This letter from the AWARE EXCO is in response to the Pastoral Letter from Dr. John Chew of 10 may 2009.
Letter to Dr John Chew, Anglican Bishop of Singapore
Dear Dr Chew,
We note with some concern that in your pastoral letter of 10 May 2009 you appear to be perpetuating the misconception that AWARE has an agenda ‘for redefining mainstream sexual ethics and social norms’. You say that ‘unfolding revelations’ have shown that the concerns of Dr Thio Su Mien and her mentees about AWARE’s direction were ‘not misplaced’.
The truth, Dr Chew, is that the concerns were misplaced. AWARE has never promoted homosexuality. In our 24 years of existence, our stand on homosexuality has been identical to that of the government. We agree that the heterosexual family is the norm for our society. But homosexuals are also part of our society and they should be able to live freely and happily, free of any discrimination.
Yesterday we issued a statement to the media in response to DPM Wong Kan Seng’s Q&A with the media. We said it is most regrettable that some people in Singapore now have the impression that AWARE has a ‘gay agenda’ as this is totally unfounded.
The allegation of a ‘gay agenda’ was made by Dr Thio Su Mien, and the team of women she handpicked to join AWARE and take over its leadership, on the strength of bits of information taken out of context and strung together to create an imaginary and inaccurate picture of AWARE’s activities.
This unhappy episode, and the many wrongful allegations made during it, have damaged AWARE’s reputation and insulted the many women and men who, over the last 24 years, have worked so hard to improve the lives of women in Singapore and our society as a whole. Sadly, the allegations and the misperceptions continue in online forums and other channels.
We at AWARE are already moving on and putting together our programmes for the year. We assure you that none of the programmes have anything to do with promoting or even endorsing homosexuality.
Dr Chew, we would like to invite you and the heads or representatives of other Christian churches in Singapore to join us at the AWARE Centre for lunch sometime in the near future. It would be a chance for us to give you an accurate picture of AWARE’s agenda and our programmes. It would also be an opportunity for you to meet some AWARE members and dispel any notion you might have that we are a bunch of radicals out to promote ‘revisionist sexuality norms’.
There is another matter we would like to address in this letter. In the last two weeks or so, highly confidential documents about our Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme have been appearing online at various online file storage sites. I attach a screen capture of the list of files available for download at MediaFire, one such service.
These documents include the list of schools where the CSE was conducted and the list of CSE trainers and auditors, which gives their mobile numbers and email addresses as well as the results of the tests they sat for as part of their training as CSE trainers.
These documents are kept in the AWARE office and are only available to Executive Committee (Exco) members, the members of the CSE subcommittee and relevant staff. In the two years that we ran the CSE programme, these documents were kept strictly confidential. But during the short tenure of the Exco led by Ms Josie Lau, these documents have been put online. Note that along with the CSE files, there is one titled ‘AWARE HOMO SLANT’. This is the PowerPoint document that the previous Exco used at its press conference at Raffles Town Club on 23 April.
We can only conclude that the previous Exco either put these documents online themselves, or gave access to the files to someone who then put them online. In either case, this is a serious breach of the confidentiality of our programme and the privacy of our volunteers and clients. Whatever the objections to the CSE programme, this is irresponsible, unethical and reprehensible behaviour. If, as you say in your letter, the previous Exco’s ‘takeover’ actions raised ‘ethical and propriety difficulties’ in the minds of many Christians, this breach of confidentiality is just as bad if not worse.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, Dr Chew. I will call your office next week to arrange for a suitable date for you to visit the AWARE Centre.
Yours sincerely,
for the sake of your organisation’s established and prolonged good reputation, i would recommend you take dr thio and company to court for libel.
DavidLeong Reply:
May 24th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
… agree with gambit only if things do not work out after sometime & there is such a neccessity or requirement arising…
Because no point if “champions of women themselves” (women leaderships) cannot sit down in a round table & have counselling or come to agree the disagreement among themeselves. It will be a very bad example to ALL Singapore women for a start as well as the forwarding challenge will be steep & tough. If AWARE continues to have such stress & strain or unhealthy relationship either within or outside AWARE, I suggest come clean & clear the path properly once in for all & move on legally.
This is just my personal view point.
