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Enamel Advertising Signboards (20) - Postage Stamps Sold Here
This double-sided enamel sign which is showing signs of its age, is in four languages and dates from well before WW2. It repeats the words "Postage Stamps Sold Here", in English, Jawi, Chinese, and Tamil, thus embracing the four main racial groups in Malaya at the time.The Malay language (as we know it today) is conspicuous by its absence.
This sign would typically hang outside a shop that also doubled as a local Post Office. Such a shop would be nominated a "Post Office Representative" and would be able to collect letters for delivery and conduct a number ot other postal tasks. The shops were known as "Wakil Pos" in Malay.
Historically, Malay has had a very interesting past having originally used an Indian script during the time of the kingdom of Srivijaya (683-686AD) and then, when Islam arrived in Southeast Asia during the 14th century, the Arabic script (Jawi) was adopted. Subsequently under pressure from the Dutch and British, the Arabic script was replaced by the Roman alphabet. Nonetheless Jawi continued in common use for many years as the notice board shows.