Mr Arun Mahizhnan, the Director of CSTC shares his thoughts on the forming of this virtual organisation and it’s objectives
Why is this Organisation
I was going to retire from both my professional and public life at the end of this year. However, some friends persuaded me to rethink. My friends and I had learnt much from running virtual organisations and mobilising youngsters to serve the community. Some of us had also developed high level contacts through our jobs. We felt that perhaps we could share these lessons and legacies with a younger generation of Tamils who are competent and committed and whose chemistry might work together.
How it differs from other organisations
I guess you are referring to other Tamil associations. I do not know everything the other organisations are doing so I can’t say for sure how we are different. It is for others to judge. What CSTC is attempting to do is to reach out to Tamil and non-Tamil audiences and share our culture with them and theirs with our community. As Dr Thinnappan observed recently, we are also trying to provide an intellectual platform for our audiences. One more thing: We are not looking at masses as we do not have the resources. Instead, we are targeting catalysts — those who can influence others.
It’s objectives
First, we want to educate ourselves in Tamil culture and those others who are interested. Second, we wish to share aspects of Tamil culture with non-Tamils so they could have a better understanding of us as a community. Likewise, we want to share other cultures with Tamils so we could have a better understanding of others. CSTC will be a bridge among Singapore cultures with a two way traffic.
The sort of programs/activities
It will be primarily in three ways:
Intercultural Programme; Publication Programme; and Discussion Programme. As they are self-explanatory terms, I’ll leave it at that. As we have just started, we are going to take small steps and see how the initial programmes work. If they succeed, we’ll ramp up. If they don’t, back to the drawing board!
Others
Kindly visit www.singaporetamil.org to know more about the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture. We welcome ideas and comments so we may do better. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to reach out to your readers.