voters to UMNO. Sorry for you guys who is only interested with a tree rather than the whole forest behind it.

Let me stated this to you guys. I am against having multi-lingual character on a road sign. It is suffice to have just only roman character which is universally accepted around the world. What important thing that local council need to do instead is to ensure this road sign is place at the strategic place or the road sign is at appropriate size to ensure it is easy for people to look at it at a right distance. Most of the time I found out, our road sign is pretty confusing and been placed at inappropriate place.
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written by temenggong, November 22, 2008 11:29:03
Scorpion, get to know bird names and you'll do all right with directions! smilies/grin.gif

Regarding the road sign in chinese, the font is too small and I can't read it. smilies/grin.gif smilies/grin.gif
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