VIDEO: AWARE new President Josie Lau was evasive on sensitive questions during interview with CNA “Talking Point” (Part 1)
April 20th, 2009 | 
Author: Background:
The recent AWARE AGM ended with much controversy and acrimony between the old and new exco members who were accused of ‘hijacking’ the election to further their own personal cause. What exactly happened? Listen to the interview with AWARE new President Josie Lau to find out
Recorded from CNA “Talking Point”:
PART 1
PART 2
(Will be screened tonight)
EDITORS’ NOTE:
Josie Lau and Maureen Ong were quick and eager to defend the legitimacy of the new AWARE Exco throughout the interview while conveniently skirting sensitive questions.
Debra Ong and P N Balji were too diplomatic and should quiz them directly on their alleged connection as members from the same church.
In the closing minutes, Josie Lau chose to leave the question on her stance on sexuality unanswered which left us with lingering doubts about her real agenda.
The two Exco members could have been forthcoming in addressing the many speculations which had arisen in both the new and print media over their backgrounds and motives for taking over AWARE and the strained relationships with the Old Guard.
Unfortunately, while they have given Singaporeans a glimpse of their future direction for AWARE, they did not sound convincing in allaying concerns that their personal beliefs may become complicit in the work AWARE is doing.
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Tags: 22 Responses to “VIDEO: AWARE new President Josie Lau was evasive on sensitive questions during interview with CNA “Talking Point” (Part 1)”
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The media storm over the AWARE takeover has whipped up everyone here into this state of heightened anticipation – I was also eagerly awaiting the interview with Josie Lau on Talking Point to throw some light on the whole sorry affair. I have to say this – the interview is the most utterly anticlimatic, abysmally BORING, tirade of evasion and trite statements that I have ever encountered in a TV interview. Does Ms Lau even know what women’s issues are? And why talk about Proposed Changes to the Constitution when there has been a call for the Exco to step down? Is the Exco proposing “business as usual” at this EGM; and let’s just ignore this little hitch in the proceedings called a “Vote of No Confidence”?
And by the way, Ms Lau, it is a motion of “NO Confidence” that will be moved at the EGM. Several references to a “vote of Confidence” during the interview makes one wonder if the Exco has already prepared gracious acceptance speeches from a congratulatory floor.
Please rectify, part 1 and 2 are the same!
This AWARE issue is blown out of proportion. What is wrong with a DBS, Christ loving, new member being in power? It is democratic country we live in. Why scold her after she is the leader? We also vote Lee Hsien Loong as Prime Minister. We are also obedient to him. So why scold Josie Lau. If you vote for S R Nathan to be President, will you also scold him? We all vote for our leaders, fair and square. No such thing as bad leaders in Singapore ok. They are all very smart and rich as they make a lot of money in Temasek Holdings and GIC. I will vote for Lee Hsien Loong to be my country President always as Lee Kuan Yew is still alive to teach him as he is a Minister Mentor. So next time, we will have better president as alot of my classmates say that S R Nathan only take his pay and do nothing. My teacher also said so. We must thank God for this lovely nation as we all vote PAP to be in control. So please stop criticizing PAP always in this website. Thanks.
Come on Josie, did you in the first place sought permission from DBS to be interviewed by CNA or you once again defied higher authorities? The very fact that you are still in discussion with DBS throws up more doubts about your conniving character to go behind your bosses back?!
Its hard to believe that this was not an engineered coup when so many members come from a religious organization. Josie is justifying all she can by saying diversifying is no good at all and she needs to narrow down the mission statement to what the new management committee wants. Read this as anyone with LIBERAL views, get out of AWARE.
When she mentioned dwindling membership, alarm bells started ringing very loudly, oh no, she is going to have an army of her evangelicals marching in.
Oppositions parties take note of what can happen when complacency sets in.
Aware only have 200+ members as of last year ?
Something must have gone wrong with the old guard, mind you, they have been around for more than 24 years.
What DBS got to do with this lady thrying to do a volunteer job in this AWARE to focus on woman welfare. Read the ST…about a single mother lost her job with 4 kids with no bed for them but she still striving on…but you bunch of useless peoplekilling each other over a damm election …givie this aldy a chance to do more for people like the single mum !…too much time spend on in-fighting within the AWARE Group!!!..shame on all of YOU!!!
Editor, don’t talk rubbish la. Every religion condemn homosexuality. Does that mean that a person with a religious belief are not allowed to be president of any civil society? Josie never said that she will bring her own personal convictions over to AWARE and make that AWARE’s stand. It is people like you who are doing that!
