by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A new crop of Tamil-speaking Justices of the Peace is on call in the South East.
Amirthalingam Dhileepan, of Officer, was part of the latest volunteers sworn in at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 26 March.
It continues his life of community service, as well as possibly being the only Tamil-speaking JP in Cardinia Shire.
“It comes from my childhood, with my grandparents and parents doing community work in Sri Lanka.”
As a JP, Dhileepan can witness stat decs, affadavits and certify wills and people’s identities such as for visa applications and passports.
As a secretary at Southern Migrant & Refugee Centre (SMRC), he sees many new arrivals who hit language barriers when they seek a JP’s help.
“Sometimes they’re looking for people they can trust or who can speak Tamil to explain things in their own language.”
In the past, he’d usher people to visit Dandenong-based Tamil JP of 30 years, Wicki Wickiramasingham.
“This area needs more JPs, not just in our community but the broader community,” Wickiramasingham says.
For much of his stint, Wickiramasingham was the region’s only multilingual JP, speaking Spanish, Sinhalese, Tamil, English and Italian.
Now there’s nine Tamil speaking JPs to cater for Tamil speaking residents from Singapore, India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Becoming a JP was a two-year process of examinations, interviews, training and background checks.
In coming weeks, Dhileepan intends to set up a weekly stall at Pakenham library on Wednesday nights.
