Road signs cause messy political jam

PENANG, July 23 – Road signs politics has caused a messy political traffic jam in the state.

Gerakan Youth members, led by former state municipal councilor Dr Thor Teong Ghee, put up styrofoam road signs in Chinese around heritage sites on the island. The signs were to reflect the new heritage status of George Town.

However, State local government committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the Gerakan Youth group had breached regulations and directed the municipal council to issue them a notice. He said the signs had to be removed or action would be taken against the group.

To make things worse for Gerakan, its Barisan Nasional ally Umno also demanded that the six road signs put up on Monday be taken down immediately.

Penang Umno secretary Datuk Azhar Ibrahim said that if Gerakan Youth refused to take down the signs, the Penang Municipal Council would pull them down. He insisted road signs should only be in Bahasa Malaysia.

Despite Umno's demand that road signs should only be in the national language, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng explained that in certain parts of Penang, other languages such as Arabic, Japanese, English, Chinese and Tamil would also be incorporated into road signs.

‘Areas with a Malay population may see the inclusion of Arabic, Tamil in Little India and Chinese in Chinese areas. Other languages will assist visitors and tourists to Penang,’

-TMI