Reminder: Students from Raffles Institution will be at Speakers’ Corner (Hong Lim Park) today, May 3rd, Sunday, at 5pm. Please do go down and lend them your support. Details are here.
Invite: Do visit and join TOC’s Facebook group for more background stories on the Aware coverage. Our FB group is here.
Here is TOC’s video filmed at the event. Further videos will be up on TOC later. More videos of the Aware EGM can be viewed on TOC’s Youtube page here.
Josie Lau and her exco’s press conference after the EGM (Straits Times’ Razor TV):
By Choo Zheng Xi and Terence Lee / Pictures by Kenneth Tan
2 MAY, 2009 — THE verdict was out long before the voting came – Ms Josie Lau and team were unpopular with many on the floor, as there was plenty of jeering during the AWARE’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).
Most of it was directed at them.
In the end, the Executive Committee resigned after a vote of no confidence dealt a blow to their credibility within the organisation. The Old Guard also wasted no time in nominating a new Executive Committee — Dana Lam became the new president, and Chew I Jin the new Vice-President.
Ms Lam is a former President of Aware, and Ms Chew was the most recent Honorary Secretary who had resigned in protest (To see who else is on the new Executive Committee, scroll to the bottom of the story).
About 3,000 members attended the meeting, and most of them are new. 1,414 of them voted in favour of ousting Ms Lau and team, with only 761 members opposing the motion.
Men also formed a sizable proportion of the audience, but they had no voting rights.
Despite the clear majority that sided with Old Guard, the resignation came at only 9.30pm — seven hours after start of the EGM. This was mainly because the proceedings, while non-violent, were riven with moments of near chaos as raised voices and vocal booing and cheering persisted through the full day event.
Raucous heckling greeted the new committee when Ms Josie Lau attempted to open the meeting. Her address was interrupted numerous times, raising tension between her team and the members on the floor.
After much effort, she then proceeded to open the floor to comments, which soon became a set of fiery exchanges between Ms Lau’s team and the floor — consisting mainly of the Old Guard and ordinary members of Aware.
Of the more than half dozen comments from members of the floor, almost all castigated Ms Lau’s committee for the way they took over the organisation, and their subsequent actions.
Christians speak up against Executive Committee
Celebrity Irene Ang, a Christian, created a stir when she took the mike. Proclaiming that she “loves God” as much as the Executive Committee does, she expressed displeasure at the new team’s actions since they took charge. She said:
“You say you have an open door for all women, but how to open your door when you change the locks to magnetic locks? You say you want to help retrenched women, and then in such a short time you fire one woman.”
Aware centre manager Schutz Lee was fired by the new committee in April.
Some also questioned the ousted committee’s objection to the Comprehensive Sexuality Programme (CSP), among them a self-professed “traditional Christian” who felt that her daughters have the right to learn information about homosexuality.
“Ultimately, parents should be the ones responsible for instilling values in their children regarding sex,” she added.
21-year-old undergraduate Chan Mei Yi voted against Ms Josie Lau’s Executive Committee because she felt that Aware was concerned that their views on feminism seemed to be informed by a single religious perspective.
“Aware is secular, and although my religion, Christianity, tells me its wrong, I don’t believe others should be judged by my religion’s standards. You can’t rework the infrastructure of a secular organization on the basis of your religion’s stand.”
Ms Lau and team unqualified to lead
Ms Bridget Lew, President of Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), lambasted their “lack of moral leadership.”
Also, attempts to arrange a logistics meeting with Ms Lau and team were ignored, said former Aware president Braema Mathi. Expressing her “disappointment”, she urged the Executive Committee to proceed with the vote of no confidence.
Ms Poonam Mirchandani, who runs the legal clinic of Aware that provides free legal counsel for troubled women, was displeased that the new Executive Committee has never contacted her ever since their appointment.
Several members also questioned Ms Mathi’s “sacking” from the CEDAW sub-committee as well as her failure to submit the CEDAW shadow report, which was “due” at the time of the AGM on 28 March. They could not understand Honorary Secretary Sally Ang’s insistence that Ms Mathi (picture right) submit the shadow report.
In Ms Mathi’s defence, several members pointed out that there is no deadline stipulated by the United Nations at all, and their insistence only served to highlight their lack of understanding about CEDAW’s work.
Nevertheless, Aware legal counsel Gregory Vijayendran pointed out that if there is a project that needs to be seen through, then the sub-committee can stand.
