| By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer | ||
 |  | Dr Thio Su Mien addressing the crowd at Suntec on Saturday. Amid loud boos and jeering, she held up a 2007 book Aware had published on the women's movement here and said she felt 'very charmed' to have been mentioned in it. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA |
She had called herself that when she revealed on April 23 her key role in bringing about Aware's sudden leadership change.
Men play active role in meeting  IT WAS a women's meet but the issue of men came to the fore repeatedly. Barely minutes after the meeting started yesterday, a woman raised an objection. |
Dr Thio, Ms Josie Lau and five others on the executive committee booted out on Saturday all attend the Anglican Church of Our Saviour in Margaret Drive.
On Saturday, amid loud boos and objections, she held up a 2007 book that Aware had published on the women's movement here and pointed out that she was mentioned as the first woman dean of the Law Faculty - from 1969 to 1971 - at the then-University of Singapore. Holding up the book, she said she felt 'very charmed' to have been included.
As the booing and jeering continued, Dr Thio told the crowd: 'Show some respect to your elders.' Someone in the audience responded: 'You have to earn respect.'
Dr Thio had sent out e-mail messages encouraging women to join Aware and change it, but she maintained on Saturday it was no 'covert operation'.
Old guard leaders had said that most of the people who came to the March 28 annual general meeting were unknown new faces, and they voted solidly for unknown new faces who took over without saying who they were, or why they were in Aware.
But Dr Thio on Saturday accused long-time members of having fallen asleep. 'You were not interested in your organisation...So don't blame others...don't blame other people. You are not interested. You are not interested!'
She wanted to continue, but she was drowned out by chants of 'Your three minutes are up, three minutes, three minutes.'
Later, she told The Sunday Times she was surprised by the 'anger' and 'vehemence' she felt from the Aware members. 'It's very scary,' she said. 'What is happening to women in Singapore?'
IT WAS a women's meet but the issue of men came to the fore repeatedly.
Barely minutes after the meeting started yesterday, a woman raised an objection.
She asked: Why was Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, a man, allowed to be seated on the right side of the hall, a section reserved for women who were eligible to vote.
Like ordinary members, men can pay $40 annually to join the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) as associate members, but they have no voting rights and cannot be elected to the executive committee.
Even so, about 300 or so men - many of whom signed up on the spot - attended yesterday's meeting. They sat on the left side of the hall together with foreign women, who were also not allowed to vote.
While the crowd rumbled with cheers and jeers, Mr Siew remained in his seat in the fifth row, unflinching. A member from the old guard clarified that Mr Siew, who joined Aware last October, served as its legal adviser and should be allowed to remain. The grumbles then died down and the meeting started.
Although the atmosphere among the men in the crowd was calm at first, it grew more lively as the afternoon passed. Several chuckled when the Aware exco members exchanged sharp remarks with female members on the floor.
'She was a man in her previous life. Short and sharp,' joked one man loudly when Ms Josie Lau addressed the audience, causing several men around him to snigger.
There were generally two types of men: Young, articulate men in their 20s or 30s who went to see the issues of civil society being discussed, and men in their 40s to 50s who were mostly fathers and went with their wives.
About two-thirds of the men seemed to be supporters of the old guard. They cheered and pumped their fists when anyone made rebuttals to the points laid out by the team led by Ms Lau. Some heckled and booed as passionately as the women.
'You should get out,' yelled one man to Ms Lau's team.
At one point, the men broke into sonorous chants of 'Where were you?' when former Aware president Constance Singam asked Ms Lau's team where it had been in the group's two decades of existence.
Several men also volunteered as ushers, helping with registration and the distribution of free bottles of water, sandwiches and flowers.
Some men arrived after 3pm and were not allowed to register and denied entry. They kept vigil outside the hall.
'It's very frustrating to hear loud cheers and noise inside and be able to only peep through the door cracks,' said fresh graduate Ed Chan, 30, who stood by the entrance for more than seven hours.
Those who supported the veteran Aware members generally wore white T-shirts with the words 'We are Aware' printed in red.
Those who supported MsLau's committee wore red shirts with the word 'Aware' printed in black.
Analyst C.F. Lam, 47, who was wearing a red shirt, said he was attending the meet 'to defend family values'.
Referring to Aware's Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme, which Ms Lau's team had criticised for promoting homosexuality, he said: 'I pay taxes and I want to know what my children are being taught in school. If they are being taught the wrong things, we should speak up.'
Another father, Mr Farid Hamid, 45, took a different stance.
Addressing the crowd during the question-and-answer session held while the votes were being counted, he identified himself as a Muslim father of three girls.
He said he would be 'proud' for his teenage daughters to go through the CSE programme as 'they need to make informed choices, not submit to dogma'.
The issue of male membership was also brought up for scrutiny.
On the accusation that the inclusion of male members has become a mask for male homosexual activists to forward their cause, former chairman of Aware's male chapter, Mr Tan Wah Kiat, 37, said: 'The only masks I wear are SKIIs (facial masks) and I share those with my wife.'
In response, Ms Lau turned to the exco's appointed legal counsel from Rajah & Tann and asked if the Aware Constitution provided for a men's chapter.
When the lawyer said it did not, former Aware president Braema Mathi replied that 'there are feminist men today' and that 'they should be equal partners in the feminist movement'.
But not all the talk was serious.
Several men who took the microphone also elicited much laughter and jeers.
One joked that he was inspired by the meeting to 'write a book and call it Women Are From Mars And Men Are From Venus'.
Trainer Marshall Lee, 47, said of the heated atmosphere: 'One woman I was sitting next to hissed at me as though she was Catwoman. I feel so harassed. Don't harass me. I am only a man.'
-- DEBBIE YONG
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