Dear Members
This is my first day in office. I just want to quickly convey my gratitude for your forbearance in the past weeks and for your tremendous support at last Saturday’s EGM.
Your statements, your actions of support have changed the face of civil society in Singapore and we at AWARE can now stand even taller and braver than ever before.
Our membership has surged and women and men, young and old, now feel empowered by your exemplary voices.
These have been an extraordinary time. In the furore and, the trauma, we have experienced affirmation and renewal: old friends have reconnected, new friends made. An immediate task for us is to reach out and connect with all new members, to bridge differences and, to invite their participation in the work of AWARE.
I would also like to thank you for the vote and to say that it is a real privilege to be in office at this momentous time. I’m sorry this has to be short for now. You will hear again from me very soon. The Exco join me in thanking you for your vote of confidence in us.
Warmest Regards,
Dana Lam
President
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
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Dana Lam, congratulation and I count on you.
To reach out is very good, but forgive should also not to forget the ‘past’
Move on with care and concern.
Syabas.
38) Jaunty Jabber on May 5th, 2009 11.07 pm
“You gave a bad example by using a story of someone robbed your house which you have stayed for 25 years. Come on, if that really happen, do not care if you have stayed in that house for 25 hours or 25 years, installed all the theft prevention gears, be alert, be sure not to open your door to unfamiliar people. If you have not put up all the safety precautions to protect your house, blame no one.”
If a person laughs at his neighbour whose house got broken into just because he forgot to lock the door and tells him to blame no one because of his own negligence, I wonder how much compassion is left in that person. Next time you left your things unattended, does others have the right to take them away? If you caught the thief in the act and ask him to return you but he asks you to shut up and get lost, will you say, “Oh never mind just take it cause it is my fault anyway to have left it there.” Would you not demand it back from him? If you step out and speak harshly to the thief, does that make you a big bad hooligan who lacks manners?
Like what 49) eh on May 6th, 2009 says, it is funny that those who are not there are the harshest critics.
#50) eh on May 6th, 2009 6.04 pm
Some of the posters here have been arguing with silly people like Curious, Peace since this story first came out. Then recently we have more silly people like Watchman. But Watchman is a strange case – he takes his name from a society that claims to keep track of cult churches like the present case and is so deliberately provocative that I wonder what he’s about…
Anyway, for you and others like Joel, don’t be too discouraged by the lack of logic and reason shown by the pro-FM supporters here. They have been ordered to sow disinformation and they are simply following orders. So post back, have some fun and don’t take them too seriously. After all, we know who won the EGM (snicker). The losers are just sore and their grapes are too sour. Move on!
To anyone who dislike my comments, I am suggesting that you do the following:
(1) Don’t read
(2) Read and then pretend that you didn’t
(3) Smile
: ) Jauntily Jabbering …….la la la la what a beautiful night tonight is with such nice breeze, the world must be loving me alot. : )
Hey HT,
Thanks for your posting…. By the way, did you see the American Idol yesterday. Danny Gokey sang the song “DREAM ON” ……. fantastic…. I swear I heard the word “Jaunty Jabber” being sang out in the chorus too …..
Wei Keong,
Bad example again, it is hilarious also to use house & neighbour to describe a public issue. House is something private, your neighbour is yours, AWARE saga is a public issue. If your neighbour is such a pain, it is your issue, not the public = P
Look at it this way : JL, an unknown with a fulltime career banded together with her gang-of-five in hatching a plan to overthrow the original AWARE exco team, but failed miserably! The AWARE reserve fund of $90k was raided to financed her failed coup operations. Not answering the $90k question, she wants to join the again new/old exco committee ‘to help out’ What for? She disliked the present exco team ( the reason for the coup in the first place!) just as she is being hated and unwanted there! It’s going to be cat and dog working together! Wouldn’t it be better for JL and gang to start her own AWARE to prove her capability rather than risking a ‘war’ in that house again? It won’t help the existing AWARE!
Look at it this way again: Suppose, the reverse happened where the AWARE group without JL launched a ‘takeover attack’ on pastor Derek Hong’s Anglican Church of our Saviour and raid the church’s reserve fund of $90k to finance it’s guerrilla operations to overthrow him and kick him out of his church, how would Derek Hong react, one wonders?
