Darren Boon
Not the first time that Lau had breached the staff code of conduct.
DBS this evening issued a stinging statement rebuking Josie Lau for flouting the DBS staff code of conduct twice.
“Every year, all employees are required to acknowledge that they will abide by the bank’s policies. We are disappointed that Josie knowingly disregarded DBS’ staff code of conduct twice,” the spokesperson said. “Such attitude is not one that DBS, or any other organisation, can condone in a leader.”
In response to TOC queries, DBS spokesperson stated that in accordance to the Bank’s staff code of conduct, employees need to request and receive approval before taking on an external appointment, something which Lau failed to do.
“Josie informed the bank of her appointment as AWARE Ex-co member on 13 April, over two weeks after she was appointed on 28 March. She had not sought prior approval for this appointment and thereby breached the staff code of conduct,” the DBS spokesperson said. “Nevertheless, DBS made a concession and agreed to support her involvement as Ex-co member.”
Lau had informed DBS of her intent to run for President of AWARE early in the week. After a review, DBS replied to Lau that while DBS will continue to support Lau’s involvement with AWARE, DBS could not support her bid to run for President given the demands associated with the top post of a leading advocacy group in Singapore.
“Banks worldwide are facing very challenging times and her role as VP in the credit card space today is even more challenging, given the environment we are in,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson pointed out that DBS takes pride in its employees’ pursuit of individual interests and passions outside work such as involvement in various community, charity and volunteer organisations in a personal capacity. The spokesperson clarified that these employees had sought and obtained prior consent to do so in line with the Bank’s staff code of conduct.
“Approval is granted on a case-by-case basis, depending on the demands of the proposed external appointment as well as the job responsibilities that the individual holds in the bank,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Lau is the Vice President and Head of Marketing, Cards and Unsecured Loans, Consumer Banking Group, and is married to private General Practitioner Dr Alan Chin. Dr Chin is an outspoken advocate of for the continued criminalization of homosexual sex between consenting males.
This comes on the heels of DBS’ controversial support of the anti-gay group Focus of the Family (FOTF) last November. DBS had held a campaign pledging to contribute up to S$15,000 to FOTF when credit cardholders spend a minimum of $300 during weekends at selected malls between 14 November and 21 December.
FOTF Singapore is an affiliate of the American FOTF, which is led by the Christian evangelical James Dobson. FOTF USA is a proponent of school sponsored Christian prayer and is staunchly anti-abortion and anti-gay. The money from DBS’ campaign was intended to support FOTF Singapore building of a new learning centre for children with learning disabilities.
After strong public outcry, DBS rescinded all references of FOTF in its campaign advertising and clarified DBS acceptance of diversity and inclusion.
DBS is currently conducting an internal review into Josie Lau’s breach of the staff code.
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Related posts:
- “Aware belongs to you,” says Josie Lau
- Josie Lau’s interview leaves questions unanswered
- Disappointed with NTUC chief’s top 3 priorities
- Josie Lau’s first television interview
- Josie Lau and team resign from Executive Committee
#149
Hi Jacobite
The term “Ang Mo Tabiban” here referred to those English educated Chinese in Singapore, the word ” English” = “Ang Mo” . The Ang Mo here are referred to those fake one (Chinese but English educated), not the real Ang MO like you, so don’t get offended.
In Singapore, some English educated people( especially those highly educated one) think they are more smart and superior than the rest of Singaporean. They look down on chinese who speak chinese. unashame that they are chinese too but can’t speak their own language. They think they are so high class when they are able to communicate in English.
As for fundamentalist Christian, their mind set is almost the same as those highly English educated people here. always think that their religion is superior than others, only their God is real, the rest are all fake one.
So you can imagine : English Educated + fundamentalist Christian
Superior + Superior = Super puperior
These are the people we are referring to and not the real Ang Mo like you. We like the real Ang Mo but was disturbed by the fake Ang mo.
Hi Glass
That would be true if we live in an ideal world
But the fact is – directors are not a full-time job
A lot of them are on the board for “honourary” reasons…
Tell me honestly, how many non-executive directors have you seen “working”?
