By Shannon TeohGEORGETOWN, Nov 24 — The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) has been instructed to file police reports over the vandalising of two Bahasa Malaysia/Arabic road signs in Lebuh Acheh.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he had relayed the message via state exco member for Local Government, Traffic and Environment Chow Kon Yeow to prevent further sabotage of the five multilingual road signs put up by the state government as part of its efforts to promote tourism in the Unesco World Heritage site of Georgetown.
According to a press statement by Lim, the signs were vandalised early yesterday morning while three other signs in Bahasa Malaysia/Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia/Tamil were untouched.
"The police report by MPPP is necessary to indicate the government views such vandalism seriously in its efforts to prevent a repeat of such sabotage by irresponsible elements opposed to national unity within the multicultural setting of Georgetown.
"As a heritage site, Georgetown belongs not only to Penang but also to the world and all Malaysians," the DAP secretary-general said.
The statement reported that both signs were sprayed with red paint but has since been cleaned up by MPPJ.
Lim also called on the Barisan Nasional federal government to stop practising double standards by allowing Arabic road signs in Kuala Lumpur and Jawi road signs in Johor but opposing the DAP-led Penang government's road signs in either Arabic, Mandarin, Tamil or English in addition to Bahasa Malaysia in the heritage area of Georgetown.
"This issue is only played up by Utusan Malaysia which has a political agenda of helping Umno to regain its political supremacy and racist agenda against non-Malays," he accused.
In Parliament today, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also lent his support to Lim's administration, telling reporters that calling the DAP anti-Malay was misguided.
"The police can act aggressively against those protesting the Internal Security Act. But is that more of a security threat than those who spread sentiments that the DAP is anti-Malay?" he asked.
The Permatang Pauh MP also rebuked those who said that the DAP was threatening the honour of Malays.
"How can multilingual road signs threaten your honour more than those who steal and rob you of your land and rights?" he said, in a reference to Umno leaders.
2 comments:
Truly Malaysian, I can't believe some Malaysian still behave like caveman....I also feel malulah....
Jalil
Malaysian people will continue to suffer if there are politicians/individual who still act in their own interest......
Post a Comment