But why is DAP following in the footsteps of BN? So what’s the purpose of renaming the road? Ketuanan India? No one is belittling P Patto’s contribution, but as people have pointed out, there are other ways to honour this man. How will renaming the road help the hardcore poor Indian’s? How about scholarship awards for poor students in honour of P Patto? Isn’t that way better?

tsk…tsk… DAP, most of your leaders are impractical and unpragmatic and incapable of thinking beyond their everyday (loser) politics.

p.s. My reproduction of chedet.com (on 2 occasions) was noted and marked with “in case you missed it” – It shows that you certainly did miss it :^)

Good day.

Regards.

A Small Piece Of HISTORY For Our Future Generation

Hitler’s public relations manager Goebbels once said “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.”.Looks like that is what UMNO has been doing ever since Mamakthir came into power. This has spawned a new generation of Malaysians who do not know their own history.
Once again our government had to wipe out any references to a famous Melaka prince as being Hindu and belonging to the powerful Hindu empire Sri Vijaya. So all of a sudden our museums,school text-books etc all refer Parameswara as a Malay prince,just like the fairy who turns a pumpkin into a grand carriage to take Cindarella to the ball with a magic wand.It’s just that easy.That’s how magical the wand of “Ketuanan Melayu” is—can turn an Indian into a Malay.
What race ruled or did not rule is besides the point. What is important is not butchering history to create your own truths. You cannot change your race even if you convert–Parameswara could not have been responsible to UMNO’s stupidity and false sense of heritage thro ‘Ketuanan Melayu’. If this is what it is based on,there is no ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ because the lineage of Melaka Sultans was an Indian and a Hindu Prince.It is clear from records that Parameswara never converted to Islam.He was an Indian Hindu who fled Palembang in Sumatra to eventually found Melaka circa 1400 AD and start the entire Malaysian royalty.Malaysian royalty was and is of Indian/Hindu origin.On the other hand it was Sri Maharaja who converted himself and the court of Melaka to Islam,and as a result took on the name of Mohammed Shah sometime after 1435.
But what is really sad is that our children are taught as though Malaysian history suddenly began in 1400 with an Islamic Melaka. Even the Malays themselves are being cheated by UMNO into believing that everything started around 1400.WE are also led to believe that the Indians and Chinese first arrived on the shores of Malaysia only around 1850 as desparate indentured labourers,farmers and miners.NOTHING COULD BE FURTHUR FROM THE TRUTH.
The cultural influence of India in particular,and China in South East Asia span over 2000 yearsstarting perhaps with the arrival from India of the Brahmanical prince/scholar–Aji Saka in Java in AD 78, thro to Vietnam,Cambodia(Indo-China)Thailand,Burma,Indonesia,Bali,Borneo and beyond.Malay culture is Indian culture.In fact the whole of South East Asia is heavily influenced by Indian culture.
The findings at Bujang valley speak of an ancient Indian/Hindu presence in Kedah.There were Chinese settlements in Pahang and Kelantan around the 13th-14th century and in the 12th century Singapore.The early Brunei Sultanate had a Chinese Queen.One need not ponder at length the implications of Angkor Wat and Borobudur or that 40%-50% of Bahasa Malaysia comprises Sangkrit/Tamil words.But all of these are hidden away from the rakyat inc the Malays themselves so the Malays in particular grow up with limited knowledge of their own country and heritage.
An important archeological find that pointed to one of the greatest empires of
all times in history–Raja Cholan empire that ruled from the Maldives thro India,Sri Lanka and right down to South East Asia found deep in the jungles of Johore a few years ago and made headlines in the main stream newspapers in 2005 suddenly disappeared from the news.

Got no idea why you can name a garden using a person’s name but not the roads…

In KL, Jalan Alor was renamed to some weird planet name… In Kepong, roads are renamed into little Sarawak…

In KL again, Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin used to called Jalan Silang, which was of “historical significance” if you ask me…

Jalan Tun HS Lee used to be High Street…

Just to give my hypocritic friends a suggestion, let’s petition to restore the name Jalan Silang, High Street and a lot more, shall we?!