I thought Josie Lau looked quite uncomfortable in the first part of the interview. I thought it was quite funny when Josie said she could only speak out once she became President on Wednesday, only for the woman on her right to then interrupt and dominate the discussion.
Whatever the underlying disputes, I almost feel sorry for this woman. I don’t think she anticipated or wants this furore. Is that sexist? Is it sexist to still feel sorry for a woman?
The one critical point is the manner of Josie’s election to become President. If I understand their position correctly from this interview, Josie was chosen because no-one else wanted the job and it would look bad if no President was chosen. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the new group at AWARE, is it?
My one piece of advice to Josie – please, I don’t want to hear anymore about your desire to get ‘back to basic’. What does that even mean?
My personal take is that the speculations have not been addressed because
1 They needed to trash things out during the EGM first and then present a “united” statement about the plans and direction of AWARE. As it is, she has stated that they wanted to build upon what the old AWARE has done and refocus it back to the original purpose of AWARE
2 She does not want to engage in tit-for-tat, which I feel is a wise and professional thing to do. Imagine the new AWARE focussing on the cat fight instead of trying to settle everyone down to real work. That would have been a clearer indication of their selfish intentions to clear their own names rather than safeguarding the image of AWARE as a respectable institution. I give them credit for not indulging in knee-jerk natural reactions to allegations against them. The unspoken message could well be, their conscience is clear and there is no need for them to justify themselves. Truth will prevail.
3 Conversely, if they had indulged in tit-for-tat, it would have provided more fuel for more contortions and accusations. I have seen how imaginative some people can get in that regard.
4 She mentioned that AWARE had become too diversified. I think she was being diplomatic and again give credit to her for not taking advantage of the situation to bad-mouth the old exco. She could have come out with a list of points of departure from the original AWARE’s mission, including homosexuality and abortion, which apparently are issues dragged out by supporters of the old guard.
From AWARE’s vision “Gender Equality” for all and it’s mission statement, nowhere was sexual equality mentioned. The fact that the old exco has changed focus from “gender” to “sexual” is already a departure from it’s mission. AWARE aims to help women who truly need help. The rights activists and feminists have shown they are more than capable to help themselves, why are they forcing AWARE to help them further their agenda when resources could be used for cater to the needs of those who genuinely need them?
One of AWARE’s past president (Dana) highlighted that AWARE should not be about (homo)sexuality vs religion. It is about helping women. She got it spot on. And who are the ones who started this religion witch hunt?
Lastly, looking at the points brought up to justify a “vote of no confidence”, I personally think they hold little water simply because they are not supported by proof, just allegations.
My comments are made based on the first part of the interview.
PAP doesn’t want woman leaders mentored by AWARE. That’s why they are so pissed and SPH has been whacking the new AWARE guard ever since they got the power.
There are people who are against homosexuality, let them speak up and not to bottle their views within. We are liberal enough to hear the views of PRO and ANTI homosexuality.
AWARE needs new blood as spoken by Josie, without a refocus of what they plan to do, you think AWARE can last with old guards holding the positions? Old guards are just plain sore losers.
There are many woman issues to deal with in Singapore. Wait and see how they perform before we place our judgment. We can always whack them if they start to hanky panky on gay rights, AWARE is not that big anyway.
PRO-Woman (Woman in NS), PRO-Family (Anti singles), PRO-Singapore (Less FTs). 2 out of 3 isn’t that bad for a refocus of values.
If ever PAP was being ousted by oppos, think those elites will cry foul and ask all the civil sectors not to cooperate with the oppos and vote for a no confidence? Question WPC to ask is the reaction of PAP if they lost more than 1/2 of their seats in the next election?
I agree with Rannix. The old guards at AWARE are just sore losers. I feel Nasar, the elected president who suddenly stepped down has a lot to answer. She needs to come out clean. She is also a Christian who holds Biblical values close to her heart (that God condemns homosexuality/lesbianism). She even wrote to the press about it. But it was not a problem for her to take up the post of President. Why does she think that Josie would be a problem when she takes up presidency? And why did she leave the presidency in a vacuum and start firing from the outside (seemingly so righteous and dignified)! What hypocrisy!
Editor – don’t just follow the crowd and give popular, repeated opinions. Think deeper and question more.
How evasive do you think Josie can be? At the end of the day. There are simply too many women looking on. Some are very powerful like Missy Dotty who has a direct link to the Brotherhood.
If Josie cannot deliver the goods. No one will care about her agenda or even that of her husband or for that matter anyone else.
Then what will these powerful women do? They will ask people like Darkness to write a love story episode. That is incidentally circulated to over 70,000 readers. Out of which at least 20,000 is based in SG, of which I am sure 99% of them are women, so they will organize a tea party and they will all join aware and the next thing you know it is finished.
