Give George Town her due

A POSTCODE in Kuala Lumpur, say 50100, will be written as 50100 Kuala Lumpur.

But just imagine this:

• The National Registration Department (NRD) publishes it with a wrong spacing in spelling as 50100 Kualalumpur;
• Pos Malaysia writes it as 50100 Wilayah Persekutuan; or
• he city council displays on the street signs a mouthful Kuala Lumpur 50100 W. Persekutuan.

Well, this is how it is for George Town, a Unesco World Heritage city.

If the postcode is 10100, then our MyKad from the NRD is showing a wrong spacing of 10100 Georgetown; Pos Malaysia as 10100 Pulau Pinang; and city council street sign boards display George Town 10100 P. Pinang.

This issue was detailed in The Star, “George Town is not Pulau Pinang” (Jan 30, 2010); “Get the postcode right for this heritage city” (May 31, 2013); “Not right to do nothing about error” (Jun 5, 2013) and “The right spelling is George Town” (July 16, 2015).

These and more of such articles have been collected and are available on unitypenang.wordpress.com.

On June 19, 2019, Zairil Khir Johari, who was the Penang state executive councillor for Public Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation, replied to my email.

Here are the highlights:

• “The name of the city in MyKad should follow the gazetted name, which is George Town. However, I spoke to the National Registration Department and was told that they register addresses according to what is given by people. In any case, I am engaging with them to find a way to fix this if possible.”
• “For the City Council, I shall refer the case to my city councillors and ask them to follow up.”
• “The post office works on the basis of ‘postal towns’, which do not necessarily reflect the gazetted ‘towns’. So, historically, the postal town served by the Main Post Office on Lebuh Downing is actually ‘Penang’ or ‘Pulau Pinang’. In the old days, the practice was to put ‘Penang’ or ‘Penang, SS’ with SS referring to Straits Settlements.

“This dates back to historical practices. However, now that we have new forms such as ‘town’ and ‘state’, perhaps Pos Malaysia should also streamline themselves. As I said, I will try engaging with them.”

I would like to thank Zairil for his reply, but sadly, seven years have passed and there’s no new developments to date.

The seventh day of the seventh month (George Town World Heritage Day) has come and gone. Soon, on Jan 1, 2027, it will be the 70th anniversary or platinum jubilee of George Town being a city.

But something as basic as the city’s correct spelling and postcode is yet to be streamlined across the board.

It was great to see the state government marking the 18th anniversary of George Town as a Unesco World Heritage Site with a four-day celebration.

But shouldn’t the state government itself lead by example by getting George Town correctly written in the office addresses, as published in their official websites?

If the Penang state government still hasn’t helped to get it correct for our beloved state capital, then which other state government is going to help us?

Surely George Town deserves her due – in correct spelling in the MyKad, correct term by Pos Malaysia and correct postcode phrase on street signs.

SANJAY CS

Founder

#UnityPenang