In a rousing speech, three-time Aware President Constance Singam pointed out the alleged inadequacies of Ms Lau’s team: ”Where were you when women were abused and battered in the home? Where were you when children and husbands of Singapore women were denied citizenship? Where were you when women in the civil service were denied equal medical benefits… where were you when parents were confronted with work-life balance issues… where were you?”
Ms Lau and team speaks out
Aside from a couple of people, very few spoke at the open mike in support of Ms Lau and team. TOC attempted to speak to a group of supporters, but were met with silence and accusations that “the media is biased.”
However, several Aware members denouced the unruly behaviour of the Old Guard. Among them was 34-year-old, H. Tan, a businesswoman.
Speaking to TOC, she categorised the other members’ behaviour as “hooliganism”, and she questioned if the EGM was really democracy in practice.
“How can it be democracy if the loudest voices win?” she asked. ”They’re not giving credit and respect to the new guard, and I think that is hypocritical.”
* The rest of the new Executive Committee are as follows:
Yap Ching Wi (Honorary Secretary)
Corinna Lim (Assistant Honorary Secretary)
Tan Joo Hymn (Honorary Treasurer)
Lim Seow Yuin (Assistant Honorary Treasurer)
Committee members: Margaret Thomas, Hafizah Osman, Nancy Griffiths, Nicole Tan, Joanna D’ Cruz, and Martha Lee
It’s about time Singapore get its female population to do national service. They are so full of energy and willing to fight.
Dear All
Firstly as a christian I would add that certain comments here do have a valid point. I was there and yes they were noisy, raccous, jeering booing etc etc all in all definitely louder, more vocal , more angry or passionate than supporters of Josie and her gang. Secondly the christian moral majority who were there yes all 761 of them were silent dignified and nor as loud and thus their voices were completely drowned, they came they voted, they saw the behaviour of the other camp, were disgusted and left.
I heard their comments as they left, heard their comment silently as I stood in the taxi queue behind them. perhaps some of them were here , perhaps not but the refrain stretches from the TOC to other more xtian friendly sites like Xtian Post.
1. It was not the lesbian women who were angry, it was ALL WOMEN from all walks of life. I believe some introspection is necessary and you have to ask whether these people had a right to be angry.
2. Angry at the comments from Darth Thio, Angry at Josie’s evasiveness till it was way to late, Angry at the bullying from the Pulpit of COOS as admitted to by Pastor Derek. Angry at the denials , then angry at the clarifications over the denials, a classic………….it was not a coup but networking……insulting the intelligence of most women and all christians alike.
3. For those xtians who opposed you strongly, we did so not because we did not agree with your position with your views on homosexuality and sex, but as Dr Gwee put it the manner of your doing and what we saw as the need to protect a secular organization and a secular society.
4. So what gives ? Firstly Pro Family views have a place in any society, Lets put paid to the rubbishy notion that Pro Family views are being persecuted as dear Derek Hong stated in his sermon using an example from the US. Because last I heard COOS was COOS Queentown SG not Queenstown USA.
5. Next grow a brain nearly half of the US goes to church. The numbers in SG are a lot lot less, so however passionate committed you are…….there are secular limits to what you can do without destroying society as whole.
6. How does one go about promoting one’s pro family values. Transparency for one, if you are inspired by faith then create a faith based organization , by the deeds that you do using the vehicle of a faith based organization seek the transformation that you want instead of using stealth and lies.
7. Finally stop seeking political positions of influence no matter how alluring to advance your cause or to shove ur views down the throats pf secular society by stealth. Instead seek to influence those in position through deeds and through your own acts. Remember that Jesus was offered dominion over the devil by man and he refused, remember that he rendered to Ceaser what was Ceaser’s when the Romans were for orgies, hetrosexuality, homosexuality, competing faiths etc etc, remember all of that and then perhaps one will feel less indignant and self righteous when the homosexuality issue crops up again and some pastor takes it on himself to decide that the ” Nation has crossed the line. ”
Lockeliberal
> 14) Solo Bear on May 3rd, 2009 10.44 am
>
> A narrative by me – based on my wife’s account of what happened as a
> non-partisan voting member.
“non-partisan”??! Give us a break, please don’t insult our intelligence.
Anyone’s with half-a-brain who’s read your postings well before the EGM knows exactly your position on this issue. I find it hard to believe your wife could go into this as a non-partisan. The general public isn’t as gullible and dumb as you might imagine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWNfkA-vVNo
This video of Feminist Mentor desperately justifying her Mentor position by promoting the book that featured her prominently and quoting from the book tells us that SHE HAS LOST HER MIND! Already living in a world of fantasy where she’s the best and one else seconds her.
