I’m sure a great many of you have heard of Singapore’s AWARE fiasco.For those who aren’t, this is why I’m posting this. Some things you should know, okay? THIS IS YOUR CRASH COURSE!
Basically, in April
1) a lot of antigay females of the same church (the homophobic Church of Our Savior) joined a feminist ngo, AWARE..
2) because they felt AWARE was too pro-gay. I wouldn’t say they had womens’ rights as their main concern.
3) They then voted their own people into the Executive Committee, and
4) fired AWARE’s staff and replaced them with fellow church members..
5) which is not the only crap they pulled (more on that later).
I mean, I’d heard of “working for change from within”, but this is “grab everything in your power-hungry fists, NOW”. I cringe just thinking of what damage they wreaked upon the work the feminists usually do with their one selfish power-grab.
You can grab some background from Donkeylicious: Can feminists take back Singapore’s AWARE from antigay church?
After this takeover, an AWARE EOGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) was called for, to take place during 2nd of May, 2009. The aim was to pass a vote of no confidence against the new AWARE leadership (am I the only one reminded of Perak right now?).
A few days before the EOGM was held, a friend of mine posted up this on her blog: Popagandhi: Possibly the most difficult post I have ever written.
Popagandhi is a Singaporean most known for not being in Singapore. She travels so much if there were an honorary degree for researching travel routes, it should go to her. This time around, she writes in response to the AWARE fiasco as, first and foremost, a Christian. You should totally read it.
By the way, yes, the new leadership was voted out in the EOGM. You can read an account and analysis from our dear friends over at Sayoni Speaks: AWARE EOGM, An account and commentary.
To cap it off, there’s an article from The Economist’s website, Singapore’s NGO furore.
Taken unawares
May 7th 2009 | SINGAPORE
From The Economist print edition
Liberals rally to take on the Christian right
A BLOODLESS coup instigated by a septuagenarian “feminist mentor”; a death threat sent to the new president’s husband by a self-proclaimed “jihadist sleeper”; a 3,000-person showdown. The tiny world of Singapore’s usually timid NGOs has never seen anything like it.
In late March a secretive group of conservative Chinese Christian ladies surreptitiously took over the executive council of AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research), an advocacy group that has done much to promote women’s rights. Half of the new council attend the same church. They were jolted into action by AWARE’s alleged pro-gay agenda, particularly in sex-education courses taught at some schools. “Are we going to have an entire generation of lesbians?” bemoaned Thio Su Mien, their 71-year old matriarch.
Ms Thio’s disciples snatched control from a group of liberals who had served AWARE for years. The conservative new council and the liberal old guard traded barbs, exposing an ideological divide. Critics questioned the new lot’s shady tactics as well as their religious motives.
And so the old guard tabled a no-confidence motion, forcing an extraordinary general meeting. Ahead of it, politicians called for tolerance. And the new council’s pastor, Derek Hong, tried to mobilise support from the pulpit. Rebuked by leaders from a number of religions, he later apologised.
But the damage was done. At the meeting on May 2nd, the new council lost the vote and resigned. The question is why it staged the ill-fated raid in the first place. According to Alex Au, an online commentator, the Christian right will tend to use stealth to achieve its goals, because the discussion of religion is taboo in Singapore. They do not have well-established channels of discourse.
Yet the manner in which this conflict was resolved—through reasoned debate, without government intervention—is reason to cheer, says Braema Mathi, a former AWARE president. On May 7th, however, the government announced that AWARE’s programmes in schools did not conform in all respects to its guidelines and would be suspended.
Mr Au rejoices that the episode saw more people involve themselves in important issues. They are still, however, in a minority. In a survey, 70% of those polled said they did not care about what is going on at AWARE. But then, with Singapore’s trade-dependent economy facing its worst recession in history, most people have more prosaic worries.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Is it just me or is the Christian right taking over Singapore? Look at their parliamentarians: married, Christian, and heteronormative.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Christian style guerrilla infiltration tactic, I notice the anti-gay movement have been rather active around this region recently, my church(in Malaysia) recently hosted a seminar about the gay issue (ex-gay, cure for it, etc etc the usual Christian propaganda)
May 17th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
JHLee — hehe. can’t say i know, my group of friends tend to be liberal to the max.
jyou: can you tell me which church this is please? you’re right, the anti-gay movement is getting more prominent in msia, and we can’t say we’re happy about it.
May 17th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
The one in Old Klang road, was rather shocked at the church announcement, its the first time in my life (in my barely going to end teenage life) that I heard the church here touch on the gay issue, am struggling internally myself reconciling oil and water sigh
I suppose the Malaysian churches are taking their cue from Singapore, cause there were guest speakers from Singapore, USA and several other countries ( they even brought in an ex-gay, t’was on the brochure…)
May 18th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Some of the writers of Tilted World are fully aware of the ex-gay conference that is to be held at there this Friday and Saturday. Speakers include a so-called ex-transgender who got a controversial funding from Singapore; the director of the biggest ex-gay organization in the world who always double speaks, a psychiatrist that was badly discredited and thrown out from all authoritative medical bodies… even one from a hate group in Hong Kong.
Seriously, the concern should not be what they talk about. All of us that are born transsexuals and those of us that are comfortable with our sexual orientations can hardly relate to the pseudo-sciences and fabricated “facts” (how many got sexually abused before? and how many have bad parents? and how many played too much toys of the opposite stereotypical gender? how many of you are gender confused?)
The main concern is this: Their target audience. It will include some confused LGBT persons, and most of the attendees would be paranoid parents and friends who thinks there are something wrong with people being in a different sexual orientation.
They are bearing false witness, and just uses religion to comfort their bigotry and intolerance. The sad thing is, the attendees are going to be taught the most absolutely ridiculous stuff, everything that is so untrue about LGBTs, and the involvement of a member of a defunct hate group here suggests they are going to parrot around describing us as having a “pro-gay agenda” that will somehow (duh!) destroy society.
Funnily enough, no one questions the obvious agenda from a group with financial clout and hate-mongering power bent on making LGBTs look like sick deviant creatures that should cured. As a person ex-gay survivor, and a writer on ex-gay issues, I highly recommend everyone to put this on high alert, because of its effects on the younger generation who may be forced to “change” or made confused by this discredited form of therapy.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Hmm Yuki, you’re right, its the target audience, my mom made me attend a church seminar before, nothing related to human sexuality but Evolution vs Creationism, the preacher ended up science-bashing for one whole day and the whole crowd (mostly adults) were just nodding their heads in agreement and clapping even when he mention something totally nonsensical. The same thing would most probably repeat for this coming seminar.