It’s almost a month since the so-called hostile takeover of AWARE and it is much expected that things aren’t going clear up even after the 2nd May EOGM. Either way, this will be my final post on this matter, since I am not articulate enough to put my views across and I easily lose my temper, which usually means an end to a civilised and serious debate as we know it.

On looking back, I realised what triggered my response in the first place was simply my annoyance that Internet opinion is so one sided against the new AWARE ExCo. I am further annoyed that right from the first article on 10th April, Wong Kim Hoh (a Senile Senior Writer) started talking about the new ExCo’s stand on equality, sexuality and religion and even dug up letters they wrote to the press previously. (With this episode everyone should seriously be wary about writing to the papers. Remember you need to provide some very personal information when doing so – NRIC and phone numbers and address.)

I am quite impressed, actually. For once the Straits Stooge Times has lived up to the journalistic standards expected of it. Contrast that with their appalling lack of follow-up on the Geylang Serai Temporary Market food poisoning incident – such as the lack of spring cleaning for 3 years and the constant problem of rat plaguing all our markets.

I thought that would be the end of my annoyance but several days later (probably around 18th April), personal information of the new AWARE President appears on the papers. Her occupation, the name of her spouse and children were all over the mass media. All this along with the rest of the new ExCo, complete with photographs. Even the fact that several members attend the same church came to light. Consider that information on the Geylang Serai Temporary Market Committee was totally non-existent on the Internet, this is a remarkable effort worthy of George Orwell! (Personally, I hold the Stooge Times responsible for the death threats that Josie Lau and her family now receives. Whatever the case is, for sure I’ll not bother to subscribe or take any Stooge Times article seriously, probably for the rest of my life.)

That’s not yet the end, however. On 23rd April, Alan John (a deputy ISD Director Editor of the Stooge Times) joined the fray with an article titled “AWARE saga: Too many questions left unanswered”. Many points in it but really nothing new in particular. It was simply expanding on things that has been written by Wong about two weeks ago, with the new information now available. Looking at their articles, the naughty thought that these two are ‘coming out of the closet’ came to mind at times, though that was dismissed as quickly as it spawned.

Looking at the direction this has taken, I feel for Josie Lau and her family. It must have been a long and dreadful month for her. Hated by people who probably just got all their ideas from reading all these fxxked-up mass media reports and from public impressions formed over nothing more than an CNA interview. That’s not menmtioning, getting labeled as a power-hungry conservative and Christian fundamentalist, plus getting her family threatened and even ‘earning’ a reprimand from the employer.

And talking about the reprimand:

Excerpts from a comment here:

What is so perplexed about this matter is there are other people on board in DBS who are holding executive appointments with either NGOs’ or government positions, like Koh Boon Hwee, Liang Eng Hwa etc… only Josie Lau has been targeted for a personal reason & i know what it is, she is a VP, holding an executive appointment in the bank, she is also a Christian, is very vocal about homosexuality & its shortcomings, she got herself in hot soup, her hubby Dr Alan Chin is also an associate member of AWARE, their style of reasoning & leadership qualities is vastly different from the old guards.

Poor, poor Josie. Apparently singled out for reprimand. To me, DBS seems to be going out of its way not only to make up for their previous association with FOTF (Focus on the Family), but to kowtow to the LGBT lobby. Well done, DBS. Is there anything you have ever gotten right for a long time? Perhaps, while DBS is afraid of offending some LGBT loudmouths, it should also be reminded that it is even worse to offend the majority. (Seriously, from the implementation of service charges on accounts less than $500 after the purchase of POSB, to the apparent lack of supervision over the sale of DBS High Notes 5 minibonds to certain non investment savvy individuals, is there anything DBS has done that hasn’t shown itself to care about nothing more other than its own bottom line?)

Either way, this episode confirms just how easy it is to manipulate agenda on the Internet. On Twitter for example, I see ‘re-tweets’ (or replication) of comments and opinions among pseudo-communities like some kind of virus replication. How quickly these people replicate those Tweets makes me wonder how much time they have given the entire matter a more complete look through or evaluation before taking up the cause of friends or acquaintances as their own. In financial markets, this is called the ‘herd mentality’.

I won’t go so far to say that this is deliberate staged by god-knows-who as some kind of experiment, but just how single-sided the Internet opinion has been after the media has played up the LGBT issue, might actually go some way to reinforce the impression of the more conservative-minded people, and convince the government gahmen the Internet is dangerous, non-self regulating and thus in need some kind of control. If some laws may be put in place in the future for whatever excuses, I would understand the rational behind it and be far less vocal and vehement in opposing it even when I can’t agree with it.

I get the shivers when this almost convinces me that China has the foresight and has been utterly right in setting up the Great Firewall (GFW) to establish some control over the Internet. Almost, because I am not a big fan of censorship or Internet control and I am not in power. Can’t say I’ll feel the same way otherwise…

As I bring this article to a close, interestingly, a few things came to mind. One was this question where a friend asked: “So from this episode, can I ask now, whether we can logically consider that homosexuality causes division and disharmony to society?”

The other was a bit more abstract… and is based on my own interpretation of this friend’s usually enigmatic comments, ‘I let you sell curry puff in front of my store, doesn’t mean I have to advertise for you and SUPPORT you. I simply don’t drive you out.’

If I understands this little pearl of wisdom correctly, that summarises nicely about all that hullabaloo from the old guard, Internet opinion and media reports about gender equality and this… mess.

