Singapore parliamentarians paid their tributes to Tamil translator Palaniappan Arumugum, who died on May 4 on the age of 73 after serving the homes for greater than three a long time.

The House fell silent on Wednesday as MPs marked the demise of Parliament translator and provided their condolences to his members of the family, who had been in chambers.

His widow and their son and daughter, together with their spouses, had been seated in entrance of the glass-panelled translation cubicles the place Palaniappan labored for numerous Parliament classes over his 50 years in public service. On his seat was a bouquet of flowers.

Tamil is Singapore’s fourth official language after English, Chinese, and Malay.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah, delivering a tribute earlier than the day’s official enterprise, stated, “We have lost a good friend and a good man. However, we have been enriched by his contributions, the impact of which still remains.

“He may no longer be with us, but his voice can still be heard in the works he translated and in the Tamil language that he loved so dearly and did so much to promote.” Palaniappan, who joined the Parliament Secretariat in September 1990, translated Parliament proceedings from English to Tamil and, sometimes, from Tamil to English, till November 2022.

Besides being a translator, he additionally took up the function of chief liaison officer for a lot of parliamentary conferences hosted by Parliament.

“Many a time, he went beyond official duties to ensure the foreign dignitaries were well taken care of, and received numerous oral and written compliments,” The Straits Times quoted Indranee as saying in the home.

She added that Palaniappan’s huge expertise and experience in interpretation and translation was extremely valued on the nationwide degree.

Besides introducing a number of measures to enhance simultaneous interpretation providers in Parliament, he was additionally a part of the common interpretation crew for National Day rallies, she stated.

Outside of labor, he volunteered with the Tamil Language Council for shut to fifteen years.

He was instrumental in creating a bilingual English-Tamil glossary for the general public, in addition to an e-glossary for college students that has quite a lot of hundred phrases which might be distinctive to the Singaporean Tamil context.

In his personal time, he additionally contributed to the constructing of Tamil vocabulary by beginning a Facebook web page known as ‘Singai Translate Community’, which deliberated with members of the general public on how finest to translate advanced English phrases and subject material into the Tamil language.

In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded the Efficiency, Public Service, Long Service, and Commendation medals in 1996, 2001, 2008, and 2011, respectively.

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