This month, Expat Magazine has done a very punchy piece on the AWARE EGM and aftermath.
It is a succinct summary of the saga and a colourful look at the small group of Christians involved in the affair, highlighting this occurred against a backdrop of growing Christian Fundamentalism in Singapore:
The history- making Extraordinary General Meeting last month pitted roughly 1,500 “old guard” members (a misnomer, as many had joined in the previous two weeks) against a cabal of evangelical Christians from a “charismatic” Anglican church with an anti-homosexual platform. The women, all professionals, were led by a 71-year-old soi-disant “feminist mentor”, who, according to past employees and associates, has rather unconventional methods of communicating with the Lord.
The article also voices the whispers and speculation about the government’s position in the affair:
Nothing on Saturday could have happened without the tacit approval of the Singapore government. At any time the event could have been shut down for any reason you care to consider: public health, overcrowding, law and order.
The Singapore government has a very strong interest in not letting any group – especially a fundamentalist Christian group opposed to initiatives such as stem cell research, family planning and casinos – get out of line. One blogger quipped that the angriest person in Singapore would have to have been Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, whose title of “mentor” was usurped by Dr Thio.
They were not, however, above poking fun at AWARE itself:
In recent years, Aware had shed its firebrand image and was settling down into a comfortable middle age. Since its founding in 1985, the group had agitated for – and often got – legislation that protected women in all walks of life and under many circumstances. Their batting average wasn’t perfect, but the group dragged Singapore feminism into, if not the 21st century, at least into the 1980s.
In full: Expat Magazine June 2009
Photo by Yvonne Loh
“Firebrand”?
Baby, we are still blazing a trail.
Very wittily and succinctly written