Aware Ambushed & they had no clue

[bellepepper02]

THE STRAITS TIMES
April 18, 2009
OLD GUARD'S RESPONSE
'Why the need to muscle your way into the executive committee'
The 160 Aware members who have called for an extraordinary general meeting yesterday issued this response to the statement by new president Josie Lau:
WE ARE astonished that the new Exco is asking the 'old guard' to disclose our motives and objectives! Our motives and objectives have been fully visible for nearly 25 years in the policies and programmes that have been carried out by Aware, and which we want to see continued.

It is the motives of the new Exco that have not been made clear. Our initial questions remain: What do you want to do in Aware that is fundamentally different from what was already being done?

On Wednesday the new Exco released a statement saying they want to 'honour' the work of past Aware members and intend to 'build' on the solid foundations laid by the founders.

This raises the question: If you think the work Aware has done all these years is so good and you want to 'honour' and 'build' on it, why the need to muscle your way onto the Exco? Such a tactic suggests there may be a hidden agenda that may be contrary to the stance and ethos of Aware.

Various developments since the AGM have only deepened our concerns about the motivations of the new Exco.

Braema Mathi, a past Aware president, was informed in a curt e-mail on Thursday April 16 that her term of office as chair of the Cedaw (Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) sub-committee had ended on March 28, the day of the AGM. She was told to hand over all work in progress to the Exco on Friday April 17.

Braema headed the Cedaw sub-committee for five years and, with special training by the International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, presented Aware's shadow Cedaw report at the United Nations two years ago. She has extensive experience of the Cedaw process and to dismiss her services midway during the writing of the current report seems counter-productive.

We noted with alarm DBS Bank's statements in the last two days about the professional conduct of the new Aware president. It is highly unusual for a company to issue such media releases and in particular to make a statement such as this: 'We are disappointed that Josie knowingly disregarded DBS' staff code of conduct twice. Such an attitude is not one that DBS, or any other organisation, can condone in a leader.'

We were further alarmed by media reports that the new Aware president led the marketing team in DBS's credit card campaign last year which supported the evangelical Christian organisation Focus on the Family. Aware is a secular organisation that embraces diversity of race, age, religion, culture and sexuality. It must remain so.

 

[bellepepper02]

THE STRAITS TIMES
April 18, 2009
Sacked by a terse e-mail
THERE was no phone call, no reason given, and no thank you.
All Ms Braema Mathi, 51, received was a terse e-mail on Thursday telling her she was no longer chairman of Aware's Cedaw Committee.

She was told she was no longer in charge effective March 28, the date of Aware's annual general meeting.

'Talk about being unceremoniously dumped,' said Ms Mathi, a former Nominated Member of Parliament and president of Aware.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) is an international convention adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. Singapore acceded to this treaty in 1995.

Countries under the treaty submit two reports, one by the state and another by an advocacy group, every four years to a UN expert committee which then issues recommendations on compliance.

Ms Mathi has been involved in preparing the Cedaw report since 2004. She presented one report to the UN in 2007, and is in the midst of finishing a second with the help of more than 20 volunteers.

'I don't know what I have done wrong or am not doing right,' said Ms Mathi, who is currently doing consultancy work for Unifem.

She is not the only one upset.

Undergraduate Chen Siya, 22, who has volunteered on both past and present reports said: 'It's very disrespectful and it's not the right way of doing things.

'What they did is contrary to Aware values of allowing people committed to advocacy to continue doing such work.'

Repeated attempts by The Straits Times to contact the new Aware leadership for comment were unsuccessful.

 

[scroobal]

What a PR disaster for the Christian right. Fancy them accusing everyone of having an agenda when they are the ones who not only have an angenda but actively try to make the agenda a reality.

Agree with you, a true debacle. As christians, a real disgrace as they were dishonest and had misled people.

The Anglican order needs to put its house in order before thinking of ministering to the public about pro-life.

 

[bellepepper02]

At this stage, there are couple interesting points.

Looks like the old guards have not been forthright either. Despite nominating the majority in the ex-co, this fact was ommitted. The fact that the membership has dwindled to 250 plus is a concern. Now they are doing the same thing that the new group is doing, stacking the membership.

It looks like it going to be tit for tat with no strategy and tactics in sight.

It obviously pro-family and why they took over AWARE may have something to do with AWARE network outside Singapore rather than singapore.

Why do you say the membership has dwindled to 250? It was over 500 a few days ago, and I haven't heard of people resigning from AWARE--merely that some have resigned from the exco.

