The protest against a proposed name change for a lane off Jalan Pantai Bersih in Butterworth, Penang, will go on despite attempts by the authorities to quell anxieties over the initiative.
A resident of the area, Mazlan Abdul, said a group of villagers from the neighbourhood will gather at 5pm today at block A of the Taman Tun Dr Awang flats to hold up placards protesting the proposed name change.
The Penang government yesterday explained that there has been confusion over which road name will be changed.
The Thean Hock Keong Association had applied to change the name of a 280m lane off the main Jalan Pantai Bersih road to “Dragon Temple Lane” or “Jalan Tokong Naga”, state public transport and digital infrastructure executive councillor Zairil Khir Johari said.
The lane, on which the Thean Hock Keong Temple is located, is also called Jalan Pantai Bersih, explained Zairil, adding that the change will not affect the main road.
Despite this explanation, Mazlan, who is in his 60s and was born in the area, claimed that residents still did not agree to changing the lane’s name.
“If we look at history, the temple only lies on a small part of that lane. So why do we need to change the name of the whole lane? There is no need to change the name of the lane,” Mazlan told Malaysiakini when contacted.
“Please don’t damage the harmony that we have among residents. We don’t want any misunderstandings in the community,” he said, adding that the area surrounding the temple is filled with Malay villages such as Kampung Pak Leh and Kampung Contoh.
Mazlan also stressed that residents will strictly monitor the gathering to ensure that there are no racist or incendiary statements.
“We will have security to control anyone who says anything racist or who tries to provoke the crowd. Political parties can join the gathering, but please don’t wear any logos,” he said.
The gathering will feature one or two speeches from NGO leaders, after which participants will disperse, Mazlan added.
A complex process
In his press conference yesterday, Zairil, who chairs the Road Names Committee, said the authorities were still vetting the proposal, which includes gathering feedback from residents in the area.
“From the research we have done, there is no concrete evidence that the name Dragon Temple Lane officially exists. But we believe the name was used traditionally. This has also occurred in other areas such as Tanjung Tokong,” he said.
When people in the past registered their addresses for their identity cards, they would often use road names that they were familiar with but did not exist on official records, Zairil said.
“They gave the (road) names that they knew, and the people registering them just wrote down those names,” Zairil said.
“There were no computers back then. Because of that, it is possible that there are old documents with road names that are not official names.”
In a statement yesterday, the Thean Hock Keong Temple also claimed that the name “Dragon Temple Lane” or “Jalan Tokong Naga” had been officially recorded in the temple association’s registration documents since 1951.
Zairil stressed that no final decision has been made on the proposed name change.
“Renaming a road is a complex process,” Zairil said, adding that it also involved getting the consent of local residents as a name change would mean everyone living along the road would have to change their identity cards.
The proposal for the name change had been submitted over a year ago by Sungai Puyu assemblyperson Phee Syn Tze and the Thean Hock Keong Association. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.