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TamilNet'97

Speech by Prof. S Jayakumar, Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs,
Guest of Honour at the Opening Ceremony of TamilNet'97
Jointly organised by the National University of Singapore and
the National Institute of Education of Nanyang Technological University
on 17 May 1997 at the Auditorium, Computer Centre, NUS.

The Honourable Minister for Tamil Language and Culture of Tamil Nadu, Dr Thamiz Kudimagan, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to be with you at this first International Symposium on Tamil Information processing and resources on the Internet. I am heartened to see so many participants and speakers from all over the world gathered in Singapore to discuss and exchange ideas on how to promote the Tamil language.

We live in an information age. Efficient access to, and use of information, will be a key determinant of competitiveness. The Internet is a key device today for that purpose. The Singapore Government has recognized its importance. Hence the heavy emphasis we place IT in our schools. The dominant language of the Internet is English. It is essential therefore that as a nation and community we maintain our principal proficiency in the language.

But Internet also offers an environment within cyberspace for other languages to thrive. It creates an international electronic community of the users of the language (in this case Tamil) and gives access to global resources. This is particularly important for small minority communities (like the Tamil-speaking group in Singapore which forms 65% of the Indian population) to have such global access. It helps keep the language and culture vibrant. TamilNet is therefore a welcome step in this direction.

The partnership of technology and language is not new. Indian language printing in India was first introduced by western Christian missionaries in the 16th century through the printing of a church prayer book in the Tamil language. In time, through this new technology, the existing palm-leaf written literature and the wealth of other literary materials soon found their way into more permanent form of printed books.

Today, through Information Technology and global Internet, the Tamil language now finds a place in cyberspace. Again, although the technology was introduced by the West, I am delighted to learn that homegrown Singapore technology has played a catalytic role in this.

I understand that a prototype of Tamil Internet technology was tested when an electronic selection of representative poems from our official languages from the anthology Journey: Words, Home and Nation - Anthology of Singapore Poetry (1984 - 1995) was launched by the President of Singapore, HE Mr. Ong Teng Cheong in October 1995.

By February 1996, we were able to launch a Tamil Internet system called TamilWeb and since then, Tamil language teachers, researchers and users both nationally and internationally have been able to email each other and surf the internet in Tamil.

Introduction of the tools for the total Internet Tamil solution (creating, browsing and searching web pages, and emailing in Tamil and English) by the researchers from the Internet Research and Development Unit of National University of Singapore jointly with the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, paves the way for a lot of possibilities on Web publication. The Tamil publishing industry will also never be the same again.

When the Internet Research and Development Unit of NUS hosted SindaLink, the Singapore Indian Development Association's newsletter on the Web in June 1996, it was among the first newspaper to go on the web in the text mode, inclusive of graphic picture display.

The Educational databases and the Interactive Web pages introduced by the TamilWeb and the University of Pennsylvania for the Learning and Teaching of the Tamil language, have further given new dimension to the learning and teaching of Tamil language. I am happy to note that a few schools are already using these Websites in their classroom teaching. A presentation by a school teacher at this symposium will illustrate the bold move in embracing the new technology for more effective classroom teaching.

I am happy to note that these breakthroughs were made possible were made possible by a multi-racial project team from the two Universities in Singapore.

With the TamilNet, the Tamil speaking community in Singapore can pride itself in moving in tandem with technological advances. The TamilNet can help to make the Tamil language a vibrant and relevant language. The TamilNet would reach out to young Tamil Singaporeans. With appropriate content in TamilNet, it can become another important channel through which values and relevant customs and traditions are passed on to the younger generation.

The multi-media facilities that Internet and computer technology provides, learning the Tamil language can be further facilitated. Singaporeans and other Tamils around the World can learn and improve their command of the language at their own time and in the convenience of their homes.

Today, more than 20 delegates from six countries and nearly a hundred teachers of Tamil in our schools have gathered here to make future plans, and to discuss and exchange ideas on the new directions and visions rendered possible by this partly homegrown technology. I welcome all our visitors from abroad and I hope you enjoy your stay in Singapore. I have great pleasure now in declaring open this Symposium.

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