The new guard consolidates

Today Online - Thursday, April 16, 2009

Josie Lau picked as president at late night meeting

 

ALICIA WONG

alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

THE new guard sealed its leadership grab in women’s advocacy group Aware yesterday when one of their own, Ms Josie Lau Meng Lee, was appointed president.

The executive committee of the group was meeting one week after its then newly-elected president and older member Claire Nazar abruptly resigned.

Ms Lau holds a senior position in DBS Bank as vice-president for its cards. Her husband, Today understands, is associate member Dr Alan Chin who helped count the votes at the society’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28.

The AGM made news when nine of the 12 seats on the society’s Exco went to new faces, including the positions of vice-president, honorary secretary, honorarytreasurer and assistant honorary secretary.

Last night’s meeting was also not without its share of drama when about three hours after it began, Ms Caris Lim — one of two long-time Exco members who had not been ousted — walked out.

“I am very disillusioned. I don’t like what’s going on, so I am walking out,” she said with a sombre face as she left the meeting at 10.15pm.

Ms Lau, 48, was chosen as president from the six non-office bearers which included Ms Lim. The other long-time Aware member still on the Exco is Ms Chew I-Jin, who is assistant honorary treasurer.

After the meeting ended at around11pm, Ms Lau told the press she was “delighted to have been elected”. At this point, however, an Aware staff clarified that Ms Lau had been “appointed”.

In her position, Ms Lau said she will “aspire to bring Aware to a new level of development, advocacy and growth for women of the nation”. She declined to comment further but said she would “propel” the group as a “positive agent in advancing the causes of women in particular in times like now which is very, very challenging”.

Some members had arrived at Aware’s headquarters at Dover Crescent for the meeting wearing strained, stern looks. But Ms Lau ended her night just as she had started it — composed and courteous.

Also present was Ms Constance Singam, the immediate past president for Aware, which stands for the Association of Women for Action and Research.

She declined to comment before the meeting started, but said later that “we” will not be resigning from the group as it is one they love and have been committed to for “a very long time”.

Cyberspace has been abuzz with rumours about the religious and allegedly anti-gay views of the new Exco members. It has also been reported that some of them, including honorary secretary Jenica Chua, as well as Dr Chin have written to the media about homosexuality.

Ms Chua had written in October 2007 about Non-nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong petitioning to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexual sex between consenting men.

Dr Chin has cautioned against the risks of promoting the homosexual lifestyle.

At the same time that the meeting was taking place last night, the group was also holding a party for its volunteers at its premises.

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/314105.asp

Women's advocacy group AWARE picks new president

By Alicia Wong, TODAY | Posted: 16 April 2009 0748 hrs

SINGAPORE: The new guard sealed its leadership grab in women’ advocacy group AWARE yesterday when one of their own, Ms Josie Lau Meng Lee, was appointed president. 

The executive committee of the group was meeting one week after its then newly-elected president and older member Claire Nazar abruptly resigned. 

Ms Lau holds a senior position in DBS Bank as vice-president for its cards. Her husband, TODAY understands, is associate member Dr Alan Chin who helped count the votes at the society’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28. 

The AGM made news when nine of the 12 seats on the society’s Exco went to new faces, including the positions of vice-president, honorary secretary, honorary treasurer and assistant honorary secretary. 

Wednesday night’s meeting was also not without its share of drama when about three hours after it began, Ms Caris Lim — one of two long-time Exco members who had not been ousted — walked out. 

“I am very disillusioned. I don’t like what’s going on, so I am walking out,” she said with a sombre face as she left the meeting at 10.15pm. 

Ms Lau, 48, was chosen as president from the six non-office bearers which included Ms Lim. The other long-time AWARE member still on the Exco is Ms Chew I-Jin, who is assistant honorary treasurer. 

After the meeting ended at around 11pm, Ms Lau told the press she was “delighted to have been elected”. At this point, however, an AWARE staff clarified that Ms Lau had been “appointed”. 

In her position, Ms Lau said she will “aspire to bring AWARE to a new level of development, advocacy and growth for women of the nation”. 

She declined to comment further but said she would “propel” the group as a “positive agent in advancing the causes of women in particular in times like now which is very, very challenging”. 

However, Ms Lau’s employer, DBS Bank, informed Ms Lau prior “to the AWARE election” that, although the bank supported her involvement in AWARE as council member in her own personal capacity, the bank was “not supportive” of her intent to run for president of AWARE, a spokesman told TODAY late Wednesday night. 

"We believe that as a VP in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy,” the spokesperson said. 

Also present at AWARE's headquarters at Dover Crescent for the meeting was Ms Constance Singam, the immediate past president for Aware, which stands for the Association of Women for Action and Research. 

She declined to comment before the meeting started, but said later that “we” will not be resigning from the group as it is one they love and have been committed to for “a very long time”. 