I am heartened to note that the Catholic Church (http://u.nu/35q6) has taken a different position from the Anglican Church. The Catholic Church is very clear that the ends do not justify the means (scheming and unethical actions) and expresses its unqualified disapproval of the actions taken by TSM and mentees.
Unlike the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church rightfully refrains from commenting on AWARE’s agenda and the merits of its programmes, but makes the point that even if the Christians went in with the best intentions in the world, their actions lost them both their “moral authority and credibility” and very importantly, were not christian-like. It is good that the Catholic Church has stated its position on this matter and taken a position which is much more consistent with christian values and teachings of love, acting righteously and doing unto others what you would have them do to you.
Relevant extracts quoted below:
“The Aware saga was an example of Christians trying to bring about change through means that many found questionable and unacceptable. They may have gone in with the best intentions in the world. They may have had an admirable goal – to end what they saw as Aware’s promotion of a gay and lesbian lifestyle. But in the end, they appeared to have lost both moral authority and credibility because of the means they are perceived to have used to capture control of Aware. Their actions ultimately provoked a backlash which led to their ouster within two months of being elected the group’s leaders.
In a pluralistic society, citizens need to learn respect for one another’s views, and how to disagree in a civil manner. Catholics should aim to help others appreciate the truth and goodness of Catholic teachings and values. We should communicate our views in terms that others in a secular society can understand. We should not scheme to defeat those who hold contrary views, or use coercion of any kind to sway others, for surely, we too would object strenuously if those of other faiths were to try to impose their religious beliefs on us.
Within these bounds of ethical and proper conduct, it remains our right and our duty to help make our society better, in accordance with our Catholic values and teachings”
Observer Reply:
May 26th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Dear AWARE,
Please see the 17 May 2009 LianHe ZaoBao interview with Dr Thio (http://searchingforenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/05/lhzb-interview-special-with-dr-thio-su.html) which shows initial reports suggesting the ex-New ExCo was planned and organised may not be what really happened.
Excerpts from the web blogger’s English translation from the Chinese text below. I truly hope that the clarification contributes to peace and understanding all around and helps all the empowered, talented, strong women from whatever sides, race, religion, sexuality, profession unite in our common humanity, in one sisterhood towards common ideals of maintaining the dignity of women, advancing opportunities for women and honouring the good efforts of all women towards the wellbeing of our gender and of society.
From 17 May 2009 LianHe ZaoBao interview with Dr Thio (http://searchingforenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/05/lhzb-interview-special-with-dr-thio-su.html) , web blogger English translation:-
““Feminist Mentor” Dr. Thio Su Mien: The “coup” was accidental” …
Dr. Thio, widely perceived as the one who orchestrated this “coup”, in an interview with this newspaper, claimed that she did not expect the outcome of the AGM elections to result in a new guard taking over as the exco. She also claims that her encouraging of young women to join AWARE was aimed only at injecting new vitality into the organisation and to preserve the core family values of Singaporean society.
According to reports, AWARE’s membership numbers have, in recent years, been declining, reaching a low of 200 members at the end of last year. However, amongst those attending AWARE’s AGM on March 28th, only a minority was long-standing members of AWARE while the majority were new members who joined only shortly before the AGM.
According to Dr. Thio, if the long-standing members of AWARE had all attended the AGM, the new members “may not even have a single chance of winning a position, hence who can we blame for the outcome of the exco elections; even I was not expecting such an outcome”.
In a media report in April, it was revealed that Ms Josie Lau, the new AWARE president, along with another 5 new exco members are from the same church of Church of Our Saviour (COOS) while Dr. Thio is also a member of COOS and a mentor to Ms Lau and company. It was later revealed that Ms Lau is married to Dr. Thio’s nephew. All this were cited as proof of a well-orchestrated “coup” by Dr. Thio.
When reminded of this during the interview, Dr. Thio laughed and said: “If you say that I planned all this, I indeed was the one going around encouraging people I know to join AWARE. But all these people were mobilised at the last moment. Some amongst them did not know one another but only know me; some in fact are not that familiar with me. My purpose was: if you are able to, you should join this organisation and contribute to society”.
She added that if she was indeed the mastermind behind the whole thing, she would not be “as stupid as to find people from the same church”.