(42)
blackfeline obviously dunno how to read newspapers.. got list down wat aware did for women, go take a look before u say anything.. even josie lau had to list all the achievements of aware from 1984 to today in her precious powerpoint for her aborted speech.
Dragons, demons, angels, devils, crawlies, komodo dragons are all mentioned in the books before. WOW…so these crawlies are as famous as thio su mien and those mammals deserved to be conferred the title of Feminist Mentor Crawlies:):):)
If there is a chance, you really have to take a look at her creepy basement which looked like a church, no wonder she does not belong to any independent church when she could be one cult leader herself.
So lessons learnt, josie lau and thio su mien will probably suceed in hijacking an organisation which is on the verge of collapsing and bankruptcy, there, they can put their organsational skills to good use….anywhere…but not an NGO.
totally agree with 51). think plenty of women may have a sudden change of perspective after national service, remedial trainings and reservist.
In the press conference after resigning, there only 7 members of the Exco.
1. Josie Lau, resigned President, known COOS member
2. Charlotte Wong, resigned VP, known COOS member
3. Jenica Chua, resigned Hon Sec, known COOS member
4. Sally Ang, resigned Asst Hon Sec, known COOS member
5. Maureen Ong, resigned Hon Treasurer, known COOS member
6. Lois Ng, resigned Exco member
7. Irene Yee, resigned Exco member, known COOS member
2 of the Exco members from the team, Caris Lim and Chew I-Jin, have resigned earlier to dissociate themselves from the team.
However, my question then is what about the remaining 2 Exco members, Catherine Tan and Peggy Leong? Where were they? Did they resign beforehand too? If not, why were they excluded from the COOS + Lois Ng clique that was presented at the press conference?
number 55…dont kid yourself! only simpletons like u will like to believe otherwise wholesale!
I like what irene ang said :
“You say you have an open door for all women, but how to open your door when you change the locks to magnetic locks?”
hahaha
AWARE must have Josie Lau and Thio Su Mien to thanks otherwise they association is so missable with 300 members and get smaller by the day but the fortune is all changed because of Josie and Su Mien and now membership is on the increase and well above 3000.
I say shame old guards, without Josie Lau AWARE could die of natural death.
Changing of locks cost money so how many locks and how much…all goes to waste?
58) Hahaha on May 3rd, 2009 7.15 pm
This is what we call “KAKIS” or Inner Circle…………in office politics, we encounter the same too………so it is not what you know counts ……. It is who you know counts and when you are there, It is on TOP OF THE WORLD feeling!…..Same in Politics too!
61) J Lo,
1. membership could be down as Aware has done a good job, and not many women feels there is more to fight for. Only a small altruistic group continues to fight for the minority.
2. I am not sure how equating Josie to warmongers is going to help. After all, we do thank many of the technological and medical advances we have today to military technology.. including the Internet we are currently using.
AT No.52:
I don’t think these “Christians” who came to vote “silently dignified” and who were disgusted by the other camp by their loud jeering and thus left were anything but dignified.
Obviously, either they had no passion about AWARE, and like lemmings ordered by their pastor to come “support their AWARE sisters”, came to Suntec and did as told and left.
Or, they suddenly had an epiphany and looked around them and realized that they could not face the real women of Singapore and realized the AWARE cause is far more than just some dogma delivered from the pulpit, or the hallucinations from Thio Su Mien.
Actions by Josie and her gang seen and heard shows it certainly was very un-Christian of them. Switching on/off the mic when members spoke? Come on? Thio demanding respect? What is she on?
This action by this group of born-again fundamentalists only reinforces my (and many others) belief that organized religion can sometimes do more harm than good, when you have people like them in the ranks.
God help them!
The new team should think about reconciliations. Think about the positive effects this saga has brought. It got all of us thinking ..thinking about what you had done and not done and should be done. Do not be overhelmed by the majority vote…forgive and move forward..The 3,000 members is god-sent. Enjoy. Best Wishes.
It was a great day for Singaporeans. It proved that even after 50 years of pap indoctrination, Singaporeans especially the young ones can see right from wrong. Take away the fear factor and the PAP will be in deep trouble.
