Kuching North City Hall says ‘no’ to Chinese characters on road signs

A DAP Youth member pastes Chinese characters on the Jalan Green Hill road sign in Kuching, which were later taken down.

KUCHING: Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) has turned down Sarawak DAP’s request to add Chinese characters to road signs in the city.

The party had submitted a letter to DBKU to “restore” Chinese characters for certain road signs which, it said, were originally in two languages.

Sarawak DAP committee member Julian Tan said the party had come across a directive by the late chief minister Adenan Satem to reinstate the Chinese characters to “promote multiracial and cultural values in the state”.

However, mayor Junaidi Reduan said: “We had discussed the matter in a meeting on Monday and decided to maintain the one language policy for road signages in the city.”

He also said he was unaware of Adenan’s directive. “As far as I’m concerned, I have seen the written policy and the decision is to use only one language, which is the national language,” he said after the launch of CCTVs for India Street, Jalan Courthouse and the Courthouse Connector here today.

Earlier, assistant minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Junaidi said the installation of the 26 CCTVs was to enhance public security in the city.

“The installation of these CCTVs is to curb vandalism and criminal activities,” he said. - FMT