How Singapore has unity and why Sri Lanka endless strife today
Thirty years ago, I launched this Speak Mandarin Campaign. Chinese students learn Mandarin in school. Unfortunately, they used to speak dialects among themselves and at home. When I watched interviews on our Chinese TV channel in the 1960s and ‘70s, I found students and workers speak Mandarin haltingly. They have not used Mandarin often. Mandarin has to be the common language of Chinese Singaporeans, regardless of their dialect groups. If the government had left language habits to evolve undirected, Chinese Singaporeans would be speaking an adulterated Hokkien-Teochew dialect.
Lee Kuan Yew
To effectively promote Mandarin, we closed down all dialect programs on radio and TV from 1979. Also, I was setting a bad example making speeches in Hokkien in the 1960s and ‘70s to reach the largest number of Chinese. From 1979, some 30 years ago, I decided to stop speaking in Hokkien and switched to Mandarin. Had I not done this, Hokkien/Teochew will be the predominant common language for the Chinese in Singapore, not Mandarin.
The value of a language is its usefulness, not just in Singapore, but also in the wider world. If you speak Hokkien or Cantonese, you reach some 60 million in Fujian and Taiwan, or about 100 million in Guangdong and Hong Kong. With Mandarin, you can speak to 1,300 million Chinese from all provinces in China. Now, overseas Chinese and foreigners are learning Mandarin, not Chinese dialects. China is setting up 500 Confucius Institutes in different countries to teach Mandarin to many millions of people around the world.
I understand the strong emotional ties to one’s mother tongue. However, the trend is clear. In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue.
English is the key language for our people to make a living. It is the second language of all non English-speaking peoples. Multinational companies use English. Internet data banks are mostly in English. PRC Chinese are learning English with great effort. If Mandarin were our first language, Singaporeans would be of little use to China. They do not need more Mandarin speakers to add to their 1.3 billion. English gives us easy access to English-speaking societies and the developed world. Thus, Singaporeans bring value-add to China. If Ms Lim Sau Hoong spoke only fluent Mandarin, she would not bring added value to her work in China. It is because she also speaks and writes fluent English that she has been able to compete in both languages in the advertising sector. That made her a valuable addition to Zhang Yi-mou’s team to polish up the dramatic opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.
To keep a language alive, you have to speak and read it frequently. The more you use one language, the less you use other languages. So the more languages you learn, the greater the difficulties of retaining them at a high level of fluency. I have learned and used six languages – English, Malay, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin and Hokkien. English is my master language. My Hokkien has gone rusty, my Mandarin has improved. I have lost my Japanese and Latin, and can no longer make fluent speeches in Malay without preparation. This is called “language loss”.
All new countries have multiple dialects and languages in their mixed populations. To become a united nation, the population must speak a common language, so that they can communicate with the government and with one another. Indonesia has hundreds of languages and dialects in their 17,000 islands. Since independence in 1949, they have been teaching and speaking Bahasa Indonesia. In secondary schools and tertiary institutions, they do their lessons only in Bahasa, and not the regional languages and dialects. Bahasa is now the language of government and business in all parts of Indonesia.
Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans, will be disadvantaged. The result will be endless strife, as in Sri Lanka, where Singhalese was made the national language and the Tamil-speaking were marginalised. We made the right decision to use English as our common language. We also retained the teaching of mother tongues. Even in 1959 when we first became the Government, my colleagues and I could foresee a time when China would open up and become a huge economic power. Their common language is putonghua, not dialects. Our choice of English has enabled our fast growth. Now with China’s growing economy, parents and students no longer complain of the burden of learning Chinese, a difficult language without spelling or phonetics. Dialects are being overtaken by Mandarin in the region where Mandarin is taught in all Chinese schools. Mandarin will become the common language of the overseas Chinese.
China wants to collaborate with us because through English, we are able to connect with the West. At the same time, our Mandarin is fluent enough to communicate with PRC Chinese on different topics and subjects.
The Speak Mandarin Campaign and our bilingual education policy have resulted in a growing number of young Singaporeans speaking Mandarin among themselves in schools, ITEs, polytechnics and universities. They also watch Mandarin TV more than English TV.
