ONE of the grievances of many Malaysians is that many of those who have contributed much for the well-being of the country have not be recognised or honoured.
One can observe this when reading obituary columns of well-known personalities. This applies to many sectors – sports, social service, politics, public and corporate sectors and others.
Quite a number of them are honoured with titles by the rulers or governors of the states and the King. However, a lot of them are left out and over time, fade away or are even forgotten.
Recently, the issue of honouring Malaysian sport personalities via road names was brought up by Thomas Samuel, the honorary secretary of the ex-national footballers association. It will be a great honour if roads were named after these sports personalities who contributed much to the nation’s glory.
There is no need to re-name existing roads as it could become controversial as was the case previously when Jalan Templer was to be re-named Jalan P. Narayanan, one of Malaysia’s prominent trade unionist.
A compromise was made and another road was named after him. There was no problem, however, when another important road in Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Brickfields was re-named Jalan Tun V.T. Sambanthan as the name did not refer to any particular person.
A lot of roads named after the colonial administrators have been replaced with Malaysian ones to give the nation a more Malaysian identity.
Honouring outstanding sportsmen
One of the better ways to ensure prominent Malaysians are honoured or remembered through road names is to give their names to roads especially in new housing, commercial and industrial estates and new townships.
Many of these new developments become prominent and popular over time and so will the road names. How fitting it will be to have a name such as Jalan Datuk M. Chandran on one of the prominent roads in a housing estate?
Quite a lot of housing estates in Selangor are of the first world type and it is a honour to have one’s name on one of the residential or commercial area roads.
How about having all the roads of a top residential housing enclave named after all the Selangor and Malaysian footballers from the 1960s to 2000 when our soccer stars were known for the exploits in the Merdeka tournament and the Asian Cup?
We could have road names like Jalan Mokhtar Dahari, Jalan Santokh Singh, Jalan V. Arumugam, Jalan Serbegeth Singh, Jalan Soh Chin Ann and others – all in one housing estate!
The Puncak Alam road has been befittingly renamed Persiaran Mokhtar Dahari. It will be a nice way to remember these legendary players.
Similarly, the names of our badminton, squash and athletics greats, 1975 Hockey World Cup players and various other sports. There are already housing estates where all the roads are named after Malaysian birds or trees, flowers, wildlife and others.
Since Merdeka, most of the roads, bridges, hospitals, mosques and others of infrastructure or building significance have been named after the royals. Now Malaysia has to go beyond this practice. Ordinary citizens who have excelled in their fields with extraordinary achievements need to be remembered and honoured, too.
Honouring citizens
It will be proper to name new roads after those who have done much for the nation and community.
They could be prime ministers, political leaders, ministers, administrators, civil servants, ambassadors, mayors or those who contributed much to sports, social service education, journalism, the arts, police and armed forces, cinema, literary and corporate figures.
Names of prominent East Malaysians need to be given to roads in the Peninsula as it will promote better East-West interaction and recognition.
More and more roads, bridges, fly-overs and buildings are being constructed nationwide and why can’t these be named after important personalities?
Why are we not having a Persiaran Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye or a Persiaran Tan Sri Elyas Omar after Kuala Lumpur’s longest serving mayor as he had done much for the federal capital?
Before Merdeka, a lot of roads were given the names of the British administrators which was the right thing to do rather than having numeral names such Jalan 12 or Jalan 12/22 or something similar.
Roads bearing people’s name are easier to remember than those numbered ones. With Waze and the global positioning system (GPS) technology, one can nowadays locate a road or destination with ease.
Now that the former Rubber Research institute (RRI) in Sungai Buloh is being developed as the upscale Kwasa Damansara, past contributors to the rubber industry need to be remembered. Thus, roads can be named as Persiaran H. N. Ridley, Tan Sri B.C Sekhar or Tan Sri Ani Arope.
Names of famous women from various sectors have been conspicuously left out also. Why can’t there be road names like Persiaran Rafidah Aziz, Sarimah (actress), Sharifah Aini (singer) or M. Rajamani (athlete)?
It is time the federal and state governments re-considered the administrative procedures and practices involved in naming roads and bring about a more egalitarian and meaningful system of honouring citizens who excelled in their fields.
Local authorities too need to re-think their present method of naming roads in the new housing areas and be more open to names suggested by the developers and locals.
Quite a lot of roads all over the country are even without any names and they could be given named after prominent locals. A lot of people who served the country well are not recognised with titles such as Datuks and Tan Sris and will it not be a consoling alternative if some roads – even short stretches – are named after them? – July 6, 2022
V. Thomas is a reader of Focus Malaysia.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
