Indian Association's 1967 Ponggal Festival: S. Rajaratnam (1)
- Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Fonds
Fonds/Collection
- Radio Singapura Series
Series
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Radio Singapura
Creator
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Television Corporation of Singapore
Source
- 14/01/1967
Record Date
- 01:04:00
Recorded Duration
- Various languages
Recording Language
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1998005727
Accession No.
- Sound
Type
- 7 inch Open Reel Audiotape
Format
-
Access permitted
Conditions Governing Access
-
Use and reproduction require written permission from depositing agency/donor. Processing of reproduction request may require 7 working days.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
-
Synopsis :Minister for Foreign Affairs S Rajaratnam gives a speech (in English) at the Indian Association's Ponggal Festival.
He stresses that the Tamils and the various communities must start thinking about the real problem facing Singapore, that is to build a 'Singapore community', a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual community if not for themselves but for their children to have a great future 20, 30 years down the road. He adds that it is good to have such festivals like the Ponggal festival for the community to be conscious of own culture, language, but if the whole purpose of getting together is to be Tamil, or Chinese, or Malay, then the struggle is already lost and the weaker communities must lose out. He reminds the Tamils that as a smaller community they must equip themselves and their children with 'extra armour, extra assets' more than the bigger community so that they can advance and play a useful role in building a Singapore community.
Minister's speech is translated in Tamil by Selvaganpathy. G Kandasamy, Chairman of Ponggal Festival and Scholarship for Indian Children speaks (in Tamil) before Minister.
Other speakers are P Coomaraswamy, Parliament Speaker (in English with Tamil translation by Selvaganapathy), P Govindsamy, MP for Anson, and T Selvaganapathy (both in Tamil). The function is held at the Association's premises at Balestier Road.
