MELAKA: The Chief Minister has played down the issue on the proposal to change the name of St Paul's Hill to Bukit Melaka by asking stakeholders to maintain both names.

       “What’s wrong in having both names to identify the hill without blowing the issue out of proportion,” Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali told the state legislative assembly on Thursday (March 3).

       Sulaiman said he has no objection if the name of St Paul's Hill is maintained for the sake of unity.

       He also said both the names could be engraved on the signboards leading to the hill.

       “We can add another word - Bukit Melaka - to St Paul's Hill in the signboards without turning this into an issue,” he said, adding that even people have different monikers.

       “I don’t see any problems with this,” he said during his winding-up speech on Thursday (March 3).

       The proposal to change the name of the hill saw a heated debate when Opposition lawmakers claimed the state government was attempting to erase Melaka history.

       Earlier, Asahan assemblyman Fairul Nizam Roslan highlighted and rebuked Allex Seah Shoo Chin (Kesidang-DAP) for politicising the issue of the name change.

       He said Seah had made a post in his Facebook that amounted to painting a negative picture of the state government and that it could create disunity among the people.