aware: to find one’s voice again
By Pat Law™ • Apr 21st, 2009 • Category: Lead StoryDear readers of blankanvas,
You have been a wonderful audience to blankanvas and as the author, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
In the last couple of years, I have heard your voices – be it by a comment left in a blog post, a message on Twitter or Plurk, or an email even. Your voices motivate me to write even on the brink of exhaustion (I do have a day job). Your voices fuel my passion in writing. Your voices keep me going even when all I want to do is to rot in front of my television watching re-runs of CSI, with a beer on my left hand and potato chips on my right.
The truth is, your voices gave me my voice.
With regard to the commotion surrounding the Association of Women and Research (AWARE), and the takeover, I have to admit that initially, I didn’t care. It didn’t matter to me that we have a bunch of ambitious, hungry corporate foxes keen to rule Vaginaland by means of getting rid of the old guards in a brutal, but absolutely legitimate manner. Quite naively, I didn’t think AWARE mattered much to me. You must understand first and foremost that yours truly doesn’t even care about the national election, let alone some non-governmental organization (NGO) promoting gender equality. I never thought my vote counted for much.
It is with such a mindset that our voice is often taken away from us. It is when we take our freedom to vote, our right to speak, and our country’s democracy for granted that we lose our voice.
In the case of AWARE, the sudden loss of our voice was shocking but really whose fault is it but our own? We left the door unlocked, didn’t we? Let us not let it happen again.
I will not deny I write this note to you with a whiff of angst. It disturbs me to learn that some of the 9 new faces induced into AWARE’s ex-co have a distinctive trait – homophobia. Some expressed their homophobia by means of writing in to The Straits Times forum, some use God as an excuse to discriminate and hate, whereas the more powerful run credit card promotions that help fund homophobic organisations.
I agree with Ovidia Yu. Newly elected AWARE President Josie Lau’s latest statement disturbs me too.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Josie Lau’s husband, Dr Alan Chin Yew Liang, who helped count the votes at the society’s annual general meeting on March 28 2009, isn’t seem to think it’s not his right to discriminate against someone else unlike him. Maybe he meant something else when he said “Self is God”. Hmm.
I don’t have an issue with homophobia as much as I do with hypocrisy from self-righteous people who think they have any right at all to discriminate. Who gave any of us that right? With a NGO, the need to be secular, objective and non-judgmental is even more imperative. I cannot trust that AWARE when her key members have previous behaviors contradict everything about the purpose of why she exist in the first place.
Today, we discriminate against sexuality. Who is to say that race or religion won’t be up next? Is there any real reason to believe? What, because a good majority of these new faces are from the wonderful Anglican Church Of Our Saviour? I’m not taking my chances and leaving the doors unlocked again. Are you?
There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) come 2 May, Saturday, where all AWARE members will get a chance to vote. I won’t instigate for you to cast a no-confidence vote against the new administration but I’d like to urge for you to get that voice back together with all of us concerned citizens of this country. After all, we’ve lost our voice once. Let’s not lose it again.
To show my support, I will develop a wallpaper with your comments from this blog post. I’m hoping to produce either a screensaver or poster even for free distribution, but we will see if I can find funds.
Sign up today as an AWARE member in order to vote and drop me a comment at the end of this blog post with the message you want displayed on the wallpaper. Remember, every vote counts.
Please note that I will not entertain any comments that are obscene, hateful, racist, fascist… you get the drill. And no, I refuse to advertise any products.
Details of the EOGM is as follow:
Date
2 May 2009, Saturday
Time
1400h – 1700h (do not be late else you might not get a chance to vote)
Venue
First Choice Auditorium
3 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh
#01-01 HSR Building
Singapore 319378
[UPDATE AS OF 28 APRIL 2009]
Date
2 May 2009, Saturday
Time
1200h – 1700h
Admission and registration would be from 1200h – 1400h. It’s not clearly started in AWARE’s email, but I’d imagine that means doors close by 1400h. Don’t be late. Don’t give anyone an excuse to decline you entry.
