Letter
by Choo Sing Chye
former P Patto’s Political Secretary
The renaming of Jalan Silibin to Jalan P.Patto had caused an unusually large uproar from the businesses and residents in this particular area.
Although it is natural to have opposition to this plan to change the road name but it must be contained within the precinct of fair comment and good faith.
After reading the two news reports in The Star (18-11-08 and 19-11-08), one cannot deny the fact that there is a smack of insensitivity permeating into this whole affair of renaming.
If one has scant respect for P. Patto and has an unstoppable urge to comment, please do exercise some humility because P. Patto’s wife and his two daughters are still around and most important of all, P. Patto is not here to defend his name.
Disappointingly some of the comments had apparently gone overboard. As it stand, these have undeniably inflicted injury upon P. Patto’s family as it degrades what they have cherished so much of him as a good husband, a good father and an upright politician.
For being fair in one’s comments means that one should not utter comments like “Patto would not be unhappy even if a pub is named after him”. One cannot miss an intentional sprinkle of cruelty in this comment.
This comment implies that P. Patto had spent his life time centre around pubs and wouldn’t be unhappy if a pub is named after him.
P. Patto once told me that when he leaves this world only his name remains.
True to the point, but I do not wish to speculate whether he approves or disapproves of having a road sign named after him but I am very sure that he would have been offended that his name is being tossed about in disrespect.
Please let him be respected as a fine, honest and humble gentleman for in the name of justice he had fought without fear or favour and for this very same reason a road will be named after him.
When I spoke to P.Patto’s wife over the phone a very short while ago, she was clear upset and I could hear her sobbing and she said, “what did my husband do to deserve all this?” “My daughters and I did not demand or ask that a road be named after my husband.” “Why all these?”
No, he does not deserve all these let us have some decency.
I am from Ipoh and have the great honour to work with the late P. Patto in the education service before he went into politics to serve the people by joining the DAP. For those who know him, he was a very simple, down-to-earth and approachable person and very well-read. He had no airs and was also a great fighter of injustice and inequality.
The furore and spatter over the intended naming of Jalan Silibin in Ipoh to Jalan P. Patto to honour his contributions, sacrifices and services as a people’s champion and fighter have left a very bad taste in the minds of the local populace. The late politician truly deserves the honour for a road in Ipoh to be named after him. He had faithfully and courageously served the people of Silibin when he was the MP for Menglembu. Jalan Silibin is aptly chosen to reflect Patto’s services to the area and more so, the said road doesn’t have any historical significance.
I have seen and heard this man speak at ceramahs. One could see and feel his commitment to what he believed in. A short man who stood tall.
I could remember how obediently he accepted orders from his party to stand as candidate in ‘difficult’ constituencies including one against mighty Samy Vellu in Sungai Siput. He once lost in Petaling Jaya too.
I just cannot comprehend how a road name change could be more important than a dead man’s contributions to our cause. Didn’t Patto also fight for our rights when he was alive?
Why are these Ipoh residents so heartless?
If Sharuk Khan can deserve a datukship for contributing NOTHING for us, why not a road name for this great freedom fighter.
For those who are too young to know of Patto’s contributions please ask your DAP elders or your parents.
May Patto’s soul Rest in Peace. Amen.
Many people have no problem in honouring Mr Patto. Unfortunately DAP did not learn from BN’s mistake in renaming Jalan Alor. The MSM had a good time condeming Pakatan because DAP is beginning to act like BN. I too thinks DAP is beginning to act like BN.
If the residents do not want the name change, don’t change the name of the road. What’s so difficult about it. Is glorifying a dead person more important than heeding what the residents want?
Pakatan can choose some other forms of honouring Mr Patto e.g. new road, new housing estate, new building but please no statute in middle of the town.
Many of my friends and myself fully support the move to name Jalan Silibin after P.Patto.Why didn’t the residents oppose the renaming of roads after royalty and BN politicians ? Is it because P.Patto is from the opposition and they oppose it just for the sake of opposing?
My take is, people don’t know him nowadays…
It would be pointless if the road was renamed with noone respecting it… Not sure if it would be good idea to rename…
Dear all,
Don’t fall in to the gimmick set by the cronies… It’s what & how we value when someone like Mr Patto is around, not when he or she has left us.
