Former AWARE president Dana Lam takes office as new president
By Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 03 May 2009 0318 hrs

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SINGAPORE : Ms Dana Lam is the new president of AWARE (Association for Woman's Action and Research).

This development took place almost seven hours after the extraordinary meeting began at Suntec City.

Requests were made for Ms Josie Lau and her team to step down from office.

While her legal counsel said Ms Lau and her team were not legally obliged to do so, a short break was called for them to decide if they would step down.

Ms Lau's legal counsel said that in while the exco had been elected into office for a finite period of time, office bearers in similar situations would usually step down out of courtesy, custom and common sense would.

But when the team headed by Ms Lau along with then honorary secretary Ms Jenica Chua, failed to return after 20 minutes, members decided they could not wait any longer, and declared that the exco led by Lau has resigned.

A vote was also taken on the motion to remove Ms Lau's team from office.

Order of business then moved to the voting in of office bearers for the new executive committee - former AWARE president Danna Lam was voted in as president, with former honorary treasurer Chew I-Jin voted into office, this time as vice-president.

Other members on the team included familiar faces of former exco members, Corinna Lim and Margaret Thomas, with new faces making up almost half the team.

The full list of the newly-elected exco is as follows -

Dana Lam, President
Chew I-Jin, Vice President
Yap Ching Wi, Honorary Secretary
Corinna Lim, Assisitant Honorary Secretary
Tan Joo Hymn, Honorary Treasurer
Lim Seow Yuin, Assistant Honorary Treasurer
Committee Members - Margaret Thomas, Hafizah Osman, Nancy Griffiths, Nicole Tan, Joanna D' Cruz, Martha Lee

But before the full list of office bearers was voted in, Ms Lau and her team made a surprise return, and announced they would be resigning.

At a separate news conference, Miss Lau said she was not surprised by the results.

But does the outcome spell the end to collaborations with AWARE?

"If the new team should invite me back to advise on education and training, I'd be more than willing to do that," said Charlotte Wong, former AWARE vice-president.

Speaking to the media, the new AWARE President Ms Lam said her first task would be to arrange for transition of office.

"(We'll) take back control of our centre, and see whether we can restore some of the confidence that has been lost over the last few weeks. Don't forget that we have had quite a number of people who have resigned. And some people are new, and have been employed by the new executive committee. So, I think there is really quite a lot of things we will have to do," said Lam.

Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO) said it is pleased to note that AWARE has reached a resolution in a democratic manner.

In a statement, President of SCWO, Dr Ann Tan said SCWO would like to underscore once again the need for civil societies to function as and remain as secular organisations so that all will stand to benefit from their good works. And that it trusts that AWARE will fulfil the mandate that they have been given to carry on with their work.

SCWO looks forward to working with AWARE to achieve common goals for the well being of the women of Singapore. - CNA /ls