Furthermore, directors are not always given full access to the company’s accounts etc (look at how some of the China companies listed here have fared)…
Maybe you like to pose that question to John Lim, who is currently the President of the Independent Directors Association (or something)…
I thought Aware was to fight discriminationn against women in all forms?
For Christians, this view is at odds with what has been mentioned within their Bible which surports the ownership and oppression of women, not just discrimination against Gays. I don’t even want to mention that the Bible was used to give cover to slavery as well.
You can even say that Christianity brings in disruptive and unappetising lifestyle changes by converting people not to pay respects to their elders and loved ones using incense. Ji Pai is not ancestor worship. It is pay respect and remember.
Look, Science has made it very clear that homosexuality can be a gentic condition, not a lifestyle choice. Religion should not be allowed to guide civil discourse and behaviour when it is seldom objective or even true in the first place.
There are already Christians who claimed they don’t believe in evolution but in Intelligent Design, although evolution is a key element to learning life science.
#150 & #151
Isn’t it interesting that if a Caucasian takes umbrage at the term “Ang Mo” we accuse them of being too sensitive. And yet if we take at offence at any such term uttered by the westerner then tey are not being sensitive enough and are in turn labeled racist?
Ang-Mo does not translate as “English”, it translates as “Red Monkey”, and it is a term of derision and is racist. Just as Farang, Wei-Guk, and Gweilo are used as terms of derision in neighboring countries, Singaporeans use “Ang Mo”.
The term is racist and offensive, but if a “white” was to complain, then they need to “toughen up”…can’t the same be said of the racist terms they used to describe us Chinese.
The term “angmoh” is quite ambiguous. It is racist but only vaguely. It doesn’t mean “red monkey”. It means “red hair”: this is something that makes me doubt that you are really Chinese as you say you are.
When you are thinking about racist terms you have to look at historical baggage. Terms like “chink”, “Charlie Chan”, “Fu Manchu” hark back to an era where immigration policies were designed to keep Asians out of Australia / USA / Europe, days of unequal treaties, Opium wars, the League of Nations rejecting Japan’s racial equality clause.
When we remind Caucasians of their past, it’s not an unpleasant experience. It’s not shameful to think about your glorious heyday. And when you think that ang mohs are associated with cleverness, wisdom, superior football skills, it’s a little hard to think of it as an insult.
But the usage of angmoh in this context is not racial. It was meant to drive home the point that Christian fundamentalists embody a philosophy which is essentially foreign in origin and probably does not have anything to do with our values.
I would add that it’s somewhat embarrassing to take umbrage at a relatively harmless term.
Values?
What values?
Do you refer to Chinese values? Indian or Malay ones? Or do you suggest there is a set of “Singaporean Values” Or perhaps you want to suggest that there is such a fanciful notion as “Asian values”?
Quite simply there is no such thing. Koreans do not share values with the Chinese, nor do they likewise share those values with the Japanese or Indonesians.
Values are not fixed, they change as society does, weaker nations have always been conquered by stronger ones and in turn have had their culture and along with their values altered.
Maybe you should seek to see what it is about these foreign values that so attracts?
As for Christian fundamentalists embody a foreign philosophy, I think it would be better to suggest that they embody the belief in an imaginary figure
xtrocious,
You are right that we don’t live in an ideal world. That is why in my original post, I said that no doubt directors so called meet only 4 times a year, their responsibilities is full time. So naively thinking they are not in charge or should not be in charge on day to day issues that affect the whole bank is not right.
Because of that, they are responsibility for all events that surround the company. Maybe this PR fiasco by DBS is not their direct doing. If it isn’t, I’m more the worried because obviously somewhere down the line, something has gone very wrong with the rank and file such that the bank is now seen as taking sides on the alternatives and create what looks like a major PR disaster and I think it will end up rolling into a recruitment disaster soon.
Don’t tell me I have got to wait for the next director’s meeting to get their views. BTW, there are executive directors’ on the board. I don’t know if you have sat on boards before but one thing I am sure – these board members may only sit together 4 times a year but they certainly speak to each other many times a year – outside their sitting together like phones, sms, golf games, etc etc….
You are letting them off too lightly….
#154
If you equal “Ang Mo” as “Red Monkey” then people who are English educated are called red monkey educated, when you speak Ang mo, you are actually speaking red monkey.