It’s NOT opposing for the sake of opposing. The opposition don’t need such a kind of recognition. It meant nothing to the fight & struggle faced. We need to support them by understanding the reason of the fight & the challenges they are facing.
cheers…
The state of P.Patto poor recognition among Malaysian is a result of the systematic marginalization of non-bumiputera contribution to this country from revisonism that distorts our history, a revisonism born to protect the lie of Ketuanan Melayu and Malay rights. Just because they don’t burn books, keeping the books from being published is the same thing. Thank god for the internet otherwise, it would have been much worst..
change existing road name is not right, why want to bring this up. who is patto anyway – he’s just another oppos from dap……
you don’t need to name a road after “a fine, honest and humble gentleman”. and in malaysian dictionary, “a fine, honest and humble gentleman” does not exist in oppos – heck he’s not even a datuk or tan sri or tun.
if dap insists to have a building/road name after him, try it at new building or road, don’t change it on existing one…..
marginalization of non-bumiputera contribution ??What about Jln Yap Kwan Seng, Jln HS Lee, Jln Yap Ah Loy, Jln Tun Sambathan and thousand more?
We can regconize any distinguished personality by giving him a place in the history.
But by taking away one heritage and give it to another is total lack of wisdom. It shows that PR government is doing exactly the same thing the BN government was doing. So what reformation PR as a pact are talking about?
Why PR government of Perak is so adamant that Jln Silibin must be given to P. Patto?
Why can’t PR build a new road and name it after P. Patto, if PR government thinks that naming a road after a personality is the most appropriate form of recognization??
Afterall PR held the state government seat of Perak and they are in a position to build a road for P. Patto instead of robbing the current heritage.
That Jln Silibin holds a lot of meaning to a lot of people of Ipoh especially, and in the state of Perak.
Unless the PR government justifies that the name Silibin is so obnoxious that it has to be rid off from the map of the country, it should listen to the hearts of the people who had put them there in the seat of power now.
Go on cintanegara naming roads that are named after non malays and see if you can get 100 of these roads,don’t bother to get to 1000.However if you count roads that are named after Malays you will lose count.Ifyou talk about history people like Yap Ah Loy,Hang Tuah have been deleted out of the history books.Parameswara who is a Hindu is a Muslim Malay.If not marginalisation what is?? There is a serious effort to obiliterate contributions made towards the building of this nation, and contributions made by non Malays are significantly huge!!
By renaming roads after your own heroes, you are emulating the BN. Roads, towns should never be renamed; they are part of our history and we should be confident enough not to change some name because it is “colonial” or sounds “vulgar” or whatever. Remember there are millions of atlases and road maps in circulation and by changing a name you need to have new editions of these.
Put his name to any new road in any new housing estate.
Stop wasting everybody time and resources. Do something fruitful!
BY renaming any existing road, it will cause so much problem to so many people.
Traders need to fill an amendment form with the Business Registration department; Wasting money in replacing the road sign board; Road map for so many departments have to be changed including Police station, Fire Fighting Dept, Hospital, School, Bus and Taxi route map, Utilities dept and etc.
Don’t be disheartened. There are always some people who will be against any change because of strong sentimental reasons. I don’t blame them because I too have some very fond memories in that place also.
I studied in the then Methodist English School and completed my secondary education in 1961. School days were always your most memorable period of your life and I too had my share of fun and school day romance at that time which I will treasure forever in my life. Like all good thing in life, it will have to come to an end one day and hope that we all can accept the change and move on.
I am now retired and am living in Canada. If any school mate of that period would like to contact me, please email me at my address: [email protected]
Do Have some humility for the majority of Silibin residents. Many residents have not heard of the late Patto (who had no connection with Silibin area) and never even held his ceramah in Silibin and did not play much of a role in the development of Silibin.
Expressing unhappiness over the suggestion, Ipoh Ratepayers and Taxpayers Association deputy president Victor Sankey said the association had been receiving uncomplimentary feedback that the people here were against the state government’s proposal to rename Jalan Silibin to Jalan Patto.
Ipoh Barat MP and local councillor M. Kulasegaran was reported as saying that a street survey revealed more than 70% of the people interviewed agreed with the renaming of Jalan Silibin. It would have been more authoritative if the ‘survey’ was done by an independent body and
I fully appreciate DAP recognising the vast contributions of the late Patto, I don’t see why they should choose Jalan Silibin which has been in existence for more than five decades. we need to preserve and not erase, our history!
Silibin residents and others in Ipoh and outside and even from abroad have expressed their reservations. The business people are especially unhappy at the cost of changing their identity card addresses, name cards, business sign boards and possible lost of a brand value.
