<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>46980.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>[URL]http://www.todayonline.com/Hotnews/EDC110402-0000548/RPs-new-face-wants-more-security-in-employment[/URL]
RP's new face wants 'more security in employment'
by Neo Chai Chin
04:46 AM Apr 02, 2011
SINGAPORE - As New York-based theatre director and Reform Party (RP) new face Alec Tok settled down for an interview with this reporter earlier this week, he recounted how, a couple of days ago, he had met a homeless man at Telok Blangah Way.
Apart from getting a pair of shoes for the man, Mr Tok also arranged to meet him at the hospital to see a doctor on Thursday.
"If I can't help him, how am I going to help 31,000 people?" said Mr Tok, 46, referring to the number of electors in Radin Mas where he is expected to contest.
Mr Tok, who has been married for 17 years, noted that elsewhere in the world, the educated see it as their responsibility to alleviate the plight of the poor. He has a Masters from Yale University's School of Drama and runs a theatre company in New York. Effectively bilingual and fluent in Hokkien and Cantonese, he works with theatre schools in Shanghai and recently set up a company there.
Since May last year, Mr Tok has been shuttling between New York, Shanghai and Singapore. He flies to Singapore every three weeks to do walkabouts here.
Having been way from Singapore for 12 years, Mr Tok said he will move back to Singapore if elected - which would also see him rolling out his plans for Radin Mas, including installing more public toilets for the elderly to better "enjoy street life and community life" and attracting more young entrepreneurs to set up shops in the area. He also wants national policies that will give Singaporeans more security in their employment, retirement, and healthcare.
Mr Tok said he joined RP in 2009, after he was drawn to its ambition of becoming strong enough to form an alternative government.
He believes that Singapore has succeeded in the "first phase" of its development but "I feel the values underpinning the way that this Government has been operating in the last 20 years … are wrong," he said.
Describing the ruling People's Action Party's (PAP) as "elitist", Mr Tok took issue with how the PAP's young candidates - who were unveiled in recent weeks - present themselves "humbly, but at the end of the day, they are going to be standing there defending the right of the elite to high salary in the name of meritocracy".
Mr Tok's relatively brief experience in politics has been eventful - not least because of the mass resignations from RP which made the news in February.
The episode "definitely" affected him, he said. While being overseas probably helped him avoid the party's "day-to-day frictions", he chose to stay on because "it's not right to leave at a moment of crisis".
Politics demands the ability to bring together factions, he said. "This is the arena we're going into. It requires this kind of patience, no less than that." Neo Chai Chin
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<HR SIZE=1>Edited 4/2/2011 6:42 am by Heart Break Kid (HBK75)</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
RP's new face wants 'more security in employment'
by Neo Chai Chin
04:46 AM Apr 02, 2011
SINGAPORE - As New York-based theatre director and Reform Party (RP) new face Alec Tok settled down for an interview with this reporter earlier this week, he recounted how, a couple of days ago, he had met a homeless man at Telok Blangah Way.
Apart from getting a pair of shoes for the man, Mr Tok also arranged to meet him at the hospital to see a doctor on Thursday.
"If I can't help him, how am I going to help 31,000 people?" said Mr Tok, 46, referring to the number of electors in Radin Mas where he is expected to contest.
Mr Tok, who has been married for 17 years, noted that elsewhere in the world, the educated see it as their responsibility to alleviate the plight of the poor. He has a Masters from Yale University's School of Drama and runs a theatre company in New York. Effectively bilingual and fluent in Hokkien and Cantonese, he works with theatre schools in Shanghai and recently set up a company there.
Since May last year, Mr Tok has been shuttling between New York, Shanghai and Singapore. He flies to Singapore every three weeks to do walkabouts here.
Having been way from Singapore for 12 years, Mr Tok said he will move back to Singapore if elected - which would also see him rolling out his plans for Radin Mas, including installing more public toilets for the elderly to better "enjoy street life and community life" and attracting more young entrepreneurs to set up shops in the area. He also wants national policies that will give Singaporeans more security in their employment, retirement, and healthcare.
Mr Tok said he joined RP in 2009, after he was drawn to its ambition of becoming strong enough to form an alternative government.
He believes that Singapore has succeeded in the "first phase" of its development but "I feel the values underpinning the way that this Government has been operating in the last 20 years … are wrong," he said.
Describing the ruling People's Action Party's (PAP) as "elitist", Mr Tok took issue with how the PAP's young candidates - who were unveiled in recent weeks - present themselves "humbly, but at the end of the day, they are going to be standing there defending the right of the elite to high salary in the name of meritocracy".
Mr Tok's relatively brief experience in politics has been eventful - not least because of the mass resignations from RP which made the news in February.
The episode "definitely" affected him, he said. While being overseas probably helped him avoid the party's "day-to-day frictions", he chose to stay on because "it's not right to leave at a moment of crisis".
Politics demands the ability to bring together factions, he said. "This is the arena we're going into. It requires this kind of patience, no less than that." Neo Chai Chin
<!-- Related Photo, Media and Articles-->
Image 1 of 1
enlarge this photo
Photo by OOI BOON KEONG
<TABLE id=modalWrapper border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
Photo by OOI BOON KEONG
Copyright © MediaCorp Press Ltd
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<HR SIZE=1>Edited 4/2/2011 6:42 am by Heart Break Kid (HBK75)</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
