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IT’S A REUNION

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I begin with a quote from Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000).

Those who label us ‘hooligans’ have very little understanding of feminism nor of the history and culture of civil society nor indeed of how democratic institutions work. They have (which is a lot of women) grown up with the social mandate that says “be nice”. History has taught us that being nice got us nowhere.

Another confusion is with regard to AWARE as a women’s organization. What is AWARE? Is it a welfare organization? Is it a social club?

It is both. But AWARE is more than that. AWARE’s founding members realized that AWARE needed to go beyond maintaining the status quo if women’s aspiration to be treated as equals to the men were ever to be achieved.

AWARE, then, set out to follow the feminist ideology and mode of action. It became a movement for social, political, and economic equality of men and women. Equality, in these terms, is a balance between the male and female with the intention of liberating the individual.

Feminism’s goals are social and political change. This means one must be engaged with the government and law, as well as social practices and beliefs. And implicit to these goals is access to sufficient information to enable women to make responsible choices.

Take for example one issue that AWARE pioneered and feminist organization the world over) and promoted – domestic violence. Until feminism, there was no word for battered women or domestic violence, no legal protection and no shelter system. AWARE needed to raise consciousness of the public, policy-makers and the victims to succeed in raising the issue as a serious concern and lobby for laws to garner mainstream support and provide victims with support.

But unfortunately when the concern becomes mainstream, as it has in Singapore, the resulting social programs are reduced to treating the symptoms rather than curing-or preventing-the disease. This is the mode of action of welfare organizations.

In order to have a robust movement, domestic violence and economic development need to be re-identified as feminist issues and victories.

Take all the concerns that AWARE has pioneered and promoted – citizenship rights, equal medical benefits, one-third quota in the medical faculty and others – have all since become mainstream issues.

Another case in point is sexual harassment. This was again not recognized nor acknowledged till AWARE did the survey two years ago. The feminist mode of action for AWARE would be to lobby for laws against sexual harassment, public policies and protocol to deal with harassment in the workplace, trainings for implementation of these laws, and process to help women through the process.

Feminism requires action and responsibility for oneself. A feminist organization such as AWARE is required to work for political and social change; campaign for laws and policies that support individuals toward equality; provide individuals with the knowledge, skills and power to make their own choices and respect each other as equals.

This is why AWARE can never ‘be nice’. If it becomes ‘nice’ it would have failed in its mandate.

Constance Singam
July 8 2009

Related:

• July 11, 2009 -- Rawkin’
• June 5, 2009 -- They’re Coming to Get You
• June 1, 2009 -- How ST covered the story
• May 28, 2009 -- Sin Boon Ann: AWARE & Failure of the Media
• May 28, 2009 -- Koo Tsai Kee: Tolerance & Diversity

Siew Kum Hong is not only a friend of AWARE but has emerged as a key spokesperson representing the ideals of many who stood up on May 2nd. It is with great disappointment that we recently learned he would not be reappointed for a second term as Nominated Member of Parliament.

There is, of course, much speculation that his failure to be reappointed was because of his involvement in AWARE. The more extreme conspiracy theorists have mused whether his ensuing popularity – bordering on hero worship (some went so far as to call him “Singapore’s Obama”) – made him a threat to the usual power structures.

There is no doubt that in the aftermath of AWARE, Siew Kum Hong was mercilessly attacked by the astroturfers for his role as advisor to the Old Guard – a role he has repeatedly emphasised is something he did in his personal capacity.

Of course even without being involved in the AWARE Saga, Kum Hong was already in the cross hairs of Christian Fundamentalists over his stance on section 377A of the Penal Code regarding homosexual anal sex. He has argued eloquently in parliament for its repeal and even though he was gracious in defeat pundits continued to state – nonsensically – that the very suggestion the law should be changed was an act of treason.

This was not his only issue – he has spoken in favour of a number of reforms. But it is the one that most captured the public’s imagination in recent months, after AWARE was accused of having a “Gay Agenda.”