Anyway, I do think that changing a significant road’s name such as Jalan Alor is not good, if Jalan Silibin is there for years, then don’t bother to change it, simple as that…

P.Patto deserves better. May his soul rest in peace.

Uncle Lim was apparently so upset that he called upon Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali to sack the whole city council for committing the ultimate Malaysian offence.

“The menteri besar should dissolve the Ipoh city council – as a lesson to all city, municipal and district councillors to guard against the ultimate Malaysian offence of total insensitivity and lack of pride and respect for Malaysian history and the country’s multiracial heritage,” he said.

Following protests from numerous quarters, the city council buckled under pressure and subsequently reinstated the original name after a few days.

The road was named after Tan Sri Koo Chong Kong who was appointed Perak police chief in 1975 to quell the communist threat in the state. He was shot dead in his car by two terrorists while on his way home on Nov 13, 1975 and was accorded a hero’s funeral in Seremban attended by 20,000 people, including Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

Hill Road between the city police headquarters and the newly-built Tabung Haji building was renamed after him in 1985 to acknowledge his contribution and sacrifice.

Since early this month, the same scenario is slowly taking shape but this time around it is the DAP that is pushing to rename Jalan Silibin after the former DAP state party chairman P. Patto.

This has not gone down well with the residents and business community there who viewed the party as trying to bulldoze its way through despite DAP representatives producing a street survey claiming that more than 70 per cent of Jalan Silibin folks agreed with the proposal – should have been conducted by an independent body and within the wider Ipoh area if you ask me.

As protests from the various quarters grew, the Pakatan state government finally relented and said that it would hear the people’s views first before deciding on the matter. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has already agreed in principle to honour the late Patto by renaming one of the roads in Little India.

State DAP leaders, however, seemed reluctant to accept Nizar’s offer, perhaps due to the prominence, or the lack of it, of the road in question. “Nizar has offered to rename Lorong Lahat after Patto and I think the DAP leaders are not going to agree as they want something more prominent for him,” said a source.

With the state government planning to hold a forum on this issue, a community leader noted that while Patto might deserve to be honoured, subjecting his name to public discussion and possible ridicule should be avoided at all costs. He said that placing a monument at the roundabout at Jalan Silibin would be more meaningful than renaming the road which has now become a controversy.

This might seem the rational way to solve the problem and save the state government from being accused of being under the thumb of the DAP. As the state chief executive officer, Nizar must put his foot down and resolve the matter once and for all.

After all, he has made the DAP an offer and should not be seen acceding to their whims and fancies.

Former Datuk Bandar Datuk Talaat Husain, moments after putting back the “Jalan Koo Chong Kong” signboard in 2001, humbly said: “It was an oversight on our part…we are now aware of the sensitivity involved and we didn’t have any intention to offend anyone.”

Is the Pakatan Rakyat state government willing to do the same?

I am from Ipoh too and i support renaming Jalan Silibin to Jalan P.Patto.

This is a very small matter, but makes me wonder about a ‘sky change’. If hundreds of politicians who have been doing (to whatever level of efficiency or public benefit) their jobs for decades are suddenly replaced by well intended but badly prepared people who have never done those jobs, won’t we see a lot more of this kind of thing?

Maybe PR could offset fears of a well-meaning, but novice government by making transparent quality management part of their manifesto, if not the foundation of the way they approach politics.

Stop me if I’m being ‘too foreign’.

I feel sympathy for his family to be caught up in the affair, I imagine they would feel rightly proud of a monument to their loved one. The letter itself reads as though it’s written by a lover spurned – the plan to rename a road was ill-conceived. It was a mistake, and people make mistakes- it’s okay! Now just think of a better way of carrying out your plan. No need to accuse people of uproar – you got it wrong, now you have some humility.