This Chinese road sign charade in Penang is yet another Race Card being thrown in the face of the Malaysian populace by ethnic-Chinese chauvinists. Not satisfied by the proliferation of road names honouring obscure, long-dead Chinese personalities such as Jalan C.Y. Choy above, Chinese-based political parties in Penang are now locked in a spiralling battle of wanting to appear more Chinese than the other.
The victim: Road Signs! And, of course, the general Malaysian populace.
The Chinese-centric Gerakan party, the big losers in the 12th General Elections, went on this Chinese road sign mania reputedly in order to regain ethnic-Chinese support, as if a precondition of gaining support from the ethnic-Chinese citizens of Malaysia is via the desecration of road signage in Bahasa Malaysia, the National Language, by the National Language of a distant foreign land called China. This is nothing more than blatant, treacherous, provocative Racism.
Would any other country on earth allow unauthorised plantings of supplementary or competing signage in other languages on her streets? Try this stunt in any American, British or Australian city and see what happens. The area residents would tear it to bits in an instant. And the vandals would be beaten to a pulp as a lesson.
Why must Malaysia be different? Why must Malaysians tolerate the desecration of their street names and neighbourhoods by rascals and hoodlums bent on imposing their twisted chauvinistic afflictions on the populace? Where else on earth would a sovereign nation allow her public signage in her national language be challenged by other, foreign languages, least of all by people who claim to be her citizens?
The sole National Language of Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia. In the Malaysian Constitution, there is no second, third, ancillary, auxiliary or periphery language. None. Hence, ALL official public signage -- including road signs -- must be in Bahasa Malaysia, usually in the Romanised script, or accompanied by its original Jawi script as well. Thats how it is, and that is how it will be as long as this nation of Malaysia exists on the face of this earth.
Back to the Penang story, not wanting to be outdone by the Gerakan party, the ethnic-Chinese centric DAP politicians (current rulers of Penang) have pledged to render Penang road signs in Chinese as well -- to ensure they keep up in this giddy I'm-More-Chinese-Than-Thou spiral of self-destruction. Of course, to camouflage their true intentions and to appease their non-Chinese Pakatan Rakyat bedfellows, a DAP State Exco pledged in The Star that signage in "English ... Tamil, and maybe even Arabic" would be put up as well.
How can you fit 4-5 languages on a road sign? It is not only UGLY, it is STUPID, an insult to Malaysian sensibilities, not to mention a treacherous challenge to Bahasa Malaysia, the SOLE National Language of this blessed land.
Oh yes, if and when patriotic Malaysians react, they would be called "anti-Chinese" and intolerant Racists. God forbid, when the majority Malays react, charges of Racism would rain upon them from the very Racists that started the mess in the first place.
