Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor explained today that the eight roads in Kuala Lumpur were renamed to names of agongs as the current names “have no meaning”.

 

He added that previously only two roads in Kuala Lumpur were named after sultans, which is Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Sultan Sallehuddin.

“Eight of our Agongs are no more, so we made the decision. Jalan Duta carries no meaning to us. Why can’t we change Jalan Duta to Jalan Sultan Abdul Halim, a twice elected agong? Is that wrong?” asked Tengku Adnan ( left ).

 

“Jalan Mahameru? What is ‘mahameru’? Mahmeri Orang Asli people - that I know - but ‘Jalan Mahameru’? I have no idea. What is wrong with the (name) change? And we will continue to do so,” he said today.

 

Tengku Adnan also said that this matter should not be politicised, unless the government changed the historic name of a road or renamed the roads after itself.

 

“This is all politicising,” he said laughing, responding to reporters who asked if the Conference of Rulers had a hand in the name change.

Yesterday, it was reported that the Conference of Rulers never made or approved any resolution to rename the eight main roads in the federal capital after the country’s former Agongs.

Previously, Tengku Adnan had said that the name changes, which were effective November 26, were upon the request of the Conference of Rulers when the decision was made by the ministry.

The eight roads that are involved are Jalan Duta, Jalan Khidmat Usaha, Jalan Ipoh, Persiaran Duta, Jalan Khidmat Setia and Jalan Ibadah, Lebuhraya Mahameru, Persiaran Mahameru and Jalan Semarak.

The names of the above roads were altered to Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim, Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Persiaran Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, Jalan Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, Lebuhraya Sultan Iskandar, Persiaran Tuanku Ja’afar and Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra respectively.