Well what’s done is done and just as we wish the newcomers well, we are now eagerly looking forward to seeing how Kum Hong will continue to contribute to civil society.

But first perhaps a short break is in order. We have it on good authority that he intends to use some of his free time to reconnect with his Wii (specifically – Guitar Hero World Tour: Metallica) but we are sure that he will be courted from all sides to quickly return to public life.

Full Stament by Siew Kum Hong

Related:

• Disappointed not on list
• 9 NMP names submitted

Related:

• May 28, 2009 -- Sin Boon Ann: AWARE & Failure of the Media
• May 28, 2009 -- Koo Tsai Kee: Tolerance & Diversity
• May 28, 2009 -- Thio Li-ann: Religion & the Secular State
• June 1, 2009 -- How ST covered the story
• May 21, 2009 -- Information Sheet on MOE SEd Programme

The AWARE Training Institute (ATI) will be going full steam ahead to develop and conduct programmes in three areas – skills development, knowledge building, and self-knowledge. The aim is to educate, enable and empower women to achieve their highest potential in society. These programmes include:

• ATI’s Body Image Workshops will help young girls to reflect on body image, and concepts of attractiveness and beauty, to enable them to deal with body image and self esteem issues.
   
• Following from AWARE’s major recent report on sexual harassment which showed that more than 50% of respondents had experienced sexual harassment at work, ATI is currently developing workshops to train organisations to deal with sexual harassment and assault. The sexual harassment team comprising HR practitioners, lawyers and social workers target to provide by the end of the year a comprehensive package of services to train and advise companies on policies and practices to prevent and deal with sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
   
• The financial training programme for women is being enhanced. The aim here is to help women with financial empowerment. Further announcements on this will be made shortly.
   
• Women in Conversation is an innovative approach to learning. ATI provides safe spaces for women to get together in small groups to learn from each other and to share their personal and common experiences in matters such as sex, dating, marriage, gender discrimination, career development, leadership.
   

Related:

• July 7, 2009 -- AWARE Press Con Highlights
• July 6, 2009 -- AWARE Presscon: The $90k Question
• February 22, 2009 -- Corinna Lim File Photos
• July 2, 2009 -- Video: Yvonne Reflects
• June 25, 2009 -- Video: Hafizah Reflects

Tweeters Callan & June wait for the presscom to start.

Callan’s Report on the Press Con

June shows Twitter to Connie Singam

Corinna, Ching Wi, Dana & Joo Hymn just before kick off.

Press Kit:

• PressKIT EXCO Profiles
• Aware Media Con 6 July – Dana’s Opening Remarks
• AWARE Media Release 6 July 2009
• AWARE Media Release 6 July 2009 – EGM costs

State of the Nation’s Women report

AWARE, Singapore’s leading women’s rights advocacy group, is launching a two-year project to reach out to a wide range of women in Singapore and gather their views on the issues that most affect them. These views, together with other research findings, will be published in 2011 in a report titled The State of the Nation’s Women.

In its scope, the State of the Nation’s Women (SNW) report will be similar to the CEDAW shadow reports that AWARE produces and submits to the United Nations. CEDAW, or the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, is regarded as an international bill of rights for women. Countries that sign the convention have to submit national reports at least once every four years on the progress they have made to remove all discrimination against women. Shadow reports are submitted by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and are considered alongside the national reports by the UN’s CEDAW Committee.

Like the CEDAW report, the SNW report will examine the state of Singapore’s women in areas such as employment, health, family, leadership, and media. But a key difference is that the voices of Singapore’s women will feature prominently in the SNW report.

“Our CEDAW shadow reports have identified the inequalities that still exist and the many issues that need to be addressed, such as the lack of sexual harassment laws, stereotyping in the media, the need for more day care centres for young parents and for greater financial security for older women,” said Dana Lam, AWARE president.

