Klang municipal wants to rename Little India to Medan Kelana
Like what Brendan Fraser says in the movie The Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), here we go all over again!
The authorities just don’t get it and never learn from experience nor mistakes made. Last October, DBKL tries to rename the famous Jalan Alor to Jalan Kejora. Reason given?
Jalan Alor’s name was changed at the request of the National Economic Action Council following decisions made in its exco meeting.
With regard to that, DBKL’s Road Naming Committee concluded in its meeting that the name of Jalan Alor be changed to Jalan Kejora to go with other roads in the vicinity named after the stars.
The change is also to meet requirements under the road naming guidelines.
Source: The Star
Few years back, some people wanted to strip the name of Penang’s capital, Georgetown to some other ‘localish’ name. Reason giving for stripping this name would be: They do not want the people to honor/remember over British colonial period that once stepped onto this land. Getting rid of this name would get rid of its colonial past? :o
Now, Klang municipal wants to rename Little India to Medan Kelana. What reason is given this time?
Klang municipal councillor Ho San Sang confirmed the name change, saying it was part of a “rebranding exercise.” The district tourism committee member did not elaborate.
State exco member Dr Xavier Jeyakumar told The Star the name change would defeat all the hard work that had gone into building Little India into a tourist icon, and that the move would also erase the identity of the area.
Source: The Star
Further reading: Here’s a good article I found over this matter, Why is Georgetown called Georgetown?
Let’s take Pitt Street in Penang as an example and see what it can tell us.
A road named after a Briton will tell you that the place was once under the British colonialists.
Pitt Street was named after William Pitt, the prime minister of Britain when Francis Light first established Georgetown in 1786.
Then we can look into why Francis Light named one of the first four streets of Georgetown after Pitt. For political reasons? Maybe the British were obsessed over naming roads after themselves? Why is Georgetown called Georgetown in the first place?
See what I mean about street names reflecting history?
Pitt Street was the formal name of this road before they changed it Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. Once again, the change of the road name will tell you about the political history of the place.
Pitt Street has also informal or non-formal names. Unknown to many, Pitt Street has three other Chinese names and one Malay name which are:
‘Ia Kha’ (meaning: under the coconut tree)
‘Tua Balai’ (meaning: big police station)
‘Kuan Im Teng Cheng’ (meaning: in front of Kuanyin Temple) and;
‘Simpang Lelong’ (meaning: Auctioneer’s Junction).
Ia Kha, Tua Balai, and Simpang Lelong will tell you of the street-scape, landmarks and activity that once bustled on Pitt Street.
Although the coconut tree, police station and the lelong activities are no longer there, the history is immortalised in the street names.
It is intangible proof of the past, a testimony to the activities and the presence of the community there.
Not many Penangites will be able to tell you this because there is no heritage education and advocacy going on except efforts that has been done by ‘Anak-anak Kota’.
From the name of the road, we can also tell the different system of naming roads. If the British way of naming roads would be after their own personalities, the Chinese and Indian Muslims migrant communities would name roads after the street-scape, landmarks or activities on the road.
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