Indian-origin civil servant appointed Singapore's acting president

[Kal Muah]

If J Y Pillay was of Indian origin as claimed by CNN or Singapore govt - why would he be honored by the Ceylon Tamil Community ?

J Y Pillay (Bottom right) receiving his award from the Singapore's Deputy PM


Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister has openly stated J Y Pillay belongs to his Ceylon Tamil Community, whats there to dispute or worry on what CNN news has to report ?

How could you deliberately miss it, which I had highlighted to you in my post , listen from 13:00 on wards and pause @ 13:46 ,

DPM 's words " Ceylon Tamils in Singapore are a small community. They are a minority within a minority.
They have done well. In the judiciary and legal profession, in academic medicine and clinical practice, and in engineering, their contributions have been greatly disproportionate to the size of the community. There were also, historically, well represented in the senior levels of the civil service on both sides of the Causeway. My J Y Pillay who is here this evening was the foremost example during his time in the Service in Singapore. "

How is he Indian ? Is he an Indian national ? were his parents from India ? Do the media and Singapore govt known the difference between nationality and race ?

J Y Pillay's nationality is Singaporean , race Tamil , country of birth or origin - Malaysia, religion - Catholic , he has nothing to do with India

What kind of logic is that ?
PM Modi got highest civilian honor by Abu Dhabi
Narendra Modi honored by Gulf nation's highest civilian honour
By your logic Modi must be arabic-muslim
and Singapore certainly knows difference between Sri-Lanka and India like i said
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam "An Anglican Christian of Sri Lankan Tamil descent" | http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infope..._2008-11-21.html?s=Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam

 

[ohmrlobalobayeh]

If J Y Pillay was of Indian origin as claimed by CNN or Singapore govt - why would he be honored by the Ceylon Tamil Community ?

J Y Pillay (Bottom right) receiving his award from the Singapore's Deputy PM

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister has openly stated J Y Pillay belongs to his Ceylon Tamil Community, whats there to dispute or worry on what CNN news has to report ?

How could you deliberately miss it, which I had highlighted to you in my post , listen from 13:00 on wards and pause @ 13:46 ,

DPM 's words " Ceylon Tamils in Singapore are a small community. They are a minority within a minority.
They have done well. In the judiciary and legal profession, in academic medicine and clinical practice, and in engineering, their contributions have been greatly disproportionate to the size of the community. There were also, historically, well represented in the senior levels of the civil service on both sides of the Causeway. My J Y Pillay who is here this evening was the foremost example during his time in the Service in Singapore. "

How is he Indian ? Is he an Indian national ? were his parents from India ? Do the media and Singapore govt known the difference between nationality and race ?

J Y Pillay's nationality is Singaporean , race Tamil , country of birth or origin - Malaysia, religion - Catholic , he has nothing to do with India

Race is a major n sensitive issue in
SG.

From your Identification Card to applyin for flats, your race has to be stated(and yes it affects your application). In fact, your race is clearly stated right from the moment u arrive in this world- your parents have to fill in their races on your birth certificate.

So every citizen MUST have a race.
There are 4 official races in SG- 1 majority(chinese) n 3 minorities(malay, indian, eurasian).

SG goverment categorises ALL minority citizens of South asian descent, irregardless of which South asian country one's ancestry hails from- under a single umbrella racial term called 'Indian'.

To u, the term 'indian' does not denotes a race, but in SG government's term- it is. Thus, regardless whether an 'indian' SG citizen speaks Panjabi, Urdu, Parsi, Sinhalese or Bengali as his/her mother tongue, he/she is classified as an 'indian'.

If this is hard to fathom for u as an outsider, just think if how the US classify its citizens of Arab ancestry as 'White'(google this yourself)





P.S
The official status of the term 'tamil' by the SG government is that it is solely of a language; not a race or culture n certainly not- a nationality.

 

[manlion]

What kind of logic is that ?
PM Modi got highest civilian honor by Abu Dhabi
Narendra Modi honored by Gulf nation's highest civilian honour
By your logic Modi must be arabic-muslim
and Singapore certainly knows difference between Sri-Lanka and India like i said
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam "An Anglican Christian of Sri Lankan Tamil descent" | http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infope..._2008-11-21.html?s=Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam

you seem to have missed the purpose of the award function

1- to mark the centennial commemoration of the Ceylon Tamil Association (oldest association in Singapore)
2 - honour 7 of its community members who contributed to the nation building
3 - it was not a function to honour an exclusively individual i.e J Y Pillay

take the trouble to read through the following article,

Ceylon Tamils' 100 years here

SINGAPORE - Their numbers may be small but their contribution towards nation building has gone a long way.

On July 31, the Singapore Ceylon Tamils' Association marked its 100th anniversary by honouring seven of its own people.

They received their awards from Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at a celebratory dinner at the Ceylon Sports Club.

Mr Tharman told the gathering that the Ceylon Tamils, as a minority within a minority, made a significant impact in Singapore because they made the most of the country's multiracialism that rewarded talent and effort regardless of race.

He paid tribute to former deputy prime minister S. Rajaratnam, as a member of the Ceylon Tamil minority, for drafting the Singapore Pledge with its call for a single, united people regardless of race, language or religion.

Also present at the occasion was Ms Irene Ng, MP Tampines GRC, who has written a book on Mr Rajaratnam, titled The Singapore Lion: A biography of S. Rajaratnam.

The seven who were honoured were presented with the Star Excellence Awards for their professional contributions to the nation, taking part in community service, and for being role models.

The seven award recipients are:

• Mr J.Y. Pillay, who served in the administrative service and was Permanent Secretary of various key ministries, including finance, defence and national development
• Dr Arumugam Vijiaratnam, first Pro-Chancellor of NTU from 1992-2005, president of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore and a World Bank consultant
• Emeritus Professor K. Shanmugaratnam, a histo-pathologist at NUS who was instrumental in setting up the Singapore Cancer Registry
• Dr S. Lavan Iswaran, gynaecologist and obstetrician, who is the founder and life member of the Family Planning Association of Singapore (now called Singapore Planned Parenthood Association)
• Dr N. Kunaratnam, retired senior consultant ENT surgeon at SGH who continues to be visiting consultant at SGH
• Dr S. T. Kasinathan, an orthopaedic surgeon and the present Chairman of the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple
• Mr C. Thiruchelvarayan, who helped build some of the key facilities for National Servicemen during the early days and many other development projects

The association also launched a 200-page book on the Ceylon Tamil community in Singapore.

Its president R. Theyvendran said the association, which has more than 1,400 members today, is close-knit but needs young blood for its leadership.

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20100806-230824.html

 

[Paludism]

So the "Indian" has become a race/ethnicity?