Aware: Feminist Mentor no more

Aware Showdown
ACT 2
A NIGHT OF EMOTION
MOST HATED
Feminist Mentor no more
She called herself 'lion-hearted', yet was booed whenever she took the mike. Was Dr Thio Su Mien the mentor she claimed, or was she, as some say, simply patronising?
THE loudest jeers were reserved for feminist mentor Dr Thio Su Mien.
04 May 2009

THE loudest jeers were reserved for feminist mentor Dr Thio Su Mien.

Whenever she tried to take the floor, the audience would drown her out.

When Dr Thio came on the first time, the boos got so bad that a group of security guards started surrounding her, as if afraid the raucous crowd was going to pounce onher.

Dr Thio looked angry but took the mike anyway. She spoke about herself and her qualifications, including her position as the first female law dean in Singapore.

She brought with her a copy of the Aware book, Small Steps Giant Leaps: A History Of Aware And The Women's Movement In Singapore, in which she was featured.

She proudly held the book up, declaring herself a 'lion-hearted pioneer' and taunted the audience, saying that they should tear up the book since she was in it.

'Shut up!' the crowd screamed.

Dr Thio snapped back: 'You have no respect for your elders.'

Louder boos.

She added: 'You were falling asleep, you were not interested in your organisation...'

This riled the crowd further, who yelled that her three minutes of airtime was up.

Then she went back to her seat, which was in the front row of the stage.

She was seated next to Mrs Jean Marshall, 83, wife of the late David Marshall, Singapore's first chief minister. Mrs Marshall was there to support the old guard.

Later, Dr Thio sought the mike. Again, boos. The audience yelled as she tried to wrestle the mike from an Aware member who had been lining up to speak for some time.

She was told by other members to queue up like the rest did.

After some wrangling, Dr Thio finally got the mike. She went on to talk about Aware's constitution and why it should be adhered to.

'The constitution gives legitimacy and you need to be law-abiding,' she said.

Some members of the audience turned to each other and were overheard saying: 'That was so patronising'.

But after the vote of no confidence was announced in which the old guard won overwhelmingly, the confidence and aggression Dr Thio had displayed earlier faded.

Indeed, she appeared as if the wind had been knocked out of her sails.

In her final parting shot before she left, Dr Thio told The New Paper on Sunday: 'If they are happy for Singapore to be like this, then so be it.

'Let everything take its course.'

With that, she disappeared with the rest of her defeated exco.

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