You really make me laugh.
ang mor literally means ‘red hair’. It just means white European in colloquial Singapore language. By itself, ‘ang mo’ is a neutral term.
It is equivalent to calling African Americans, ‘black’. In the past the word ‘negro’ was acceptable, but now it is considered a racial (ethnic) slur.
‘Negro’ means ‘black’ in Spanish.
Singaporean values, not Asian values.
Before you quibble about whether there is such a thing as Singaporean values, imagine what it means to say that there is no such thing. It would mean that we have existed as a nation for more than 30 years and have no values to speak of. It cannot be that there are no such thing as Singaporean values.
We pick and choose those values at the beginning, mainly they are Malay, Chinese, Indian, British. But even though values are pliable and changable, we always decide which ones are “ours” and which are “theirs”. Which have to do with our forefathers, or even our colonial masters, our shared history and experience.
And which have to do with a strange country far far away and has nothing to do with Singapore’s history. For example, Christian fundamentalists, who were kicked out of Europe like criminals and had to escape to America.
I wonder kind of breed are you, Breeder? I wonder you call your values , a result of your genetic traits, behaviour, anitics, instinctive or culture independent of influences from far away places. Sure, your values are pliable as you move from tribe to tribe until you decide to stick to one tribe you choose.That tribe could have shamanistic values and you do have , it seems, very jealously guarded. Also it appears you have rojak values, of course with some shared values with the rest of the fellow singaporeans. I wonder you have a red monkey or red hair monkey name and went to red monkey school and picked some red hair monkey values.
“Pure” red hair and black hair monkey values
Gloves are off, I suppose. That’s what it is about isn’t it? It’s never good enough for you to be a Singaporean like the rest of us. You have to be a Christian fundamentalist to show that you are special, a breed apart.
I watch, I see, I think, I decide what I choose. In fact, the people who wrote the bible also did the same. They are thinkers.
But fundamentalists are different. They don’t want to go through the trouble of using their heads. They don’t even think in terms of good and evil. They’re only interested in purity. Purity to what? I don’t know. The good book tells me and I don’t ask too many questions. Never mind that anything written 2000 years ago is outdated and you have to read it carefully.
This obsession with purity, with never ever having to change your mind, with absolute certainty. The way you called me a half breed, you’re just like Hitler.
Peace and Breeder: There are values, personal values, cultural values, shared values, common values, universal values, global values, religious values, moral values, national values … Most of us have ‘rojak’ values unless we are still living in the neanderthal times … And how many of us cast away our values and adopt ones that are totally alien when we come of age 9incluidng religious ones)? Josie broke professional work protocol, ethics and conduct, and that’s all there is to it. Religion and work are not supposed to mix in the secular work place, every professional knows that.
Interesting…how did a legitimate action on the part of DBS dealing with staff’s breach of staff’s code of conduct becomes a debate on religious practices.
DBS have every right to defend its policies as a corporate entity, and Josie have every right to pursue her passion, if both cannot meet halfway, then one party have to decide…either DBS accepts Josie’s breach and create precedence and future problems for themselves in terms of staff’s compliances, or Josie have to resign to take on what she so strongly believed in, and wants to pursue her personal passion more than her career in DBS!
Oh Tham Eng,
Please stop quoting from the Quran.
Also to everyone, please also stop quoting from the Bible.
All these will not be allowed here.
Thanks.
All these started with a group of born losers . making accusations about religion and gay stuff. Let justice prevail in the end, the basic right of holding office and serve in management committees without harassment..
The Online Citizen:
>>Oh Tham Eng,
Please stop quoting from the Quran.
Also to everyone, please also stop quoting from the Bible.
All these will not be allowed here.
Thanks.
>>
It is not easy to moderate a public forum, huh? If you allow the quotes from the scriptures, you risk being called up by the govt, not to mention you arouse emotions and things can get nasty.
If you don’t allow them to quote, you can be accused of restricting free thought,
Tough job, huh?
Hitler was confused and has hidden agenda and Josie Liu was confuse and has hidden agenda too, untill now dare not show us the hidden cards, so both are the same.
Ok, folks.
The discussion has degenerated into one of name-calling, finger-pointing and personal attacks.
As such, this thread is now closed for further comments.