Venue
Singapore EXPO Hall 2
1 Expo Drive, #01-01
Singapore 486150
[UPDATE AS OF 29 APRIL 2009]
Date
2 May 2009, Saturday
Time
1200h – 1700h
Admission and registration would be from 1200h – 1400h. It’s not clearly started in AWARE’s email, but I’d imagine that means doors close by 1400h. Don’t be late. Don’t give anyone an excuse to decline you entry.
Venue
Exhibition Hall 402
Suntec Singapore
International Convention & Exhibition Centre
1 Raffles Boulevard, Suntec City ,
Singapore 039593
Other things to note:
1/ Only FEMALE members who are Singaporean & PRs above 18 years old are allowed to vote. However, men who are associate members are welcome to come and observe the proceedings.
2/ Sign up at www.aware.org.sg
3/ For those who signed up online and did not receive their membership card, please print out your confirmation email and receipt and bring it along for the EOGM.
4/ Join the Facebook group for more updates
5/ It is mandatory to show your NRIC for admission and registration.
Digital retouched image on front page courtesy of First Reading.
Pat Law™ is a Digital Strategist who, in her time in the Adland, has marketed a range of global brands including adidas, Cadbury Schweppes, Chrysler, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, Johnnie Walker, L’Oréal, and Royal Salute. Pat also writes for iSh, LOTL International, and Singapore Architect.
Email Pat | Follow Pat on Twitter | All posts by Pat Law™
Having been a long-time reader of your blog, am really glad to know that you’ve decided to stand up and be counted. I sincerely feel the voice of a prominent local blogger like you who has been out loud, will make a significant difference at the meeting.
I personally don’t care much for local politics as well, but somehow this series of happenings has disturbed me a lot. It was precisely that everyone assumed someone will be the voice, someone will be there to do the job, that is why this was even allowed to happen. I would find it very difficult to answer to myself if being a woman as well as part of the peace-loving gay community, I’d chosen to remain silent. Who’s going to fight for us if we didn’t even bother fighting for ourselves?
[...] what you can do, if you care enough. Please pass this on. (Ripped off from Pat Law from here on, since she has all the [...]
The gay issue is a red herring which is a useful one for the new EXCO but distracts from the real issue. What the new team objects to is that the old guard were a voice supporting women’s reproductive rights (including abortion) and good sex education for girls. These are both issues at the very heart of what the Christian right opposes. That is the voice they want removed and the one that dearly needs to be preserved.
[...] Law – Blank Canvas: aware: to find one’s voice again – one woman’s look at how the Aware issue got her to shake off [...]
personally, i don’t give a hoot about some NGO which has not made their impression in society, what more an impact, which is also why I have not heard of Aware until this news blew up. What I am concerned is, if the management of Aware has been serious about Aware and what its future entails, then why is there no formalised election procedure and rules (like a By-Law of sorts) governing the election during the Annual General Meeting?
What I would like to know is, what happened during the Annual General Meeting? Why were ALL the Aware members not aware (pardon the pun) of the election (until the EGM??), and how did the voters cast their votes? Voting is a big responsibility in itself — I do not think that the flaw lies in the newly elected members and how they have attained their posts, but really the voting procedure, period. If it so happened that the women who achieve their positions in the new ex-co are friends from the same organisation and believe that they will do good for the women in society, well…..all i can say is,
At least they cared enough.
I’m not qualified to comment, but this is the internet, hey?
I guess many people are still flummoxed by the AWARE exco scandal, since there seems to be a great deal of baggage and pre-history we don’t know, and all the soundbites are powerfully euphemistic. Can read a lot into them. Or not? Who the heck knows. The only way through that is to get involved, so all power to you, and you call for participation.
Of all the quotes I’ve seen, the one that stood out for me as the clearest, unambiguous and damning was from Josie Lau’s church: “It’s often a great stress on the marriage when the wife is independent of her husband.”
Horror! Women’s education, reproductive rights and the right to vote are so obviously the cause of all society’s problems.
btw, GREAT blog. One of my must-reads.
