More than meets the eye?
Over the last few days, Singapore witnessed the most exciting elections that has taken place in the country since 1959, the year that the PAP swept to power : The AWARE AGM2009 and the upcoming EGM. To quote the pastor of COOS, you have to be in a coma to not notice what has been going on.
In the briefest summary, Dr Thio Su Mien led a group of women, many of whom attend the church COOS on a crusade to take over the leadership, direction and management of AWARE. She claims the reason for the take over is AWARE’s liberal stance on homosexuality. She claims that AWARE teaches young girls about sex, and encourages them to be lesbians.
In the past weeks, we have witnessed Josie Lau – the appointed president, and her New Exco team FIRE Braema Mathi (Chair of Cedaw) and Schutz Lee (Manager of AWARE), push Claire Nazir ( the elected president ) , Constance Singham (immediate past president) and executive Joanna D’Cruz to resignation , made Caris Lim (Old Guard Exco member) walk out in tears and kept Chew I-Jin(Old Guard Exco member) out of the press conference. Subcomm heads are replaced. The staff has reported difficulties working with the New Exco — who go to the office every single day, to demand all the documents, which they scrutinize down to the last detail. They’ve also changed the locks to AWARE, where a lot of confidential client and research information is kept.
Many people have asked the question : If you disagreed with AWARE’s philosophy, why couldn’t you just set up another organization promoting your own philosophy? The only reason why you’ll take over an organization would be to silence it and stop the work it was doing. Many people believe this work they want to stop and silence is AWARE’s promotion of an inclusive and non-discriminatory society.
However, I am very puzzled. And this is why:
Mar 28 : AGM 09.
Apr 10 : ST reporter Wong Kim Hoh breaks the news, with a highly speculative piece, about the take over. I am shocked, and refuse to believe it. I say so in my Apr 11 blog post.
Apr 15: Josie Lau is appointed president.
Apr 16: Braema is terminated, with effect from the 28 Mar, the AGM.
“Kindly note that your term of office as chairman of the CEDAW
Committee has ceased at the date of the AGM on the 28 March 2009.
Kindly submit all the work in progess by Friday 17 April 2009 without fail.”
Up until then, the CSE team has not heard a word from the New Exco. I am a CSE trainer. Nobody else hears a word from the New Exco either, where CSE is concerned. There are whispers of the New Exco looking into the CSE material, but nothing OFFICIAL is said, unlike what they did with Cedaw. Because of the speculation that is going around online and offline about the fundamentalist stance of the New Exco, and their ties to the COOS church, the CSE team prepares a defense nevertheless. However, they continue to remain silent on CSE, until Apr 24.
Apr 24: They change the AWARE locks, they confess to the plot, Dr Thio Su Mien turns up.
CSE and Homosexuality is cited as the primary reason for their crusade.
It puzzles me that Dr Thio chose to interpret our CSE as promoting lesbianism — since her New Exco had been scrutinizing our material, surely she can’t be that stupid! She’s a lawyer!
It puzzles me that no one has even confronted CSE for nearly one month, not a single official word was mentioned , nor were we given warning.
And then CSE became THE reason at the Apr 24 press conference.
If it was just an ideological difference, why couldn’t they say earlier?
If it was an ideological difference, why did they have to scrutinize so many documents?
CSE was no secret — the material is freely available to the New Exco, and it has contents that only needs 3 hours to cover in a secondary school class! There were no fine prints – all the philosophy was written on my blog even!
And if it was just about replacing ideology, why the need to lie, and lie so badly too? (
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=2784
)
Even more puzzling, if it was CSE and the anti-homosexuality-discrimination they were trying to silence, why did they have to fire Braema, and demand all the Cedaw material immediately?
Why was it CEDAW that was under so much fire from the New Exco?
Why did they want to silence CEDAW as well?
What exactly was CEDAW?
