The newspapers reported today about the Government's plan [that they are already tengah doing] to incorporate JAWI onto all signboards to boost tourism. Urgh, I actually feel choked up in my throat when I think of all the retorts I have!
1. Why the hell are they wasting money on this crap?
2. Who the hell is getting "under the table" money this time?
3. In 2006 it was reported by Gulf News that 147,646 tourists from Middle Eastern countries visited Malaysia last year. They expected a growth of about 40% and so probably [let's be generous] 500,000 Middle Eastern Tourists came in 2007. In 2005 the total number of tourist arrivals in Malaysia was 16.43 million. So... 500,000 out of 16.4 Million. 0.03% Big WHOOP DEE DOO. Yet, Malaysia has decided that they are the most important tourists to our country. They generate money apparently.
Yes, even though 26% of the 27 million population in Malaysia are Chinese, I don't see chinese words on every signboard. Yeah, my math is not brill, but I'm sure that's more than 300,000. Even 8% of 27 million - the Indian community, would surely outnumber 300,000 tourists. Where's the tamil on those signboards? So these tourists count more than we do? WHY? Why are people surprised that Chinese people and Indian people are migrating? Apparently, our tax money, doesn't generate more than 500,000 tourists a year. Apparently the fact that we live here 365 days a year and not 2 weeks, doesn't freaking matter either.
4. What bloody country gives up their own identity for tourists anyway? You MORONS, they are here to see, us, our culture, our history. We don't go to Tokyo/Bangkok/any damn country to read Malay on the signboards there! Nobody comes here for those reasons either! You don't see Egypt building the bloody Great Wall of China for tourists! Tourism is even more important in that country! Tourism isn't even our main source of revenue!!!!!!!!!!!
5. Updating signboards with jawi? HOW ABOUT MAKING SURE THEY ARE ADEQUATE IN THE FIRST PLACE??? How many times do we not see bloody signboards cause they are placed way to far away from the actual turning, or they are hidden by some tree, or because they aren't even there? Actually, HOW ABOUT USING THE MONEY TO COVER UP ALL THE POTHOLES AND FIXING THOSE BLOODY NOT WORKING TRAFFIC LIGHTS OR STREETLAMPS?
6. How about boosting tourism by preserving the natural beauty of some of the best tourist spots. Rather than building freaking ugly plaster fake treeS/mushrooms/whatevers that do double duty as rubbish bins or chairs or so called rest areas, or like blocking up a natural waterfall within a cave like the one in Kedah, or like clearing the rubbish at most of our touristy spots? OR like letting couples hold hands or cuddle in KLCC and not fear for their lives that some hard-up jerk will come and saman them for doing absolutely nothing?!
ARRRGGGGHHHHHH Malaysia pisses me off!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank god I'm registered to vote this year, cause obviously any choice is better than what we have now! I'd vote a donkey into Parliament.
I'm pretty sure the signboard pointing towards our Dewan Negara says [IDIOTS].
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
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2 comments:
Another point...how hard is it to read words that are phonetic anyway?
KLCC, Bukit Bintang whatever. Such easy words. And don't tell me they can't read the alphabet. If so, what the hey are they doing all over places like London?
In Tokyo subways all destinations are written in 'kanji' (Chinese characters). It's pretty tricky buying a ticket from the machine but I don't see them inserting an English version
So like, don't hold back, tell us how you REAAAALY feel about this :p
I do agree with what you're saying though, maybe Malaysia is trying a little too hard to be a "muslim country"... Especially considering the street names etc are (mostly) in Malay (which is based on the Roman alphabet), and not Arabic, so translating all of them to Arabic (which if I'm not mistaken is a little like Chinese where each character represents a distinct sound) will probably be a case of trying to make it sound as much like the Malay word as possible. And we all know how that'll go. Most Chinese versions of western names hardly sound like the original name... I mean, isn't Singapore more like "Sin-Chia-Phor" and Melaka more like "Ma-Lai-Kat"?
*sigh*
Who knows, maybe the next thing they'll do is *replace* the signboards with Jawi versions, that'll be fun :) I remember driving around Northern Ireland with an English street directory, looking at Gaelic street signs and going "WTF???" Needless to say, I got very lost... :p
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