Quite a few Singaporeans with only “AO” or “O” level passes in Chinese have sent me emails from China to thank me for making Mandarin compulsory for them. With this basic foundation, they have been able to expand their vocabulary and increase their fluency after a few months in China. Singapore Press Holdings distributes a free bilingual newspaper called “Wobao” or “My Paper”, which is bilingual in Chinese and English. They have a glossary of translations for the more difficult English and Chinese words and phrases. 250,000 copies of “Wobao” are distributed daily, read by about 500,000. During train or bus rides or at home, you can read it and refresh your recognition of Chinese characters.
School examinations no longer concentrate on mo xie, dictation from memory, or ting xie, listening and writing. They are not needed in real life. With computer programs, you can type the pinyin and the characters will appear. Since 2007, we have allowed the use of digital dictionaries in national examinations.
Singapore’s advantage has been that we have a Mandarin-speaking community. We have newspapers, magazines, books, and television programmes in Chinese. We need some 300 Singaporean graduates each year who have Chinese language and culture at a high level, to interact with their China counterparts. The flow of new migrants from China as our citizens and Permanent Residents will help in this process.
English is our dominant language everywhere. Most students will have little difficulty in mastering working-level English. However, if parents speak in English to their children at home, learning Mandarin will be a problem. Research of American-born Chinese disclosed that when these second-generation Chinese try to learn Chinese in college, those who speak English at home found mastering Chinese as difficult as Caucasian-Americans; those whose parents spoke to them in Mandarin easily made the grade. My advice is for both parents to speak Mandarin to their children if they can. If one speaks in Mandarin and the other in English, the child will grow up speaking more English than Mandarin.
And with IT digital dictionaries that can translate from English to Chinese and vice versa and also pronounce the words, learning Chinese has become much easier and more convenient, something I did not have when I started learning Chinese in 1955 at age 32.
(SPEECH BY MR LEE KUAN YEW, FORMER SINGAPORE PREMIER AND MINISTER MENTOR, AT "SPEAK MANDARIN CAMPAIGN’S" 30TH ANNIVERSARY LAUNCH, 17 MARCH 2009, 5:00 PM AT THE NTUC AUDITORIUM)
27 Comments
What he says is true. If Sri Lanka kept English it would have functioned as a bridging language between the communities and possibly averted the ethnic conflict. It would have broken down the class devide which today boils down to whether one can speak English or not. It would also have resulted in faster development and better education with people being able to communicate with other nations and also assimilate knowledge faster through reading books published in English.
On the other hand we have this tendency (and I am guilty of it too) where once we acquire English we cease to communicate in our mother tongues. Why do we use English only to communicate with our English speaking friends and family even though we are equally fluent in both languages? Why do we feel we have more in common with our English speaking friends than with our non English speaking friends? I think if the trend continued with education spreading to the grassroots we would by now have a truly classless society, but the flip side would be that Sinhala and Tamil would be dead as langueages by now or at least in a couple more generations. Similarly to what has happened to the Irish and Welsh languages.
Tell me something new, we all knew that SWRD messed it up, however no one would like to revert that even now.
Thank god You did not follow sinhala modayas leadership. Look how they ruined their country and occupied tamil ealam and decemating tamil peoples life.
God bless singapore and Tamil ealam.
Where did we go wrong and how did Singapore get it right? Hope we will be willing to learn from our mistakes but perhaps the damage is done and we are beyond the point of no return.
Even at this late stage we see no statesmanship from our so called leaders. Instaed we here long diatribes about the LTTE infilitrating international organisations etc. In the past Sri Lanka had a special place amongst the nations of the world but now we are trashing it and stand exposed for all to see.
How Singapore has unity and why Sri Lanka endless strife today....results of feild,currupt & rasists politics of UNP & SLFP (Bandaranayake & Senanayake and their cornies)
I don't think implementing English would have stop cries for Tamil mono ethnic separate state. Because of the failure of Tamilnadu separatist movement in early 19th century racist Tamil Leaders would have import it to SL any way.Also it would have create a major disaster on the other way around.Because by the time Brits left Sri Lanka there were only few spoke/read/and write in English. Therefore it would have been a way to keep suppressed Sinhala majority for another century under the "Kalu Sudda's" control.Only way is Tamils have to learn how to integrate with majority. If they cannot do it that is their problem.Getto mentality of Tamils does not help to integrate.
