Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Rumble in Klang's Little India

Click on picture from Star Online for more images of Little India

The most widely read story on the Star Online isn't about Ali Rustam and the suspension of Umno leaders but the name change of a popular spot in Klang. The tracker at The Star has continuously put the story as the best read story since this morning. The decision by the Klang Municipal Council to rename Little India to Medan Kelana has created an uproar in Klang. Obviously the Klang authorities have forgotten about the public outcry over the name change of Jalan Alor in Kuala Lumpur.

The unpopular decision obviously suggest that the residents in Little India were not consulted. It's nothing new to Malaysians, in any case. The name change was made overnight with little considerations to the consequences. Obviously, road signs have to be replaced and for the general public, business cards and letter heads have to be renewed and all these cost money. Now, the public has got to start all over again with a new name.

Little India may have some social problems, as in all ethnic enclaves, but renaming the place won't resolve the problems of crime. The gangs would still regard themselves as trouble makers of Little India, whatever name we may call it. Can we see some common sense back in place soon? The authorities including the council and police should be more concerned with cleaning up Klang and making the town a safer place than to worry about renaming places.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

These government servants never learn. Their job description is to make life miserable for the public.

Anonymous said...

may be the kelana actully originated from India!

Poobalan said...

As someone whose family lived within tengku kelana (little area) for more than 30 years, i find it ridiculous to say the least that MPK can only discuss thise kind of things in its meeting. if they can't meet for useful reasons, better not hold any meeting. At least can save some tax payers money. Just two days ago, there was flash flood. Would changing the name to Medan Kelana magically make the floods go away? Rather than wasting money on signboards, better they run campaigns on cleanliness and hygiene in that area and hire more enforcement/RELA officers to do patrols.

Whatmeworry said...

Selangor is now under the PR but why is the local council behaving like they are still working for the BN?

Those idiots at the local council are a bunch of fools and we have plenty of them who thinks they can do what they liked when it comes to the names of roads esp those colonial one without realising the history behind it.

In my hometown, names like Birch Road, Wilkinson Street, Lister Road disappeared and replaced by local names whom I cannot remember reading in History books.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is Khalid and the PR government doing....the MPK has been a problem for ages under the BN and they are the same even one year after PR....Hello Teng...wake up lah....you should be telling them not to play play with you.....you fellas really can rule or not.....

Anonymous said...

Too many little india in this country even though indian constitutes less then 5% of the population, and the number is dwindling. There is a tendency to connect new district or road with little india everytime one or two shop lots are occupied, but not necessarily owned, by indians. Is this a racist?

Anonymous said...

MPK is a holdover from Toyol. The staffs in there still has BN mentality.