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PETALING JAYA: Sarawak MP Rejects Minister of Housing and Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin's Call for Federal Guidelines on Signs, Saying They Are "Not Applicable" or "Opposable" " in the state.
Speaking before the FMT, Bandar Kuching MP, Dr. Kelvin Yii, said it was consistent with the intent behind the standard guidelines to promote and reinforce the government. use of the Malay language. However, he added, Sarawak has autonomy in this area.
He stated that Sarawak had laws such as the 1963 Local Government Ordinance and the Ordinance on Local Authorities that give the state the discretion it needs to deal with local government issues.
"The fact is that the presence of multilingual road signs has not been a problem in Sarawak. It is rather celebrated on the basis of our respect for diversity and the importance of different languages.
"If we support the promotion of our national language, there are many ways to do this, in addition to changing signage, which can result in unnecessary additional costs," said Pakatan Harapan MP.
"While respecting the intent of the guidelines, I encourage the federal government to understand the autonomous powers we have as a territory and to hold more consultations before federal policies come to fruition in Sarawak."
"As the Americans would say," If it does not break, do not fix it. "
Zuraida reportedly said yesterday that a directive on this subject had been sent to all heads of state and that guidelines would be introduced provisionally next year.
According to The Borneo Post, Zuraida confirmed that the federal guidelines for road signs would also apply in Sarawak and Sabah.
This follows from the royal decree of Sultan Selangor Sharafuddin Idris Shah, according to which road signs in Shah Alam with Chinese words must be replaced by signs written only in Malay before December 11.
The current policy and enforcement on the use of the national language only concern billboards, said Zuraida.
"We need to further expose the use of Bahasa Malaysia among the rakyats, and I am sure that almost all Malaysians understand Malay," she added, noting that some Malay words were hard to translate into English. Other languages.
Yii stated that English was still treated as the second official language of Sarawak and used as an official language by the Sarawak courts as well as by state assembly procedures.
He added that there were no regulations in the state prohibiting the use of another language.
He also told the FMT that the proposed guidelines should be adopted by local Sarawak councils.
Borneo Post also quoted Sargank Deputy Minister of Local Government Penguang Manggil as saying Sarawak's street signs and billboards were "in order" at the moment.
Marudi's assistant added that the Sarawak Public Works Department had developed the state's own guidelines for road signs, which had been enforced.
"We also have our own commercial name and billboard advertising regulations, which came into effect in 2012," he said.
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