"Considering the government's efforts to woo more Chinese tourists into the country, having signboards in Chinese will certainly be a complementary move," said DAP in a memorandum which was handed over to Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd today.
Several quarters have called for the inclusion of Chinese and Tamil on signboards at key entry ports in Malaysia because of the growing number of tourists, mainly from mainland China.
However, the government had sent out mixed responses over the issue. Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik said there was no need for Chinese signboards but Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said the proposal would be carried out if the number of Chinese tourists reaches a million.
The memorandum delivered by DAP publicity secretary Ronnie Liu and four other Youth wing leaders was received by Malaysia Airports marketing and public relations division senior manager Anis Zuhani Ahmad.
Sign of respect
"We feel that these is no need to wait until the number of Chinese tourists reaches a million as the present numbers are already very high," said the memorandum which was also sent to the two ministers.
Liu, when contacted, said that the number of Chinese-speaking visitors to Malaysia is likely to reach one million by the end of the year based on current statistics.
"Moreover, if the authorities could have signboards in Japanese although the number of Japanese tourists is less than that of their Chinese counterparts, there is no reason why Chinese should not be included on the signboards," he added.
According to statistics for year 2001 on the Tourism Malaysia website, 453,246 tourists arrived from China; 249,811 from Taiwan and 144,611 from Hong Kong. During the same period, 397,639 visitors arrived from Japan.
DAP said the airport authorities should also consider the inclusion of Chinese and Tamil as a sign of "respect" for the nation's 6.4 million Chinese Malaysians and 1.8 million Indian Malaysians.
"We urge Malaysia Airports to include the two languages in order to ensure an international airport that is truly user-friendly as well as to reflect the spirit of multiracialism and multiculturalism that is a hallmark of Malaysia," the memorandum said.
Arabic stays
On a related matter, Liu said an attempt to include Chinese, Tamil and Siamese on a signboard at the Kelantan airport failed when the signboard was found vandalised just two days later.
"The signboard at the new airport was put up only last week but two days later, some press pictures showed that the sections with Chinese, Tamil and Siamese were covered up with black tape," he said.
He noted however that the Arabic script remained on the signboard together with Bahasa Malaysia and English.
Liu said the matter was raised with the Malaysia Airports representative during the memorandum handover this morning, but was told that answers would not be forthcoming until an investigation was done on the matter.
He added that no time frame had been given for an official response from the company.