Alex Tan remained unfazed by low turnout at his maiden speech
February 16th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Despite the lukewarm response from fellow Singaporeans, Alex Tan remained unfazed by the low turnout at his maiden speech yesterday and promised to continue making speeches at Hong Lim Park on a weekly basis.
About 20 people turned up at Hong Lim Park yesterday to listen to Alex’s speech which touched on important national issues such as public housing, education and national service. (read Alex’s speech here)
Alex begain his speech by thanking those present for taking time off to come and listen to him:
“Before I start, I would like to say a few words to my supporters. I really appreciate what each and everyone of you have done to bring a new definition to Singaporeans. You people are not apathetic and definitely not afraid.”
Though his speech was short and lacking in details, he managed to capture the attention of the crowd with his point-blank highlighting of the inherent discrepancies in the ruling party’s policies which seem to discriminate against Singaporeans.
He ended the session with a promise to continue speaking up for Singaporeans:
“Back in Sept 2006, PM Lee proposed this slogan “No One will be Left Behind”. He lived up to his promise and the PRs and Foreigners are sure well taken care of. Here in 2010, I wish to change that slogan: No Singaporeans will be Left Behind. I wish to continue speaking up for Singaporeans. As such I will be having such similar speeches every Sunday at 5pm here in Hong Lim Park. Your grievances and bitterness will not be ignored. They will be discussed, debated and solutions will be offered. I thank you all for coming. Singapore for Singaporeans.”
His efforts were applauded by many netizens.
Steven wrote on Temasek Review:
“Kudos to Alex. we need more people like you to speakup for us. to us, the lower income, we will never have more then $100k in our CPF when we hit 55 years and all these money will be lock up under the retirement fund. to the rich, $100k is nothing as they will still have plenty of balance. All these happened because the Govt are afraid to support the old and needy. they can affort to gain billions and loose billions in their investment, but when it comes to taking care of its citizens, they say welfare is a dirty word.
Don’t forget, these senior citizens are the one who brought you to where you are today.”
KNN agreed:
“I must say that as a 22 year old guy, he pack alot of punches and I am glad that he is with Mr Chiam who is my most respected opposition elder…..Only when you all stand together, you have a better chance to survive, to continue, and to win, eventually. For now, Alex, if you are reading this, way to go.”
Brotherhood can identify with the issues brought up by Alex:
“Alex Tan has made a speech that is well articulated and touches my heart with the mention of all the issues and problems we, the mere mortal flat lease holders and dwellers face. Singaporeans do have some savings but these are all to be spent if not already spent on overpriced items. Compared to many countries, singaporeans do have some wealth, but they can only afford overpriced flats so small and i heard its even smaller nowadays and more expensive. Is this progress?”
Alex has bravely taken the first baby step for all Singaporeans and we must not forget the fact that he is doing so in his own personal capacity without any support from his party. (Singapore People’s Party)
If Alex continues to make speeches like such weekly at Hong Lim Park, the turnout will surely increase. Public awareness is generated slowly and gradually over time.
We need more Alex Tans to step forward and speak out for Singaporeans and time is fast running out.
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Purposely chose a public holiday because he only wanted his own friends to be present is my guess.
“Every journey begin with a single step”.
Alex. You have me, my family & my friends full support.
Hello, (The Striat Times PageA25) Will it come back to haunt us later?
PAP economical policies “blunder”
PAP 1st economcial policies “blunder”
PAP had been pushing very for local business to go regional, these companines like Parkway Parade Holdings today are competing directly against Singapore Medical Tourisim Hub
PAP 2nd econmcial policies “blunder”
The rooster had come home to roost, inanother words “Will it come back to haunt us later” now that our Singapore Medisave can be used in 12 Malaysian Hospitals.
Isn’t this a direct competition at our Singapore local hospitals?
Isn’t this an outflow of our money going overseas?
Can Singapore Compete?
~Business going regional, our expetise, our mgt skills, our clean & effeciency, our reputation for high safety and performance etc…Parkway Parade Holdings had pass these know-how over to the Malaysians
~By allowing Medisave to be use overseas, our revenue are flowing outwards instead of circulating within S’pore
~What about our dream for a Singapore Medical Hub?
haha the temasek review is obviously supporting this boy alex tan for whatever reasons.
alex cant even speak proper english and PRONOUNCE HIS WORDS properly. to the clown who said his speech was articulate, i really laughed hard at that one.
terrible orator. no university credentials. no management credentials.