I’ve blogged about this on my blog at http://cloudywindz.blogspot.com/2009/04/help-aware-to-find-its-voice-again.html.
The least I could do
Serene, you would naturally never have heard of AWARE before the Christian takeover if you have been living under a rock for the last 20 years, with your eyes wide shut, and with a Hillsongs Best-Of CD blasting into your ears . At the very least, if you’ve kept up with Parliament, you would have noticed that AWARE has contributed a couple of NMPs. Do you know what an NMP is? Or have I lost you already? Need I talk about civil society in Singapore, and what AWARE has achieved? Or are you ignorant about that too?
Surely AWARE cannot be responsible for your own personal ignorance about broader social issues!
Ms Pat Law, i dunno if you know this. but i’ve been informed that the new exco changed the office locks while everyone was in a meeting elsewhere. and they fired the centre manager at 8pm today without reason… dodgy right.. whether they are looking for dildos or whatever.. they have declared their intensions to be quite hostile…
Hi Anne, yes I have heard and guess what? I have more news too. Oh how dirty can this get? Talk soon.
Thanks for spreading the word Pat. As we get nearer to May 2nd, we’ll need to garner as much support as possible, especially since its now become apparent how the new ex-co are blatantly making this an anti-gay agenda.
How they can totally disregard all the good work that AWARE has done over the past 24 years and simply focus on this one thing (which is an excuse anyway) is beyond me.
The next 8 days are going to be very interesting.
Saw this a forum (see below). I let you guys judge it for yourself…
AWARE – The Hidden Hand
________________________________________
From: smthio@xxxxxxx.sg
To: stjh21@xxxxxx.sg, Undisclosed-Recipient:
Subject: Re Aware
Attachments AWARE_membership_mail-in_application_form.pdf concerned parents.1.do
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Dear All
Please see Attachments on some recent developments in Aware. Aware is a woman’s organization which conducts comprehensive sexual programmes for girls and it runs this programme in some of the schools. They encourage girls to express their full sexuality and this includes experimenting with other girls. It would be a good idea to join it and change its focus to other problems of women and families.
..Please ask your like-minded friends to join Aware so that you can give the vote to those who wish to be an agent of change for the Lord. They could also contribute to the activities of the oprganization as there is much to be done for women and families in this dowturn of the economy. Unfortunately, I cannot surface but shall be assisting in the background . I attach the Aware membership application form for your use. The Aware application form has a section as to who ( if any) told you about Aware. You can just leave it blank . Please let me know whether you can join and attend the AGM which will be towards the end of March 2009. The fee is $40/ and should be mailed to the Aware Office ( see application form).
Look forward to hearing from you. Please call me. May I have your phone no?
Blessings,
Su Mien
http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=26201
I was told this goes way back before March…
What truth is there to the story that the planning goes back over a year when they put a plant on the exco to stall the constitutional amendments??? Any intrepid fact finders care to check it out?
Are you in pain patlaw?
From what I gather from reading the transcript, the feminist mentor mentioned “I hv nothing against lesbians or homosexuals personally. On a personal front, I’ve given ministered, I’ve counselled them. So you need to understand I’m not talking about… They are in pain. And very often…where you hv abusive fathers, they do things with their daughters and the daughters revolt, rebel against society. We understand this is what it’s all about. It’s the people, the pain of people…”
So I guess that’s why they said homosexuality is a man’s problem.
[...] Sign up as a member to vote if you care enough for equality. Details of the EGM as follows (copied from Pat Law): [...]
who’s Lord…. theirs or mine.. altho.. i am catholic myself.. but aiyah….
turning into another bush administration…
I share the view of the way the new ex-co took over AWARE and try to change the office lock without the knowledge of other members is disgusting and distasteful.
If this group of people is sincere to run an organisation to help women who need help, they can just start off with a new organisation and recruit whoever members who wish to join their organisation. I believe they will make sure that for those who wish to join the organisation, must meet with certain terms and conditions before joining – eg. NO gay or Abortion is allowed here.