Yeah, it's interesting that old guard nominated 6 in the exco. They had better explain that.

What do you mean about AWARE's network outside Singapore?

 

[scroobal]

Why do you say the membership has dwindled to 250? It was over 500 a few days ago, and I haven't heard of people resigning from AWARE--merely that some have resigned from the exco.

Yeah, it's interesting that old guard nominated 6 in the exco. They had better explain that.

What do you mean about AWARE's network outside Singapore?

Apparently, prior to the new group coming in, that was the membership. The new group is claiming that above the 250 plus are their followers ie they helped to raise the numbers. I have checked with a source, and they it seems to be the situation.

I heard that AWARE has recognised endorsement with supra-national bodies that is pretty good for the cause.

 

[bellepepper02]

From TODAY ONLINE
Why she quit

Ms Claire Nazar told Today, it became clear after the exco’s first meeting that they “were not going to follow my direction”. “The exco and I didn’t see eye to eye. It was unfortunate. It was pointless for me to carry on as I didn’t want to waste time in politicking.”
For instance, she wanted the current sub-committee chairs to retain their posts; the others felt differently. And, when she wanted to release a statement saying she would focus on working mothers during her one-year term, the exco “wanted to deliberate another week”.
Ms Nazar said she wished Ms Josie Lau all the best and remains an Aware member.

 

[Hakka Tiow]

"lai jer bu tsang; tsang jer bu lai"​

 

[lockeliberal]

Dear Scrobal

What is disgusting to me as a christian is that as much as I disagree with the christian right view, they do have every right to organize and get that view across.

Women's movement's have traditionally found common cause with, poverty, liberals, pro-rights minorities and GLB movements. The christian right have had large disagreements with these causes at large and in particular their huge objection to LGB and Pro Life movements.

Josie and her kind represents the Christian women right articulating a very differing set of cultural norms. They have every right in articulating these norms and in stating their objections to what they see and term the liberal feminist agenda.

However organizing a Putsch, denying its existence, where all links and lines lead to a particular church, a particular set of values , is despecable to the core




Locke

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Definitely politics here...I suspect there are pro and anti Josie camps' of influence within DBS...from today's press looks like Josie and DBS have kissed and made up for now at least...

As for Conrad's article, I think the whole point of it was to suggest that someone else was prodding DBS. He ends the article asking if DBS' statements were prompted by some other factor we don't know about.

 

[shelltox]

Some gay rights activists are fighting back. This is turning interesting. As I mentioned earlier, they are taking on the Rightist to fight this gay rights war. Poor AWARE is damn suay to be the victim.

http://www.glass-castle.org/issue20editorial.html

Background

At the end of March, AWARE held an AGM attended by a large bloc of new members, many of whom had not previously been especially active in the organisation (according to the Straits Times, a large majority of them had only joined the organisation in the preceding 3 months). They proceeded to elect a new executive committee dominated by anti-gay activists. The new President (who has since, bizarrely, resigned), Claire Nazar, has publicly said that in her interpretation of her religion, Christianity, homosexuality is an ‘abomination’ and ‘the [result] of sin and flouting of God’s moral order’. The new honorary secretary, Jenica Chua, has previously criticised NMP Siew Kum Hong for his support for the legalisation of gay sex by referring to ‘the homosexual agenda’ and ‘the homosexual interest group’, language which originates from Christian fundamentalist movements in America.

Their supporters at the meeting included more individuals with clear connections to anti-gay Christian fundamentalist activism. Among these was Angela Thiang, who works in a company headed by infamous anti-gay Christian NMP Thio Li Ann, and who has publicly spoken in favour of Section 377A and in opposition to abortion rights. There was also Dr Alan Chin, who has used the language of American Christian fundamentalists by referring disapprovingly to ‘the gay lifestyle’.

Many of the members who voted for this new executive committee had only joined recently and were not well-known to active existing members of AWARE – suggesting that they were a new faction, rather than representing and reflecting the existing values of the group. In other words, the organisation appears to now be run not by secular feminists but by sectarian fundamentalists. It is likely that they will use it to push through a new agenda, promoting visions of gender, sexuality and women’s rights which are contrary to what AWARE previously stood for.

This has severe implications for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and civic society at large. Even if you consider yourself wholly indifferent to feminism or LGBTQ rights, please sit up and pay attention. They could come for you next.