Alex Tan is a brave person despite being young. I hope more Singaporean will become like him to challenge the PAP government on their policies instead of just accepting whatever the government is providing, including the obvious blunders like losses in Temasek Holding, escape of MAS Selemat, high property price due to immigration policies and HDB failure to meet the surge in demand as the result of this, etc. He is exceptional especially there are still many who don’t even dare to vote against PAP despite being extremely unhappy with the government.
有為青年
singapore, please take a look at some of our multi million dollar ministers with the right credentials….and what is their performance and contributions?I rather have a person who is sincere and hardworking without all the right credentials than some clown with the paper qualifications but comes out with useless and harmful policies and talk alot of cock.
Singapore,
Does all PAP ministers speak good English ? Please check how Lim Swee Say made his speech in English. Anyway, speaking good English does not show a person is intelligent neither is a person with university credential.
singapore on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 3:01 pm
ALEX TAN has more balls than you! Understand ! You are just another coffee shop talker who will put on a smiling face when an MP comes around and start complaining later.
@citizen Z
the multi million dollar ministers have transformed singapore from a total slum into a country with gdp per capita almost equal that of the UK. Singapore’s gdp per capita just overtook Japan. busiest port, freeiest economy, clean safe streets, english educated population, one of the best education systems in the world, best healthcare in asia, etc etc.
hate them for all you want, but they are educated, trained specialists who know what they are doing. articulate and educated.
you can hate the govt for being repressive but u cannot deny that these are men who are reasonably capable. i have my qualms about the govt as well but i do recognise that they have done a reasonably good job.
alex tan cannot even string together a proper sentence in english or pronounce his words properly. this is just a reflection of his poor education.
he has no university degree and has no management experience. he is trained in engineering but engineers fix machineries, they do not run countries.
having said that, i feel we do need more opposition members in parliament just to kick start democracy in singapore. i will still vote for alex if he contests in my ward.
when democracy takes roots in singapore and people see that it is ok to exercise their political rights and join opposition parties without being jailed etc, opposition teams will have men of higher calibre coming forward to join them.
the current system of one party is very dangerous. no parliamentary checks is always bad for a nation. with competition things will improve, policies will become better and sharper.
I think singapore is now ready to join the ranks of free and democratic nations in the world. Our population is now educated, unlike 60 years ago.
with a single party parliament, one generation of fools is all it takes for singapore to be ruined. with a multi party democracy, there will always be capable men to take over the rein.
yalor,
those ministar got paper quali, but no heart quality at all!!
tell me how many at this young age dare to be so vocal enough to challenge all those old birds that is so useless sitting in the cabinet talk sing cot and performance is kana zero!!!
MIND U, ZERO, OK!!!
VOTE THOSE USELESS OLD BIRDS OUT! VOTE PAPPIESS OUT!
A good performance by Mr. Alex Tan, for a first time public appearance and under difficult conditions (unfavourable turnout). Who can do better than he?
But with each appearance, he will definitely be a more polished speaker, provided he and his listeners are not roasted by the hot afternoon sun.
singapore, even PM lee said that the only thing that matters is the heart to serve. Can that be said of wee siew kim, who raised his daughter to tell ordinary Singaporeans to get out of her elite uncaring face? Or george yeo, who told a girl traumatized by molest to please see her MP instead of forwarding her letter to DPM wong? And for that matter, if Alex Tan was that bad, then why did the ypap resort to character assassination against him instead of directly rebutting his questions?
Pro-miw types like you have the right to post here same as anyone. Unfortunately, without exception they are all the same. All they can do is resort to personal attacks instead of rebutting the criticisms against the miw.
By the way, did you know that the miw have an army of speechwriters to write their highly eloquenr speeches for them whereas Alex Tan doesn’t? Maybe I should volunteer to write his speeches in future, since I’m good at tearing apart all the nonsense the miw ministers make.
and fiy, our late beloved president, mr ong teng cheong is also a engineer artichect background hor, somemore chinese educated leh…
see despite of all these, mr ong teng cheong knowledge, moral, intelligence, performance surpassess all those idiots ministars who is sitting in the cabinet like kana SAI!!
So vote for Alex Tan who’s heart and passion is truly for his own!!just like our late beloved president, Mr Ong Teng Cheong!!!
VOTE PAPPIES OUT!!!
From start, he seems like someone keen on personal vendetta. Look at his khaki from 3in1. All of them are the same kind. It’s very irritating. We aren’t interested in his personal grievances, either NS matters or YPAP arguments.
I express my regret that I was not able to attend his maiden speech, its wrong timing for me during CNY.
I will definitely support him in future talks.
We need to support him for speaking up for the future good of our country. We need more people like him.
少年英雄
You are my hero!
Many PAP ministers are
有学历 没能力！
Have good education but without ability!!!
