'What did she do to deserve position?'

The Electric New Paper - April 19, 2009

By Benson Ang

Taken by surprise, Aware veterans question merits of new members standing for recent election 

This is what happened during the Aware AGM, as told to The New Paper by four members who attended the meeting

 

IT ALL began when a hand was raised, innocently enough, by a new member. 

 

Ms Jenica Chua wanted to nominate Ms Charlotte Wong for vice-president.

And so began the takeover.

That 28 Mar annual general meeting (AGM) was to spark a bitter feud between new office-bearers and the old guard of the Association of Women For Action Research (Aware), one that has split the 24-year-old association.

What exactly happened that day? Four different sources present at the meeting have revealed the twists and turns that led to what amounted to the carpet being pulled from under the Aware stalwarts' feet.

Ms Wong's nomination raised eyebrows among veterans. A newcomer for vice-president? It was unheard of.

When Ms Wong made her pitch and listed her credentials, she hardly mentioned a word about feminism.

Said a source yesterday: 'Many of us wondered what has this woman done for Aware to deserve to be second-in-charge?'

How do her accomplishments compare to an incumbent, Ms Chew I-Jin, who has been volunteering for more than a decade. How does she compare to someone who has pounded the streets handing out flyers, and manned the phone for hours counselling desperate women?

How much did Ms Wong even know about Aware? Did she stand a chance?

She did.

In hindsight, the first indication that this election would be a watershed was the large turnout.

By 2pm, the Aware Centre was teaming with women. In previous years, only about 40 people would show up. But this year, there were over 100 - 80 of whom were fresh faces.

Almost all of them were middle-aged Chinese women. They appeared unfamiliar with the Aware Centre.

Both the air-conditioned conference room and the lobby had to be used to accommodate the large turnout.

Shock for veterans 

Ms Constance Singam, 72, the outgoing president and chair of the AGM, nominated Mrs Claire Nazar for presidency. She spoke glowingly about Mrs Nazar's work on the sexual harassment committee.

Mrs Nazar was elected unopposed.

Next was the vice-president's seat. Ms Singam nominated Ms Chew, who gave a speech about her involvement with feminism.

After 15 years in Aware, this was her time to shine.

Then Ms Wong was nominated.

When both of them left the room, and it was time to vote, Ms Wong won by a huge margin.

The veterans were shocked. 

They did not know Ms Wong. Neither did they know the women who voted for her. That was how Aware's No 2 spot went to an unknown.

This process - whereby a new member would nominate another new member, who was then voted in by new members - repeated itself when Ms Jenica Chua was elected honorary secretary.

By this time, older members were becoming alarmed. One said she felt uncomfortable with the new members running for positions because they did not understand Aware enough, and had not done enough for Aware.

But a new member replied that Ms Singam was looking for new faces, and they were new faces.

The pattern continued. All but one of the key positions were won by large margins - through new voters. Only another key position - assistant honorary treasurer - went to Ms Chew, and it was a walkover.

When it came to voting in committee members, each of the 13 nominees gave a speech, and the ones with the top six votes were to get in.

During the meeting, some veteran members started searching the Internet for background on the more vocal new members. They discovered that many of them had written strongly-worded letters to the press against gay lifestyles.

This, combined with the increasingly obvious voting pattern, prompted the veteran members to start asking a lot more questions.

A veteran member pointedly asked a new member what she felt about homosexuality. Her reply: She didn't accept it.

The veteran member rebutted: 'But in Aware, we do not discriminate.'

The new member said she just did not agree with gay lifestyles. Eventually, she got voted in.

One nominee, a veteran member, spoke passionately about the need to educate teenagers about safe sex and the dangers of sexually-transmitted diseases.

She got one of the lowest number of votes.

Throughout the meeting, several veterans said they were happy that so many people were interested in Aware, but advised these members to familiarise themselves with Aware before running for key positions.

Their advice went unheeded.

When the meeting ended at 5.30pm, only three of the 12 were veterans.

And that was how 28 Mar became the day the old guard of Aware was caught unawares. 

________________________________________

Questions, questions and more contention

Hidden agenda?