Veera!! This was a valuable point raised by a great statesmen. No doubt we have our share problems in our country but it has to end. You are accusing and generalizing all the Sinhalese as modaya’s. What do you want???
This to continue for ever and ever??? This is why your Tamil Ealam bosses kill all the other Tamils with different views. First try and demonstrate that you at least have 10% of the support of all the Tamils!!! I am sure you don’t have.
The Man is smart...my parents are indian tamil and sri lankan tamil and i grew up abroad. My parents spoke to me in English and I speak English only .....although I can understand tamil.
He also identifies the crux of the Sri Lankan problem...Sri Lankans who now come out of Sri Lanka are a disgrace with their English...the older generation were excellant.
This man sat down, watched and thought....and full credit to him for where Singapore is...
Dont believe LKY. The world is not foolish and ignorant as before.
How about him silencing the opposition politicians, yes they were Tamils. Singapore is an extension of the City of London. Hence has been a destabilisation force in the region for eons. Hidden history of SE Asia especially the richest country Indonesia is being discovered slowley but surely. LKY - you have a lot to answer for. In our human form we will one day pay for our wilful misdeeds so will you.
Singapore (or former SINGHAPURA of Malaysia) is the result of colonial manipulation and promotion of Minority chinese over Majority Malaysians. How old the Singapore. Not very OLD. Singapore is still building a Country and a culture. Sri Lanka is not the same.
He is regretting over not using Chinese Manadarin language as the major language.
SO many Sri Lankan patriots in the past have talked about this. But, NO one in Sri Lanka Cares and here about that.
IN Sri Lanka too, SINHALA should be promoted as the majority language. People should feel to learn and talk proper Sinhala.
IT is OK ENGLISH to be the working language and and to learn it. But, people should give up the Inferiority complex of knowing Sinhala is a reason to be disgusted while speaking English is a reason to feel superior. Only the people from States with previous colonial invasions feel that INFERIORITY.
IF someone wants to forget and disregard one's parents as disgusting because now they are grown up, that is just a degrading society. For Sinhale people, Sinhala should be the same.
I do not agree with this language ha ho. The development of a country is totally depends on people’s attitudes. It should be started to change from our schools. Take examples rapidly developing countries like India and Chine. How many languages Indian speak? Why Chinese want to learn English even if they have very good Chinese language? Is this merely for the development of the country or better communication of the world? Language is not totally depending on development of a country. I give you one example. Now a days Sri Lanka Economists highly talk in media about how USA is faced in economic recession but not Sri Lanka. I ask from them one day USA will be recovered from its economic problems. When that day arrives, is Sri Lanka ready to go along with USA and other countries in the same direction or bog and stagnated in the same place for another years? Why is this happening? No proper plan for the county. Some people’s Attitudes, cheating misguiding for a short term political advantages.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew says "Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans, will be disadvantaged."
This is a mark of a true statesman who cared for all his citzens and the results can be seen in Singaore's prosperity today.
SWRD Bandaranayake sowed the seeds for the current state of Sri Lanka as a failed state and a true banana republic. By pandering to the majority and nationalising prosperous industries he set the scene for the politics of envy instead of the poltics of good planning and hard work.
Today Sinhala politicians like to talk of the Tamil problem and blame the victims of state terrorism for all the problems in Sri Lanka.
They say that every country gets the government it deserves. Until the majority in Sri Lanka wake up to this and vote in governments run by true statesman Sri Lanka will slip further and further into anarchy.
Segaran
The reason for Sri Lanka's problems is TAMIL COMMUNALISM. You cannot compare our situation to Singapore, just as you cannot compare to Kosovo, or Israel, or whatever analogy the Tamil Communalists try to make to bolster their political agenda.
