SIGNS IN JAWI: TAKE A LOOK AT THE OLD DOCUMENTS

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NST Online » Letters 2008/03/05 By : FATHIMA IDRIS, Penang I CANNOT understand why N.M.C. of Kuala Lumpur is so excited over having road signs in Jawi ("Clearly a waste of time, money" -- NST, Feb 26). I do not know about Kuala Lumpur but here in Penang, when I was young, road signs used to be in English and Jawi. The last of these that I had come across was in Western Gardens in white background with black lettering, and not the green and white ones we have now. Recently, this sign was removed and with it, the last vestige of the past. In fact, last year, a number of green Jawi signs have also been replaced with signs in Malay and English (in smaller lettering). I suppose this is for tourists on the heritage trail. This then raises the question of why some things in our past are considered heritage and others not. Why is the destruction of the Bok House a loss and not the dropping of Jawi in road signs? N.M.C. asks "And of what use is Jawi?" It may not be of any use to him/her, but for those who care about the past of this country, Jawi is important. Before the Malay language was romanised, it was written in Jawi. If one were to go through old title deeds in Kedah, one would find them written in Jawi. I believe this would be the same in other Malay states. Old Muslim marriage certificates were also written in Jawi. Official documents were in Jawi, such as correspondence between the colonialists and sultans, which would now be inaccessible to anyone who does not know Jawi. It happened to a relative of mine. He was going through old documents in Terengganu for his doctorate but being illiterate in Jawi, his mother and aunt had to help him translate it into romanised Malay. Is it right then to loosen our hold on Jawi?