(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): The proposal by a Senator yesterday that Putrajaya should
be renamed Bandaraya Mahathir Putrajaya is most outrageous and preposterous.
Senator Datuk Mansor Md Jaafar made this proposal
in the Dewan Negara during the debate on the Putrajaya Corporation
Amendment Bill on the ground that Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had
contributed much to the country and he should be remembered – now that he is
at the tail-end of his 22 years and 3 months as the fourth Prime Minister of
Malaysia until the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit in Kuala
Lumpur in October next year.
Senator Mansor is the classic example of Mahathir’s
favourite lament that “Melayu Mudah Lupa” – as Mansor has forgotten Bapa
Malaysia and the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, and that
Putrajaya was named after and in memory of Tunku’s services to the country.
Or was Mansor seriously suggesting that the memory of
Tunku’s contributions to the nation should be obliterated in favour of
Mahathir?
What is even more shocking is that the Deputy Minister in
the Prime Minister’s Department, Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar when winding up
the debate on the Bill welcomed Mansor’s suggestion as a good one which would
be considered by the Government.
Did Tengku Azlan reply from sheer ignorance or is the
government serious in considering renaming Putrajaya as Bandar Mahathir
Putrajaya in honour of Mahathir instead of the earlier decision that the new
Federal Government Administrative Centre should be named in memory of Tunku?
An immediate clarification by Mahathir himself, or his deputy, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to the preposterous proposal by Senator Datuk Mansor should be made, and Mansor should tender a public apology for the “Melayu Mudah Lupa” complex and in dishonouring the memory of Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister with his proposal.
(3/7/2002)