Singapore: Two other reports on the Tamil language issue

[Harold Schiffman]

Two other reports on the Tamil language issue

Seelan Palay: As far as I checked, there wasn't any article following
up on the issue in today's (Sept 20th) Straits Times. There was a
letter published in the forum section though, from an Indian man who
was very against the idea of the speech and actually praised the
police for acting well. I will respond to that in my next blog post.

Below is an article featured in the Japanese press and a report on
what happened on Friday at Speakers' Corner by the Singapore
Democrats.

Japanese on signs at the expense of Tamil irks Singapore's Indians

SINGAPORE, Sept. 20 (Kyodo)

Singapore's use of Japanese on signboards in an apparent bid to lure
more Japanese tourists has roused concern among some ethnic Indians
who make up almost 10 percent of the city-state's citizens, with some
feeling snubbed at the exclusion of their native language Tamil. The
city-state has four official languages -- English, Chinese, Malay and
Tamil -- to accommodate its multiethnic population, which is majority
Chinese with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities. Signs are mostly in
English, which is the administrative and working language. But
government offices often convey policy information in the four
languages and announcements for passengers at commuter train stations
are delivered in the four languages, one after the other.

And all Singaporean students are required to study their native
languages in school, in addition to English. In recent years, however,
multilingual signs have mushroomed at Changi international airport and
at tourist hotspots bearing only three of those four languages plus
Japanese, with Tamil not among them. The increasing appearance of such
signs is widely seen as a deliberate policy to make Singapore more
tourist-friendly to non-English speakers, including Japanese. Last
year, Japan was Singapore's sixth largest source of tourists after
Indonesia, China, Australia, India and Malaysia.

Thamiselvan Karuppaya, a 40-year-old ethnic Indian real estate agent,
applied to speak Friday on the issue at Speakers' Corner, a park in
Singapore's financial and business district that has been designated
since 2000 by the government as a venue for citizens to air
grievances.

But he had to abandon his plan after the police objected on ground the
issue touches on racial sensitivities.

Singapore forbids speakers at the park from touching on race and
religion for fear it might ignite tension among the races in the
wealthy Southeast Asian state, which though peaceful now, saw violent
riots between Chinese and Malays in the 1960s.

Karuppaya's friend Rethinam Sabapathy, 51, told Kyodo News that some
street signs near the country's biggest Hindu temples also fail to use
Tamil.

"All this doesn't make sense. It's a mistake. They are trying to
attract more Japanese by using Japanese language for the signboards.
But as Tamil speakers, we have a slight feeling of 'unwantedness'
creeping into us," Sabapathy said.

"The Japanese are very nice people known for manufacturing good
cameras and for their sumo wrestlers, but it's wrong to put up
Japanese language because they come here to get the real multicultural
flavor of Singapore," he said.

In response to inquiries from Kyodo News, Rebecca Lim, deputy director
for Infrastructural Development at the Singapore Tourism Board, said
multilingual signs in Singapore are meant to serve the needs of
tourists, especially those who are non-English speakers.

She said the agency encourages multilingual signs that "take into
consideration the needs of our non-English speaking visitors from key
visitor-generating markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, China and
Japan."

This is why Chinese, Malay and Japanese were added to English for
signs at the Changi Airport, she said in an email response to Kyodo.

Aside from the signboard issue, Sabapathy, who works as a
horticulturalist, said ethnic Indians do not feel marginalized as the
government does promote their native language by ensuring the
continuance of a Tamil newspaper, the state-run broadcasting station
runs a Tamil radio channel and brochures explaining government
policies also include Tamil.

Singapore's local population of 3.6 million is made up of 2.7 million
ethnic Chinese, 491,000 ethnic Malays and 313,000 ethnic Indians.

If foreigners working in the state are included, Singapore's
population is 4.6 million.

In a statement Friday, Singapore police said they have informed
Karuppaya the issue he was planning to raise in his speech "is a
sensitive one impinging on race."

"Singapore is a multi-ethnic society and maintaining community harmony
is a key imperative that we must not take for granted," it said.

Japan was once the shining star of Singapore tourism but it has in
recent years been overshadowed by tourists from emerging Asian
economies flocking to Singapore in ever greater numbers due to buoyant
economies and a boom in low-cost airlines.

Some 594,000 Japanese visited Singapore last year -- a far cry from 10
years ago when more than 1 million Japanese visitors swamped Singapore
annually.

Singapore, which last year attracted more than 10 million visitors, is
in a major drive to woo even more tourists.

It is building two multibillion-dollar integrated resorts with casinos
that are expected to be ready some time next year, while it will be
launching the world's first Formula One night motor racing on its
streets next on Sept. 28.

2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.

Spectators cornered at Speakers' Corner
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Singapore Democrats

"I think we better leave this place now before pictures of us appear
in the Straits Times tomorrow," the man in his 40s told the rest of
the group of about ten bystanders in Tamil as he quickly made his exit
down the escalator leading to the Clarke Quay MRT station.

He was obviously referring to a photographer from the newspaper who
was inching his way closer to the group with his zoom lens trained on
them.

The group was engaged in an animated conversation at the Speakers'
Corner, expecting to hear a talk on the use of Tamil in public signs.

The event that was publicized through SMS messages was to have started
at 6.00 pm yesterday. But the police stopped it at the last minute
when they refused to give a licence to the organizer under the Public
Entertainment and Meetings Act.

Despite the cancellation, close to fifty people at different times
turned up hoping to see and hear firsthand what was happening there.

Except for a couple of local reporters, one from the Straits Times and
the other from MediaCorp, and an equal number of activists, none dared
to step on the grass field. Most were seen seated in small groups on
the benches dotting the footpath of the Park, engaged in the common
topic of the status of the Tamil language in Singapore.

The Tamil language issue was chosen for airing by a real estate agent
and his ten friends after the government said it was relaxing rules at
the speakers' corner from the 1st of this month.

The organizer was peeved by the exclusion of Tamil on the signages at
Changi Airport and directional signboards all over the island.

As part of the relaxation, the government said the National Parks
Board (NParks) and not the police will handle all applications from
people to speak or demonstrate at the Speakers' Corner.

Since his permit was not approved, the organizer was not around at the
park yesterday.

A group of five youths who said they were students from the National
University of Singapore (NUS) came not knowing that the cancellation
of the event was already reported in the papers.

One of them, after reading the newspaper report commented: "Why ban
it? Language is nothing to do with race or religion, the taboo
subjects that cannot be raised at Speakers' Corner."

"So it is not NParks that approves and it's still the police. What a
joke!" another student quipped.

Sitting on one of the benches with three of his friends in another
corner of the park, a man in his 60s was speaking passionately about
the issue.

He said: "I kept contacting the leading personalities in the Tamil
language and literary circles since this morning for their stand on
the issue. They kept pushing me from one to the other. None was
prepared to have an opinion on the issue,"the man said in disgust.

"Even the Indians leaders in the PAP are afraid to raise this issue,"
added his friend.

In the meanwhile, those who have read about the cancellation and
others who had not seen it strolled into the Park only to be told of
the denial of permit by the few who remained there.

At about 9.00 pm, a man in his 50s with his family, including two
teenage children, walked in but soon left disappointed. The Speakers'
Corner managed yet again to retain serenity and quiet.

http://singaporeindianvoice.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-other-reports-on-tamil-language.html

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