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Western Australian
Singapore Business Council
Western Australian
Singapore Business Council
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President
Speech By Mrs. Cecilia Wee For High Commissioner Mr. Ashok Kumar Mirpuri On 12th December 2000
Good evening Your Excellency, members and friends I welcome all of you to this evening’s dinner, co-hosted by Western Australia Singapore Business Council and Contact Singapore in honour of his Excellency Mr. Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, High Commissioner for the Republic of Singapore and Mrs. Mirpuri. Before I begin, I would like to introduce our honoured guest His Excellency, Mr. Mirpuri and Mrs. Mipuri to all of you, so let us give them a big welcome. This is his Excellency’s first official visit to Perth and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight to his Excellency that Perth is the Gateway for Australians to Asia and it is also the Gateway into Australia from Asia. However, because of the wonderful climate and lifestyle in Western Australia, most of the people here tend to have a layback attitude, therefore the Easterners like to think of us as the little finger of Australia. As with trade, sometimes it is very frustrating, especially to us in the business world for most of the manufactured goods have to come from the Eastern States and I would like to see one day the big boys start up Warehouses in Western Australia instead of having to run to mama even for some nuts and screws and wait a few days for it to be delivered. For the benefit of his Excellency Mr. Mirpuri, I would like to mention something about the Western Australian Singapore Business Council. We are a young business council as we were only officially incorporated 12 years ago in Perth. The council has grown rapidly and now we have 90 members comprising both Singaporeans and Australians. The council’s brief objectives are;
Our council today has managed to achieved most of the objectives but we are handicapped by a shortage of financial support as our membership fees are only A$20.00 for individuals and their families and A$100.00 for the corporate membership. If we hope to achieve success in commercial and trade matters between Singapore and Australia, we will need a full time secretariat. At the moment, we have been very successful in promoting cultural and traditional festivities of Singapore for the benefit of our members and their families. This is very important in order to keep alive the younger generation’s interest in traditional customs of their race. Traditional customs are important, as it is their heritage handed down to the next generation and generations to come. It is also imperative that we Asians and Singaporeans should be proud of our heritage and race. Although you have chosen to a Western World, it does not mean that you should forget your race and where you come from. You should gain respect from the Westerners, if you are proud of what you are, do not allow your children to think, that they are of a different race because they were born and bred in a Western world. They should be given the chance to learn, to speak their mother tongue. (And when I refer to mother tongue), I mean the dialect group, as only then will they feel true to their race and heritage. I have come across quite a number of Asians, who tried to think that they are Westerners, and in fact felt embarrass to admit that they are Asians, which is shameful as they pur themselves in limbo. Those who take up citizenship of Australia must be loyal to their adopted country but must also remember their mother country who made it possible for them to be here. Perth, Western Australia is our next door neighbour, and I’m glad to say that those of you here had chosen West Australia to migrate to because of the lovely nature and so close to Singapore where you can do the Kangaroo hop to yummy food back to Singapore. To date, we WASBC have organised the following main events for our members and families and friends.
v Two Singapore National Dinner, and dances successfully for the year 1999 and 2000 featuring the four main cultural performances of Singapore. v Two Australian Day and Hari Raya Puasa dinners and fireworks display. v Members gathering with a River Cruise on the Swan River. v Bak Chang Night (Dumpling) (5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar) v Mooncake and lantern festival (8th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, full moon) Beside monthly management committee meetings. There has been some talk about starting a Singapore Club in Perth to replace Western Australian Singapore Business Council. I personally feel that it is not and advisable thing to do, as we are at the moment highly respected among the various business community, Trade ministry, Multicultural affairs and various Government departments. If we are to downgrade ourselves into a Singapore Club, it would mean the reduction of our status and be regarded as a social club, which may be suitable for University students. But as most University students have their own associations, it would be a watering down of activities and may not be well supported by the students. It would therefore defeat the purpose and in turn the Singapore image would be lost. I would like to thank Joy Ang and Willie Rasiah for organising the invitation and the venue for tonight. And I trust that we will have a wonderful evening. Last but not least, I would like to bring it to your attention that our honoured guest, Mr. Mirpuri will be celebrating his Birthday tomorrow 13th of December and I have taken the liberty of ordering a Birthday cake on behalf of WASBC and Contact Singapore to celebrate his Excellency’s Birthday one day in advance so he could share it with us.
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