The brouhaha wasn’t all bad, they say, as the women of Aware pick up the pieces and chart a new course.
Unless you’ve been on Mars the past couple of months, the mere mention of
Aware brings a flashback of angry faces, angrier accusations, and images of the
dramatic Suntec showdown where the “old guard” ousted the “new guard” and
reclaimed the leadership of Singapore’s most active women’s group. In the run up
to that fateful meeting, membership swelled and everyone from ministers to
Ministers weighed in—the very soul of the organization seemed to hang in the
balance.
Now that Aware has disappeared from the headlines and its original
intent seems secure, how is the Association of Women for Action and Research
moving on from this debilitating and divisive episode? Certainly, the
organization has more talent and momentum than ever before—and an unrivalled
platform to push its causes. But it also has something of an image problem,
with many people who were previously unaware of Aware forming perceptions based
on the hardened tactics of battle.
Aware’s once more-again new president,
Dana Lam, and her newly elected Executive Committee are picking up the pieces
and working to get the organization on its feet as quickly as possible.
“The first task will be to get our house in order,” says Lam. “We need to review
our internal processes and strengthen our systems. The new Executive Committee
has only been in office for a month, and during that time, we’ve had to soothe
our center staff who have been frazzled by the events of the past few weeks and
also touch base with our sponsors, to reassure them that we’ve got our act
together.”
Lam is already on her toes to ensure that the new volunteers
who’ve recently joined Aware are properly managed. “I’m quite anxious; the
younger folks have shorter attention spans and are always readily enthusiastic
to get things going quickly,” she says. “They can come to you once, twice and
three times offering their help, but it takes time to respond and fit them in;
if you don’t get back to them swiftly, you’ll lose them.”
The newly
expanded database of over 3,000 members is one success of the May 2
Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) that Lam is keen to count on and to work
with. “The EOGM was an immensely rewarding experience,” says Lam. “Many new
members may have already gotten used to the fix of instant results; but it’s
much slower when it comes to seeing the fruits of our labor on the issues we
work on.
“Some of that excitement will disappear; we will lose some members as we move along, because reality gets in the way, and they will go back to their old lives and jobs.”
Finances and Fundraising
From an operational standpoint,
the provision of new programs and services in the coming months will be reliant
on what funds are left in the organization. After all, it was well-documented
that the “new guard” Exco spent $90,000 in the one month they were in office.
Aware’s new honorary treasurer, Tan Joo Hymn, is working flat out to
ensure that there will be no repeat of financial excesses from here on. “By year
end, we have to ensure that there is a comprehensive set of policies and
guidelines in place for good financial management; one that is clearly
communicated to all staff and volunteers,” says Tan.
Aware’s overnight
membership growth spurt doesn’t automatically equate to more finances available
for more programs.
“Contrary to the comments made by one supporter of the
ousted Exco, increased membership will not recoup the $90,000,” claims Tan. “But
rest assured, we won’t be trimming budgets; we’d instead like to raise more
money to continue with our programs.”
Meanwhile, Lam says that she expects
operating costs to rise on account of the increase in new members.
“Aware
has to raise funds every month,” says Lam. “After doing our sums, we know that
we have to raise $20,000 to cover our operating costs.”
Among its
fund-raising initiatives, Aware teamed up with Wessex Theatre’s production of Top Girls at the DBS Arts Centre, boosting its coffers with charity
ticket sales. Another high-profile fund-raising drive is Flag Day in August.
“Not only must we ensure that there are sufficient checks and balances in place for large expenditures, we are also hounding our fundraising sub-committee to ensure there is enough money for the next year,” says treasurer Tan.
Not Entirely a Bad Thing
Although the Executive Committee
is currently in overdrive rebuilding the organization, Lam does not view the
infamous saga in an entirely negative light, stating that it has given the group
the opportunity to reaffirm its values and highlight the core reasons for its
existence. The group’s mission, core values and agenda were well communicated in
the “We Are Aware” campaign, which the present Executive Committee members
mounted during the lead-up to the EOGM.
“We now have this huge base of
volunteers to call upon,” says Lam. “A lot of the new members have already
started helping. One of our objectives is to make full use of new media, and
members and volunteers have come forward to help with that.”
These members,
who had signed up to defend a well-respected secular gender-equality advocacy
group, bring with them a whole set of skills, from legal expertise, to
administrative and organizational capabilities, to database systems know-how and
even first-aid skills.
“Once we get ourselves more effectively organized,
we would no longer have to engage people for IT and database services,” says
Lam. “Likewise for legal matters, as we have a good number of lawyers who have
come on board.”
