Alec Tok: A shining light for Singapore?
What makes Tok tick? The filmmaker and now Reform politician reveals how he would like to see Singapore change
By Elaine Ee-Meyers 30 August, 2010
Based in New York and Shanghai -- and now extending his reach to Singapore -- 45-year-old director and filmmaker Alec Tok surprised everyone when he was announced as a candidate for the opposition’s Reform Party earlier this year. Essentially his first foray into politics, Tok was inspired by by the Reform Party's ambition to go beyond just being the opposition. Here, he discusses how politics impacts his artistic work and the difference between a home and a country.
CNNGo: What brought you to politics and why?
Alec Tok: I joined the Reform Party at the end of 2009. I’ve always been interested in Singapore politics -- it’s such an extreme situation that you have to deal with it, relate to it -- and the way I’m relating to it right now is to partake in the changing of it, as simple as that. I was really happy when the late J.B. Jeyaretnam decided to make a last bid for parliament because it cemented the need to have someone who could pursue the constitutional struggle in Singapore. Then when he passed away he left a vacuum and that was a big worry for me because it set us back quite a few years. But the vacuum is being filled, rightfully, by his heir, Kenneth [Jeyaretnam]. And I thought, you know what, if you want me, I’m prepared to stand with you.
CNNGo: Is it difficult to be a Singapore politician when you spend so much time in New York and Shanghai?
Tok: Living and working in Shanghai and New York is a boon for me. My livelihood is very neatly disconnected to my political views and the venting of them in Singapore’s political arena. Right now I have a license to practice anywhere I choose. I think it’s working to my advantage or at least to my comfort. Any opposition politician in Singapore is a fairly new one. We all have to go through a learning curve, and that’s what I’m going through at the moment. I think 20 years ago without the Internet it was harder, but these days, with Facebook and everything else you can feel the pulse much more easily. And I come back every two months or so to meet with residents and just talk to real people -- the people you say you want to represent -- rather than theorists or academicians or bloggers. I like the young people involved, very decent ordinary folk, quite focused, not freedom fighting, just articulating what can be done better in a very sensible way.
CNNGo: What do you think Singaporeans want?
Tok: By and large Singaporeans just want real involvement. I think people want more participation. More people are coming forward and realizing that the only way for change to happen is to precipitate the change rather than wait for it to be handed to you, because it won’t be.
CNNGo: Are you going to cut back on your artistic work to make time for politics?
Tok: Full steam ahead, all fronts. The play that I’m doing in Shanghai this year is called "The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree." It’s a play written by one of Singapore’s foremost dramatists Kuo Pao Kun. In fact it’s a play I watched in 1987 and was one of the few plays that made me want to belong to the theater all those years ago. I would rather tour it to the rest of China first before coming back here. The pertinent question here is though -- will I be given the licence to perform? In a sense, that answer is not in my hands.
CNNGo: Have you had your work rejected by Singapore authorities before?
Tok: I wrote a script about Singapore’s political situation in the 1970s, when a lot of journalists and liberal leaning leftists got arrested under the internal security act. It was rejected by the Singapore Film Commission for funding because they thought it was too transgressive. I said, "But if you put in some money and have a decent conversation with me, perhaps we could make some amendments." But they felt the whole topic was too hot.
CNNGo: Are you taking this script elsewhere or are you holding on to it for now?
Tok: Holding on to it; it’s two-thirds finished. You see a story like that would only be pertinent to Singaporeans. It’s not going to be relevant to a 22-year old South Korean or a Thai investor. But we’ll see what happens. The script has already been written.