I refer to the article here: "SORRY STATE OF SINGAPORE’S TAMIL POPULATION"
This article is lacking in substance and does not reflect the reality within our Indian community. Tamils in India, make up just 7% of the total population. In S’pore, only about 40% converse in the Tamil language within the Indian community. There are sizeable other Indian language speaking Indians, who have been living here for generations.
Malayalam which happens to be mother tongue of former President and unionist Devan Nair, Thakral Corporation’s billionaire Thakral Singh, who has long historical roots of more than 80 years in S’pore, speaks Punjabi as mother tongue just like WP MP Pritam Singh. There are also Telenku, Kannada and Hindi speaking people. These languages are unique in their own way.
MOE had approved the respective communities to take their own mother tongue ages ago. It is not a new development.
It is true, the growing number of the Indian migrant population. NMP Dhinakaran wants to balance the Indian population; the reality is lots of Tamil migrants are given citizenship, but they choose to be distinct from our local Tamils, even though they speak the same language. In fact Tamil is spoken differently with different accents in different parts of India, just like the Mandarin spoken in China is different from S’pore spoken Mandarin.
The reality is anybody who should be complaining about the decline in population is the Malays. The Chinese and Indians have increased tremendously with the influx of new citizens, but the Malays will have the last laugh. As there is limited migration, they can be easily united (that’s a different issue).
The reality is the Tamil language has monopolized the local Indian TV, radio and newspapers. More than 95% of the programs are made in Tamil, the newspapers are all printed in Tamil. Despite the fact there is a sizeable population of other Indian language speaking Indians living more than a century in S’pore.
India is one country with diverse languages. Each languages is different as day and night, with historical roots of more than a millennium. ASKING EVERY INDIAN TO SPEAK THE TAMIL LANGUAGE IS LIKE ASKING ALL EUROPEANS TO SPEAK ONLY IN GERMAN. Hitler tried it… .oops he shot himself. I say the writer should encourage more local Tamils to speak Tamil, instead of asking people like Pritam Singh to speak Tamil, when they have their own language… even their Holy Book is written in Punjabi, not Tamil. Many local Tamils prefer their children to be proficient in English, some even take up Mandarin!
Not Making Any Sense