And these new volunteers will be channeled into the three
main areas Aware focuses on, namely the direct services which provide emotional
and psychological support through the Helpline, counseling and legal aid; the
betterment of physical and economic well-being of women, such as sexuality
education, self-defense, body image and self-esteem programs, and financial
intelligence workshops; and intellectual development, where research is
conducted in workshops and forums on areas such as work-life balance and sexual
harassment.
Lam says the group will continue to expand and develop the
above three areas, and will have a line-up of new initiatives in the coming
months. “We have not yet gone to the public with our new programs, as we have
only just started plotting the direction we want to go,” says Lam.
Braema
Mathi, an ex-president of Aware, a former Nominated Member of Parliament and
prominent civil society activist, agrees that some good has come out of this
saga.
“Without the blind self-righteousness of the old Executive Committee, we would not have seen that beautiful day of May 2 when so many women stood up to speak, ask and assert what they will not put up with—it was a beautiful moment of women coming into their own,” Mathi says.
Soul Searching
But there is no escaping the fact that the
whole saga has made Aware sit up and re-look at the way it has run itself for
the last 24 years. It also has to deal with the dilution of its image in the
eyes of the public. While many people rose to defend the organization during the
difficult period, questions surrounding its motives and agendas continue to dog
Aware.
“We’ve been hurt by harmful misrepresentations of a perceived
‘agenda’ by people who appear to have their own,” says Vice-President Chew
I-Jin. “These people find feminism and its advancements in sexual politics a
threat to the belief structures that they cling to.”
Lam meanwhile
reaffirms that she has no regrets about taking a neutral view on homosexuality.
“I will never apologize for saying that I take a neutral view to homosexuality,”
she says. “I’m not for it or against it; for those who need a reminder, that’s
what neutral means.”
She, however, said that she baulked when she saw an
Aware-issued instructor guide for the Ministry of Education’s (MOE)
Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program which said that anal sex could
be neutral or healthy if a condom is used.
“I was shocked to see such a
thing in the booklet,” says Lam. “I don’t condone such views. But one has to
realize the following: That line was in an instructor’s manual that was strictly
confidential. It was not in any student manual. The previous Executive Committee
took it out of context and posted it online in a deliberate smear campaign
against us.”
The statement created such a ruckus that the MOE went from
saying that there were no complaints about Aware’s CSE program from students,
teachers and parents, to kicking it out of the program altogether.
“That’s
an example of how we need to strengthen our systems,” says Lam. “From now on,
when we put out such guides, we need to conduct an internal review process that
asks committee members whether they have any objections to the proposed texts
within.”
Lam adds that Aware will review its CSE package and offer it at a
later date to the MOE, which now has a more stringent policy on the outsourcing
of schools’ sex-education to external vendors.
The checks-and-balances
approach will be mainstay of the organization as it proceeds from this juncture.
Lam has also hinted, but not yet confirmed, that there will be a change to
Aware’s constitution to ensure there’s no repeat of a “back door” takeover.
Among the proposed amendments are rules that could require members to
volunteer with the group for a year before they can be elected to executive
office.
Also, as the group continues to soul search in the aftermath of
the saga, ex-president Mathi weighs in wistfully with the thought that all the
brouhaha could have been avoided if the “other party” had engaged the-then
Executive Committee consultatively.
“I am still affected that we went through all this for just one purpose—to ‘expose’ us as allegedly having a gay agenda and for sexuality education programs that seem to be problematic,” she says. “If one were that upset by our work, it could have been so easily settled by meeting the Aware Exco as a group of citizens who could raise their concerns—face-to-face, in a petition, in the forum pages… It did not need a takeover to ‘correct’ our ‘bad’ ways. It was the worst form of disrespect shown to an organization that has done more good work than bad. That still rankles.”
Misconceptions
But the misconceptions remain; there are
still large swathes of people who now view Aware in a dubious light, suspicious
of its motives and agendas.
“People now view us as having a homosexual
agenda,” says executive member Nicole Tan. “The saga has set the organization
back and we are being marginalized. But Singaporeans are pragmatic. At the end
of the day, if we doggedly continue to deliver on our myriad of programs, public
opinion will eventually be swayed.”
Another executive member, Hafizah
Osman, counters the allegation that Aware is against Singaporean values. “Aware
promotes gender equality, non-discrimination and non-violence against women,”
she says. “How are these against Singapore’s societal values? Having said that,
as an advocacy group and agent for change, we understand that the nature of our
work can put us seemingly ‘out of step’ with the rest of society.
“While
we remain sensitive to divergent views, the nature of our organization is that
we push the boundaries every so often.”