Dirty Tactics

This takeover was effected by people who signed up as members of AWARE but who were not known for being particularly central or active in AWARE before (although Claire Lazar had been a committee member even prior to this AGM). In other words, people who had not participated prominently in AWARE’s existing activities, and who had values which were in opposition to AWARE’s existing values, decided they wanted to run the organisation.

Why did they do that, rather than simply forming their own organisation? This is a deeply unethical tactic. It is a group of people with one particular ethos and vision, disrupting the legitimate activities of an organisation with a different ethos and vision, and seeking to co-opt the brand name and credibility that was built up with the old ethos and vision, in order to promote something else entirely. They do not seem to consider it sufficient to have their own groups and their own platforms to voice their perspectives: instead, they interfered with a group and a platform which voiced opposing perspectives.

This mode of activism is deeply hostile to diversity, to different groups in different spaces doing different things. If you have any interest in civic society at all, you should be deeply worried. In fact, unless you are yourself a fundamentalist within this coterie, you should be worried. It could be your group next. I’ll explain some of the ramifications of this further on.

Women’s Rights, Aside from Queer Issues

This is a huge blow. The old AWARE was flawed, insufficiently robust on gay rights and came across as rather elitist, but it did some good work – on bride trafficking, on sex education, on body image, on domestic violence. The infrastructure and kudos that the organisation lent to that work will need to be rebuilt in a new form. It is a major loss for feminism in Singapore.

In the meantime, it is probable the new AWARE will use the perception of AWARE as an organisation that speaks for women’s interests, so as to lobby for programmes that are directly contrary to women’s interests. They could well support substantial restrictions on abortion rights. They might also change AWARE’s existing comprehensive sex education programmes and favour abstinence-only ones which condemn sex between women. And I will be entirely unsurprised if they preach traditional gender roles, and the idea of women and men being two opposite and complementary flavours, instead of promoting equality, diversity and individualism in gender identities.

There are already groups that do all this, but their backgrounds and positions are known to be those of Christian fundamentalists. Focus on the Family (and their No Apologies programme) and Liberty League, for instance, as well as Exodus International. By taking over AWARE, people with the same Christian fundamentalist ethos could confuse others into believing that these agendas are supported by an organisation which is concerned with women’s best interests from a feminist and humanist point of view, rather than a Christian fundamentalist point of view. So we need to shout it from the rooftops: if these people are in a position to dominate AWARE, then the new AWARE will behave as a group of sectarian fundamentalists, not a group of secular feminists. AWARE will not stand for gender equality; it will stand for a particular vision of Christian morality. Know who you’re dealing with when you hear them speak.

It is sad that it should come to this, but Constance Singam and the rest of the AWARE ‘old guard’ should take heart: there is a way forward. Disassociate publicly from the new AWARE. Set up a new organisation. State clearly, without hedging, and without obfuscation, what you stand for: secular feminism, including abortion rights, equality for LGBTQ people, and freedom from oppressive gender roles. Put it in your constitution this time, and make it a habit to stand up for what you believe in, in the loudest, clearest, most principled possible terms, whenever the opportunity arises. Be transparent about your values, and accountable – including, yes, to queer women (more on this below). Learn from this mistake and it won’t happen again. It might even be better this time.

Queer Issues – Women and Men Both

Everything that was said about women’s rights here applies to queer issues as well. The new AWARE could well use the guise of women’s rights to attack lesbians and bisexual women’s interests, and they could do it in terms that attack gay men as well. Again, it is vitally important that everyone knows they are doing this as sectarian fundamentalists, not as secular feminists.

Why does this matter? It’s not that secular feminists are a particularly influential group whose invocation will cast some kind of spell upon all. Rather, making the facts clear will destroy any illusion that broadbased, autonomous agreement on a homophobic agenda has arisen from both the different philosophies of Christian fundamentalism and secular feminism. It will reaffirm that what looks like multiple homophobic voices in civic society are by and large part of the same one movement, the same one community, with distinctly Christian fundamentalist, American-influenced origins. The response to Repeal377a.com dramatically revealed the character of the main organised opposition to gay rights. They must not be allowed to use this opportunity to dress themselves up as something else.

AWARE was caught UN-AWARE

 

[scroobal]

Dear Scrobal

However organizing a Putsch, denying its existence, where all links and lines lead to a particular church, a particular set of values , is despecable to the core
Locke

This is extactly the issues that are a concern. Very well said.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Looking at the biodata in today's press on Josie and her pussycats, I must say that this group cuts an interesting professional diverse background...on top of that one of Josie's pussycats is even a divorcee...oh and yes they gotta appear to be singing from PAP's hymn book so that they can carry out their activities unfettered by PAP at the very least...

