Multilingual road signs not an issue in Sarawak, Dr Yii tells Zuraida

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Dr Kelvin Yii

KUCHING: The presence of multilingual road signs has not been an issue in Sarawak, but rather, it is celebrated based on Sarawakians’ respect for diversity and importance of different languages, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.

Dr Yii was responding to federal Minister Of Housing and Local Government Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin’s statement that the federal Housing and Local Government Ministry will be introducing the federal guidelines on road signs nationwide next year in an effort to promote and strengthen the use of Bahasa Malaysia.

He said while he respected the intention of the guidelines, it may only be a form of guidelines but cannot be enforced and may not be applicable in Sarawak.

“While we also support the promotion of our national language, but there are a lot of ways to promote it besides the changing of road signs which may incur unnecessary additional cost,” he said in a press statement today.

Dr Yii, who is DAP Sarawak Youth secretary, pointed out that English itself is still treated as the second official language of Sarawak and is used as the official language in the Courts of Sarawak and also the proceedings in the State Legislative Assembly.

“So while I respect the intention of the guidelines, I encourage the federal government to understand the autonomous powers we have as a territory and thus have more consultation has to been for any federal policies to take its hold in Sarawak,” he said.

Dr Yii said: “As the Americans would say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”