Ms Josie Lau, Aware president, in a letter to the press: 

'Why have some people cast aspersions on our good intentions? Why are they so angry with us?

 We've only just begun.

'We seek to improve the quality of life in Singapore. We are pro-women, pro-family and pro-Singapore.

'What is so objectionable about that? Does the old guard harbour an alternative agenda? If so, they should disclose their motives and objectives fully and honestly.'

Aware veteran members Ms Margaret Thomas, Ms Corrina Lim, Ms Braema Mathi, Ms Dana Lam, and Ms Tan Joo Hymn, representing the signatories of the requisition: 

'Our initial questions remain - what do you want to do in Aware that is fundamentally different from what was already being done?

 

'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 into the exco? Such a tactic suggests there may be a hidden agenda that may be contrary to the stance and ethos of Aware.'

Secular or...

Ms Lau: 

'Aware is a secular organisation. Its members come from different races, walks of life and hold different belief systems. Our commitment to advancing the cause of women unites us. As a democratic society, we cherish viewpoint diversity.'

Aware's veteran members 

'We were further alarmed by media reports that the new Aware president led the marketing team in DBS' 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.' 

________________________________________

WHO'S WHO IN NEW AWARE LEADERSHIP

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

Catherine Tan Ling Ghim: Financial planner. Member of Million Dollar Round Table.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

Peggy Leong Pek Kay: Lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Humanities. Has 16years of teaching experience.

HONORARY SECRETARY

Jenica Chua Chor Ping: In her 30s. Management consultant with top business technology company. 

HONORARY TREASURER

Maureen Ong Lee Keang: Last appointment was executive vice-president at SembCorp Group.

VICE-PRESIDENT

Charlotte Wong Hock Soon: Consultant with ExxonMobil, where she worked for 21 years. Former sociology and anthropology lecturer at National University of Singapore.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

Lois Ng: 44 Social entrepreneur who runs business that hires disabled people to produce gifts for tourists and corporate markets. Former journalist, with The New Paper 1990-1995.

ASSISTANT HONORARY TREASURER

Chew I-Jin: Aware member since May 1995. Previously served on Exco in 1995-1996, and as honorary treasurer in 2008-2009.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

Irene Yee Khor Quin: Over 10 years of professional experience in financial services.

ASSISTANT HONORARY SECRETARY

Sally Ang Koon Hian: Runs own law firm, Sally Ang Ebenezer and Company. Has more than 30years of legal experience.

PRESIDENT

Josie Lau Meng-Lee: 48, vice-president and head of marketing, cards and unsecured Loans, DBS. Mother of two daughters, aged 17 and 15. Married to Dr Alan Chin Yew Liang, who owns several clinics under the Lifeline Medical Group. 'Ms Lau is concerned about work-life balance and the role of mothers as a stabilising factor in a family,' an Aware statement said.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

Caris Lim Chai Leng: Freelance social worker, counsellor and trainer. Member of Aware since 2000. Exco member in 2008-2009.

http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,199340,00.html

Constance Singam quits as Aware adviser

Sunday Times - April 19, 2009

Three-time president describes her unhappiness with the new team in a letter to long-time members. Wong Kim Hoh reports.

One voice had been silent in the controversy currently swirling around Singapore's most well-known women's group - that of stalwart and three-time president Constance Singam.

Yesterday afternoon, however, she broke her silence in a letter - marked confidential - to long-time members of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

She told them she had quit as adviser to the new executive committee steering the group. As immediate past president, Mrs Singam - under Aware's Constitution - automatically earned an advisory role to the new committee.

The three-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Sunday Times, described her unhappiness with the new team, which took office after a leadership grab last month.

Mrs Singam, 72, wrote that although the team had publicly said that they would honour Aware's founders and build on the good work of past members, their private behaviour suggested otherwise.

'In private meetings, the exco showed a complete lack of respect for me, ignoring my advice and keeping me out of an exco meeting when I had the right to be there, as stated in the Constitution,' wrote Mrs Singam who has served three terms as Aware president over the last 20 years.

She told members that she was especially unhappy with the new exco's proposal to replace all the heads of Aware's sub-committees with exco members.

There are about half a dozen sub-groups in Aware working on various women's issues such as ageing, singles, work life, and Cedaw (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).

