Media Statement
by DAP National Publicity Bureau Assistant Secretary, John Chung
in Petaling Jaya
on Thursday, 3rd October 2002

DAP applauds the move to include Chinese and Arabic in all international airport signboards but calls on the Cabinet to also include Tamil


The decision by the Cabinet to install signage in Chinese and Arabic at six international airports in the country is a laudable and positive move. The long-awaited decision is a step in the right direction and certainly augurs well for the promotion of tourism in Malaysia, as having airport signs in the two languages would make them more user-friendly for Chinese and Arab tourists.

In fact, just a week ago on Sep 25, a DAP delegation comprising our national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu, national publicity bureau member Ong Chee Keng, DAPSY national assistant organising secretary Raymond Chong, FT DAPSY deputy youth chief Kuan Perk Siong and myself had presented a memorandum to the KLIA management authorities on the issue. A copy of the memorandum was sent to the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism.

In our memorandum to Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd, we had urged the airport management to seriously consider including Chinese and Tamil in the airport signboards, as we felt that the present number of Chinese-speaking tourists visiting our country were very high. (According to statistics from the Immigration Department, Malaysia recorded a total of 847,768 tourist arrivals from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2001.)

We were also of the view that considering the Government's efforts to woo more Chinese tourists into the country, having signboards in Chinese would certainly be a complimentary move as well as a positive and user-friendly step.

In addition, in our memorandum, we had called for the inclusion of Tamil in the KLIA signboards as a sign of respect to the 1.8 million Malaysian Indians, being the third largest ethnic group. In the course of discussion with the airport management representatives, we also raised the possibility of including other common languages such as Arabic.

In view of this, the DAP urge the Cabinet to include Tamil in all international airport signs where necessary to truly reflect the spirit of multiracialism and multiculturalism that has become a hallmark of plural Malaysia.

We also call on the authorities concerned to investigate the Kelantan airport signboard vandalism incident where the Chinese, Tamil and Siamese words on the main signboard were covered-up just a couple of days after they were put up and now found to have been removed.