@singapore on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 4:17 pm
the multi million dollar ministers have transformed singapore from a total slum into a country with gdp per capita almost equal that of the UK. Singapore’s gdp per capita just overtook Japan. busiest port, freeiest economy, clean safe streets, english educated population, one of the best education systems in the world, best healthcare in asia, etc etc.
The above is discrediting the contribution of all our previous batch of ministers? Can singapore tell us which other former ministers who really started the ball rolling from 1965 earned multi-million dollars?
singapore sounds like he holds a degree or more, why not try what Alex did and do a speech at Hong Lim? It can be anything, no need to talk about politics. See how well you do? Public speaking is an acquired skill. It does not matter if the person has a degree or not.
@Pengz and Darth Vader,
good politicians require much more than “the mere desire to serve”.
the ah soh next door probably has the desire to serve as well, so does the coffee shop hawker. but they lack intelligence, english skills, training, management experience, foresight, leadership etc etc.
singapore will become another zimbawe within a decade if the ah sohs and ah peks take over the rein.
speak the main langauge of your country well first and pronounce your words properly before even thinking about bigger things.
kenneth jeyeratnam or lee hsien loong speaks english well not because they have good script writers, they speak english well because they worked hard at it when they were young. they bothered to educate themself and make themselves articulate. they bothered to pronounce their words properly. they had a good education and upbringing and it shows the minute they open their mouths.
similiarly, the HDB ah sohs had a terrible upbringing and education, it shows the minute they open their mouth.
alex obviously does not speak english well, it shows the minute he opens his mouth.
the way you speak tells a lot about the person you are. i can listen to someone speak and identify if he is from singapore, britain, malaysia or australia. i can also guess if he is educated or a moron.
alex tan’s problem is not public speaking. his problem is that he can’t speak proper english, be it public or private speeches. his problem is his english sucks. he cannot string together proper grammatically correct basic english sentences and pronounce simple words properly.
alex also does not have a university degree. he does not have management experience as well.
-> singapore sounds like he holds a degree or more, why not try what Alex did and do a speech at Hong Lim?
i have no interest in politics, it is a total waste of time and energy. only idiots believe they can change the government in singapore.
lee kuan yew: “Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this”
take a hint will you.
@ singapore on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 6:23 pm
“i have no interest in politics, it is a total waste of time and energy. only idiots believe they can change the government in singapore.”
then just shut the fuck up, will you?
sorry guys, I talk cock alot because my brain is full of two things, sperm and human waste. so I beg your pardon.
well, Mr Tan was there to witness that singaporeans are not apathetic at least 20 odd of them.
This proved what many including myself claimed – the rest of singaporeans are mostly Apathetic.
Its like time stood still. Even in the 21st century, singaporeans remain the same, generally.
I am convinced the situation would be different if held overseas and happens overseas.
Singaporeans are so unique that the word ‘unique’ itself cannot fully clearly appropriately describe us.
but my heart is with Alex. I did not turn up because i learnt long ago after many HL events that asking singaporans to turn up is like asking them to jump over a cliff.
->singapore on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 6:53 pm who said:
sorry guys, I talk cock alot because my brain is full of two things, sperm and human waste. so I beg your pardon.
————————-
this guy isn’t me. obviously i don’t type in singlish. there are imposters on this forum.
@ the tooth, you said:
well, Mr Tan was there to witness that singaporeans are not apathetic at least 20 odd of them.
———–
are you kidding lol?
even yio chu kang cemetery has more than 20 visitors per hour on a typical day.
SGeans are already apathetic, and Alex decided to choose, of all the 364 days in a year, the SECOND DAY OF CNY, for his maiden speech.
Who the hell will want to come?? Siow! Choose like June holidays lah sure some students will come one.
@ amy
excuses. like you will turn up in future. give me your nric, face pic and handphone number now.
that’s what i thought.
————————————————————-
@Maihun
educated, decent, skilled singaporeans who hold proper jobs speak english well.
uneducated, vile, unskilled, sales girl-hawker type of singaporeans speak terrible english. they normally speak in their own language and then accuse the english speakers of acting “ang moh” or being “elitist” to cover up their low self esteem and lack of education.
hawker: you are chinese why can’t you speak mandarin?
singapore: errr…because i was educated in english? my mandarin is not fluent, i dont like the mandarin language, i dont like china and i dont wish to be a chinaman-wanna-be hawker like you? i am a singaporean and we compete in english here you see.
you never see a singaporean gangster who speaks perfect RP English do you? they always speak some other languages like hokkien etc.
but its ok, because they are the ones that are sweeping the roads for my car to run, making me coffee at the coffee shop, cleaning my shoes and chauffering me around in their taxis.
for all this guy is worth, he does need brushing up on his public speaking, presentation, and diction. without these, you can’t convince anyone of your ideas.
i hope he goes for some training to brush up.