That's the key thing, isn't it. "Pro-family" sets off a lot of alarm bells. Does that mean they will counsel battered women and send them back to abusive husbands? Cos that's the pro-family position on that. The family is the centre of patriarchal culture, so for a feminist organisation to say it is "pro-family" so baldly and without qualification is weird. Also, to say they are pro-Singapore, when the dominant meaning of that in Singapore is that one is pro-government.

 

[KuanTi01]

I'll put it this way:

The old Aware was unaware of the new Aware!
They were caught napping. When it finally dawned on them that it was a coup, they started griping and sniping. What a disunited lot! Now there is a Camp A and a Camp B.
Complacency invariably leads to a wake up call. IMHO, the earlier the better.
Let the battle begin.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Ah but dear Josie also used the word "secular"

"Pro-family" is really nothing more than a catch-all phrase used by the religious right to mean their vision of how society and social life should function.

 

[Goh Meng Seng]

Dear Locke,

This is politics.

I am viewing this issue from the sideline with great interests. The PAP establishment is watching the development of AWARE very closely because it has raised a big alarm to many of its organizations under its umbrella.

Apparently, such organized assaults of a NGO by a religiously motivated group could well happen to the many organizations under PAP's establishment or even PAP itself!

Goh Meng Seng

Dear Scrobal

What is disgusting to me as a christian is that as much as I disagree with the christian right view, they do have every right to organize and get that view across.

Women's movement's have traditionally found common cause with, poverty, liberals, pro-rights minorities and GLB movements. The christian right have had large disagreements with these causes at large and in particular their huge objection to LGB and Pro Life movements.

Josie and her kind represents the Christian women right articulating a very differing set of cultural norms. They have every right in articulating these norms and in stating their objections to what they see and term the liberal feminist agenda.

However organizing a Putsch, denying its existence, where all links and lines lead to a particular church, a particular set of values , is despecable to the core




Locke

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Like said before more like tofu

Whatever it is, based on your three scenarios, Claire Nazar is no longer a trustworthy person as well. She also looked stupid to me at the moment.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

You underestimate the power of the growing Singgie x'tian right at your own peril

To Zombie,

I disagree, the very public catfight and power grab by the Christian Right have very very wide repercussion from now on. It is very obvious from the media that they are pro Aware old guard. The Church of Anglican whatever brunch had made a very very serious strategic error and it will end up in tears for them.

The silly women who are all in the exco are named and detailed in the press. Which company will want to hire them from now on? Fair enough if they are willing to sacrifice for the greater cause but I am pretty sure the Christian community will be aghast at what they are doing as well.

I will not be surprised if the majority of Aware members are Christians as well. This can easily turn into a witchhunt for Christian Right in other civil societies after Aware's old guard managed to get their power back.

What's left for the Christian Right? They will retreat to their Church in Margaret Drive and complain bitterly about immorality in Singapore with the impending opening of casinos and repeal of the 377 of the Penal Code.

 

[Hakka Tiow]

While all are looking at the frontal assault by a uniformed group, please check the flanks for supporting fire from white uniformed snipers!

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

I won't be too sure of that...well not yet as least...Conrad Raj's Today article was perhaps the most objective take on this matter thus far

What a PR disaster for the Christian right. Fancy them accusing everyone of having an agenda when they are the ones who not only have an angenda but actively try to make the agenda a reality.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

The old guard was just too complacent...look at Connie turning up late for the AGM and wondering who were all the new members...I mean what kind of a 'ship' was she running?...Not surprised as I have seen this sort of show at my own parish...old priest with his gang in cahoots and control of the parish for donkey years...then old priest becomes ill and incapacitated new young priest takes control along with his new gang who oust the old complacent gang...they did not know what hit them before it was too late:p

At this stage, there are couple interesting points.

Looks like the old guards have not been forthright either. Despite nominating the majority in the ex-co, this fact was ommitted. The fact that the membership has dwindled to 250 plus is a concern. Now they are doing the same thing that the new group is doing, stacking the membership.

It looks like it going to be tit for tat with no strategy and tactics in sight.

It obviously pro-family and why they took over AWARE may have something to do with AWARE network outside Singapore rather than singapore.