Women's advocacy group AWARE picks new president
By Alicia Wong, TODAY | Posted: 16 April 2009 0748 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The new guard sealed its leadership grab in women’s advocacy group AWARE yesterday when one of their own, Ms Josie Lau Meng Lee, was appointed president.

The executive committee of the group was meeting one week after its then newly-elected president and older member Claire Nazar abruptly resigned.

Ms Lau holds a senior position in DBS Bank as vice-president for its cards. Her husband, TODAY understands, is associate member Dr Alan Chin who helped count the votes at the society’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28.

The AGM made news when nine of the 12 seats on the society’s Exco went to new faces, including the positions of vice-president, honorary secretary, honorary treasurer and assistant honorary secretary.

Wednesday night’s meeting was also not without its share of drama when about three hours after it began, Ms Caris Lim — one of two long-time Exco members who had not been ousted — walked out.

“I am very disillusioned. I don’t like what’s going on, so I am walking out,” she said with a sombre face as she left the meeting at 10.15pm.

Ms Lau, 48, was chosen as president from the six non-office bearers which included Ms Lim. The other long-time AWARE member still on the Exco is Ms Chew I-Jin, who is assistant honorary treasurer.

After the meeting ended at around 11pm, Ms Lau told the press she was “delighted to have been elected”. At this point, however, an AWARE staff clarified that Ms Lau had been “appointed”.

In her position, Ms Lau said she will “aspire to bring AWARE to a new level of development, advocacy and growth for women of the nation”.

She declined to comment further but said she would “propel” the group as a “positive agent in advancing the causes of women in particular in times like now which is very, very challenging”.

However, Ms Lau’s employer, DBS Bank, informed Ms Lau prior “to the AWARE election” that, although the bank supported her involvement in AWARE as council member in her own personal capacity, the bank was “not supportive” of her intent to run for president of AWARE, a spokesman told TODAY late Wednesday night.

"We believe that as a VP in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy,” the spokesperson said.

Also present at AWARE's headquarters at Dover Crescent for the meeting was Ms Constance Singam, the immediate past president for Aware, which stands for the Association of Women for Action and Research.

She declined to comment before the meeting started, but said later that “we” will not be resigning from the group as it is one they love and have been committed to for “a very long time”.

Cyberspace has been abuzz with rumours about the religious and allegedly anti-gay views of the new Exco members. It has also been reported that some of them, including honorary secretary Jenica Chua, as well as Dr Chin have written to the media about homosexuality.

Ms Chua had written in October 2007 about Non-nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong petitioning to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexual sex between consenting men.

Dr Chin has cautioned against the risks of promoting the homosexual lifestyle.

At the same time that the meeting was taking place, the group was also holding a party for its volunteers at its premises.
- TODAY/yb