Inconsistencies in Josie Lau’s Television Interview

Inconsistencies in Josie Lau’s Television Interview

SINGAPORE– Emerging from the recent saga of AWARE, new president Josie Lau appeared on Channel News Asia for her first ever televised interview. Anchoring the discussion on Talking Point were Debra Soon, Chief Editor for MediaCorp TV news, and P N Balji, an Editorial Consultant.

There are however, several possible inconsistencies surrounding the televised interview that seemed to contradict the understood state of affairs concerning the recent unexpected takeover of AWARE by the new exco.

Firstly, Ms. Lau had defended her ascension to the Presidency of AWARE against allegations that it was an premeditated power grab by individuals who had known each other through a common church. According to the interview, it was suggested that the position of Presidency of AWARE was thrust in her direction on the night of 15th April only after everybody else rejected it, as she was the “last woman standing”, and therefore had to “pick up the baton, to run and continue to lead this organization.”

However, according to a statement by Ms. Lau’s employers, The Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), it was made clear that Ms. Lau had informed them earlier in the week of her intention to run for Presidency of AWARE, a request which DBS eventually rejected.

Furthermore, it was mentioned during the interview that Ms. Lau did not know Ms. Maureen Ong, the new Honorary Treasurer of AWARE, prior to their involvement in the organization — despite being from the same church. The church in question is the Church of Our Savior, a relatively small-sized Anglican community church in comparison to several mega churches in Singapore.

Indeed, the possibility is remote that 6-7 members of a community church may actually end up running for 11 positions at the same time in a secular national organization such as AWARE (exhibiting a dwindling membership of only about 200 last year) without any antecedent communication or planning.

Questions remain about the 80 odd members that suddenly showed up during the AGM of AWARE to vote the old guards of the organization out. Most of these 80 odd members had their AWARE membership freshly minted several months ago, and prior to the AGM were not understood to be active participants of AWARE.

However, information has not been disclosed about these 80 odd members if they were also from the Church of Our Savior.

AWARE is primarily a secular national organization that fights for women’s rights in Singapore. When pressed with a hypothetical scenario of a woman dismissed from work based purely on a discrimination arising from her sexual inclination, Josie Lau’s answer was hesitant and evasive to say the last:

“(We) have to look at it and see what direction we’re going to take,”

“We haven’t had the chance to discuss individual ideas yet, we want to quickly get on with work.”

Clearly, such a case of unmistakable sexual discrimination of women in Singapore should not require the grand workings of a tedious litany of ideas to be categorically stood up against. For the leader of a secular organization fighting against all forms of discrimination of women not to provide a simple definitive answer to such a direct question, the future may indeed be ominous for the rights of women in Singapore.

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