Onward with its
Aims
While the factions battled out their standing over the past few
weeks, Singaporean women continue to face issues where pat answers can’t be
easily found—ranging from concerns for elderly women, to spousal abuse, teenage
delinquencies, and sexual harassment in the work place.
President Lam says
that the group has not deviated from its main agenda since day one.
“The
agenda has always been to develop a gender-based equality—to create
opportunities for women, to strengthen women so that they can participate fully
in society,” she says.
Vice-President Chew meanwhile notes the following
issues. “We need to help women to lead a balanced life without having to exploit
another sector of women [foreign maids],” she says. “Another issue women face is
how to go about avoiding the consumerist trap, which makes you feel like you
have to keep up with the material aspirations of other Singaporeans. Another
important issue is striving to have a positive body-image—everyone is so
obsessed with their weight and appearance.”
Hafizah says that, perhaps the
most important thing is to publicize the programs Aware has to offer—for
example, the Helpline services. “It is important that women in distress,
regardless race or religion, have access to the services they need,” she says.
Mathi believes that Aware is equipped to deal with the challenges faced by
women in Singapore. “Aware remains, till today, the strongest advocate on
women’s issues,” she says. “That constancy has to be admired, as it is managed
on sheer volunteer will.”
Over the next few weeks, Aware will firm up its programs for the coming year, review its standard operating procedures and continue with its work of making Singapore a gender-equal society. The saga has unleashed a huge torrent of goodwill toward Aware, and the ultimate question is whether the newly reinstated leaders can harness that momentum, navigate the tricky waters of public perception, institute closer management of Aware’s process and policy, and use the organization’s newfound fame to further women’s causes like never before. If so, the women of Singapore may be the ultimate winners from the episode, which is what everyone—old guard and new—said they wanted in the first place.
The saga
Mar 28--—At the annual general
meeting, nine newcomers were voted onto the Executive Committee (Exco), shocking
Aware’s veterans.
Apr 8—President Claire Nazar resigns.
Speculation increases as to the goings-on of Aware’s new Exco and their
motivations.
Apr 14—One hundred and sixty members call for
an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) with the intention of moving a motion of
no confidence in the newly elected Exco.
Apr 15—Josie Lau is
elected president, while her employer, DBS Bank, publicly admonishes her
decision to seek the office.
Apr 23—The Exco calls a press
conference, introducing Dr Thio Su Mien, who titles herself a “Feminist Mentor”
and reveals the conservative Christian stance that the new Exco brings to the
organization.
May 2—EOGM at Suntec City, where the vote of
no confidence is passed by an almost two-to-one margin. The Exco resigns, Dana
Lam is elected new president along with a new Exco.
View from the Other Side
They have limited say within a
woman’s organization, so what prompted these two men to join Aware in the run-up
to the May 2 EOGM?
Name: Callan Tham
Age: 31
Occupation: IT Networking
As a man, how would
you help with gender equality in Singapore going forward?
One of the
best ways I can help is promoting awareness of the issues among my friends and
contacts, and by encouraging open-minded debate and discussion on them. Both men
and women must be involved if true gender equality is to be achieved, and
without a good understanding of the issues involved, no one can make any
informed decisions at all.
As a new member, how do you intend to
help?
In whatever way I can; my experience is in the IT networking
field, and if they can make use of that experience, I will be more than willing
to pitch in.
Name: Farid Hamid
Age: 45
Occupation: Diversity Consultant and
Trainer
As a man, what do you bring to the
organization?
I feel the issues being addressed by Aware, although
it concerns the development, and welfare of women in our society, can only be
effectively addressed if both men and women, boys and girls, are included in the
processes and platforms
As a new member, how do you intend to
help?
During the EOGM, I volunteered as a First-Aider, just in case
some assistance in this area was needed. In fact, I responded to a case of
breathlessness—due to an asthmatic condition.
I have also volunteered to
assist in the design, planning, organization and facilitation of the “New
Members” Forum in June.
What Now for Aware?
These students weigh in.
I think it needs to review its organizational structure, policy and goals. It has to be strong internally before it can carry out effective external work.—Ash Teo, 20, Communication Studies, NTU
Work to live up to the confidence and trust placed in it by the new
members.
—Teo Yong Ernn, 21, Communications and New Media (Arts and
Social Sciences), NUS
They should be trying to replace as much of the money wasted by the ousted Exco and restoring their reputation.—Tay Hui Min, 21, English Literature (Arts and Social Sciences), NUS
Addressing gender equality; men are still “supposed” to send the ladies home, men are still “supposed” to pay the bills. Not that I am totally against it, but it is just not equal.—Keith Tan, 24, Computing, NUS
By Ramesh William. Photography by Joakim Smidhagen