One cannot decide for others whatsoever family value or sexual preference or whatever he/she deem fit to himself/herself. What he/she THINKS is right is NOT always necessarily right to others. One can choose to live whatever lifestyle he/she wants to, this applies to others – they should have their liberty to choose whatever lifestyle they want to live.
Moreover, when a religion group is managing a NGO, no one can be certain that the “original cause” of that organisation will not be tilted/twisted towards their religion. It is too early to conclude now that it would or would not happen to AWARE after the taking over. If this really happens, it would be quite worrying and disturbing to the members who are from different religions of that the core members of the organisation.
As long as AWARE is doing the right things to help the poor women who need help, we should just leave the existing members of AWARE alone. Interference sometimes can do more harm than good to an organisation.
Something to add on – why is the new ex-co of AWARE singled out particularly “lesbianism” issue? Why are all other activities that providing plentiful of assistance to its members not even mentioned/recognised? Except the so-called “promoting lesbianism”, aren’t the old guards of AWARE are doing a good job in running the organisation professionally and effectively?
It makes me wonder, do the lesbians deserve the discrimination by this group of people and also their mentor? Do they have to right to force the existing members of AWARE, or even the public, to adopt what they believe in? Being a lesbian or not, I think it is really a very personal preference, one need not to be told by some church goers that it is a “sin”.
There are so many NGOs are in trouble, from ex-NKF to recently Ren Ci, have you wondered why weren’t the same group of people, who claimed that they want to bring AWARE back to its “original cause”, join the NKF or Ren Ci, and subsequently take over the organisation, so that they can bring the troubled organisation back to its “original cause”?
People, think about it.
Hi ladies, see you all on 2nd May to vote. Else, all your opinions and views will be worthless.
You terrorists always make yourselves out to be the victims, despite evidence to the contrary. But then, I would be very surprised if you didn’t.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_367873.html
[...] “I don’t have an issue with homophobia as much as I do with hypocrisy from self-righteous people who think they have any right at all to discriminate.” Pat Law [...]
Hey Eunice,
Your comment made me smile. Yes, see you there! Imma be rallying us social media junkies to provide live coverage. You recruit too aight?
Why are chinese and of the same religion? Why sideline the malays, indians, buddhists, taoist, hindus and muslims?
I was so disappointed to find out the date of the EGM!!! I will be overseas and won’t be able to go down and vote :*(
I will be reading updates from KL and cheering everyone on. I really hope the turn out will be phenomenal
Hi Wei-Yee Chan,
Hmm. Why do you call us terrorists? And what about being victims? We’re not the one complaining about death threats from apparent terrorists.
You left a link. I’ll leave you with one too. In fact, it’s one of your many blogs. Gonna love Google’s Social Graph API.
The Moses & Elijah Blog – people, feel free to visit!
Hi all, http://www.we-are-aware,sg is a site set up by the old guards of AWARE.
There seems to be lot of support in cyberspace, but we dont know how many of those voices will be attending the EGM.
It would be great if all of you who are intending to come to the EGM and supporting the old guards could register on http://www.we-are-aware.sg, so that we can keep you informed of what to expect at the EGM, dos and don’ts/ etc. It will also help us plan and organise the logistics for the day, and to make sure that the event goes as smoothly as can be expected under these circumstances.
From our viewpoint, what is really at stake is the space for a diversity of views in our cosmopolitan, pluralistic, multiracial, multireligious and multicultural society. The continuance of an all-inclusive and secular AWARE depends on YOUR VOTE.
We hope that you will make the time to attend the EGM and vote for the old Guards.
Oh i thought Wei-Yee was referring to COOS, the description was so fitting!
But I guess people do have a right to believe and say whatever they want.
Wei-Yee Chan,
Accuse us of being terrorists only when you’ve witnessed any act upon the “innocent” and by that, I meant the “straights” being converted. But really, if these “straights” are truly so, why would they change? A tiger can never go vegetarian, if you get what I mean.
