Isn’t this something that shouldn’t be happening in a multinational and multilingual country like Malaysia?
Malaysiakini reported that the Muar Municipal Council (MPM, Majlis Perbandaran Muar) officers had ordered several local retailers to remove their trademark signage that is written in Mandarin on Tuesday (4 September 2018). They were asked to erase the Mandarin characters on the pillars outside each store because they were bigger than the ones in Malay.
Source: Malaysiakini
The MPM officers’ instructions were very upsetting to the retailers because they have had their shops with the Mandarin signages there for many years. It’s a trademark for their shops!
Nonetheless, the officers claimed that the signage on the pillars have violated the local advertising laws, so they have to be removed. But they’ve been there for decades. 🙁
Source: Sin Chew
Due to this, the retailers could now be fined a maximum of RM2,000 or get jailed for two years if they refuse to remove the signage. Not only that, they could also be fined RM200 each day if they don’t remove them.
Source: NST
It was also reported that Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is not in favour of the “forceful removal” of the trademark signage by MPM. The Youth and Sports Minister, who expressed his two cents about the issue to the press today (6 September), reportedly said,
“I categorically oppose the forceful removal of the Mandarin (Chinese-lettered) trademark. Muar’s beauty is its diversity and we should protect that at all cost. The Mandarin trademark is also the living history of Muar, which has been there for more than half a century.”
True that, bro!
We sure hope that a solution will be possible for this issue and that the shop owners will get to keep their Mandarin signage up on the pillars, especially since it’s also a significant part of Muar’s history. Fingers crossed!
This report first appeared on Sin Chew Daily.
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