“KL is becoming like London,” Politician Claims KL is Becoming Less Malaysian Due To English Names

Back in 2019, Bangsar South, originally known as Kampung Kerinchi, had its name reverted to Kampung Kerinchi in an effort to give the area a more Malaysian identity.

At the time, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil also shared that the name ‘Bangsar South’ isn’t eliminated as it is still a building complex that is part of Kampung Kerinchi, like several other surrounding developments.

Now, Padang Renggas MP Nazri Aziz is claiming that Kuala Lumpur is becoming less and less Malaysian due to abundant ‘English names’. He took to Parliament to share his concerns.

“Kuala Lumpur is known as the capital of Malaysia. Recently, it is as if Kuala Lumpur is becoming like London, which is the capital of the United Kingdom, because the name of streets in Kuala Lumpur and several various new buildings, I noticed that many of them are having English names”, he said, naming the Hampshire Residences as an example.

Nazri went on to share that English names are used to attract property buyers.

“Sometimes, even if an area has a name that is in Bahasa Malaysia, it is changed to an English name, like Bangsar South.”

“What’s so wrong if we call it Bangsar Selatan?”

Fahmi then stood up and shared his agreement with Nazri’s concerns.

“That’s my area and I agree“, he said, while adding that he hopes names like Kampung Kerinchi will be championed when spoken about or brought up while overseas.

“This name (Kampung Kerinchi) is related with the area. But if you want to say that the name was forced to change because people wanted to buy it, I think if you ask the developer, the importance of the market is location, location, location.”

“People buy because maybe the location is near to the city center or anything, you can’t say that it is simply to drive sales that we have to change it to an English name. We are prioritising English names too much to a point where we are inconveniencing ourselves and we are not admiring Bahasa Malaysia.” Nazri added.

He has since urged the administration to defend local names over English names for areas and developments as it is Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s responsibility to approve the names of streets and developments.

Do you think having local names will effect property sales? Let us know in the comment section.

Also read: PM Says We Should Be Proud of Bahasa Melayu & Wants The Rakyat To Use More of It in The Office