“The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is a United Nations convention which seeks to end gender discrimination… In signing onto CEDAW, governments commit to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women. Every four years, signatories are required to send a report to the UN CEDAW Committee describing the measures they have taken to comply with the convention. …In order to get a comprehensive picture of the status of women in each country, the United Nations requests that local NGOs like AWARE submit CEDAW Shadow Reports, offering additional insight into the lives of women. In May 2007 AWARE submitted its second Shadow Report. It received excellent reviews from the United Nations CEDAW committee in New York.”
Braema was fired as the Chair of Cedaw – the AWARE Committee preparing and submitting this report.
(The CEDAW subcomm from AWARE and what it does
http://www.aware.org.sg/?page_id=57
;
http://we-are-aware.sg/faqs#A11
AWARE’s last Shadow Reported submitted to the UN , 2007
http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/Singapore%20SR%20final.pdf
Singapore’s State CEDAW reports to the UN, 2004 and 2007:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=publisher&publisher=CEDAW&skip=0&querysi=singapore&searchin=title&display=10&sort=date
)
If you flip through the 2007 Shadow Report Aware submitted to the UN, you will realise that we touch on 2 potentially contentious areas.
In 10.6 – Sexuality Education, which mentions briefly ( 5 lines out of 143 pages) that homosexuality is criminal here.
And then there is this:
ARTICLE 6 TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION OF PROSTITUTION OF WOMEN
In Singapore, groups like TWC2, HOME are claiming that under the definitions of some countries, but not Singapore’s, trafficking is a significant problem here. TOC has done some very good reports over the last year also, on the situation with transient construction workers. Construction is a huge industry in Singapore, and so plays an important economic role. Any changes is the labour laws are likely to affect many construction firms and projects here. However, the Cedaw report did not touch on construction —- it focused mainly on the women, in prostitution and domestic work.
I ran a google search with the terms “human trafficking Singapore”
Here’s only a small portion of what I found, and I picked only those dated after the 2007 Cedaw reports — ie the 2008 and 09 stuff.
ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 2008
(Improvement of Singapore’s “Tier 2″ placement)
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/reports/public/hansard/title/20080721/20080721_S0009_T0001.html
Singapore rejects US assessment of its record on human trafficking
Posted: 22 July 2008
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/361835/1/.html
Human Trafficking
CSE and pornography (Commercial Sexual Exploitation – CSE) continue to be major
demand-side factors across the region, burgeoning (often unfettered) commercial sexual
exploitation in destination countries providing ample incentive to traffickers to meet
demand.
Singapore
Singapore is a destination country for young women for sexual exploitation from
Malaysia, China, Thailand, South Asia, and the Philippines. It is also likely a ‘circuit’
country for young women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation from Central
Asia and Russia
http://www.unodc.un.or.th/material/document/RegionalProfile.pdf
US Department of state
You are in:
Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs > Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons > Trafficking Victims > Victim Stories
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/c16482.htm
Singapore:The Situation
Singapore is a destination country for human trafficking.
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/singapore
S’porean woman accused of human trafficking
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20081219-109136.html
Sun, Dec 21, 2008 The New Paper
Emerging hotspots in human trafficking
Joe Fernandez | Apr 15, 09 3:21pm “The problem is that countries like Singapore have legalised prostitution. They do not see that anyone can be forced into prostitution. So, they are claiming there is no trafficking of sex slaves. Of course, we are challenging that claim,” Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez told the meet.