TAMIL COMMUNALISTS have NEVER been interested in equality with the Sinhalese. NEVER....! Since Colonial times they have kissed up to the British Colonial Powers to gain special favors and privileges, they have sold out their language to gain a step up over the Sinhalese... This is historical fact. TamilS have no problem learning ENGLISH but were dead Against learning Sinhala in a country that has 74% Sinhalese majority... ??? Everyone can see the HYPOCRISY and DOUBLE STANDARD placed on Sri Lanka by Tamils ...except Tamils themselves. The reason is not because Tamils are afraid of losing their own language...after all they embraced ENGLISH to their Bosom without blinking an eye; it is simply because Tamils consider Sinhala and the Sinhalese to be beneath them.
GG Ponambalam prior to Independence tried to Push the 50-50 Proposal… This would have given 50% of the control of Parliament to 22% of the Population (Tamils & Other Minorities) When that did not work, the Sinhalese Polity even counter offered 46-54 split. That still gave the Tamil Polity 46% of Parliamentary control for 22% of the Population! And THEY REFUSED!!!! LOL! TamilS would not take less than 50% of the control even when they were 15% of the country, with another 7% of other minorities. This clearly illustrates the utter contempt for equality that Tamils felt towards Sinhalese. One-Man-One-Vote was a DEATH SENTENCE to TamilS because after being Obedient Colonial Lackies and obtaining a disproportionate share of Political and Economical power they knew that TRUE DEMOCRACY would erase all those special gains they obtained from them Selling Out. Now after independence the Sinhala Communalism backlash returned to Bite these Tamil Communalists in their behinds and they run off to other countries to cry GENOCIDE™ and tell the world that they are the Innocent Victims of the Brutal Sinhalese… yet they conveniently cover up their part they played in all of this.
Tamil Communalists are not interested in peace, the support of the LTTE is just another attempt to gain MORE for themselves, they will all put a long face and cry like women for the cameras but they have a deep seeded resentment and HATRED towards Sinhalese. You cannot reason with them because they are not interested in reasoning. They still to this day, don’t seek equality, they seek to be superior as they once thought they were; and they teach their children that they are better than the Sinhalese, and they keep their Racism and Communalism alive…and then wonder why they are stuck in the predicament they are in now.
That is the TRUTH, now call me a lair.
THis is why he has the atmost respect from all over the world.
He who can lead a negotiation with Jimmy carter and Desmond Tutu as leaders than any INDIAN involvement as facilitaters, because they speak what is right for the people not for the POLITICOs.
They are GENETLEMEN of true nature.
LEE KUAN YEW is a true leader! He made a land that is similar in size of Jaffna peninsula into a leading city state.
How Singapore has unity and why Sri Lanka endless strife today?...
Sri Lankan (or probably better we call us Ceylonese) were and are the best people in the region. There is no doubt about that.
That is the reason why the fonder of Singapore showed our self to his people in the process of building his nation.
Having said that we all are Mahathanamuththa's golaya's. We must accept this harsh reality first in order to understand where things have gone wrong. Nothing shamed about this.
Now, the "Eluwa" (Military) stuck its head in the "pot"(vanny). Probably, we need Mahathanamuththta's advice to take the head out of the pot.
King Solomon asked only for "Wisdom" to rule the country. But GOD gave him every thing including, of course, wisdom. This is what our country's leaders should ask for.
To the editor:
If you believe that any part of this comment is NOT appropriate, please get rid of it. Also, please feel free to contact me on the above email.
Regards
Siva
Shivlankan Wrote : Singapore (or former SINGHAPURA of Malaysia) is the result of colonial manipulation and promotion of Minority chinese over Majority Malaysians. How old the Singapore. Not very OLD.
Is the Sinhalapura is more prospering than the Sinhapura in any of the following.
Education
Law and Order
Per capita income
Housing
Health and well baby
Security
Religious Freedom
Media Freedom
Transportation
Crime rate and woman's security
Can a woman walk by herself after dark any where in the South without being raped by some Thugs?
You know the answer because your leaders have wasted more than half a century on racial politics based on Language.
Whether you like it or not, ENGLISH is the international language and nowadays called scientific language as all the Literatures are in English.
