Cultivating greater awareness and appreciation of language, culture and heritage

Mr. Aandeappan, Chairman of Association of Singapore Tamil Writers 

Writers, teachers, students

Ladies and gentlemen 

A very good evening to all of you. Vanakkam.

1. It is very good to be here with all of you at this year’s Muthamizh Vizha. And this is my first time joining you but this year is also a very significant event because this year’s event coincides with our 50th birthday or SG50.

2. And it was very good to see so many young people just now, making the speeches. I confess that I don’t understand what they’re saying. But I didn’t have to understand what they’re saying to be captivated by what they’re saying. Because they were wearing such wonderful costumes, they have such dramatic gestures and they were so confident and articulate in the way they spoke. And even when the mic wasn’t working so well, they continued speaking with such confidence. Please give them a round of applause. Well done!   

3. I would also offer my warmest congratulations to Mr VRP Manickam who has just received the Tamizhavel Award. Big round of applause to him.

4. As you saw from the video just now, it showed all the award recipients from the previous years. Quite a number of them have gone on to win even higher awards and honours at the national level or even international level. For example, I just saw in the video, Mr KTM Iqbal. I think he was a recipient some years back and just recently he was our national Cultural Medallion winner. So perhaps we will see even higher honours for this year’s award recipients. And I also hope that the achievement would spur not only Mr Manickam but also all of our talented writers here, young and old, to achieve even greater heights.

5. This year’s event is special because of SG50. But it also has extra significance for all of us because this year’s event comes shortly after the passing of our founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. And I am very glad that the community has come together to pay tribute to him just now. So thank you very much for that as well.

6. I think we owe a lot to Mr Lee and our founding fathers because what we have here in Singapore today, a multi-racial society, was very much the result of their vision and their hard work. As all of you would have seen in the video, right from day one, in the days of separation he, himself, said that this is not going to be a Malay country, it is not going to be a Chinese country, it is not going to be an Indian country. It will be a country for all Singaporeans.

7. That was 50 years ago when the concept of Singapore was non-existent, when we were such a diverse society. But 50 years later today, we have a multi racial society where everyone has a place, every community belongs, where we use English as a common working language but each community continues to retain its roots through its mother tongue. And I think that’s something very precious that we’ve achieved over the past 50 years.

8. Mr Lee himself knew very well that language was an important medium for human expression. And I quote what he said many years ago, “with knowledge of another language, which means an understanding of a different culture, a different civilisation, and more windows in the mind, come inevitably, tolerance and understanding. The chauvinist, the bigot, the extremist very often is a monolinguist; his mind has no windows into other worlds”. 

9. This is classic Mr Lee, very sharp but full of conviction. This was from a speech he made in 1966, many years back. But I think it still holds true today – that knowledge of other languages open our minds and helps us to build tolerance and understanding. And so mastery of our mother tongues makes us richer in our perspectives, in our values, and it strengthens our sense of identity and heritage.

10. And this is why today we don’t just recognise four official languages. But, in fact, we go beyond just recognising them. We actively promote four official languages. You can just look around us to see evidence of this. Right now, we are having a Tamil Language Festival and we have the Tamil Language Council. The Chairman is here. And they are all doing their part with their partners like the Association to promote Tamil language. And this is happening for the other languages as well. 

11. Within my ministry, the National Arts Council (NAC) is also stepping up its efforts to translate and publish Tamil works, and to profile them overseas. We also help to promote our Singapore Tamil writers overseas. For example, a number of our local titles were recently launched at the New Delhi World Book Fair. The New Delhi World Book fair is a very important book fair for Tamil literature and Singapore was this year’s Guest of Honour in the book fair. Our being featured there created a quite a bit of buzz and it put Singapore writers like Rama Kannabiran and Latha in the international spotlight. So, we are doing more to promote our writers, not just in Singapore but also overseas.     

12. Within Singapore itself, of course we have our own Singapore Writers Festival, which the Chairman mentioned just now. And we’ve been working with the Association and the Festival, again, to feature prominent Singaporean Tamil writers. And I understand that the Festival has worked with the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers to organise conferences and also to build more connections between our writers and the Tamil diaspora. We hope to do even more as the years go on.

13. In promoting and instilling a language, we recognise that it’s very important to start young – the exposure must start from young. And that’s why it was very good just now to see all the young children speaking Tamil so confidently. So it’s good to see our young children, kindergarten, primary school, speaking Tamil so confidently. And I know that parents are also always very eager and anxious to make sure that your children have good grounding in the language. 

14. So I want to assure all of you here today that the government will continue to support the teaching and the promotion of the Tamil language. For example, the National Arts Council (NAC) has commissioned a literature text featuring Singaporean Tamil writing, which is now being used in our junior colleges as an A-level text. So, our original works in the language are now being studied and read in all our schools.

15. We will also do more to nurture and groom young talents, young artistic talents, young writers who are good in literature and in the Tamil language. For example, one of NAC’s grant recipients is Avant Theatre and it has organised a mentorship programme for promising young Tamil writers at the junior college and the tertiary levels. I think these initiatives allow for the nurturing and grooming of the next generation of Tamil writers, and the development of even more original Singaporean works.

16. And so eventually, as we groom many of our young students overtime, I hope there will be many more writers like Mr Manickam here, more of you will follow in his footsteps to write and continue to do us proud. We will continue to build on these efforts, and do even more, not just in Tamil, but in all of our official languages.

17. This work cannot be done by the government alone or by NAC or by any single government agency. I think this work must be done by all of us, you and I, working together. So the community plays a very important role. Parents, associations like this, all of you play a very important role, especially in cultivating greater awareness of the language, appreciation of your language, culture and heritage. Your support and your commitment are crucial in ensuring that Tamil remains a living language.

18. I would say that we have seen actually very strong support and good efforts from the community. Some of you may have heard of an initiative, which is led by the Tamil Digital Heritage Group. They are planning to gather and digitise Singapore’s Tamil literary publications dating from 1965 to 2015, 50 years of Singapore Tamil literary publications. And when all of the digitisation is done, the collection will be handed over to the National Library Board (NLB) who will make it available for everyone to see through the NLB portal. And so this will ensure that all the Tamil works that have been produced are preserved, well-kept, digitised and put out to the public for all to see and for future generations to continue to read and enjoy.

19. Certainly, we also recognise the invaluable efforts of the Association for Tamil Writers. Beyond this event, I understand that the Association has several projects lined up for SG50 and I certainly hope that some of your projects will come to fruition and we will have even more events this year to celebrate our Tamil writers.

20. I think all of these are very good examples of the strong partnership between the government and the community. This is truly active citizenry at work. It is collaboration at work. In short, this is Singapore at work.

21. So let me take this opportunity to thank the Association for all your many decades of strong commitment to the Tamil language, literature and culture in our Singapore community. Year after year, your efforts make a difference.

22. We will continue, together, to champion the Tamil language as one of our official languages, and we will work with you to make this happen. Together, we can reach out to new readers, nurture new writers, and bring Tamil literature to even greater heights.

23. Now, above all else, I think what’s important is that we stay true to our founding principles as a multi-racial, multi-cultural – and indeed, a multi-lingual nation. With that in mind, I think there is no limit to what we can achieve for all of Singapore literature, and for all of Singapore. Thank you very much.