Seeking clarity in Aware's meeting today

Seeking clarity in Aware's meeting today

WE GO into today's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) in full alarum: Aware is unfocused and too diversified. No, change that. It is too focused on a single objective. Aware teaches that "lesbianism" is a neutral word. Neutral is positive. Then it's a hop, skip and jump to a generation of lesbians.

In the din of these alarms, Aware's centre manager is fired for insubordination; an exco member is not told about a press conference because, as an "old guard", she feeds the press inaccurate stories; and locks are changed at Aware's office in the interests of security. The church to which several new executive committee members belong declares that it does not want "our nation crossing a line drawn for us by God".

Alarms serve a short-term purpose. They are raucous, deafening and they drown other sounds. In the clamour, there is little need to be consistent, to ground generalisation in fact, or to reasonably explain startling actions.

If we turn off the alarms, what does that leave? What is the new leaders' constructive, long-term vision, a vision that must be organic to Aware? Which is the better history of the organisation to which they lay claim? Are the new leaders motivated purely by anger and fear or do they have a positive vision for Aware? What is it?

Dr Mandakini Arora

NOTE: The writer is a member of Aware and edited the book, Small Steps, Giant Leaps: A History Of Aware And The Women's Movement In Singapore.

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