IS THAT A SIGNAGE PROBLEM

I just come back to KL from my hometown Penang. Frankly, it is a fantastic island to stay with. It has no highway toll in the island, although a bit traffice jam all the while, but we can consider it as short distance travelling from one destination to another. There is good and cheap food all around the island.

Recently this island has become the attention of polician in Malaysia, where the issue of road signage has become so hot within the country. Penang become the first state to announce the setting up of multilanguage road signage.

(**to be informed that Penang is not the 1st states setting up bilingua road signage as others states such as Kedah, Johor have Bahasa Malaysia + Bahasa Jawi road signage and Sarawak typically Kuching have Bahasa Malaysia + Chinese Language in their road signage)

From the press and online media, we can actually found that a lot of racist political activist is striking Penang government by using a few of the following reasons:

1. The bi-language road signage does not pay respect to the national language - Bahasa Malaysia.


2. The appearance of other language on road signage is a thread to Bahasa Malaysia as it might one day replaced by other language


3. The setting up of road signage is a waste of time, this shows that Pakatan Rakyat government is actually wasting the salary given to them by tax payer, and thats a agenda to makes the chinese community feel happy (mean racist)

But the truth is always hide beneath the surface, it is deep in the mist:

1. Notice that Bahasa Malaysia has a dominating font size compare to other language in the road signage, we can only conclude that this is the best way of comparison and show a good respect to national language


2. There will be no thread as we see the fact that Bahasa Malaysia is used widely in all government/public service affairs, schools education, and also one of the main communication language in our country. Can anyone shows the fact that by the setting up of bi-lingua road signage, the usage of Bahasa Malaysia will be reduced, unpopular, and hence become a THREAD ?


3. A waste of time? haha, thats funny. Gerakan claims that it is their idea to set up the road signage when they are still the major component party in Penang state government, and sorry to say that their milage is claims by others now. So what to blame ? are you going to blame a party that hold the throne of command in Penang for 38 years and only be able to come out the bi-lingua project in the last moment? or a government that setup the bi-lingua signage after 8 months they take over? Please do blame yourself if you have wasted the time, opportunity and trust given by public.