KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is calling for the prioritisation of Bahasa Malaysia on business premises in the city.

Following his visits to the shopping complexes in the capital, Dr Mahathir said the signboards were dominated by Chinese characters, accompanied by English translations, with no trace of the national language.

"Weekends, I drive around Kuala Lumpur. Sometimes, I drop in at the shopping complexes. Kuala Lumpur's shopping complexes are great. The new ones are fantastic. They are bigger and better than those in London or Tokyo.

"But suddenly, I felt I was in China. Then I realised why. All the signboards are in Chinese with English translations. Nothing in Bahasa Malaysia. Not at all.

"So is this Malaysia? Or have we become a part of China? English I can understand why.

"Even in Japan, signboards have English translations, but not big Chinese characters. I was told that some Chinese TV refers to Malaysia as Little China," he said, attributing the phenomenon to the influx of Chinese tourists.

Dr Mahathir, however, calls for the importance that Bahasa Malaysia, as the national language, to take precedence.

"Translation in small characters, yes. But our national language is Bahasa Malaysia," he said.

Under the Advertisements (Federal Territories) By-Laws 1982, by-law 3(1), all advertisements must be in the national language, but can contain other languages as well.

Under by-law 3(2), the letters of the words in the national language must be given prominence and must be bigger than the letters or characters of the words in other language.

Previously, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) said while creativity was encouraged, some business owners became 'a bit too creative' by excessively using other languages.

As such, it said registered trademarks do not need to be translated, but all other texts on business signboards must be in the national language and correct, with larger font sizes.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/11/1136283/prioritise-bahasa-malaysia-signboards-says-tun-m