ST link

THREE migrant worker groups have joined forces to form a coalition to strengthen migrant worker activism in Singapore.

Launched yesterday, Solidarity for Migrant Workers is run by arts group Migrant Voices, and advocacy groups Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2).

Prior to the launch, the three organisations have been working together on ad hoc activities, but Mrs Bridget Lew, president of Home, said it was time to form a united ‘solidarity’.

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ST link

By Theresa Tan & Amelia Tan

EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen had strong words yesterday for the parties in the recent Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) leadership tussle.

He said that as both sides went at each other, ‘schools were dragged into this melee, and could have become the proxy arena for competing ideologies’.

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ST link

THE Education Ministry is tightening its processes to vet and approve external agencies allowed to provide sexuality education in schools.

From now, schools no longer have the autonomy to hire external providers of sexuality education programmes. They will have to choose from a list vetted and approved by the ministry.

The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) will not be on the list. Its sexuality education programme came under attack during its recent leadership struggle when critics charged that it promoted homosexuality.

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CNA link

SINGAPORE : No meeting date has been set, but the old guard AWARE executive committee – voted back into power two days ago – has set out its priorities.

Top of which is how to manage its now-swollen base of around 3,000 members, many of whom joined only in the days leading up to the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Saturday.

“There’s so much more we can do now because we have so many more people … we will look at how to extend the use of new media and engage younger people,” AWARE’s new president, 57-year-old Dana Lam, said on Sunday. She was speaking on Talking Point on MediaCorp TV Channel 5, and to TODAY. Ms Lam said there is “a heavy responsibility now” to keep the new members interested.

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CNA link

SINGAPORE: Did their inexperience and naiveness, or perhaps their under-estimation of the competition, contribute to the downfall of Aware’s new guard team on Saturday night?

The first time round, the old guard and their supporters were caught sleeping, but at Saturday’s extraordinary general meeting of the Association of Women for Action and Research, they were out in full force to turn the tables on the new Executive Committee that had pulled off a shock takeover a month ago.

The veterans came out with guns blazing, as they shot question after question that left Ms Josie Lau and her team on the defensive for the most part of the six-hour marathon session.

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New Paper link

She called herself ‘lion-hearted’, yet was booed whenever she took the mike. Was Dr Thio Su Mien the mentor she claimed, or was she, as some say, simply patronising?

THE loudest jeers were reserved for feminist mentor Dr Thio Su Mien.

Whenever she tried to take the floor, the audience would drown her out.

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New Paper link

Quietly, they entered the Aware fray, unaware of the drama they were about to cause. And last night, the new guard of Aware left (for a moment) as steathily as they had come, via the back door
By Ng Tze Yong
May 04, 2009

AT a hidden spot of Suntec City, the Feminist Mentor led her flock into a cargo lift.

The dirt-caked metal grill doors rumbled shut as a red siren sounded, and the women disappeared.

For a while, it seemed that was how the Aware saga would end.

[Read more...]

ST link

By Aaron Low
Key religious leaders in Singapore have thrown their backing behind the Anglican Archbishop’s stand that churches – and religious bodies in general – should stay out of the affairs of secular organisations.

Leaders of Buddhist, Taoist, Catholic and Protestant bodies said they agreed with Dr John Chew’s statement that the pulpit should not be used to push social or political causes.

They declare that secular organisations should stay secular, while religious organisations that want to propagate their beliefs should do so to their own members.

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ST link

It was a women’s meet but the issue of men came to the fore repeatedly.

Barely minutes after the meeting started yesterday, a woman raised an objection.

She asked: Why was Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, a man, allowed to be seated on the right side of the hall, a section reserved for women who were eligible to vote.

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ST link

Battle lines are drawn as supporters from both sides bear their allegiance proudly
By Teo Wan Gek , Elizabeth Soh

9am: Five hours before Aware’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) is due to begin at 2pm, supporters of the old, and new, guard begin streaming in.

Outside the venue – Suntec’s Exhibition Hall 402 – battle lines are clearly drawn.

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ST link

Wearing a black dress and a string of pearls, lawyer Karen Teoh, 30, queued up patiently, and when her turn came to speak, articulated a question that was already being muttered on many lips.

‘How much money have you spent so far?’ she asked the Josie Lau team.

Honorary treasurer Maureen Ong gave a long and detailed explanation of how Aware’s skyrocketing membership numbers – which had gone from about 300 five weeks ago to nearly 3,000 last Friday – had prompted several venue changes.

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ST link

Hundreds of women joined Aware to make their voices heard after group’s takeover
By Radha Basu

Until recently, many of them had no more than a passing knowledge of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

But concerned over what they saw as a stealthy takeover of a secular organisation by a group of Christian women, hundreds of women signed up as Aware members to put right what they felt was a grave wrong.

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ST link

Senior lawyer Thio Su Mien stood up to respond to the jibes on why she had declared herself the ‘feminist mentor’ of the women who seized control of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) in March.

She had called herself that when she revealed on April 23 her key role in bringing about Aware’s sudden leadership change.

Dr Thio, Ms Josie Lau and five others on the executive committee booted out yesterday all attend the Anglican Church of Our Saviour in Margaret Drive.

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ST link

They were booted out, but the executive committee headed by Josie Lau said last night that they would remain members of Aware.

In fact, they would even be willing to serve as volunteers if the newly elected executive committee would have them, they said.

Ms Lau, 48, and her team members Jenica Chua, 35, Lois Ng, 44, Sally Ang, 60, Irene Yee, 38, Maureen Ong, 55, and Charlotte Wong, 63, received an overwhelming vote of no-confidence from the 3,000 people at the extraordinary general meeting.

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ST link

Overwhelmed in terms of numbers and words, exco opts for a graceful exit
By Jamie Ee Wen Wei

They started the meeting brisk and business-like, but just minutes into the extraordinary general meeting (EGM), it was clear that Ms Josie Lau’s team was no match for the old guard and its supporters, who outnumbered and outspoke them.

First, executive committee (exco) member Lois Ng, who was the master of ceremony, tried to assert herself by requesting Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, who was seated among the women, to join the men on the other side of the auditorium.

[Read more...]