The AWARE Catfight

The AWARE Catfight

Cat fight cat fight! After weeks of baiting from the ‘old guard’ of AWARE, the new president Josie and her Pussycats have lashed back. Sorry, I apologise for the term ‘old guard’ - it’s both ageist and not gender neutral. In a statement to the media today, Josie Lau literally threw back the same accusations that the ‘evergreen guardresses’ had originally leveled at her new exco – “disclose your motives and objectives openly and honestly” (Channelnews Asia, 17 Apr 09).

No doubt, the evergreen guardresses of AWARE will retort, well our open and honest motive and objective is to ensure that you disclose your motives and objectives openly and honestly. Hmmpf, well our open and honest motive and objective is to ask you to disclose your motives and objectives openly and honestly…meow! And on it goes….yawn. It’s a bit like watching two spiders fighting and then slamming your hand down on them in a fit of boredom.

I’ve never had much time for AWARE. It’s always been a glorified tea party for gentrified women trapped in an outdated bubble of feminist ideology floating in the 21st century. And because of this it is full of contradictions. It screams for equal rights, and yet it has never championed the right of women to do NS. It argues for gender neutral terms, and yet it has never sought to change the Women’s Charter to say, Men, Women, Gay, Lesbian, Transvestite, Transexual, and Everything in-Between Charter. It demands equal treatment of the sexes, and yet it has never argued for the use of the rotan as corporal punishment for women criminals. It admonishes anyone who treats women like fragile pretty ornaments, and yet it does not fight against Western notions of romance and chivalry. Like I said, I have little time for it.

However, I dislike Christian fundamentalists even more. Any group that believes that it is absolutely, one hundred and one percent morally right, and expects everyone to abide by their code of morality is, to me, nothing less than a tyrant. This anti-gay, anti-abortion brigade is stretching its slimly self-righteous tentacles into as many facets of Singapore life it can from law (377A), economics (protest against the casinos) and now civil society. This holy-molely brigade has realized that it must leave the comfort zone of the church compounds to fight the rising tide of liberalism and wanton hedonism. And ‘fight’ is the right word because evangelical Christians believe that they are engaged in a spiritual warfare against Satan. In their minds they are fighting an epic Lord of the Rings-style battle against the anti-Christ, or as we known him by his earthly name, Siew Kum Hong. These fanatics sincerely believe that they have to prepare the ground for the second coming of Christ, an event that is taking almost as long to happen as Guns N Roses’ release of Chinese Democracy. And, like Chinese Democracy, it’s going be one helluva anti-climax.

So there you have it. Two irritating spiders fighting away. Sure, all this politicking is good for civil society. It helps mature our political culture and alerts us to the fact that the pluralism in Singapore cannot always be swept under the carpet. But f**k it, if only I could slam my hand on them both.

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