Unpublished Straits Times letter by Gurpreet Kaur
As a member of AWARE and having interned there under the old guard, I can say with confidence that my internship stint there was the most fruitful experience for me as a woman. I got involved in a myriad of projects, did hands on work and met so many passionate and wonderful women who shared the same vision. To be in an environment that was all-inclusive has made AWARE a safe place to work in, a place where I was comfortable expressing a lot of views, intellectually, objectively and subjectively.
The recent events at AWARE have some people mislabelling our moves and concerns as sore-losing or complacency. It would only be sore-losing if we knew who these new people are, what their agendas are, and why they used “stormtrooper tactics” to take over the Exco, and after knowing all this, countered them. As of now, they have left too many questions unanswered. Most importantly, none of these women have volunteered or spent a single hour at AWARE before. So their claim that members “were not interested” in voting at the previous AGM nullifies itself automatically, since they themselves have never been interested either and do not even know who the members are. Josie has spent all her time and energy communicating to the media, but has she made the effort to reach out to her members? To communicate with them? To allay the distrust towards the management? The answer is a big no. None of the new Exco members have taken the initiative to do this.
I would say that for members, the AGM has been an issue of trust and not complacency. Over the past 24 years, members have had complete trust in who will be holding the positions of power in the Exco. We trust the old guard to make the right choices and decisions. This time too, it was this trust that we members had and still have in the old guard to put in place the right people in the Exco, and not disinterest as Josie claims or complacency that some other people are claiming.
If anything, Josie and her team have broken the members’ trust by the takeover and now not answering any questions that we are putting forth. If there is anyone who is complacent, it is Josie and her team for not communicating with the members and assuming that just because they have the sheer strength of numbers, they will stay in power and dictate the happenings in AWARE. And even if they do stay in power due to the numbers game, they would have lost the trust and a good following of their members who have helped to build this organisation to its current status.
AWARE would then be there only by name, a shadow of its former self, with its spirit no longer there. And that would not only be a true loss, it would be losing in the truest sense of the word.
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