If you want to improve your country, educate your people some English and give your Sinhala Only act.
Yeah! Eventhough srilanka made sinhala our national language, standards of english are pretty good.I will have to disagree with singaporean english, most of my friends from singapore can manage english but its not proper, flawless english. singaporeans use "singlish" most of the time and they have an accent issue as well.I think srilanka could have been the best english speaking asian country if not for 1956.None of the ASEAN or china/Japan can beat us in english coz they don't have a proper english educational structure.They start learning english later in their life, just like in Germany(Grade 5).But we can never beat the filipinos and Indians.India has a high level of english proficiency
You cannot compare Singapore with Sri Lanka. Because for Singapore there is no other country around them, with a Race who are trying create their own country in Singapore, like what the Tamils who migrated from India, Tamil Nadu, who are trying to create a seperate state for them in Sri Lanka.
The precipice us Srilankan are thrown into is multi factorial. We can see it if we are trained to open our eye but most of us do not want to see it.
Sidarta Gautama defines four personalities.
1. People who know and know that they know-follow them
2. People who know but do not know that they know- show them
3. People who do not know and know that they do not know- teach them
4. People who do not know and do not know that they do not knoe-most dangerous and avoid them
Since the time of independence most of our political leaders, intellectuals, religious leaders, professionals and general public fall in to this fourth category.
I wonder whether we had at least one public figure who falls in to the category one.
The Tamil and Sinhalese communalism is not the cause but the product of the leaders who fall in to the fourth category.
Did the free education achieve its goals? Did the Sinhala only act achieve its expected goals? Did the open economy achieve its goals? Did the closed economic policies achieve its goals?
Did any of our wars achieve its goals? Did any of our presidents/ priministers deliver what they are expected for?
Is there a improvement in the quality of our people by any means?
If some body is going to give a answer to most above questions, he is living in his own dreamland.
I personally suggest any one who disagrees to this to study history of Singapore and Israel.
The answer is there.
Please identify the rafter in your own eye before pointing to the straw in your brothers’ eye.
Yes language was a factor for the ethnic strife.But it is not the whole story.It is only a scapegoat for tamil extreamists to proceed with their ealam agenda.
OK let us change that variable and analyse the scenario.They will be happy for some time but again they will say that they want to have a seperate rule to fullfil their aspirations of being a different nation in the Island.They will say that they are the majority in the north hence a seperate rule.
These aspirations can not be met by any reasanable Gvt.
No efforts have been made by tamils to assimilate and integrate with the rest of SL.Alsways they keep their seperate identiy.
Canada will face this problem in another 100 years when Tamils demand for aseperate country there to live seperately.
People
Please understand
In India all Most speak excellent English and their mother tongue. So is the case in many other countries.
Colvin R.De Silva said during Sinhala only language debate in the Parliament that one language 2 Countries. Use common sense and understand. English would not have killed Sinhala or Tamil.
Kandiah
Kandiah
Daya Weerasinghe was spot on. It is sad that many who commented negetively and blaming the Tamils for the failure of successive UNP and SLFP lead governments who both made number of constitutional changes since 1947, are not realising the importance of the need for good quality politicians and good governance. In gneral The the quality of politicians in South Asian countries is a digrace. by saying that I am not saying that all politicians are bad but they are in minority.
Please visit this site for LKY's latest speech on politics, economics and Singapore's futre :
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/416698/1/.html
MM Lee describes Singapore's future at NUSS lecture
Excerpts :
SINGAPORE: In 25 years' time, Singapore will be a country that reflects the state of the major powers and its Asian neighbours.
.....
On the political front, when asked what would happen to the country if there was a major shift of power, Mr Lee said he was not concerned as to which political party was in charge.
He said: "If you get capable people forming the next government, people who know what they have to do to make Singapore work, then I'm not worried. I'm not worried whether it's PAP or SDP or whatever government.
"But I am worried about the quality of people who get into power. Integrity (is) crucial, (and) ability, experience and a willingness to do what is necessary for the people, and not for yourself."
