While traveling our separated roads through life, we are also either road signs or potholes on the roads of others.
– Eugene J. Martin, American visual artist
Street names do not generally cause much controversy. They act as a marker to make it easier for people to locate a particular place. So, what is the fuss about street names now?
Well, members of the Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (Dapsy) took it upon themselves to add a sticker with the street name written in Chinese characters onto a few of the street signs in Kuching city.
This political stunt triggered various reactions and counter-reactions on social media.
These ranged from ‘no big deal’ to ‘should not have been done’ due to ‘rule of law’ right up to ‘how dare there be Chinese characters on a street sign’.
I strongly agree that Dapsy was wrong. The installation of street names is the sole jurisdiction of the local authority.
Their unilateral action usurped the role of the local authority. Therefore, appropriate action needs to be taken.
It is obvious to many this was a desperate political stunt to shore up their falling support among the electorate due to their inability to deliver virtually all their GE14 fanciful promises when they were the federal government for 22 months.
From the backlash they received in effect, they did a disservice to those of us who support multilingual street names by not making their request to the relevant local authority.
There are already multilingual street names in existence in Sarawak and rightly so.
It would be wonderful if this practice could be expanded to include various other languages, especially along the main roads in our towns and cities.
This could be done for the purpose of inclusivity and history of a community in that area.
An additional advantage would be to make tourists feel more welcome and provide them with a pleasant experience during their stay here.
If one looks at the whole issue with an open heart and mind, there is no reason why there should not be multilingual street names.
However, from this recent incident, some disturbing responses and attitudes appeared on social media. Here, I am referring to the diatribe of comments, some implied, some directly racist.
Sarawak has always been held up as the epitome of harmony and acceptance of diversity by all towards each other.
This harmony has always been upheld by our late chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem via his many well-known positive statements on matters relating to race and religion.
Our present chief minister has made consistent and welcoming statements to ensure all the races maintain this precious harmony.
It is indeed unbecoming of some quarters to use this unfortunate incident to inflame racial tension.
I hope the Malayan virus of intolerance has not migrated here. Are we absorbing the Malayan culture of intolerance and divisive politics?
I am sure many of us do not see multilingualism as a negative thing for Sarawak. It is what makes us unique. Imposing a ‘one-size fits all’ approach should not be applied here.
Having another language below our national language signage should not be an issue at all and is completely illogical.
It is not a big deal to me because using another language does not actually change the name of the street. I mean, it is merely a subsidiary script or characters in another language placed below the actual name.
After all, looking at a street name in another language does not to my knowledge have any adverse effect on a normal person, unless of course, they have some other agenda.
I really hope and pray that these matters do not slide into a cesspool of race and religious politics, in the process sucking the peace-loving public into an ‘us and them’ scenario.
We do not want a scenario where eventually from a harmonious society we have become a ‘scratch the surface and below you find a racist’ society.
It would be good if we had more people in the political arena who fought to promote each other’s wonderful diversity, rather than spend their time trying to impose linguistic, cultural or religious ‘superiority’ over each other.
Let us carry on resolving matters the Sarawak way, not the Malayan way that tears the fabric of society apart.
To maintain harmony, we must always be wary of politicians and public figures who try to stir up sentiments of hatred and discord to make themselves popular.
Well, going back to street names, let us have an assortment of languages. Variety is the spice of life and makes Sarawak a more lively and interesting place.
So Sarawakians, let us make this a non-issue an issue and celebrate our diversity for generations to come.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