Others are local residents and history buffs who are unhappy at what they say is a landmark name disappearing from the map. Some are concerned their childhood memory of living in Silibin is under threat.
If at all the DAP feels he should be honoured, by all means spruce up the roundabout at Jalan Silibin, linking Jelapang, the Ipoh-Lumut highway and Taman Rishah and rename this roundabout as Bulatan P. Patto. Or build a new multipurpose community hall for the residents of Buntong and Silibin and name it after him. In short, to create a win-win situation and to recognise the sacrifices and contributions of the late Patto, he should be honoured not by renaming a well known road but by naming a new school or a library after him. Or simply take a look at other roads.
Silibin has a place in every Ipoh resident’s heart and local history would suffer if Jalan Silibin is renamed.
I just don’t understand why they like to change name.
Take Tiger Lane for example. How many really refer that road using the existing given name?.. I think there are more roads with name changed but people still refer to the old road name.
To remember someone important, why not name a play ground or garden or welfare organization after the person? Why must it be a road. A road name is just like a person name which you can’t change whenever you like.
Not to belittle the contributions of Patto, but there are more important things to worry about than the name of a road.
PKR and DAP got more important things to do than changing road names. Please focus on good governance and toppling BN
Yeah,Mr.P patto deserved it. He was my opposition hero.My congratulation to family,esp.Mrs patto. Yeap,I saw Jalan Yap Ah Loy somewhere in KL.Is it true that he was the founder of Kuala Lumpur ? If it’s true,I think we should build a permanent statue of this man in the middle of the city.Any guys wanna be defered ?
I’m in rough agreement with anybody who thinks renaming a road is a good idea, no matter how impressive the person it is intended to honour. Why not maintain a list of ‘those to be honoured’ and a list of ‘proposed developments which can be named in honour’? I’m sure there must be some new roads, parks, public amenities, rooms in public buildings etc, being built in Ipoh that could be named in honour of those who dedicated themselves to a better Malaysia.
I feel sympathy for his family to be caught up in the affair, I imagine they would feel rightly proud of a monument to their loved one. The letter itself reads as though it’s written by a lover spurned – the plan to rename a road was ill-conceived. It was a mistake, and people make mistakes- it’s okay! Now just think of a better way of carrying out your plan. No need to accuse people of uproar – you got it wrong, now you have some humility.
D’oh! Should have been “…renaming a road is a BAD idea…”!
This is a very small matter, but makes me wonder about a ‘sky change’. If hundreds of politicians who have been doing (to whatever level of efficiency or public benefit) their jobs for decades are suddenly replaced by well intended but badly prepared people who have never done those jobs, won’t we see a lot more of this kind of thing?
Maybe PR could offset fears of a well-meaning, but novice government by making transparent quality management part of their manifesto, if not the foundation of the way they approach politics.
Stop me if I’m being ‘too foreign’.
Just go ahead with the renaming of Jalan Silibin to Jalan P.Patto.
Umno & MCA have been very busy inciting people to oppose this move for the past few weeks. Some years ago, Umno changed the well-known road Jalan Kampar to Jalan(apa nama)..Bainun(i forgot the name) That was 100 times worse than renaming Jalan Silibin as Jalan Kampar is a main road!
I am from Ipoh too and i support renaming Jalan Silibin to Jalan P.Patto.
Tonberry, it was exactly seven years ago when the DAP made a big hue and cry over the Ipoh city council renaming Jalan Koo Chong Kong to Jalan Tabung Haji.
Uncle Lim was apparently so upset that he called upon Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali to sack the whole city council for committing the ultimate Malaysian offence.
“The menteri besar should dissolve the Ipoh city council – as a lesson to all city, municipal and district councillors to guard against the ultimate Malaysian offence of total insensitivity and lack of pride and respect for Malaysian history and the country’s multiracial heritage,” he said.
Following protests from numerous quarters, the city council buckled under pressure and subsequently reinstated the original name after a few days.
The road was named after Tan Sri Koo Chong Kong who was appointed Perak police chief in 1975 to quell the communist threat in the state. He was shot dead in his car by two terrorists while on his way home on Nov 13, 1975 and was accorded a hero’s funeral in Seremban attended by 20,000 people, including Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.
Hill Road between the city police headquarters and the newly-built Tabung Haji building was renamed after him in 1985 to acknowledge his contribution and sacrifice.
