Use Jawi script on signboards

Pahang business owners have two months to comply or face rM250 fine

KUANTAN: Owners of business premises and billboards in the state yet to use Jawi script on their signboards have only two months to do so.

Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Abdul Rahim Muda said from Jan 1, failure to use the Jawi script could lead to a RM250 fine for each offence by the respective local authorities.

He said the move to use Jawi script of the same size as the Roman alphabet was decided this year to uphold Jawi that has become increasingly sidelined, and based on observations, Jawi was still not widely used except in some locations in Kuantan and Pekan.

“There are even traders who claimed they have not received the instructions although they have been circulated through the media, albeit not aggressively.

“We hope they use the remaining time to do so,” he said.

Abdul Rahim was speaking to reporters after attending the “Love Our Beach” programme at Balok Water Recreation Centre here yesterday.

During the programme, 370 volunteers from private companies, financial institutions and students of tertiary institutions covered a 3km stretch along the beach and collected 451.5kg of garbage in two hours.

Meanwhile, Kuantan Municipal Council president Datuk Hamdan Hussin said RM1.9mil had been allocated to develop the infrastructure and public utilities including roads and toilets in beach areas in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2020.

Of this, Pantai Cherating, Pantai Chendor and Pantai Sepat would receive RM500,000 each while RM200,000 had been set aside for Pantai Batu Hitam and Pantai Kempadang.

“We realise that the beaches in this district have to compete with other nearby tourist attractions including beaches in Terengganu.

“But once the facilities have been developed, we hope more tourists would choose beaches in Kuantan as their holiday destination,” he said.