“If I really premeditated this, then I would be a real strategist; if so, I should organise a rainbow coalition like them (the old guard of AWARE). However, my thinking was very simple. But now thinking back, I was in fact rather foolish and naïve in my thinking. I never thought that the outcome will be this and that things will get so out of hand”. “
Corinna Lim Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 2:07 am
How i wish it were true that the ex-New Exco was in fact not planned and organised, that the takeover was in fact an unfortunate accident and that Dr Thio was just being naive and simplistic when she asked her mentees and her other friends to join AWARE.
And she may well have gotten away with that except she forgot that in her earlier press con at Raffles Town Club, she said, in relation to the 2008 AWARE AGM, that
“And in 2008 there was an AGM….And the very strange thing was that at that meeting there were only 25 members who turned up at that meeting”.
Dr Thio knew full well what the expected attendance for the 2009 AGM would be and could not have planned anything less than a TAKEOVER by sending about 100 persons to vote her mentees in.
So, no the clarification does not contribute to peace and understanding. It merely adds to the heap of lies perpetuated by the Christian Right against AWARE.
Observer Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Hi Corinna,
Thanks for your reply. I’ll refrain from comment on the matter as I’ve no first hand knowledge of what happened and have not followed it enough to really know. As an open-minded mainstream liberal, my general sense is it is up to each person to understand things for themselves and form their own opinion.
I hear clearly though your anger and sadness and am really sorry for the trauma you and Aware must have felt … geez, just seeing it unfold in the news was traumatic.
I feel really bad for everybody involved because I am sure there are fabulous, strong, talented women all around – with strong opinions and personal stances yes. But for me as a liberal, I have friends with opinions and stances all over the map who don’t hesitate to tell me why they are right (most if not all the time
and I am wrong in their opinion), but we are still friends, care for one another, and chatter, debate, hangout happily.
Don’t let this incident detract from the good that AWARE has done – I respect the good AWARE has done for women. Don’t be discouraged from the mission of improving the welfare of women. Don’t let it embitter.
I always admired the spirit of civil society organizations, a spirit of optimism, of generosity to help those in need, of courage, a degree of selflessness, a sense of cooperation, an inspiring sense of the high possibilities in life in spite of difficulties, of grace and goodwill to humanity and to all – HOLD ONTO THAT SPIRIT and SHINE WITH ALL THAT IS FABULOUS – we need it now in this world and we continue to need it from AWARE and look to AWARE to show us the highest and best possibilities of womanhood.
Once we touch religion in AWARE case it is already biased especially with religion of powerful ‘authority’. History will repeat itself in our multi-purpose world on earth which mean we humankind will never ever learn the mistake if we are blinded by our own mind-set(s)! Strictly speaking THE TRUTH has no differences to ALL BEINGS by their very pure nature! The truth is:- it is like a warm smile or a beautiful flower to all humankind. Does BEINGS have any difference(s) in its very basic nature? That is why, I think yes I think at this very moment as I am still learning in life, AWARE had been fighting for EQUALITY OF GENDER!!! What’s gender actually mean? Most of us if not all believe in our sprituality one way or another, right? Well, that’s so, do our spirtual senses/concepts have physical appearance where clearly distinguish between A MAN or WOMAN? I wonder!? In short, the TRUTH is god to me. But is GOD by individual definition on earth is * ‘THE’ TRUTH *, I wonder!?
Telling lies, stealing and imposing on common spaces do not justify good intention or wise leadership.
In helping any women or men, the most important consideration is to respect the individual’s being and choice. The most violent abuse is to impose.
Let us imagine a society where the predominant view is for women to sit down and shut up.
Somewhere, somehow, a few people decided to provide an alternative for women to stand up and speak out. They conducted workshops and screened movies.
Of those who attended, some were uncomfortable and some even felt that it down right wrong. A few welcomed the alternative and felt more alive. They began to speak up at meetings. They asked for a world where love can be expressed freely and reproductive facts of life explained openly. This touched a chord in the hearts of many women, especially the mothers. Soon, more women were speaking up and expressing themselves.
Alas, the rowdiness was brought to the high priest’s attention and the workshop was banned.
Many years later, the high priest is now faced with a shortage of funds and girls are promptly told to stop school. After all, girls only do what they are told and for years, many feel that it is waste to teach girls how to think and speak.
Henceforth, all the girls on the land live through life in total silence. They are allowed loud moaning during sex, but only when they are told to.