There are far worse crimes in the world:
- The many wars out there tearing part lives and souls
- The many paedophile and their websites targetting real innocent children
- The many terminal cancer patients without family by their side in their last hours
And many many more.
Why don’t I see you fight for all these when being gay will and has never upset the social structure for thousands of years?
If you’ve read your history texts long and deep enough (pun unintended), homosexuality exist in the Greek, Chinese, Indian and European history. If homosexuality is such a terrorist act, the whole society would have been wiped out like the Mayans or Aztecs. Then why it didn’t?
There’re obvious reasons that it won’t, can’t and never will. Reasons in the human genealogy way. As this is just a comment box, I shaldn’t hog it with a 500,000 word thesis.
Wei-Yee, you’ve no idea who the homosexual people are. There’re people within us who are highly intellectual (think IQ scrore beyond 140), hold powerful post in the commercial world (though likely to be closeted) and in the political arena (though I’m not sure if we’ve any locally). There’re ways to track who you are, what your job is and if (I’m saying if) your boss happens to know you writing here and he/she is a gay (closeted or not), I’m sure you’ll get some form of repercussion. By way of salary or promotion.
Because from the foreign MNC world I came from (multi-million one at that), the equal sexuality clause in HR policy mandated will ensure one in my company to get punished if found with such primitive ideals. And for this, I sincerely hope your job is well covered. Otherwise, you’re the boss yourself.
And then, there’re also Catholic priests molesting teens/boys/men. Are they not gay then? Do I see you condemn them? Or maybe you do, but I don’t know you enough only.
The world is no longer closeted villages standing on their own, it’s now a closely networked global village where cultures and ideas exchange freely via various mediums. Being gay isn’t a virus or it’d have long wipe out the human race. I’ve mention it up there and I’ll repeat, homosexuality has been around for eons and the human race is still here and will always be here.
If you’d like to fight for something to add shine to your name, I’d strongly suggest you be a cancer volunteer or a paedophile fighter.
These are far more productive and I’m sure God would give you brownie points.
i had always believed that what set us humans apart from animals is our freedom of choice – that we can move PAST the “natural order”, seeing that even the most basic of all humanly tasks like drinking milk (no other animal drinks another animal’s milk) is actually against this “natural order”. to be outwardly discriminated for my lifestyle choices by a supposedly secular organisation for ALL women is really not sitting very well with me. being a lesbian doesn’t mean that i’m any less of a woman… or a person. i don’t expect them or anyone for that matter, to condone/support/promote my lifestyle & i sure as hell am not “in pain”, all i expect is some basic respect. when people attack their religion, they cry foul. when they attack our lifestyle choices, it is a noble act.
unfortunately pat, alot of PLUs are outraged by this & are talking the talk but not walking the walk. they are just content keeping their heads down low, hoping that this will all come to pass. i am glad to know that there are PLUs like yourself who want to make a change & will not be silenced by fear.
win or lose, our voices have to be heard. i hope to see you on saturday.
b.
I am not a member of AWARE yet, thought of joining so that I can attend and vote in the EGM on 2nd May. But too bad that I would be going to overseas during that period, therefore, I am not able to attend the EGM even if I am a member. Since I cannot vote, I don’t intend to join now, especially if AWARE is under the management of that new group of ex-co.
For the last few days, both the Chinese and English newspapers have been covering the issues of AWARE quite extensively. After reading all the news, I do really hope that the members of AWARE will vote wisely, choose their ex-co who are sincerely looking after the benefits of all its members inclusively, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. More importantly, NO hidden agenda, NO anti this and that.
I wish the old ex-co good luck and all the best.
I hope I would see some good news upon my return to Singapore.