Moral of the story. Dont talk so much Josie and please deliver the goods.
And we all know the brotherhood are mercenaries. In the gaming world. For the right fee, they will fight all your battles. So you can go put one and one together and come up with something meaningful.
But one thing is very clear, christian beliefs are not enough.
They have to make it work.
I wonder if the AWARE President and the Exco Members will ADARE to line up for FREE CONE DAY tomorrow ; P
Why not let the new guard try out for 1 year and see if they can improve AWARE and bring it to greater heights? If this saga does not end, no one will start working on things. From the papers, we can see that the newly elected ex-co are with great credential. That’s why Naire Nazar ask them to join. We are just reading the news of how bad the newly elected pple, but we don’t know how they were treated by the old guard? Seems like the story is one-sided. Just wondering, what if the vote on 2nd May follow on the newly elected again? What will the old guard do?
“Why not let the new guard try out for 1 year and see if they can improve AWARE and bring it to greater heights?”
Cause they want to hold on to power… Simple as that…
Only 200+ members last year after being in existence for 20+ years? and yet AWARE claims to represent the interest of half the population of S’pore? Seems to me that the old guards are more of a cosy country club.
Josie deserves a chance to prove that she can deliver.
The Brotherhood has made their stand very clear; they are on the side of the new AWARE Exco.
Shoestring, you have made your stand very clear too.
We like to read about your views. Please write more.
>> “Shoestring, you have made your stand very clear too.
We like to read about your views. Please write more.”
I agree.
Obviously the whole saga has been a conspiracy with Josie Lau as the ringleader. I can only conclude that Josie Lau is a deceitful person.
And for such a deceitful person holding a VP position in DBS Bank is a real disgrace to DBS.
can i ask how much is the aware president being paid ??? or is this a voluntary job ???
assuming if there is no monetary involvement in this position, why there is so much of bickering between the old and new.
and so far the old guards does not seem to defend about the issue that this new team is adressing i.e pro-homosexuality.
C Singam mentioned that teenage pregnancy rates have been going up. What I want to know is, why should this be the case if the old AWARE has been doing its job for the past 24 years???!!! If they are telling our kids that it’s ok to have pre-marital sex, and heck, you can have it with boy or girl or both, and that virginity is not a positive trait but only neutral, no wonder our teenage pregnancy rates are not improving. So does it mean, according to their ‘comprehensive sexuality education’ program, it’s ok for teens to have sex with anyone .. and I mean, ANYONE, as long as they feel they have thought it thru, and presumably there is nothing to stop them from having multiple sex partners of any gender as long as they use a condom??? Are they kidding? This is what they are teaching our kids??? All you parents out there, tell me honestly that’s the kind of message you want to send to your kids, because that is how the kids will understand the message. What happened to morals and decency for goodness’ sake! Have we become such an ‘advanced’ and ‘progressive’ society that morals and virginity have now become dirty words? And BTW if teenage pregnancy is deemed bad because teens are not mature enough to handle parenthood (as the old AWRE says), you think they are mature enough to handle anyhow anyone anywhere anytime sex?? How can a person be mature enough for an action if he/she is not mature enough to handle the natural consequences of that action?? I can’t believe that Singam just dismissed “abstinence-only’ programs saying they don’t work, because it doesn’t teach teens abt protection i.e. condoms. Does she have any figures, proof for this, that abstinence-only programs don’t work? And even if this is the case, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to have a program that encourages abstinence while at the same time educating on protection given the reality that some kids will still engage in teenage sex. Just encourage abstinence, and then give information about birth control protection, in the context of a marriage and parenthood, but not as a way to CONDONE teenage sex!!! DONE! Very difficult and impossible meh? These old AWARE people just just a bunch of jokers and liberal intellectuals whoa re obviously UNAWARE of the full implcaitions of what they are teaching kids. If you want to know what full implications are, just look to our good ol’ USA and how their teens are behaving. We are becoming a society without the conviction and guts to stand up for what is right. We are only concerned with being ‘inclusive’ (as if that alone is magically a good thing. Pls wake up all you so-called liberal intellectuals – if we are inclusive of every view no matter how wrong, perverse, unlawful or disruptive, then please don’t complain about terrorists blasting your heads off. Last time I checked, inclusiveness is not an absolute value to be upheld above everything else) and politically correct and blinding ourselves to the increasing moral degradation of our society. If we keep going down this slope, then don’t complain about broken marriages, divorces, teenage pregnancy, neglected children, bulimia, mutilation, suicide, and AIDS. We asked for it.