Singapore’s newest political party, Red Dot United (RDU), introduced its fifth and final election candidate on Friday (June 26).
Theatre director Alec Tok, 55, who has two young children, promised to bring to his role of Member of Parliament a keen awareness of the pressures and challenges of bringing up a family in a fast-changing job landscape.
Growing up in an ordinary family in Queenstown, he worked for the SAF Music & Drama Company and then SAFRA Radio before conceptualising, producing and directing Singapore’s first Chinese musical, December Rains.
Mr Tok also art-directed Twelve Storeys, Singapore’s first submission to the Cannes International Film Festival. He lived in the United States for 15 years, working as a theatre director.
Mr Tok was responsible for writing and directing his first film, A Big Road in Shanghai, which was nominated for the Best Film Award when it debuted at the Singapore International Film Festival.
He was commissioned and invited back by the Singapore International Festival of Arts to write and direct Nanyang: The Musical, which premiered in Singapore during SG50 in 2015. He stayed on in Singapore after that production. He is able to contribute to the development of Singapore due to his experience living in America and China.
The Yale University alum’s political motto is:
“Singapore is ours. We must care for it, take charge of it and guide it to a future that we want for ourselves, our children and their future generation. Only we have this privilege because we are Singaporean.”
Mr Tok will be part of the five-person RDU team that will contest in the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC). The other team members are Chairman Michelle Lee, Secretary-General Ravi Philemon, entrepreneur Liyana Dhamirah and legal engineer Nicholas Tang.
The party was initiated by Mr Philemon and Ms Lee when they left the Progress Singapore Party over the past few months. It was registered as a political party last week.
Mr Tok and Ms Lee were formerly with the Singapore Democratic Party.
He said: “As a Member of Parliament, I will advocate for the government to concentrate on raising the job prospects and wages of ordinary Singaporeans, especially the less educated. Daily living costs are high here and holding on to a job is not easy.” /TISG