Since early this month, the same scenario is slowly taking shape but this time around it is the DAP that is pushing to rename Jalan Silibin after the former DAP state party chairman P. Patto.
This has not gone down well with the residents and business community there who viewed the party as trying to bulldoze its way through despite DAP representatives producing a street survey claiming that more than 70 per cent of Jalan Silibin folks agreed with the proposal – should have been conducted by an independent body and within the wider Ipoh area if you ask me.
As protests from the various quarters grew, the Pakatan state government finally relented and said that it would hear the people’s views first before deciding on the matter. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has already agreed in principle to honour the late Patto by renaming one of the roads in Little India.
State DAP leaders, however, seemed reluctant to accept Nizar’s offer, perhaps due to the prominence, or the lack of it, of the road in question. “Nizar has offered to rename Lorong Lahat after Patto and I think the DAP leaders are not going to agree as they want something more prominent for him,” said a source.
With the state government planning to hold a forum on this issue, a community leader noted that while Patto might deserve to be honoured, subjecting his name to public discussion and possible ridicule should be avoided at all costs. He said that placing a monument at the roundabout at Jalan Silibin would be more meaningful than renaming the road which has now become a controversy.
This might seem the rational way to solve the problem and save the state government from being accused of being under the thumb of the DAP. As the state chief executive officer, Nizar must put his foot down and resolve the matter once and for all.
After all, he has made the DAP an offer and should not be seen acceding to their whims and fancies.
Former Datuk Bandar Datuk Talaat Husain, moments after putting back the “Jalan Koo Chong Kong” signboard in 2001, humbly said: “It was an oversight on our part…we are now aware of the sensitivity involved and we didn’t have any intention to offend anyone.”
Is the Pakatan Rakyat state government willing to do the same?
As a Malaysian, i truly feel disgusted the manner which a simple proposal to change road names have become. Must we engage in gutter politics. Some will agree & some will not, does this mean we must act/speak. I think it would appropriate that a person of Mr. Patto should have a School, Park, Public Building or any Private/public institution which serves the public diligently named after him. That would honor the man and his legacy. So DAP, what’s do you think?
I’m from Ipoh. Is it that necessary to name the road after Mr Patto? Silibin Road has been around for so many years. You can name a new road or a new building after him but not something that has been around for so long. I think DAP Perak is playing gutter politics.
This is the problem with DAP, now busy over renaming of roads and putting up multilingual road signs. Please lah, clean up the towns and cities rather than spending valuable resources making new road signs in different languages. In what ways are you different from BN, Guan Eng? I think you are living under the coconut shell, not us. Typical third world mentality!
Choose another road, park, whatever and put an end to all this unwanted publicity. Please spare the family of the great man from this humiliation. The idea, though noble, has been turned into a PR nightmare.
P.Patto deserves better. May his soul rest in peace.
Some of the comments make me roll my eyes like mad…
Got no idea why you can name a garden using a person’s name but not the roads…
In KL, Jalan Alor was renamed to some weird planet name… In Kepong, roads are renamed into little Sarawak…
In KL again, Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin used to called Jalan Silang, which was of “historical significance” if you ask me…
Jalan Tun HS Lee used to be High Street…
Just to give my hypocritic friends a suggestion, let’s petition to restore the name Jalan Silang, High Street and a lot more, shall we?!
Anyway, I do think that changing a significant road’s name such as Jalan Alor is not good, if Jalan Silibin is there for years, then don’t bother to change it, simple as that…
Sure I agree with those who are peeved by the act of altering road names that are already in existent for a long time to new names honouring their comrades.Nothing against Mr. Patto but if you have to honour him,why not name a new residential Taman after him or a new state road or any public place built by the state.That would not provoke any controversy from current existing residents or businesses.
I must apologise for being off topic here (but then again one might also argue it is not entirely) but I am peeved by cintanegara’s innuendo that there is no attempt to marginalise contributions by non Malays.I am reproducing an article below to educate cintanegara,his fellow UMNO apologists like melurian,kasim amat and Malaysians who have been taught Malaysian History over the last 15 to 20 years or so.
A Small Piece Of HISTORY For Our Future Generation
Hitler’s public relations manager Goebbels once said “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.”.Looks like that is what UMNO has been doing ever since Mamakthir came into power. This has spawned a new generation of Malaysians who do not know their own history.
