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Channel News Asia, 15 February 2010 Guest arrivals to Sentosa Island surged when the Resorts World Sentosa casino and theme park opened on Sunday. Some 75,000 people visited the island, a 20 per cent increase from the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2009. And as of 4pm on Monday, Sentosa said it received some 40,000 visitors. It seems the attractions at Resorts World Sentosa are the reason for the draw - with some 30,000 people visiting the casino over two days. There were long queues, either for entry to the casino or the restaurants at Resorts World Sentosa. The fewer number of Singaporeans getting into the casino got in easily by paying the S$100 levy. But the huge number of foreigners led to many waiting in line for up to two hours. One visitor said: "I have waited here for two hours, it is too long." Krist Boo, vice-president, Communications, Resorts World Sentosa, said: "...the queue is very overwhelming, we have a very good response to the casino opening...the foreigners' queue can vary; as and when the casino can take more people, we will let them in. It can take from a few minutes to an hour plus." The situation was slightly better at the restaurants. Diners were able to get in after 30 to 40 minutes. And since not all of the 13 restaurants were open, business was good for those that were. One restaurant told MediaCorp it experienced a 100 per cent increase in business compared to last week. The situation was a little different outside of Resorts World. Although it was equally packed at Imbiah Point, cafes like Delifrance said their increase in business was less than expected. Joanne Tee, assistant manager, Food Service, Delifrance, said: "For today...my business is about 20 per cent more. Actually I expected more, about 50 per cent more, because of the opening of the IR...I also expected more people to come during CNY (Chinese New Year)." Although the crowds are thronging in, Sentosa Leisure Group said traffic was smooth flowing. It will continue to monitor the arrival and departure patterns of guests and respond to the situation accordingly. - CNA  Read More →

Background: In a short speech attended by about 20 people, Alex Tan spoke about the ruling party's housing, labor and education policies which appear to benefit foreigners more than Singaporeans:   [imagebrowser id=66]  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Despite being held on a public holiday, about twenty odd people turned up at Hong Lim Park to listen to the maiden speech of Alex Tan, who made the headlines lately by embarrassing two PAP MPs with sharp and sensitive questions during a youth forum last year. An engineer by professional, 22 year old Alex has since joined the Singapore People's Party under Mr Chiam See Tong and has expressed his wishes to serve fellow Singaporeans by participating in the next general election. During the brief 10-minute speech, Alex spoke about the inherent inequality in Singapore which saw the ruling party splurging $10 million dollars of taxpayers' monies to welcome new immigrants, but had done little to help the needy elderly and poor. He ended his speech by urging Singaporeans to vote the right people in and vote the wrong people out in the next general election. View the photos here.   Transcript of Alex Tan's speech: Hello Everyone I thank you for taking your time off for this speech. 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. This is a good start to Change. I would like to give special Thanks to those who committed donations in my toothpick and blog space business. And also those who participated actively in online discussions like VOTE FOR CHANGE VOTE THE PAP OUT FACEBOOK GROUP. Today's Topic is on Singaporeans. First, Employment of Singaporeans The Singapore government issued several job-saving strategies in this recession that are probably familiar to more of you - 1)“cheaper better faster” 2)“higher productivity” and 3)having more foreigners to save Singaporean jobs. These 3 approach proposed by the Government are, in fact, nowhere saving Singaporean jobs it claims to do so. The real thing that is happening on the ground – Singaporeans are losing jobs to these foreigners and struggling to pay their bills at the end of every month. Singaporeans must not work more for less. This isn't productivity. You put our people to 30 years of mortgage loan, longer working hours, lesser wages, with job insecurity, threats of retrenchments, thousands of them on contract work, and an influx of foreigners competition,  you are putting our people to slavery. We must restore faith in our employment system and ensure Singaporeans do not worry about being replaced by these foreigners. I propose that we cut down the number of Foreigners and increase the Foreign Worker Levies to address the disadvantages faced by Singaporean workers. Our workers cant afford to be cheaper – they have bills to pay and a family to feed. I propose our working hours be reverted back to a strictly weekday 9 to 5 basis. Yes, no doubt this is going to take a toil on our economy, but our people need to spend more time with their friends and families. We Singaporeans are already working one of the longest hours and are also among the most stressful people in the world. I say we compromise on our GDP and give our people the happiness and a better life that they deserve. NS Regarding the issue on National Service, We dont want our NSFs to be a liability to their parents, they must be independent both mentally and financially. I would propose that the Allowance of Servicemen be increased.  We Singaporeans have the responsibility  to serve all of them, like how they are serving us with their 2 years of youth. Workers who do not serve NS must pay a price for the peace and security they enjoy from the NS men's sacrifices. We should implement a security tax for all workers who do not serve NS. This security tax will be used to buffer the increase in manpower cost of our NS men. We as Singaporeans have failed to pay our NS men the respect they deserve and the support they need. They must not feel betrayed by the amount of foreigners taking our jobs and university places in our land which we sworn to protect. I propose that University Places be reserved to accommodate all eligible Singaporean males who have served National Service. This is one of the many ways Singaporeans can pay tribute and honor their 2 years of sacrifices. Education System On Education System, Singaporeans know our knowledge-intensive industries need more degree holders. We need more professionals like Engineers, Managers and Accountants to manage our economy. Globalization taught us the country with the most bachelor degrees is the strongest. Every year our Polys and Jcs Singaporean graduates are denied applications to our subsidized local universities in NUS, NTU and SMU. These bright students have been turned away not because their grades are not up to standard. But because Singapore do not have enough places for them. Their only option of a world-class degree is to pay for expensive courses from overseas universities. Many could not pay for these degrees priced at 30% higher that of a local degree. Why is our local students deterred from having a higher education? A painful truth to these students is that our universities are reserving 20% of the places for foreign students and this excludes the PR foreigners. A more painful truth to our Singaporean students is that most of these foreign students are not subjected to Cambridge English O Level credits and are given the short cuts to our Universities. This is no Meritocracy. This is blatant discrimination against Singaporeans. Elderly On the issue of Elderly, I have been seeing many Singaporeans elderly going from rubbish bins to rubbish bins, scavenging for aluminum cans and collecting cardboard. Why isn't the government doing anything? Aren't these elderly folks the very same people who have been working throughout their entire life contributing to Singapore's success? In September 2009, the Government created a $10 Million Integration Fund for the foreigners. Imagine how many Singaporean elderly and poor can this $10 Million help? I think this is ridiculous. The Government have got their priorities all wrong. Will we become like them? Do we want to go digging rubbish bins under the hot sun in our twilight years? HDB On the issue of HDB. The rising prices of HDB flats is a cause for concern because this is postponing marriage and family-planning for our Singaporean couples. A bulk of our money in CPF will be used to service a 30 year housing loan resulted from the inflated flats. Singaporeans who buy this over-priced housing today will realize they have little or nothing left for Retirement 30 years later. The effects of the sky-rocketed prices on the people are devastating. Based on 2008, 8% of the  households you see are owing banks loan payments overdue by more than 90 days.  This means 1 in 12.5 HDB households you see are at a risk of being homeless. Each year, more and more Singaporeans are sleeping in the streets just because they can't pay. This is well covered by theonlinecitizen.com. It is time we start enforcing stricter buying rules like increasing the HDB Resale Min Deposit to 20% and implement CPF for all Foreigners. Our aim is to shorten Mortgage Loan period to the early 1980s standards of 15 years. Today's Mortgage Loan of 30 years is unacceptable and unaffordable. HDB should be made affordable or else more Singaporeans are going homeless when they cant pay the banks. 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  Read More →