KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur City Hall has been directed to review the renaming of Jalan Raja Laut 1 to Jalan Palestin.
Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said that he did not encourage the renaming of roads that were titled after historical and cultural significance.
"The proposal to change the road name (Jalan Raja Laut 1 to Jalan Palestin) was done by the former federal territories minister (Khalid Samad) in 2019.
"Jalan Raja Laut is not affected, but its slip-road, which is Jalan Raja Laut.
"So, I have asked the city hall to look into this," he said at the Federal Territories Ministry in Putrajaya today.
On Sunday Kuala Lumpur Mayor Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan announced the renaming of Jalan Raja Laut 1 to Jalan Palestin.
He said the idea to change the name was mooted during a peaceful assembly to celebrate the World Quds Day which was held at City Hall in May last year.
The change took effect on Sept 26.
Taking to Twitter a few days ago, Annuar had sought an explanation from City Hall as to why the road was renamed.
He said the name 'Raja Laut' held great significance to the Malays and Kuala Lumpur.
Annuar said while he took no issue with having a road bearing the name to symbolise the struggles of the Palestinian people, a justification had to be given as to why the road in question was selected.
Annuar pointed out that many roads were bearing English names that could have been chosen.
He suggested changing the names of Jalan Stonor, Jalan Conlay and Jalan Cochrane instead.
The city hall had said the process to identify a suitable road to be named Jalan Palestin was done according to procedures.
This is not the first time that roads have been renamed in Kuala Lumpur. In 2014, for example, eight major roads in the city were renamed after eight rulers who were the current and former Yang di-Pertuan Agong at that time.