Former Nominated MP Braema Mathi was axed by e-mail last week as chair of Cedaw, a position she had held since 2004.

Mrs Singam wrote in her letter: 'I protested and said it was Aware's longstanding practice to give more women, especially young women, the opportunity to acquire leadership skills and empowering them through experiences in sub-committee work.'

The exco ignored her advice, she said.

When contacted, Mrs Singam confirmed that she has quit as Aware adviser and that she penned the letter.

She told The Sunday Times she was not abandoning ship.

'I am still an Aware member. Being outside the exco gives me more freedom and right to speak up, assert and push for the work that Aware has done all these years.'

The events of the last few weeks, she admitted, have been traumatising.

On March 28, the group was taken over by unknown faces who joined Aware only in recent months.

The takeover was like a bolt out of the blue.

'I spent the first two days crying. It makes you suddenly realise the danger of not being vigilant.'

However, she added: 'But that's not the nature of the society. It's always been open and welcoming and I will continue to fight for it to be open and egalitarian.

'I'm not going to be defensive. It has happened, it's a hard lesson, but Aware will continue.'

Mrs Singam is aware that the old guard has been described as sore losers by some who pointed out that the new team was legitimately voted in.

'Why are we sore losers? We are just fighting and defending our values.

'They walked in, took over, and they refused to tell us what they were going to do with Aware. They say they would honour the work of past Aware members, and the first thing that they do is to fire Braema.

'There are just too many questions they are not answering.'

She said their silence has stoked and fuelled too much unhealthy debate, especially online, with speculation about the new team's religious affiliations and anti-homosexual stance.

'I am not at all happy where this is going. This is not a gay versus Christian debate,' she said.

'It is getting away from what Aware stands for. We have spoken up and initiated discussion on a lot of much broader issues - foreign worker abuse, domestic abuse, financial intelligence, education, body image, sexual harassment.

'We address issues that have large and wide implications which affect society.'

She is concerned about the 'possible ideological opposition of many members of the new team'.

She wrote in her letter: 'Our values are based on the fundamental rights and responsibilities of women as women. These include being treated as informed individuals capable of choice, being deserving of opportunities equal to those of men in education, marriage and employment; and being able to control their own bodies, particularly with regard to sexual and reproductive health.'

Meanwhile, news of her resignation upset many longstanding members.

Lawyer Halijah Mohamad, who is in her late 40s, said she was flabbergasted by the apparent high-handedness of the new team: 'Bearing in mind that they are very new members, how could they disregard the advice of someone who has been such a long-time member, and who has an institutional knowledge of Aware?

'By shutting her out, they are just showing that they have absolutely no interest in continuity.'

Madam Halijah was Aware's vice-president in 1999/2000.

'She should not have been put in that position to feel compelled to resign. We were aghast.'

Counsellor Ravqind Kaur, 24, a volunteer since 2006, agreed.

'By keeping her out of decisions, they are showing her no respect. Any little confidence we might have in them has just been washed away.'

Postgraduate student Martha Lee, 32, said: 'Constance has been with Aware for more than 20 years, and she would never resign without a good reason.

'She has tried to engage them, reason with them, but they are not listening. They ask why we are being hostile and they said they want to reconcile but I don't think reconciliation is on their agenda.'

Ms Lee has been a volunteer on several sub-committees since 2001.

Attempts by The Sunday Times to contact the new exco for comments yesterday were unsuccessful.

Mrs Singam said the jolt might have its upside: It has brought Aware members closer together.

It has even rallied new members such as Internet executive Hafizah Osman, 39, who joined Aware yesterday to show her support for what Mrs Singam and the old guard have achieved.

'I was shocked when I heard she was quitting. I think she is obviously making a statement that she does not want the fundamentals of Aware to be compromised,' she said.

'The old guard has done wonderful work and it is so shameful that events of the last week have negated everything to just one issue - sexuality and religion.

'It is much more. I don't want Aware's broad agenda to be lost.'

kimhoh@sph.com.sg

What are your views on the happenings at Aware? Send them to suntimes@sph.com.sg

http://www.straitstimes.com/print/News/Home/Story/STIStory_365579.html