“What we will now do, in parallel with our CEDAW work, is reach out to women in Singapore and get their views on all these issues. We want to get the women to talk and we will listen carefully. We want to find out what they see as the key challenges in their lives, what they would like to see by way of changed or new policies and laws. The State of the Nation’s Women report will cover largely the same ground as the CEDAW reports but it will be from the perspective of a cross-section of Singapore’s women.”

AWARE will reach these women in a variety of ways, including a forum series called ‘Stand Up and Speak Out’. There will also be talks and small group discussions, and at least one major conference. Joint projects and other forms of collaboration with the media and with other NGOs will be explored.

Millie (camera woman & editor extraordinaire) with Fizz and Nicole

Ching Wi, Rina, Kerry and Marisse

Margie and Nancy

Lelia and Joo Hymn

Related:

• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes
• July 6, 2009 -- AWARE Presscon: The $90k Question
• May 31, 2009 -- Dana Lam: No Apologies
• February 22, 2009 -- Dana Lam – File Photos
• May 21, 2009 -- Response to MOE Decision

Nevertheless the current EXCO would prefer to move forward instead of pursuing action against Josie Lau and her team. The present EXCO has since asked various service providers for discounts and donations and has reduced costs by $8,000.

___

At the 2 May EGM several members queried Josie Lau and her Exco about the cost of the EGM. Calls were made, both at the EGM and in media forums subsequently, for the money to be recovered from the members of that Exco.

After taking office, the current Exco formed an internal review team to look into the expenses incurred by the previous Exco and determine whether their decisions and actions adhered to the AWARE Constitution and other established practices.

The EGM cost a total of $99,291.28. This was not quite covered by the $98,765.70 in membership fees paid by the 2,748 people who joined AWARE or who renewed their membership between 29 March and 2 May.

The current Exco wrote to all the companies that provided services at the EGM, explained the financial situation and asked them to consider making a donation to AWARE. Rajah & Tann have donated $5,000 and Deloitte & Touche $3,000, while Boardroom has indicated that it will be making a donation. Suntec and Ape Communications declined on the grounds that they had, in total, given AWARE a 26.5% discount on the facilities and services provided.

The review team found that the previous Exco did not adhere fully to the AWARE Constitution and established practices. Also, they could have avoided some of the costs, for instance, by trying to get pro bono legal advice and asking AWARE volunteers to act as scrutineers.

“We will not, however, be taking any action against the previous Exco,” said Ms Lam. “There are several reasons for this. We recognise that they were handicapped by their lack of NGO experience. Secondly, we have been able to recover part of the costs through the generosity of some of the vendors.

“Most importantly, we want to get on with our work – which is to identify and help remove the obstacles that prevent women from realising their full potential. This is, and has always been, AWARE’s agenda.”

Related Coverage:

• ST Breaking News – New Aware team sets goals
• Channel News Asia – AWARE proposes changes to its constitution
• ST Breaking News – No action to reclaim $100k
• ST Breaking News – Josie Lau’s team won’t be sued
• ST Breaking News – Aware to report on women

Press Kit:

• PressKIT EXCO Profiles
• Aware Media Con 6 July – Dana’s Opening Remarks
• AWARE Media Release 6 July 2009
• AWARE Media Release 6 July 2009 – EGM costs

Related:

• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes
• July 7, 2009 -- AWARE Press Con Highlights
• May 31, 2009 -- Dana Lam: No Apologies
• February 22, 2009 -- Dana Lam – File Photos
• June 18, 2009 -- IS Interview: Dana Lam

Yvonne was part of the volunteer audio-visual-video team at the EGM, who said yes at the drop of a hat. Thanks!

___

Give us your feedback: who else would you like to see interviewed?

Related:

• June 25, 2009 -- Video: Hafizah Reflects
• June 18, 2009 -- Video: Aye See Reflects
• June 10, 2009 -- Video: Meera Jane Reflects
• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes
• June 18, 2009 -- IS Interview: Dana Lam

The original purpose of We-Are-Aware was to galvanise support for the Old Guard in order to win back control of AWARE from the Feminist Mentor’s team.

