Form your own group, why take over another?

Straits Times forum letter by Mr Harvey Neo, 18 April 2009

I REFER to the dramatic events surrounding the shocking outcome of last month’s election of officials of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

The new executive committee might have won the election constitutionally, but it was hardly won with dignity and honour. Any group that is taken over completely by newcomers should cause worry and arouse critical questioning.

Moreover, the takeover was highly coordinated and ruthlessly orchestrated by members who joined barely three months ago, which gives rise to the suspicion that they are out to fundamentally and swiftly change Aware’s core beliefs.

Several members of the new committee hold strong opinions on homosexuality that are rooted in particular religious beliefs and equally strong beliefs about gender roles in the family.

There is nothing wrong with this. But a group with such a strong desire to overwhelm an organisation with like-minded people, whose views may sit uncomfortably with the fundamental visions of the organisation, would be better off starting their own.

I fear that while Aware’s new leaders have won control, they have lost legitimacy. Legitimacy is gained by trust and hard work, not by stealth. A procedural victory that capitalises on an organisation’s naivety is hollow and nothing to be proud of.

Harvey Neo