Once again our government had to wipe out any references to a famous Melaka prince as being Hindu and belonging to the powerful Hindu empire Sri Vijaya. So all of a sudden our museums,school text-books etc all refer Parameswara as a Malay prince,just like the fairy who turns a pumpkin into a grand carriage to take Cindarella to the ball with a magic wand.It’s just that easy.That’s how magical the wand of “Ketuanan Melayu” is—can turn an Indian into a Malay.
What race ruled or did not rule is besides the point. What is important is not butchering history to create your own truths. You cannot change your race even if you convert–Parameswara could not have been responsible to UMNO’s stupidity and false sense of heritage thro ‘Ketuanan Melayu’. If this is what it is based on,there is no ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ because the lineage of Melaka Sultans was an Indian and a Hindu Prince.It is clear from records that Parameswara never converted to Islam.He was an Indian Hindu who fled Palembang in Sumatra to eventually found Melaka circa 1400 AD and start the entire Malaysian royalty.Malaysian royalty was and is of Indian/Hindu origin.On the other hand it was Sri Maharaja who converted himself and the court of Melaka to Islam,and as a result took on the name of Mohammed Shah sometime after 1435.
But what is really sad is that our children are taught as though Malaysian history suddenly began in 1400 with an Islamic Melaka. Even the Malays themselves are being cheated by UMNO into believing that everything started around 1400.WE are also led to believe that the Indians and Chinese first arrived on the shores of Malaysia only around 1850 as desparate indentured labourers,farmers and miners.NOTHING COULD BE FURTHUR FROM THE TRUTH.
The cultural influence of India in particular,and China in South East Asia span over 2000 yearsstarting perhaps with the arrival from India of the Brahmanical prince/scholar–Aji Saka in Java in AD 78, thro to Vietnam,Cambodia(Indo-China)Thailand,Burma,Indonesia,Bali,Borneo and beyond.Malay culture is Indian culture.In fact the whole of South East Asia is heavily influenced by Indian culture.
The findings at Bujang valley speak of an ancient Indian/Hindu presence in Kedah.There were Chinese settlements in Pahang and Kelantan around the 13th-14th century and in the 12th century Singapore.The early Brunei Sultanate had a Chinese Queen.One need not ponder at length the implications of Angkor Wat and Borobudur or that 40%-50% of Bahasa Malaysia comprises Sangkrit/Tamil words.But all of these are hidden away from the rakyat inc the Malays themselves so the Malays in particular grow up with limited knowledge of their own country and heritage.
An important archeological find that pointed to one of the greatest empires of
all times in history–Raja Cholan empire that ruled from the Maldives thro India,Sri Lanka and right down to South East Asia found deep in the jungles of Johore a few years ago and made headlines in the main stream newspapers in 2005 suddenly disappeared from the news.
AhPek, copying and pasting alternative propaganda reflects your desperation. Perhaps it would be condusive to keep your questions short, so as to give others an opportunity to counter your views and perceptions on racial history.
Regards.
Dear AhPek, loved your comments. U have a blog of your own that I can visit?
zak_hammaad,
Can you not read and understand properly?I’ve said I reproduce an article to educate and not like you doing copying and pasting your mentor mamak’s opinion as if it was your own.It was pointed out to you not so long ago.You know the meaning of ‘plagiarize’ don’t you??
AhPek, I can read very well thank you. Selective ‘education’ is neither healthy nor makes for an impartial debate. Furthermore, your post is full of too many suppositions and unsubstantiated folklore and fairytales. That is why if you brought up one point at a time, we could deal with it comprehensively before moving to your next misinformed point.
p.s. My reproduction of chedet.com (on 2 occasions) was noted and marked with “in case you missed it” – It shows that you certainly did miss it :^)
Good day.
We know very well BN has been in the past busy with their Ketuanan Melayu stuff renaming road’s to Malay names.
But why is DAP following in the footsteps of BN? So what’s the purpose of renaming the road? Ketuanan India? No one is belittling P Patto’s contribution, but as people have pointed out, there are other ways to honour this man. How will renaming the road help the hardcore poor Indian’s? How about scholarship awards for poor students in honour of P Patto? Isn’t that way better?
tsk…tsk… DAP, most of your leaders are impractical and unpragmatic and incapable of thinking beyond their everyday (loser) politics.
You haven’t understood,zak_hammaad, you only like to think that you’ve understood.In the first place you haven’t caught the reason why in the first place I was prompted to bring up the article concerning some bit of Malaya’s early history and is this a piece of fairy tale?How well versed are you in malaya’s or malaysian history?Maybe well versed in the history that is sanctioned by UMNO?