PENANG executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo has proposed that Gurmukhi characters (official script for the Punjabi language) be included on the Jalan Gurdwara road signage.
He said the road would be most suitable place in Penang to have a signage in Gurmukhi characters as the oldest Sikh Gurdwara in the state is located there.
“In Penang, we embrace diversity and when we took over the government in 2008, we made a decision to identify certain road names in Penang to be not only written in Bahasa Malaysia but also in other languages,” Jagdeep, who is the state Local Government, Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman, said in a press conference today.
“To date, some 40 roads in Penang, which had been identified, have multilingual signages. They comprise 57 road signages in Chinese, 12 in Tamil and 21 in Jawi characters.
“I hope that the state government will support and approve my request on behalf of the Sikh community in Penang. If this happens, then Penang will be having its first road name written in the Gurmukhi characters.”
Wadda Gurdwara Sahib’s Conservation and Restoration Committee chairman Datuk Mahinder Singh Dulku commended Jagdeep for his proposal and said it was very significant to the Sikh community.
“I hope the Penang mayor (Datuk Yew Tung Seang) will give his full support to the appeal by YB Jagdeep.
“It is apt that the ‘Jalan Gurdwara’ is written in Gurmukhi so as to identify the contribution of the Sikhs in the country.
“This is will be the first in history where the Gurmukhi letters will be displayed at the streets of Penang,” said Mahinder.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Law Suun Ting