KL mayor under fire for Jalan Alor name change

An opposition MP today slammed Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL)'s in renaming the popular Jalan Alor and at the same time urged the city mayor to resign immediately for not consulting the public regarding the matter.

In his Budget speech, Fong Kui Lun (DAP-Bukit Bintang) said that DBKL "does not care about other people's opinions" as there was no discussions wer eheld with elected representatives.

There are 10 opposition members of parliament in KL with only one from Barisan Nasional. That sole BN representative is also the minister in charge federal territories Zulhasnan Rafique.

The City Hall recently renamed the street to Jalan Kejora as part of " creating a new image " for Bukit Bintang area.

"DBKL should name the street back to Jalan Alor and the city mayor, Abdul Hakim Borhan should resign for allowing this matter to take place," said Fong.

He further condemned the move, which was made without the consent of the public and claimed that there were many quarters who were not satisfied with it.

"There's not one or two people that were not happy with this, but also the tourists and the taxi drivers.

‘ Do we need more stars?'

He said this would only tarnish the country's image as it confuses tourists who normally flock to Jalan Alor, which is located in Bukit Bintang as it is known as the city's best destination for street food.

"Even the taxi drivers get confused with this, when they were asked to go to Jalan Alor by the tourists, they could not find it anymore," claimed Fong.

Fong also said that the re-naming of the street was improper as it was a heritage street and it should not be changed "deliberately".

"Changing the name to Kejora (star) is not appropriate at all. ‘Alor' is already nice enough and it has been rated with many stars...why do need to add more ‘star' to it?

He also argued that if every ‘Alor' to be changed in the country, then places like Alor Gajah in Malacca and Alor Star in Kedah should also be re-named as well.