Please go and attend Alex’s speech this coming Sunday at 5pm at Hong Lim….
For all the positive comments and negative comments, please go and listen to this young man for yourselves.
Judge him, Evaluate him and See him for who he is…..
After that and Only then, please post your comments…
I watched the video, it will reach out to more people if Alex do it in Mandarin also.
Singapore
Go are welcome to go to HL Park and speak your pro PAP. If not, you are just jealous of Alex Tan. As a psychiatrist, I can see it through your writing.
An MP-wannabe who is not even articulate and eloquent
It is good that Alex will be regularly giving a speech in Hong Lim Park. With more exposure & practice he will improve. This is the first step to a thousands steps.
Better then others who just hide behind the keyboard & make comments.
“pap”
are you a psychiatrist or pyscho?
why should i be jealous of a 22 year old kid who speaks bad english, where only 20 ppl bothered to hear him speak in real life (probably just 10 if u exclude his friends and camera crew) , with a mere poly diploma, working as an entry level engineer, who lives in a hdb flat, begs on his blog for donations and sells toothpicks for money?
no matter how hard i try, i am quite hard pressed to find anything to be jealous about really.
as a pyscho, could you let me know what is there to be jealous about? u being a pyscho should be able to tell me right?
All the best Alex. For all those who tried to put you down, perhaps it is them who needs pulling up. Take all the personal attacks as positive fuel and life’s education, and stay on course with all your heart and if you do that, you will never let anyone down.
singapore on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 3:01 pm
“alex cant even speak proper english and PRONOUNCE HIS WORDS properly. to the clown who said his speech was articulate, i really laughed hard at that one.
terrible orator. no university credentials. no management credentials.”
Is that important? What is important is his sincererity to help and make life better for Singaporeans. That is good enuf. No need Queen’s english.
fellow singaporeans, please note that we are what we are today is because in the past we have honest and capable leaders to lead us, we would not have made it if not for them, however, as we progress we also made some mistakes in our policies, which government does not make mistakes, tell me. some purposely make mistakes to benefit their own pocket. i think in singapore, we unlikely have any sodomy case. it is our duty as citizens to point out our leader’s mistakes so that they can rectify their policy to best suit the majority, so, we must not laugh at alex tan who is just doing his duty, since it is not a english speaking competition.
Yah lor, what is there to be jealous about? Unless singapore is a balding, lonely, loser who try to survive on $3K per month and hates old coffee shop aunty, hates old people like his parents and young children who can’t speak good English! He won’t be jealous unless he knows he wouldn’t be able to get a job if he step out of MOE. No matter how hard he works, he can’t even be a HOD. He has extremely low self-esteem so the sight of a daring young man irks him. He fears getting old, old like those he despise. He fear he is still a nobody when he gets old, which is very likely considering he is still a nobody at this age.
singapore is a piece of shit. He can’t even come online to fight during school hours! He is restricted by his teaching hours and meagre salary. He assume superiority because of his english but he is not even an author and definitely a nobody in the literary circle. Who doesn’t he just teach Maths? What a pathetic life.
Singapore
Then would you dare to speak in Hong Lim Park to support your pro PAP views?
It is much easier compare to Alex Tan speech against the ruling party.
Singapore, Are you eric how?
@myfairynest
why mandarin only? how about tamil and malay?
more than 1/4 of singaporeans dont speak mandarin, you realise that?
why is it that lately, the entire country is becoming a province of china where everyone speaks chinese?
can i order my food or buy shoes in english please?
@Singapore. You quoted on Alex Tan “terrible orator. No university credentials. No management credentials”.
LKY, LHL, Ho Ching – good orator, with university credentials, with management credentials. What happen?
WE LOST BILLION OF TAXPAYERS & CPF MONEYS!!!!!!
The problem is we are govern by pap right from the start and so we are not able to see or experience what the opposition can do for us. Now if the opposition takes over, they definately won’t follow the pap ways of doing things, so we will either upgrade to the swiss standard or downgrade to our neighbour standard, 2 question, which of the above is more possible and are we willing to take the risk.
->LKY, LHL, Ho Ching – good orator, with university credentials, with management credentials. What happen? WE LOST BILLION OF TAXPAYERS & CPF MONEYS!!!!!!
Those are just paper losses.
Well put alex tan in charge or your neighbourhood ah soh in charge and i bet you singapore won’t even have billions to lose.