Cyberspace has been abuzz with rumours about the religious and allegedly anti-gay views of the new Exco members. It has also been reported that some of them, including honorary secretary Jenica Chua, as well as Dr Chin have written to the media about homosexuality. 

Ms Chua had written in October 2007 about Non-nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong petitioning to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexual sex between consenting men. 

Dr Chin has cautioned against the risks of promoting the homosexual lifestyle. 

At the same time that the meeting was taking place, the group was also holding a party for its volunteers at its premises. 

- TODAY/yb

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/422671/1/.html

DBS exec is Aware's head

Straits Times - April 16, 2009

DBS exec is Aware's head

Josie Lau appointed despite employer's advice not to run

By Tan Dawn Wei, Wong Kim Hoh & Yen Feng

BANK executive Josie Lau, 48, was appointed the new president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) on Wednesday night at a meeting of the new team in charge.

She is vice-president of consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans for DBS Bank.

But shortly after she announced that she was president, posed for pictures and made brief comments to reporters, her employer expressed unhappiness that she had taken the top post at Singapore's best-known women's group.

DBS Bank said it had told her just before last night's Aware exco meeting that it did not support her running for president. The bank said it supported employees' participation in community work, but they needed approval before taking on external appointments.

And Ms Lau did not have the green light to be Aware president.

'We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy,' a spokesman said last night.

Ms Lau could not be reached to comment as the new team wanted media queries to be channelled via the Aware office.

Checks by The Straits Times revealed that she is married to Dr Alan Chin Yew Liang, who owns several clinics under the Lifeline Medical Group. They have two teenage daughters, and Ms Lau is also listed as director and shareholder in some of her husband's clinics.

A beaming Ms Lau refused to take questions from reporters when she emerged from last night's exco meeting which lasted nearly four hours. But she said she was pleased and delighted to be president.

'Together with the new exco which was duly elected under the Constitution, I will build on the good work of the past Aware members who advanced the causes for women in all areas of society through advocacy, research and community work,' she said.

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DBS TO LAU: DON'T RUN FOR TOP POST

A STATEMENT issued by a DBS spokesman:

'The bank requires all employees to obtain approval before running for or taking on an external appointment, and many DBS employees are involved in community work and/or support various charity organisations in their own personal capacity.

'Josie was informed prior to the Aware election this evening that although the bank supports her involvement in Aware as council member, in her own personal capacity, DBS is, however, not supportive of her intent to run for president of Aware. We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy.'

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NEW TEAM PLEDGES TO WORK FOR FULL EQUALITY OF THE SEXES

THIS is the statement issued by the new team at Aware shortly after midnight. It included an updated list of the executive committee, but did not provide any details about the women in charge:

'Aware, Singapore's leading women's advocacy organisation, is delighted to announce that its new president is Ms Josie Lau. She is joined by a dynamic, fresh and committed group of women forming the executive committee, who hail from diverse professional backgrounds drawn from the business, banking, finance, legal, education, management, human resource and social service sectors.

2009 marks the jubilee of our nation (50 years of self-government). In this period, the cause of women has made many great strides in many respects. The new team at Aware wishes to remember and honour the work of past Aware members for their vision and endeavours to advance the cause of women in all areas of society through advocacy and community work.

The new team intends to build on the solid foundations laid by the founders of Aware and will continue to promote the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of our society. The goal remains to bring about full equality of the sexes and to end all forms of discrimination against women.

Aware will build on existing advocacy, research (eg. attitude and policies towards singles) and education to empower women to deal with various forms of discrimination, raise their awareness of rights and responsibilities, and promote their welfare in tandem with the standards in the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw). In 1995, Singapore became a party to Cedaw which contains benchmarks against which to measure the elimination of discrimination against women on a national basis.

Singapore has made much progress in areas like education and health but can do better in other respects. In particular, the new team will seek to promote the role of women in politics and public life as Article 7 of Cedaw affirms. We endorse the Cedaw committee recommendation that women's participation in public life should reach a minimum of 30 per cent to 35 per cent, sharing the conviction that this will revitalise political and public life.

The new team will, as a paramount objective, seek to empower women to be leaders in our society, in politics, business, the professions and in all areas of endeavour which will benefit our nation.

President Josie Lau says: 'In these challenging times, the new team will actively seek to collaborate and align Aware with other women's organisations with outreach to girls and women who are affected by the current economic downturn.

'The new team aims to empower women who have been retrenched and equip them with new skills. In this context, we will work with training agencies and launch a series of programmes of practical assistance, such as grooming, budgeting, finance and debt management, career planning and management of change. We will continue to provide emotional, psychological or legal support for women.'

We call on all women of Singapore to rise to the challenge of taking on leadership roles in our nation. We invite volunteers to help make Aware a positive agent of change for the beneficial transformation of our society, where all people, regardless of race, religion or sex, are valued and have a place under the sun.'

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http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_364307.html