Star Online - Order to remove Chinese lettering from Muar buildings rescinded (extracts):
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MUAR: The order from the Muar Municipal Council (MPM) to remove Chinese characters from signboards as well as fronts and pillars of buildings here has been rescinded.
Traders at Jalan Sisi here were relieved to learn about the reversal of the order to remove the lettering and signboards, some of which are cast onto pre-war buildings, less than 48 hours after it was made.
The announcement to rescind the order was made by MPM president Mustaffa Kamal Shamsudin on Thursday (Sept 6).
Traders at Jalan Sisi here were relieved to learn about the reversal of the order to remove the lettering and signboards, some of which are cast onto pre-war buildings, less than 48 hours after it was made.
The announcement to rescind the order was made by MPM president Mustaffa Kamal Shamsudin on Thursday (Sept 6).
It's good that all's well that ends well.
Those signs have been there for decades, and any over-zealous attempt to remove them on nationalistic grounds cannot be justified, even on technical grounds of local advertising laws. Removing them as per local advertising laws would have been justified if done at the onset, ages ago.
But trust loud-mouth trouble-maker Lim Kit Siang to throw an opportunistic stone at BN.
But trust loud-mouth trouble-maker Lim Kit Siang to throw an opportunistic stone at BN.
Malaysia-Chronicle (PKR news letter) reported:
PETALING JAYA: Was the Muar Chinese signage furore created by “political saboteurs” to try to boost MCA’s chances in the Balakong by-election on Saturday, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang asked today.
“I am shocked over the sudden Muar Chinese signage furore raising the question whether it is the work of ‘political saboteurs’ trying to up MCA’s chances in the Balakong by-election on Saturday,” he said in a statement.
“There is otherwise no reason for such a furore to come out of the blue with the shop owners in the Muar district who had been doing business for decades to be suddenly instructed by Muar Municipal Council officers to erase Chinese-letterings on pillars outside each store, undermining inter-racial harmony and unity”.
“I am shocked over the sudden Muar Chinese signage furore raising the question whether it is the work of ‘political saboteurs’ trying to up MCA’s chances in the Balakong by-election on Saturday,” he said in a statement.
“There is otherwise no reason for such a furore to come out of the blue with the shop owners in the Muar district who had been doing business for decades to be suddenly instructed by Muar Municipal Council officers to erase Chinese-letterings on pillars outside each store, undermining inter-racial harmony and unity”.
In fact he admitted in his 'cast the first stone' bull that he was guessing, thus indicating his ever ready opportunistic stab at his opponents.
The reality is that today, Malaysia is even more divisive than ever with right-wing Malay religious and political parties ratcheting up the rhetoric.
Lim KS should go back to what he did well, that of calling his current matey Mahathir to accounts for the latter's various unexplained scandals - he shouldn't act dumb for his current personal (and son's) interests.
And he should also remember what he cried out in June 2002 about Mahathir opening the Pandora Box of fundamentalist Islam which has cursed us with our current religious extremities - see Lim's 929 & 617 Declarations.