Insane Utterances:

We are the “Samurai Drinkers”. This is our code:

1. We drink for pleasure, not torture.

2. You buy one, I buy one.

3. Bo dah do lan pa? Don’t dah my jiu to to show my lan pa as yours. Buy your own drinks. See #2.

4. It’s people who gives you face, and you who throw it away. Do not disturb other customers.

These days I don’t read local news, because I have generally given up on the standard of reporting (or rather, the lack thereof) of our local media and a little tired of the mundane news that actually managed to hog the headlines – like a couple fornicating in a condominium swimming pool. I usually just scan through the headlines in the RSS section (News and Blogs) of the Mozilla Thunderbird 2 email application and just mark them read when they do not interest me. Thus, I came to notice the current furor around the new AWARE committee, the same way I came to notice the matter on the food poisoning cases. [AWARE, for the uninitiated, is the acronym for the Association of Women for Action and Research.]

It attracted my attention because several blogs I followed on RSS had numerous articles on the matter. And from what I have gathered from those articles, it all begin when the Straits Stooge Times reported that in a recent AGM, the previous AWARE Executive Committee [ExCo] was ousted in an alleged ‘hostile take over’. It was achieved by the mobilisation of previously unknown and inactive * sic * new members, who then voted in a new group. Amazingly, this report has endeared the Stooge Times to even the usually hostile liberals. Well done, champs!

Somewhere along the line, the allegation that it was a concerted effort by ‘religious fundamentalists’ (read: Christians) to take over AWARE rose. It was pointed out that a large majority * sic * who turned up to vote joined in the preceding 3 months this year, and the primary focus falls on past comments by some of the committee members against the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual) agenda. Even the fact that these members were attending the same church came under the limelight. It left me a little puzzled… just what has the LGBT Agenda got to do with whatever AWARE stands for?

Is that all the old committee cared about? Or it is fear that because of the new ExCo’s religious convictions, the new committee would make the organisation less inclusive to lesbian members or members of other religions? At times I wondered, would it be an issue if some of the new ExCo members are non-Christians worshipping in particular temple or mosque. It is quite hilarious that some even derided the newly elected ExCo ‘attempt at hostile take over’ and suggested they should go form their own ‘fundie-version’ of AWARE. To me, that’s sort of like the supporters of the ruling party telling the opposition to go found their own… country!

Whatever the case is, let me propose a counter-theory to the consipiracy theory of hostile take over of AWARE by religious fundamentalists fundies since the Internet has been quite one sided in their opinion in this matter. This all done for laughs, and not with malice. I understand that not everyone like my sense of humor but that’s really your problem. Here goes:

~~~

First of all, the matter that majority of those who voted only joined a few months ago actually suggests to me that there was a previous confrontation between the traditional-minded, conservative and religious members and the former committee on the direction AWARE is taking. It leaves me to speculate that confrontation ended unresolved or in a stalemate, and the powers-that-be then, suggested that the matter be raised after the AGM in a not so friendly and challenging tone (i.e. vote me out if you ‘bway song’ [unhappy] lor!), confident that they will be re-elected to the ExCo resoundingly and put the upstarts in their right places. Did I mention they actually wanted to amend their constitution or something so new members can only be elected only after they have been members for more than a year or something like that?

So this is what happened, the old committee was so confident of victory and they failed to mobilised. In fact, a former president even arrived late at the meeting and they were all caught with their skirts down. They paid the price for their arrogance and over-confidence just like President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in December 2007. In that election, Chavez was so confident that he would win the referundum for indefinite terms that his supporters failed to rally to vote.

Frankly, if the LGBT agenda is the **only** thing the old committee is all concerned with, no wonder they got voted out! Even those who are not religious fanatics or otherwise agnostic members would have voted in new faces to refocus on agendas that is more all encompassing and truly – women focused!

Of course the old committee isn’t going to take this lying down. Instead of abiding to the outcome of a democratic process, they took the matter to our press – which like tabloids loves to sensationalise even the most minor issues. The outcome was a rallying of cyber ‘brown shirts’ of the LGBT agenda (**SIEG HEIL!!) on the Internet. Meantime, an EGM is called on May 2, and the old guard might even call for a vote of no confidence on the new ExCo in that meeting. Perhaps they took a page out of contemporary Thai history, that when you lose in the democratic process you then resort to the ‘streets protests’ (in this case virtual ones) and other not-so-undemocratic means to attempt to topple the winners.

This is a simply nothing more than a fxxking power struggle and just how the Internet is so one-sided for the pro-LGBT old guard is appalling.

~~~

Ok… so much for my crappy conspiracy theory. Don’t really take me seriously. In fact, as a man, what AWARE stands for doesn’t really concern me. While some people may have considered AWARE to be credible and what they advocate to be commendable, I have frown upon some of those things (if my hazy memories serves me right). In fact, I generally perceived AWARE as redundant in view of the Woman’s Charter. In summary, I really can’t care less about AWARE.

Thus, if I may describe what I am doing here in an analogy, this entire matter is akin to a small puddle of shit hitting the fan. The little chunks then get flunked all over the place and people start hurling some of their shit at the same fan. The result was an even greater stink and some of that shit had unfortunately landed on my ‘virtual front lawn’. Annoyed that I had to clean up the place in the process, I have decided to hurl a rock at the fan as well.

Doesn’t matter the rock might just ricochet back in my face along with more shit… lol!!!