ACCORDING to the Cambridge Dictionary, the phrase ‘to hit the nail on the head’ means to be exactly right about something, to find the right answer or to describe a problem with perfect accuracy.
It is not often that that phrase is used to describe the demands and protestations of the rightist faction. But it would appear that those with a nationalist-slant have a very valid point when highlighting signage of businesses written purely in Chinese.
Editor’s Note: In Malaysia, business signboards must include Bahasa Malaysia which must be given visual priority by bearing a larger font size than any other languages.
Regulation is handled by local authorities under the Local Government Act 1976 and/or their respective local advertisement by-laws.
But as highlighted by Threader @setajampenaa, some business owners are apparently oblivious to this simple requirement.
The prominent social media commenter went on to feature one eatery in Keponggi Square in Kepong that has been in operation for some time with signage that has zero wording in the national language.
Tagging DBKL, the irate commenter grumbled that there was no action taken by the local authority responsible for administering the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur despite having filing a complaint from over a year ago.
“Looking at this signboard, feels like this is in Taiwan,” grumbled the language activist on his pet peeve.
The immediate justification from some commenters was that this restaurant (and others that flout the signage laws) were businesses owned by Mainland Chinese.
There were even insinuations that such enterprises were fronts for money-laundering given they are “often not patronised”.
Aside from targeting his ire at these businesses who seemingly have no respect for the law, much derision was reserved for the local authorities.
It is indeed a valid grouse given that this was a very large signboard visible to all and sundry. Why no action despite repeated complaints?
It was a legitimate complaint with more than a few citizens shared less-than-complimentary comments about the enforcement agency’s wilful ignorance.
‘Blame is two-fold’
The defence that the signboard above belonged to a China-owned business was given short shrift by the signage activist in a separate post highlighting the many blatant cases in Kepong.
This time he didn’t hold back using racist invective to voice his displeasure at the open disrespect which he touted as “prostitution of the national language”.
Likening the area to being Little China, the rightist argued that in areas with Chinese-majority population (such as Kepong), many businesses would simply do away with Bahasa Malaysia on signboards.
“Don’t blame Mainlanders for your own sins,” he chided.
In case anyone was confused as to his stance, the poster made it abundantly clear with the open declaration that “those who don’t know the law should just get lost from our land.”
Very frankly, the continued flouting of this law whether by the locals or Mainlanders does beg the question – “just what are the authorities doing?”.
The signboards highlighted are highly visible and in busy commercial areas. Surely DBKL cannot plead ignorance, especially it has been tagged on these postings with numerous complaints already filed previously.
This can only lead to sceptical netizens viewing DBKL as inefficient at best or just plain old corrupt at worst.
As for the deeper agenda of the rightist faction in demonising the local Chinese community, why provide them with extra ammunition? This is NOT a difficult rule to follow.
Why antagonise these nationalists by refusing to follow a simple bylaw that would at the end of the day benefit even “Cina pisang” which is slang for Chinese who are not conversant in their mother tongue.
Blame on this issue is most definitely two-fold:
Firstly, the Mainland Chinese business owners who for no apparent reason feel the need to flout this rule and invite all manner of racist innuendo.
Secondly, the local authorities for lack of enforcement leading to accusations of under table money being exchanged.
In this instance, the rightists have hit the proverbial nail on the head in highlighting the shortcomings of the regulators as well as the perceived arrogance of stubborn Chinese business owners. – Focus Malaysia
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