Alex Tan

Alex Tan Zhixiang (simplified Chinese: 陈智祥; traditional Chinese: 陳智祥; pinyin: Chén Zhì Xiáng) is a Singaporean political activist. As a member of the Singapore People's Party, he stood in the Singaporean general election, 2011 in the Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency under the Reform Party banner. The team that he was contesting under received 49,779 votes in total, representing 30.67% of total votes cast within the GRC.^[1] Tan is a former editor of Temasek Review, a now-defunct socio-political website that covers mainly current affairs articles.

Activism

In July 2011, Wang Peng Fei, a People Republic of China(PRC) student in Singapore made derogatory remarks against a Malay woman in his YouTube video post, and Tan lodged an official police report against him. The PRC student was subsequently expelled.^[2] Another PRC student, Sun Xu, who made a disparaging comment about Singaporeans (referring them as dogs), was also reported by Alex.^[3]

Tan was an editor and one of the contributors and founders of the sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS). On 6 Feb 2015, two of the website's editors, Ai Takagi and Robin Yang Kai Heng, were arrested under the Sedition Act for sedition charges. Tan moved to Australia soon after and The Real Singapore was shut down on 3 May 2015 by order of the Media Development Authority of Singapore.^[4] He subsequently started a new website called Straits Times Review, later changing its name to States Times Review.^[5][6]

Political career

Tan contested under the Reform Party banner in 2011 as his party, the Singapore People's Party, was not interested in contesting in the Prime Minister's ward. As the main organizer of the two parties' joint walkabouts, Tan sought the Reform Party's help to contest in Ang Mo Kio GRC. The Reform Party then "loaned" Alex from the Singapore People's Party to contest in the ward.

In his maiden election speech, Tan underscored the lack of a social safety net for the elderly in Singapore and the influx of foreigners that has diluted Singaporeans' identity. Other campaigning issues he took on included the state of overcrowding, cost of living and the lack of transparency and accountability in the national retirement fund, the Central Provident Fund, and the national reserves. In one of his speeches, Tan questioned Dr Vivian Balakrishnan about statements Balakrishnan had made about the government wealth fund GIC's portfolio having returned to pre-crisis levels and claimed that no statistics or figures were provided to back up the statements.^[7]

References