I fully agree with Aminuddin Tajuddin's view on why KLIA cannot compete with the Changi airport in Singapore in his letter Cheap deals do not make planes fly to KLIA .

I would like to add my humble view to further address the issue. Being a frequent traveler to most major cities around the world, I noticed that KLIA is one airport that does not have a single Chinese signboard even though it may be the lingua franca for more than 50 percent of its users.

Strangely, Japanese signs are everywhere in the airport though statistics show that Japanese visitors constitute less than 20 percent of the combined visitors from countries/regions that use Chinese as their first language (namely China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Singapore).

I did not pay much attention to it until a Taiwanese businessman told me he had the impression that the Malaysian government favours Japanese investors over others. This businessman ended up putting his investments in mainland China.

I visited Istanbul, Turkey recently and was surprised to find Chinese signboards everywhere from the immigration check point right up to the taxi stand in front of the airport. I later found out that Turkey has just opened its door to Chinese tourists, and was expecting to host some two million Chinese tourists this year.

Signs should be put up for practical, not political, reasons. If the situation warrants it — say if we have many Indian visitors — we should also put up signs for this particular group. Leave politics out in the management of our public amenities, especially in a facility that greets the first-time visitors to our land.