Well said Kuan Yew. India also does better in keeping a huge and diverse population together. Although it has its problems, given its size, the acheivement is remarkable. That SL has done such a truly awful job, to the point of bringing into real doubt the very viability of the polity, is truly shameful. I do wonder whether in the end that things are so beyond redemption that the solution lies in joining India so that SL can share in its success. It is also noteworthy in this regard that the major economy that so far seems least affected by the global financial crisis is India. It may be that in the economic space, the Indian model has a lot to offer.
A sensible speech by a sensible leader. Sri Lanka, sadly, wasn't so blessed.
Sinhala Chauvinist ruins the beautiful country Sri Lanka. Even Sinhala scholars warned in early days, “one language two countries; two languages one country” but Sinhala chauvinism overran. Finally bloody war is everywhere in Sri Lanka. Even now, they don’t want to realize their mistakes. They more and more do war crime against minorities.
I see alot of ignorance as usual from many who do not understand what Lee Kuan Yew in trying to say. You see his right hand man was of eelam origin. He was none other then rajaretnem. His sons right hand man is tharman shamugretnem. Another person of eelam origin. The first was a deputy prime minister while the latter is at present Singapore's finance minister. Thats why he see Sri Lanka's lose as his gain.
Singaporeans voted in 1963 to merge with Malaya with Sabah and Sarawak from the Borneo island joining to balance off the chinese from Singapore. There was not united country in Malaysia till the british came. Till then they were in part either under an Indonesia Kingdom like the Majaphit or Sri Vijaya. In the north they were under the Siamese or the Thais today. The only native kingdom to overt large control was the malacca sultanate.
Till the second world war, the were not unified but had 3 seperate administrations like India. Singapore, malacca. Ironically its the Japanese who unified the country. The 4 northen states were given to the british by the thais in exchange for building the bangkok railway. There are still 4 states Sungei Petani north of Malaysia who are muslims but considered thai muslims.
There were Malays in singapore but they mainly come from the neighbouring Indonesian Islands. People who today call themselves Malays in Malaysia like sinhalese in Sri Lanka are a migration of people over time and subjecating the native population. Like the veddahs in Sri Lanka, the Orang Asli are also ignored even though both the political leadership seems to claim to care for them.
During the 2 years being merged both sides politicking led to several race riots between the Malays and Chinese. Example Malays were led to belief that they economy was controlled by the chinese yet it was the colonialist who actually still did so. Malaya got her independence in 1957. The SI for Singapore was added for it to become MalaySIa in 1963. In the history of Malaysia like Sri Lanka, foreigners play acting like locals often destabilised the country.
In 1965 Singapore was expelled by Malaysia. It was Rajaretnam whom Lee Kuan yew trusted and sent to Malaysia to settle the seperation. This was a game of the Bugis who are from the indonesian islands of sulawesi. Their partners in crime was the malabar muslims. This has happened to their people for centuries. Just like Malaylee Mahindha and his colombo chetty Ranil.
Tun Razak suceeded Tengku Abdul Rehman as prime minister after the worst 1969 riots. Today in a similar coup his son is going to be prime minister.
When Singapore got independence, most locals could speak english. it was generally Indians, Sri lankans and people of eelam origin who were english educated with a certain small section of the other communities.
In 2 generations today most chinese, malays and Indians could speak english. 75% of the poulation was chinese.
Singapore's national language and anthem is in Malay. Tamil is prominently used for government buildings. Singapore's flag has a cresent moon for the muslims. All races get equal holidays.
His argument is originally on dilaect is because just like all big countries china has also alot of dialects. Lee kuan yew used mandrin to eradicate the seperation that dialect brought between the chinese community.
One of the reasons he uses Sri Lanka its becuase he knows neither the high commissioner nor any Sri Lankans will ever protest that in Singapore. After all you people depend on them for their scraps. I mean one singapore dollar was worth 2 rupees at one time. Today its worth 75. In th 50s he wanted Singapore to be like ceylon. In part the extensive role of eelam people in his administration. By the late 70s it was JRW who wanted Sri Lanka to be like Singapore. YOU ARE 30-40 YEARS TOO LATE.