A plaque at the Penang State Museum in Lebuh Farquhar, installed in 1965, has recently come under scrutiny for what some observers perceived as spelling errors. However, experts and officials have clarified that the words in question—“pendudok" and “pendidekan”—reflect the old Malay spelling system in use prior to the standardisation of Bahasa Melayu.

The plaque, which commemorates the opening of the Penang Museum and Art Gallery by then-governor Raja Tun Uda Al-Haj Raja Muhammad on April 14, 1965, employs the “ejaan lama” or old Malay orthography. Assistant curator Muhamad Iqram Taufet explained that the spellings are historically accurate for the period. For instance, the word “pendudok” features a superscript “2” (written as “pendudok²”), a now obsolete convention used to denote the plural form, comparable to the modern “penduduk-penduduk.”

The discussion was sparked after images of the plaque circulated on social media, prompting some viewers to interpret the spellings as mistakes. Responding to the controversy, state tourism committee chairman Wong Hon Wai emphasized that the current Bahasa Baku (standard Malay spelling) system only came into use after the 1970s. He noted that prior to this, the Malay language employed varied spelling conventions and that historical inscriptions should be assessed within their own linguistic context, rather than by today’s standards.

Romanised Malay has undergone several revisions over the past century. The Wilkinson system, introduced in 1904, and later the Za’ba system, used in schools until 1972, were among the prominent standards before Malaysia and Indonesia harmonised their spelling. This joint standardisation officially took effect on August 16, 1972, ushering in the Bahasa Baku system currently in use.

The Penang plaque thus serves as a tangible reminder of the linguistic evolution within the Malay language, illustrating earlier orthographic practices prior to modern standardisation efforts.