Occasionally you may notice insensitive individual contributing in the ST forum with their innocent looking complaint, quite unlike the majority who are tolerant. But what to do? even a leader cannot think about consequences before he speaks. Therefore, this is a wake up call to Singaporean to learnt and practise tolerence. The rest are 5 cents and 10 cents issues can be raised and relook into, using the many open channels available.
re post #66) socrates on May 3rd, 2009 9.09 pm
with the economic difficulty right now dun tell me everyone’s brain is rusting away, its not like every day is a sunny day. lol.
focus on helping people, those who do not know how to go about helping can do with advice from seniors. dun throw in another big distraction (gay lesbain issue) to divert precious time & resources. they have been sitting on the fence for that long…
(59)
get literate.
#16 modernist,
wow, that was really some news.
honestly, what FM wants to do in her basement is her own business, can only say your lawyer that day very suay.
but if FM thought that she can make her basement portable to reach out and teach ‘ignorant’ people like us, we will show her the five fold ministry, which we already did.
#53 andrew,
we are not, but maybe he is.
wahaha. i must say i’m very glad this happened – shine the spotlight on extreme bigotry in religious extremists! of all groups, choose to pick on a very VOCAL group of women. i mean, come on la, if they r really so concerned abt people having sex unbiblically, then go takeover geylang, go shut down gambling dens, and vote out mamasans… but no balls right?
#71 I know its her business but scary nevertheless. Just spoke to a friend who was invited by a friend to attend a congregation at a church (no names shall be mentioned). He went with a Malay friend. Halfway through people started speaking in tongues. They got very spooked. The Malay guy actually said never in his life did he fear christians and that day he did. This is not my personal experience but that of a very close friend in my inner circle. Another very close lawyer friend who was in the firm where the minister mentor was senior partner, fainted after they did some deliverance or something to exorcise him of the demons that inhabit his body. Basically, I just find it scary. Imagine if something like this was done by a muslim group. Sure kena bad publicity one. It seems a tad out of the ordinary.
Hahaha #58,
The resignation of Catherine Tan and Peggy Leong must have been kept quiet at either their request or Josie’s order.
re post #73) eh on May 4th, 2009 2.16 am
Josie & fiends should set up shop in Geylang ASAP, & claim to save them with some “conservative values”- like how to spend alot of other people’s money in a month!!
^.^
Josie and co should monitor how pets have sex too. Or even cockroaches. They are so free!
1. From what I have gathered from the newspapers and comments made by people at the event, it looks like the newspapers have slanted the news and influenced the thinking of many.
2. The crowd on the side of “the old guard” were behaving like hooligans compared to the surporters of “the new guard”. I hoped the “old guard very new com” would distance themselves from this uncival behaviour, but they looked like contributants too!
3. By the way has anyone seen a copy of the “AWARE Comprehensive Sexual Education: Basic Instructor Manual”? All I could find was about 3 pages retrieved from a website http://www.Tampines Court.
otherworld,
“This action by this group of born-again fundamentalists only reinforces my (and many others) belief that organized religion can sometimes do more harm than good, when you have people like them in the ranks.”
Once again people like you loves to add in “born again” religion to this argument. Why are you so small? Organised religion sounded like a criminal syndicate. Is the pastor the godfather? Chrisitans do more harm than good? Have you got concrete proof that born again chrisitans in ranks harmed the society in anyway except to voice out in a democratic elective manner of bringing change and a “NO” to Homosexuality? Who is harmed? The Gays?
TOC please remove comment 65. Extremely insensitive to christians.
@79,
cut the drama SL, unless you’re in ‘that group (read: not all-inclusive)’ of fundies that ‘can (read: possibly, not certainly)’ do more harm than good.
if you are, you have every right to be upset because it is a personal attack on you. but just so you know, 2:1 thinks you should resign from making further comments because your brand of fundamentalism isn’t welcome in the secular public.
if you arn’t, i suggest you read, re-read and make certain you know what is it you’re reading and what is actually being said about who because you just made yourself sound really silly.
It is cunning and cruel to use a non-disclosed, secret training guide with statements like “anal sex can be healthy” and “homosexuality is perfectly normal” to influence innocent school children.
I am sure that the trainer know that these abnormal acts are illegal and can be jailed for many years.
Was the children told that these are against the Law ? Your are encouraging children to commit crime. You are sinful and you are not a human being.
I encourage parents with children attended the program to file the case with the police as they are teach your children that these illegal acts are normal
Most of you have been fooled by the media.
Josie Lau is no longer the VP of Credit Cards & Unsecured Loans at DBS.
I am not sure if she was demoted, portfolio changed or both.
If without Josie Lau and her team, none of us will know about the program AWARE has been running…dun assume what has been done and is running is acceptable for generations to come. For this, I applaud Ms Josie Lau and her team.