Mission Accomplished.

 
Then, with the EGM passed, the We-Are-Aware volunteers found themselves with a website that represented the spirit of fighting for what you believe in, for standing up and for speaking out.

So instead of letting the site die, we chose to revamp and continue it in order to give a platform to not only those who spoke out at the EGM but also to those who would one day follow.

As part of this, we are regularly publishing new video content. Initially, this will focus on EGM reflections but eventually we hope to widen the focus to look at issues of interest to our supporters be it secularism, homophobia, migrant workers, women’s rights, etc.

We hope this will generate dialogue and cross fertilization of ideas that will help direct the growth of civil society.

 
Is it working?

The risk is that such a goal may seem too mundane to some – certainly for the online community that prefers to get frothy and vitriolic in comments to the ST Forum or over at Reach.gov.sg.

Saying that, we are still genuinely surprised at how unscathed we have been by the astroturfers who have otherwise had AWARE and the CSE in their sights for some time. Does this mean we are playing it too safe?!

We-Are-Aware has clearly been used to push out a lot of AWARE news lately. This will probably tail off when the AWARE.org.sg site is revamped (yes we know it needs it!).

Is all the AWARE news more than people can bare after the deluge of stories in April & May? Perhaps. We’re AWARE volunteers so we live and breath this stuff. Feel free to give us some perspective!

Which brings us to the main point:

We would really appreciate your feedback on how to make WAA! a better website.

• What do you like/dislike about WAA! ?
• What other content would you like to see – in particular what non-AWARE content would be of interest to you – what civil society topics/issues?
• How can we collaborate with other bloggers to generate discussion?
• Do you think we’re getting this right or have we missed the boat?

Please talk to us. Feel free to be brutal. Of course if you are overflowing with love for us, you are welcome to express that too.

Thanks.

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Jean	Ann	Hedwig	Myrna
Lena	Margie	Kum Hong	Mark
Ching Wi	Halijah	Poonham	I-Jin

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Hafizah (“Fizz”) was elected to the AWARE EXCO at the 2nd May 2009 EGM

___

Give us your feedback: who else would you like to see interviewed?

Related:

• July 2, 2009 -- Video: Yvonne Reflects
• June 18, 2009 -- Video: Aye See Reflects
• June 10, 2009 -- Video: Meera Jane Reflects
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Hafizah Osman
• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes

Dana

 
Will you be making changes to your constitution to prevent a repeat of a backdoor takeover?

YES. We are looking into tightening processes to ensure whoever is standing for election will have at least done some groundwork and has some knowledge of what is to be AWARE.

 
There is also a sizeable groundswell of opinion that some of your policies are out of step of with Singapore’s societal values. What do you say about that? And what are you doing about such perceptions?

Our programmes and policies are guided by the principles of gender equality for all. In the past 24 years we have successfully lobbied for the removal of the quota on women entering medical school, for equal medical benefits in the civil service, for protection against spousal violence and the rights of children born to Singapore women with foreign spouses.

We have contributed research papers on the experiences in our schools, on population issues and, on aging in Singapore among others. Ultimately, we are for a gender equal society where women have equal opportunity, choices and responsibilities with men.

If this is against Singapore values, what can I say? But, I would like to think we live in a more compassionate and reasoned society than our detractors appear to imply. I don’t think of it as being conservative or liberal. You can be conservative and still be compassionate and reasoned. You can be liberal and still be reasoned and compassionate, can’t you?

 
How did last Saturday’s “touch-base” with new members go? How many actually turned up? What events did you guys have?

We had over 20 people. Among them was an 18 year old college student who has volunteered her time during this June break. She said she was moved by the discovery that she didn’t have to fight for what are her rights today because they had been fought for her. We also heard AWARE has gone up in ‘cool’ factor among younger women! That is good to know. I think the best thing from May 2 is how it gave women and men a very real experience of what it is like to be counted.

