Speaking to FMT, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said he respected the intention behind the standardised guidelines to promote and strengthen the use of the Malay language. However, he added, Sarawak had autonomy on the matter.
He said Sarawak had laws such as the Local Government Regulation 1963 and the Local Authority Ordinance which give the state discretion in the running of local government matters.
“The fact of the matter is, the presence of multilingual signboards has not been an issue in Sarawak. Rather, it is celebrated based on our respect for diversity and the importance of different languages.
“While we support the promotion of our national language, there are many ways to do this besides the changing of road signs which may incur unnecessary additional costs,” the Pakatan Harapan backbencher added.
“While I respect the intention of the guidelines, I encourage the federal government to understand the autonomous powers we have as a territory and to hold more consultations before any federal policies take hold in Sarawak.
“As the Americans would say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.”
Zuraida was reported as saying yesterday that a directive on the matter had been issued to all state chiefs, and guidelines would be introduced tentatively next year.
According to The Borneo Post, Zuraida confirmed that the intended federal guidelines on road signs would also cover Sarawak and Sabah.
This follows Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s royal decree that road signs in Shah Alam bearing Chinese words must be replaced with signs written only in Malay before Dec 11.
The current policy and enforcement on the use of the national language only involved advertisement billboards, Zuraida said.
“We have to further expose the use of Bahasa Malaysia among the rakyat, and I am quite sure almost every Malaysian understands Malay,” she added, noting that some words in Malay were difficult to translate into other languages.
Yii said English was still treated as Sarawak’s second official language and used as the official language in Sarawak courts as well as state assembly proceedings.
He added that there were no by-laws in the state prohibiting the use of any other language as well.
He also told FMT that the proposed guidelines would need to be adopted by the local councils in Sarawak.
The Borneo Post report also quoted Sarawak’s Assistant Minister for Local Government, Penguang Manggil, as saying that road signs and billboards in Sarawak “were in order” at present.
The Marudi assemblyman added that the Sarawak Public Works Department had formulated the state’s own guidelines on road signage which had been enforced.
“We also have our own advertisement by-laws on business names and billboards, which came into effect in 2012,” he was quoted as saying.