Wei-Yee Chan,
re http://chanweiyee.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-strong-minded-people-do-not-worship.html
So you were abused as a child by your mother and sister. Snap out of it. Evidently all the hours you put in praying and studying the Bible has not instilled in you a simple Christian value – forgiveness. It’s easy to draw parallels between the terrorists in your own life who just so happen to be women and womenfolk innit. If I didn’t know better I’d think you possessed the intelligence to indirectly seek vengeance by advocating and finding solace in the patriarchal Christian agenda. Although really, I think you’re in dire need of psycho therapy. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a fake story you cooked up to garner support, in which case you’re just downright despicable. Should the story be real, well, wake up and smell the coffee. You’re not the only one who’s been abused, and a lot of us lead happy, fulfilling lives, whether we’re gay or straight or just fucking love everybody (or love fucking everybody, apt either way ;P) with or without religion dictating how we should think and behave.
Oh but if there was a perfect moment to say that one is to be pitied and not scorned.
Ah……..quite shocked that these fundamentalists had to go this far to push their agenda to a secular society. I think women should support the Old Guards. Otherwise, I can hardly see any prospects of AWARE being pluralistic when the top appointment holders are all from one Church. And DBS should not suffer any more loss by continuing to keep Josie Lau. I heard many people are canceling their DBS services because of Josie Lau’s involvement.
I’m juz an ordinary 43yrs old Singaporean woman, and I’m VERY DISTURBED about the way the new exco-members take over AWARE. even more so by ‘legal way’, with highly profiled people watching the organization over a year and ‘cleverly planning’ the take-over. Even if the old guard would have been more ‘careful’ would not see it coming.
I urge all woman ‘clients’ that have benefited from AWARE pass 24yrs or so, vote now for who you think will really be there to help you.
Though I’ve not directly benefitted from AWARE, I felt I’ve grown with AWARE ( seen many of their faces and read articles about them thru various media ) and all the previous Presidents certainly have a more pleasant and friendlier, approachable personalities. As compare to the current one, she had certainly project herself in the direct opposite way.
If I’m her employee, I’m would certainly be intimated by the way she carried herself and the way she handle the issues in this whole episode ( sacking people without reasons in this economic climate, has she ever given any thoughts to the staff livelihood ? changing locks in such short notice or no notice ? If truly for security reasons since quoted more than 60 keys circulating around, couldn’t issue be brought up within their organization, notify people affected and change in phases ? ) .
No wonder her employer is concern about her ‘voluntarily’ work. If she had handle it in a proper and fairly manner, it’s good image for her employing organization, but since it is not in this case. I need not mention further.
Actions speaks louder than words.
See you on 2nd May, at the EGM.
Your humble straight Singaporean woman.
Of course not.
As provided by Serena, please visit this website regularly for latest update – http://www.we-are-aware.sg/
I found one of the comments in ST Forum by streader12:
I’m glad MOE has clarified that AWARE’s sex education programmes are fine, and that Thio’s and the new Exco’s accusations against the old guard are baseless.
Also, from the other ST article, it says “in a weekend sermon posted on its website, Pastor Derek Hong urged the women in his flock to ‘be engaged’ and support Ms Lau and ‘her sisters’ at Aware. He said: ‘It’s not a crusade against the people but there’s a line that God has drawn for us, and we don’t want our nation crossing that line.’”
So now we know that Thio and the new Exco do have a hidden agenda, and that their religion has everything to do with it, no matter how much they try to deny it. Please, we respect your religion, and you are free to stay behind “the line that God had drawn” for you, but please don’t try to impose this line (or your other beliefs) on “the nation”!
************************************
They urged their women in their flock to support the new group of disgusting women, and I, plea and urge all the women readers out there, whether you are straight or not, if you are able to attend the EOGM and eligible to vote, please please please make yourself free on 2nd May to kick those “supposed to be kept behind the line that their GOD had drawn for them” OUT from AWARE!!
I am so glad to know that, according to Channel NewsAsia: “New Exco of AWARE given vote of no confidence”!! “The vote of no confidence was passed against the new Exco with 1414 votes to 761 votes.” “Ms Josie Lau and her exco have stepped down.”
Thank you all for giving the new exco of AWARE vote of no confidence, you have done a good job, congratulations!!
I would be joining AWARE as a member soon…