The problem is we are govern by PAP right from the start so we actually can’t see or experience what the opposition can do for us. Now if the opposition takes over, they definately won’t follow the PAP ways of doing things so we will either upgrade to better than swiss standard or downgrade to our neighbour standard (if status quo we might as well let pap remain up there). 2 questions, which of the above is more possible and are we willing and afford to take such risk.
I think that the bigger picture unless you belive in 2013 prophecy, then go ahead and make all singaporeans life easier.
Wah, singapore who earns only $3K, can’t survive outside MOE, unpopular among colleagues, lonely and bald, want to talk big here!
singapore you old already lor, getting old vile and arrogant lor. young people hates you le, how? hahaha!
Agree we need more people with Alex to speak out
But they need to be street smart to choose better days than second day of CNY.
But then maybe if they are that smart, they would NOT speak up?
Or work for PAP.
Singapore
A lost is a lost. What paper lost are you talking? If not, don’t change the CPF withdrawal age. Leave it as it is; withdraw all of it at age 55 years. After all it is our money. What we do is our business.
The government has never helped me in my whole life. Even when I am broke after using up all my CPF money is my business. At least it is better then I let them use & lose it.
Btw. Are you game enough to speak in HL Park as what Alex Tan did?
@ singapore.
Singapore has an ex general as Prime Minister, and several other ex military commanders as Ministers. What other countries can u think of that have ex military commanders leading their countries on non-military affairs?
@ singapore is shit on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 11:42 pm
“…… He assume superiority because of his english….”
You gave him a LOT of credit there. In one of the thread of debate with me, he was incessantly boastful of his command of English Language announcing to one and all he got a PGCE!!
Giving him a public opportunity to prove his “substance” or “void” of superior English skills, I quoted a few paragraphs of actual comments (in English of course) of an Australian learned judge of contract law doctrine, inviting his “intelligent” interpretation, guess what was his response? I warned him that I will explain AFTER he has responded.
He chickened out like a lump of fallen chicken sh@t. NOT one word from him despite his public arrogance of superior English Language skills!! In those circumstance of his failure, I was obliged to remind him that his PGCE is worth not much more than a piece of toilet paper.
And he is back here again with his derision of others claiming his superior English Language skills in contempt.
How comical?
And he claimed that he is even an Aussie PR. I would say that he got “a roo lose in his top paddock”, maybe he could explain to us what those words mean.
Dear Alex Tan,
Although we are not there to listen but we will still support by voting for you when you are in our constituency.
If happened you are not in our constituency we will encourage friends living there to vote for you.
You have support from my family and lots of people
sorry again guys, I talk cock alot because my brain is full of two things, sperm and human waste. btw, I don’t talk from my mouth, I talk from my ass. I am definitely a psycho so I beg your pardon again.
@singapore on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 1:12 am
Why are you spouting so much rubbish !!!
At least Mr Alex Tan may likely perform the opposite by helping singapore earned from billions to Trillion.
Nobody is indispensable !!!
Don’t look down on our uncle and aunt. Without their contribution you are nothing.
Public speaking is the number fear in America, ahead of snakes, spiders and death – even ahead of terrorist acts according to ‘the book of lists’. Walt Disney couldn’t even think of trying it early in his career. And Bill Clinton – after being booed off a stage – learned to master it. All the great speakers were bad speakers at first, even Goh Chok Tong was a bad public speaker in the beginning. Public speaking skills are not innate, but learned. So Alex, dont be discouraged keep it up.
To Singapore,
you shit ! everything needs degree arh? No degree can not talk? Nia Mah !!
@Ah Beng Ah Seng -> Don’t look down on our uncle and aunt. Without their contribution you are nothing.
unable to string a proper sentence in english, no education, working as a salesgirl, hawker, technician, cab driver, road sweeper, admin assistant all your life hardly qualifies as “contribution to the nation”. they were scraping a living, making ends meet and were/are a liability to society.
i express my thanks to my forefathers who were educated and skilled, who spoke good english, whose intelligence and wisdom built up singapore.
i expresss my disgust to all these old undeducated people who have the wisdom, maturity, literacy level and intelligence of a 10 year old. and sadly, these people form the bulk of the older generation. yuks
Ah Beng Ah Seng you sure are a weird one. who in the world would look up to old people and old age? are you an old man yourself?
if someone is above 50 i wont even consider hiring him unless his health is good, speaks good english and can do his job very well. all things being equal, i would hire a guy in his twenties or thirties, depending on the position.
i cant stand old people. they are worse than trash these days. rude and arrogant most of them.