THE names of several major roads in Kuala Lumpur were changed yesterday. According to a Kuala Lumpur City Hall statement on Monday, the roads were renamed in hon our of past Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
The affected roads were Jalan Duta, Jalan Khidmat Usaha, Jalan Ipoh (the stretch from Jalan Segambut to Jalan Pahang), Persiaran Duta, Jalan Khidmat Setia, Jalan Ibadah, Lebuhraya Mahameru, Persiaran Mahameru and Jalan Semarak.
Nostalgia and melancholy accompanied the announcement on social media, with many netizens caught by surprise as City Hall had, in 2008, assured that there will be no more changing of road names in the city, except those in housing areas.
Some were worried the new names would not show up on Waze and/or Google Maps, others over whether they had time to change their name card and office stationery addresses, but most exchanged sentimental tales of their fond memories involving these lengths of gravel and tar.
Changes are, after all, almost always accompanied by a tumult of emotions.
Undoubtedly, naming roads after past rulers and leaders is a good way to show our appreciation for those who have contributed to the development of the nation. It is an avenue to honour them and will certainly also be a means to remind the younger generation of their sacrifices.
There have been many name changes in the past and they have, through time, been well absorbed into the public consciousness. Not many in the present generation, for instance, know Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman as Batu Road, Jalan Pekeliling as Circular Road or Jalan Tun Ismail as Maxwell Road.
Kampung Kerinchi and Pantai Dalam would draw blank stares until Bangsar South is mentioned.
But not all changes have been without resistance.
The attempt to change the infamous Jalan Alor’s name to Jalan Kejora was a recent example. Traders in the area were up in arms over City Hall’s bid to “wipe it off the tourism map with one stroke of the pen” as they claimed Jalan Alor was a brand worldwide.
In the end, the name was retained, and there were no further attempts to re-introduce it, or bring into existence Jalan Pluto, Utarid or Marikh around the neighbourhood.
Name changes can also, at times, be an exercise in futility as several other previous cases have shown. This is especially so when the names of beloved towns are changed in ill-advised re-branding exercises.
One involved the salacious sounding Batang Berjuntai, a small town in Kuala Selangor. Translated, it refers to something which protrudes usually at inopportune times. Even if it does have a ribald connotation in colloquial Malay and has served as the punchline for many off-colour jokes, the townsfolk still prefer the risque name than to what it was changed to in 2007 — the bland “Bestari Jaya”, supposedly to reflect the area’s stature as an education centre.
Batang Berjuntai, which was the even more steamy Batang Terjuntai in the 1940s, actually refers to a “dangling tree trunk”, courtesy of a big tree growing on the banks of Sungai Selangor, explain the townsfolk.
And as the new name is unique and unforgettable, they, as well as everyone else, have continued to use it until today even as signboards around town insist it should be Bestari Jaya.
Gratefully, several other towns with seemingly inappropriate names have been left alone as their uniqueness lends them character. One of them is Lachau in Sarawak, which the Hokkien would not dare say aloud. Just trip up slightly on the pronunciation and the name of the town would turn into an offensive word that has been known to lead to bodily harm. A proposal for a name change was brought up all the way to Parliament once, but was dismissed, as was a similar suggestion to “re-brand” Menggatal in Sabah.
Will these latest name changes around Kuala Lumpur be able to gain a foothold in the public psyche? As has been shown in most previous cases involving street names, it will with the passage of time, no matter how surprised people may initially be.
Perhaps, it will be helpful to ease the people into it by not totally discarding the old names in signboards, but to place them under the new.