SINGAPORE: Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council on Thursday (Dec 5) apologised for errors in its Tamil translation of a police advisory in its recent newsletter.
Replying to CNA’s queries, a town council spokesperson said this was due to a “typesetting error” when the article was sent to print.
“We failed to notice (the mistake) before the newsletter was sent out,” said the spokesperson.
Inaccurate Tamil translations were found in the MY Kampung newsletter.
The town council will make amendments to the article and redistribute the MY Kampung newsletter to every Housing and Development Board (HDB) household within the constituency.
“Along with the amended article, we will also issue a letter to all the households to express our sincere apology for such an unfortunate incident,” the spokesperson added.
“We will also do our best to ensure that this incident does not happen again.”
Woodlands resident Priscilla Kumari, who contacted CNA about the error, said the Tamil text was “seriously flawed and unreadable” and that the error was “surprising”.
Ms Kumari added that her neighbourhood had many elderly residents who may rely on the Tamil translation if they cannot read English.
“How can this happen without proofreading before going to print? It’s embarrassing,” she added.
CNA has asked the town council when the newsletter was distributed and how many people had received it.
Earlier this year, a non-elected People’s Action Party representative apologised after brochures containing Tamil translation errors were distributed to Kaki Bukit residents.
In 2017, inaccurate Tamil translations were also found in National Day Parade publicity pamphlets.