It was an experience to be at the EOGM at Suntec City. . I had joined as a new member to see what it was all about. And I was glad I went. I was able to see how organised and united the gay community is in Singapore although they are a small fraction of the whole population. They were there to support the old AWARE team. They and their pro-gay friends were there to boo and shout at Josie Lau’s team. The old team snatched back the leadership from Josie with the help of the gay community and their supporters. So now Dana Lam and her team are even more beholden to support their cause.
Credit must be given Dr Tthio Su Mien and Josie Lau and her team for having come out to expose the doctrines in Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programe taught in secondary schools, .against all pressure and prejudices and twisted accusation that they took over AWARE because they were Chinese Christians. Can’t Chinese Christians be in AWARE or any secular organisations ? They are citizens and have a right to right a wrong if there is a wrong. They went in to AWARE to try to seek evidence and try to tell Singaporeans what has happened to AWARE since its inceptions. What other way can they do that to get into the office and serach the files ? Won’t other members destroy the evidence or take away the evidence of those manuals of the instructors who gave those sex education talks ? It is not easy to collect evidence so quickly and reveal the truth. Josie’s team was doing that for the school children of Singapore and it did not matter whether those school children are Christians, Muslimm Buddhists or Hindus, The morals of all these faiths are about the same. For instance the main religions in Singapore do not believe that “anal sex is health and neutral when given with consent and with the use f a condom “.In fact there are many more doctrines in the Comprehensive Sexuality Programme that all relgious groups will find objectionable.
Now the truth is out. Even MOE who was earlier mislead, has come out to say ”
Parents are quite right to be concerned about some parts of AWARE’s sexuality education programme. After the investigation he said that there’s a sense that they have exceeded the guidelines”.
He was putting it very mildly. Some parts of the programme is actually very slanted to homosexual activities. So BEWARE .
Parents had no knowledge of what was going about the programme hence they did not give negative feedback. Having no feedback does not mean that the programme is okay. Parents know now and they are very concerned and are very unhappy and tey have been contacting MOE . .
In fact we should thank Dr Thio Su Mien and Josie Lau for exposing all these. They have done their job. And now it for Singaporeans to continue being aware . MOE should reject AWARE’s sexuality programme. We do not know what the homosexuals are goign to do next. Surely there are other ways to teach sex education to school children. Parents shold be involved and teachers should be vetted properly with no homosexual tendency.
To qualify a Sex Ed Trainer we need public’s consent and comment. Would be good if MOE could announce to public the list of trainers’ name and background prior to the qualifying stage, leave a period of 3 months to collect consent and comment. People who knows of some unfavorable behavior of a trainer could provide information to MOE so that it leaves no blind-spot to the selection and qualification system for sex ed trainer.
I was surprised that Dana Lam of AWARE had commented that their instructors’ manual on the comprehensive sexuality programme for secondary schools is confidential. Why should the manual be confidential in the first place ? Why should the manual be secretive about the curriculum ann the substance being taught, unless there is a hidden agenda ? All teaching material for such a sensitive topic as sex education should be transparent and made known to all concerned and not just to the instructors but also to the other teachers and principals in the schools and to parents who are interested in what is being taught to their children according to their moral and religious beliefs. The most important thing is that the whole subject must be transparent and above-board. Some parents should even sit-in and be involved in the question and answer sessions. Sex education not just involved schools but parents as well.
There is no point trying to copy the substance and curriculum from other countries. We Singaporeans have our own values and cultures. And it is irresponsible to make sweeping statements trhat we are going back a few centuries because we have our own values which may be different from the west.. Some western values and cultures are good and some are bad. So we should choose to accept those we think are good for us and discard the bad ones. .
The present AWARE team with it’s president Dana Lam is as ORIGINAL as it can get and should remain so.If, a minor issue found to be objectionable by a certain group of people, then they should form similar body to propagate their beliefs and values.They have no right to use unethical means as a shortcut to take over AWARE and control it’s members! Start their own if they wish! They appeared to be more of a commercial opportunists, or corporate raiders, as they call it, more interested in serving their self interests! It should also be known that a minor objectionable issue to them does not represent the overall ideals of a 25 year old organisation!