There was a brouhaha last week as the Pakatan Rakyat government in Selangor proposed to rename Jalan Barat in PJ to Jalan V.David in honor of the statesman who fought for workers rights. David was also an MP for Bangsar, Puchong and Damansara.

Dr David, who died in July 2005 was a unionist and a former opposition DAP politician.

He won a seat in parliament representing the constituencies of Bangsar in 1959 and Damansara in 1978.

In parlaiment, he was known to be fearless and vocal in raising labour and Indian community issues.

He also served as MTUC secretary-general from 1976 to 1992. He was also the Transport Workers Union secretary-general from 1958 to 1995.

David was best known for setting up the Workers Institute of Technology (WIT) in Port Klang in the early 1970s, which provided education opportunities for thousands of workers’ children over the years.

At the international level, he served as the executive board member of the International Transport Federation and the International Confederation of Free Trade Union, and represented Malaysian workers at numerous International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland.

He was arrested under the Emergency Ordinance in 1958 and then arrested again under the Internal Security Act 1964, 1969 (after May 13 racial riots) and 1987.

However, the proposal received opposition from some groups, and subsequently the plan was shelved. The Selangor MB said that PJ will be undergoing major redevelopment, and thus the renaming will be done later.

Meanwhile, members from four NGOs gathered near Jalan Barat in Petaling Jaya on Friday to protest the name change. Datin Paduka Norkhaila Jamaluddin, who is the chairman for Permuafakatan Petaling Jaya Selatan, Community Bestari Taman Medan and Kelab Kebajikan Wanita Petaling Jaya Selatan said the group was against the name change because they could not see the point.

“Why should we change the name because the (Malaysian Trades Union Congress) office is here? David did not contribute to the development of PJ,” she said.

“We have Jalan Barat, Jalan Timur and Jalan Utara, but you’re taking away one of them that is widely known among PJ folk?” she added.

She also said the change of name must have been politically motivated.

Kelab Rakan Muda Petaling Jaya Selatan chairman Jamaluddin Alias said the group wanted a convincing explanation.

“We never had to rename a road under the previous government, why are we doing this now while the person the road is going to be named after did not really contribute to this constituency?” he said.

Meanwhile, former MBPJ councillor Datuk Dr Wong Sai Hou said Jalan Barat had its place in PJ history and thus should not be renamed.

“It has been and still is the policy of MBPJ to retain the name of the roads for historical significance. The exception in the case if the road is a numerical number. Thus Jalan 222 was renamed Jalan P.P. Narayan.

“Jalan Barat has been in existence these 50 odd years and all PJ residents know the locality,” he said, adding that the road was also the address for many famous landmarks in PJ.

He pointed out that changing the name to Jalan V. David would economically affect residents, offices, business centres as many would have to change their details on MyKad, bank accounts and others.

He added that PJ’s Jalan Barat, Jalan Utara and Jalan Timur served as directions leading to the administrative hub of the commercial part of “New Town.

“PJ is just 58 years old and all out effort must be taken to maintain all nooks and corners, and recognise them in history.

“If the Selangor Government wants to recognise the contribution of Dr V. David then replace one of the many roads with numbers such as Jalan 223 or in a new housing estate or even in Puchong where he was a MP,” he added.

According Selangor EXCO Ronnie Liu, there are plans to redevelop PJ (whatever that means):

Liu clarified the situation, saying there has yet to be a final word on which road will be renamed.

“Initially it was either Jalan Barat or Persiaran Barat, but because the whole area is to undergo extensive redevelopment we felt we should spend some time on planning… we will certainly go through with renaming (a road),” he said.

Meanwhile, MIBA president, Sivakumar had this to say:

I was annoyed when I saw a news broadcast recently on NTV 7 where a group of people were protesting against the re-naming of Jalan Barat to Jalan V David in Petaling Jaya.

Since independence, the government has been re-naming roads, particularly those with colonial names with that of prominent Malaysians to honour them for their contributions to society.

Dr V David was one such person. He was a well-known veteran politician who had done much for the cause of workers, particularly transport workers.

He was largely responsible for putting up the Transport Workers Union building in Jalan Barat of which he was the general secretary for a long time.

The Selangor government’s action in re-naming Jalan barat as Jalan V David is a fitting choice to honour this well-known personality since the Transport Workers Union building is located along that road.

After all, Jalan Barat is not anybody’s name but just an extract of a name and re-naming it as Jalan V David is not an obnoxious act as some make it out to be.

Even though the Selangor government’s action deserves praise, there are always people who are out to criticise or condemn such action.

However, to the Selangor government, I say Syabas! You have done a virtuous act to honour a fellow Malaysian whose contributions to society had remained unrecognised hitherto.

Readers may remember a similar scenario in Perak when a road (Jalan Silibin) was to be renamed after DAP stalwart P.Patto. Lots of protest and the family of late Patto was also unhappy over these complaints. In the end, the plan was shelved. So, I guess you can’t help comparing both cases.

I too think that instead of renaming a road, it would be better to allocate names to new roads or housing areas or buildings. This would be acceptable to all, except the few who have nothing better to do than oppose for sake of opposing. We also need to remember that some of the older generation may not be aware of iconic figures during their own time due to lack of education, exposure and/or awareness, while the younger generation won’t know most of the local multi-racial historical figures due to the way our school history books are written. So, better off to just give new road or facilities such names.