 
Will you use this new mandate to try to build more tolerance and openness in other areas of Singapore life – not just gender equality but also racial and religious equality.

Our constitution is women specific. Although, I would say tolerance -non discrimination – is implicit in the core values of Trust, Respect and Choices for all women.

Related:

• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Margaret Thomas
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Farid Hamid
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Hafizah Osman
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Pamela Poh
• June 13, 2009 -- IS Interview: Joanna D’cruz

 
A warm thank you to everyone who made the day possible.

Related:

• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes
• July 2, 2009 -- Video: Yvonne Reflects
• June 25, 2009 -- Video: Hafizah Reflects
• June 18, 2009 -- Video: Aye See Reflects
• June 10, 2009 -- Video: Meera Jane Reflects

 
We-Are-Aware Video Series
Talking Heads Every Thursday

More

Related:

• June 10, 2009 -- Video: Meera Jane Reflects
• July 2, 2009 -- Video: Yvonne Reflects
• June 25, 2009 -- Video: Hafizah Reflects
• July 7, 2009 -- Video: New AWARE Training Institute Programmes
• June 18, 2009 -- IS Interview: Dana Lam

Margie

 
How long have you been with Aware?

Right from the start. Was a speaker at the Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives forum in 1984 that led to the formation of Aware, and then a member of the pro-tem committee.

What is your role within the organization as an exco member?

Ordinary exco member.

 
Individually, what are you tasked to do in the next 12 months or so?

Communications.

 
What have you learnt from the recent Aware controversy?

Several lessons:

• Singaporeans are not as apathetic as they have sometimes been made out to be, judging from the turnout at the EGM
• Many Singaporeans see the vital importance of maintaining our secular society, and are ready to step forward and defend it
• There are, however, some who are so caught up in their religiously defined perspective that they will act in very questionable ways
• NGOs like Aware have to be alert to the possibility that people who disagree with their aims and activities will attempt to hijack their organisations
• If the hijack fails, these people may continue to snipe at the NGO and keep repeating baseless accusations about the NGO’s aims and activities

 
In your individual opinion, what misconceptions about Aware continue to remain after this saga?

That Aware now has a pro-gay agenda and has attempted to promote homosexuality.

 
There is also a sizeable groundswell of opinion that some of your policies are out of step of with Singapore ’s societal values. What do you say about that? And as an individual, what are you doing about such perceptions?

If there is indeed such a ‘groundswell’ it is one that has been engineered by someone who, driven by her faith-based perspective, has decided that Aware needs to be fixed. She has completely misread Aware’s activities and continues to mislead the public on this.

It is sobering to see how mis-truths can spread and cloud public perception, and it is worrying to find that there are Singaporeans who will make judgments on the strength of these mis-truths.

 
What are some the biggest challenges faced by Singapore women today?

Lack of support for the multi-layered roles they play in society, compounded by the perception in many quarters that men should be the head of the household.

 
Has the recent controversy set the organization back? If so, how should the organization build itself up from here on in?

Yes and no. We now have 10 times as many members, and many more people in Singapore are now aware of AWARE. Unfortunately some of these people see Aware in the wrong light.

Contrary to what Dr Thio Su Mien continues to maintain, Aware does not have and has never had a pro-gay agenda. Aware has never promoted homosexuality. Aware has only ever promoted gender equality.

We just have to keep countering the mis-truths and misconceptions while continuing with our work. We have to stay connected to the many new members who signed up because they either believed in Aware’s cause or wanted to help maintain secularism in Singapore and the space for a diversity of views.

Related:

• June 18, 2009 -- IS Interview: Dana Lam
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Farid Hamid
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Hafizah Osman
• June 14, 2009 -- IS Interview: Pamela Poh
• June 13, 2009 -- IS Interview: Joanna D’cruz