Face-off: The white shirts v the red shirts

Face-off: The white shirts v the red shirts

Battle lines are drawn as supporters from both sides bear their allegiance proudly
By Teo Wan Gek , Elizabeth Soh

9am: Five hours before Aware’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) is due to begin at 2pm, supporters of the old, and new, guard begin streaming in.

Outside the venue - Suntec’s Exhibition Hall 402 - battle lines are clearly drawn.

Volunteers from the old guard are turned away by event organiser APE Communications but ‘red shirt’ volunteers from the new guard appear to enter freely.

Ms Eileena Lee, 38, a sports therapist, is one of the volunteers turned away. ‘We were told by the event organiser that we had to leave as the voting ground was neutral ground,’ she says.

The red shirts bear the words ‘Pro-woman, pro-family and pro-Singapore’.

The old guard supporters are in white shirts that say ‘We are Aware’.

11am: Eighty per cent of the more than 200-strong crowd outside the venue are from the red side. About 20 per cent of them are men.

When asked by The Sunday Times, the volunteers in red refuse to comment. One man says: ‘Talk to the women; they know better.’

When Ms Schutz Lee, 42, who was sacked as centre manager for Aware by the new guard, turns up, she is pushed by a red shirt volunteer and asked to leave.

Ms Lee is overheard shouting: ‘Don’t touch me. Do you think this is right?’

The mood at the exhibition hall is visibly tense.

Noon: When registration begins, the queues form.

Mrs Constance Singam, past president of Aware, arrives and greets supporters with hugs and smiles. She is met warmly by Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong.

‘I support everything that the old guard has done,’ he says.

Queues snake all the way to the third floor as people throng the holding area to register as new members.

Only members are allowed to attend the EGM.

About 10 security officers arrive and say the starting time for the EGM will now be 2.30pm as the crowd is getting too chaotic.

However, Ms Yap Ching Wi, a volunteer with the old guard, tells them that the crowd is orderly. There is no need to break up the queues - it will delay the proceedings if people have to re-queue.

Artists Patricia Mok and Chua En Lai are among the last to register as new members.

Mr Chua, who says he supports the old guard, describes the way the new guard has taken over as ‘insidious and sinister’.

2pm: Registration for new members closes.

Aware president Josie Lau tries to begin her opening address at the EGM but is met with repeated boos and jeers.

She asks photographers to leave as they have used flash photography, which is not allowed on the premises.

As Ms Lau is repeatedly interrupted, Ms Sally Ang from the new exco shouts to the crowd: ‘Shut up and sit down.’

Her outburst draws even louder jeers. Ms Lau apologises for Ms Ang’s outburst but the latter again admonishes the crowd sternly to let them continue.

3pm: The crowd is briefed on the voting procedure. Each ordinary member is entitled to one vote. The men cannot vote.

Members cast their votes in boxes as the audience continues to fire questions at Ms Lau and her exco.

The meeting is interrupted many times by chants of ‘We are Aware’ and ‘Where were you?’ after Mrs Singam asks the new exco where they were over the past 24 years.

Fly Entertainment’s chief executive, Ms Irene Ang, steps up to the microphone during the debate and says: ‘I’m a Christian and I love God as much as you do. But I don’t agree with what the new exco is doing.’

4pm: Self-styled ‘feminist mentor’ Thio Su Mien takes the microphone and asks people to ’show respect to their elders’.

NMP Siew asks for the old guard’s team of scrutineers to monitor the vote-counting, which the new exco’s legal counsel agrees to.

5pm: Ms Lau says in her right to reply that Mrs Singam was asked to step out of a recent meeting after the March 28 annual general meeting (AGM) as sensitive matters were discussed.

Ms Lau says Ms Schutz Lee was fired for ‘insubordination’.

The crowd is agitated when Ms Maureen Ong of the new exco reveals that it cost more than $20,000 to book the venue.

It is later revealed that the new exco has spent about $90,000 in the first month in office.

Members accuse the new exco of ‘high-handedness in the use of Aware’s funds’.

6pm: The discussion moves on to the controversy over Aware’s comprehensive sexuality education programme.

A sex education trainer with Aware says the information has been taken out of context - discussions on homosexuality take up only one and a half minutes of lesson time, compared to half an hour dedicated to the topic of abstinence.

It feels as if the meeting will never end.

8.10pm: The vote of no confidence is passed with a two-thirds majority. The crowd goes wild and demands that the new exco resign.

The new exco asks its legal counsel for advice. Mr Gregory Vijayendran says: ‘Legally, the new exco is allowed to stay in office even though the vote of no confidence has been passed. However, they are advised to take the vote of no confidence into consideration.’

Ms Lau and her team leave the stage for a discussion.

8.45pm: The crowd is still waiting for Ms Lau and her team to return, failing which it will ‘declare by their conduct that they have resigned’.

9pm: The old guard passes a motion to remove Ms Lau’s exco. It is passed with two objections.

Former Aware president Dana Lam is named new president, Ms Chew I-Jin vice-president, Ms Yap Ching Wi honorary secretary, Ms Corrina Lim assistant honorary secretary, Ms Tan Joo Hymn honorary treasurer, and Ms Lim Seow Yuin assistant treasurer.

9.10pm: Ms Lau goes on stage to make a statement with her team: ‘We have decided to graciously step down. We wish Aware all the best,’ she says.

Ms Lam declares: ‘I was just astonished by the number of passionate women; it is just so reaffirming. This is a historic moment, and a moment we can be proud of for a really, really long time.’

What a night.

wangekt@sph.com.sg

esoh@sph.com.sg

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