http://www.sapp.org.my/mkini/090415_hotspots.htm
Human Rights Issues > Human Trafficking
Directory > Society and Culture > Issues and Causes > Human Rights > Modern Slavery > Human Trafficking
|
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S’pore falls short of human trafficking standard Written by Nisha, on Monday, 16 June 2008 Published in : The News, June ’08
http://www.youth.sg/content/view/5406/75/
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery
Republic of Singapore
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Singapore.htm
NGO: Sabah among 3 human trafficking hotspots
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=64257
Pinay hooker in Singapore: Sex machine, punching bag
by Mar Empaynado from People’s Tonight Jul 28, 2008 at 06:05 PM
http://trafficking.org.ph/v5/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2204&Itemid=56
Women trafficked to Singapore lured into prostitution
Sep 1, 2008 SINGAPORE (AFP)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmnM4mWGQx52EtIAnioroCZ5u4_Q
The Brothel in Singapore: Karin’s True Story of Slavery
by Amanda Kloer Published April 01, 2009 @ 04:08PM PST
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/the_brothel_in_singapore_karins_true_story_of_slavery
India asks Singapore to curb trafficking racket
http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?618334
Oct 10, 2008
Trafficking of Filipinas in Singapore ‘unabated’–embassy :US to help curb transnational crime
By Veronica Uy INQUIRER.net First Posted 14:22:00 04/28/2008
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20080428-133194/Trafficking-of-Filipinas-in-Singapore-unabated–embassy
Trafficking of Filipinas in Singapore at all-time high: report
Singapore – Human trafficking of Filipinas in Singapore has increased alarmingly to an all-time high to 212 cases in 2007, an annual report from the Philippine Embassy in Singapore said on Monday.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=30064420
Human trafficking: The numbers don’t add up
Philippine Embassy says it’s on the rise here, but police reports show otherwise
TODAY Tuesday • February 5, 2008
http://www.twc2.org.sg/site/migrants-in-the-news/human-trafficking-the-numbers-dont-add-up.html
Malaysia vows action on Myanmar human trafficking
By JULIA ZAPPEI,Associated Press Writer AP – Saturday, April 25
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia’s prime minister on Friday vowed to investigate a scathing report by U.S. lawmakers saying thousands of Myanmar refugees were handed over to human traffickers and ended up working in Thai brothels
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090424/tap-as-malaysia-myanmar-trafficking-1st-b3c65ae.html
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[...] addressed it further but the new exco just fired Braema Mathi who chaired the CEDAW committee. More than meets the eye? Mathia Lee ~ Plans and Preoccupations __________________ WTB : Spoilt Creative I-Trigue 3500 Xbox 360 Live Gold Membership 3+1 Months [...]
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090424-137271.html
Thais say suffered in S’pore “jungle brothel” Fri, Apr 24, 2009 Reuters
This news broke 2 days ago, let me incl to that list.
[...] Mathia Lee ~ Plans and Preoccupations added an interesting post on More than meets the eye?Here’s a small excerptOver the last few days, Singapore witnessed the most exciting elections that has taken place in the country since 1959, the year that the PAP swept to power : The AWARE AGM2009 and the upcoming EGM. To quote the pastor of COOS, you have to be in a coma to not notice what has been going on. In the briefest summary, Dr Thio Su Mien led a group of women, many of whom attend the church COOS on a crusade to take over the leadership, direction and management of AWARE. She claims t [...]
[...] the blog post “More than meets the eye?“, Mathia Lee discusses an intriguing alternative to the debate that is current raging. What [...]
In the Sunday TImes today, the New Exco spelt out their agenda and said it would be outlined in their shadow CEDAW report. The also listed 3 items for CEDAW — employment, work-life balance, education.
There is nothing said about Article 11 — Human trafficking ,despite Friday’s breaking news about Singapore’s jungle brothel.
Braema Mathi is an expert in this are of trafficking of women. Now that she’s been fired, and they are preparing their own Shadow Report, are they going to even raise this issue with CEDAW? If they do, do they have the expertise that is needed, that Braema has? What is their agenda?
[...] Cancel Your DBS Credit Cards – The Legal Janitor: Things to note about Thio Su Mien – Mathia Lee: More than meets the eye? – TOC: AWARE veterans set the record straight – Sgpolitics.net: Countering the contradictions and [...]
[...] Mathia Lee ~ Plans and Preoccupations added an interesting post today on More than meets the eye?Here’s a small readingOver the last few days, Singapore witnessed the most exciting elections that has taken place in the country since 1959, the year that the PAP swept to power : The AWARE AGM2009 and the upcoming EGM. To quote the pastor of COOS, you have to be in a coma to not notice what has been going on. In the briefest summary, Dr Thio Su Mien led a group of women, many of whom attend the church COOS on a crusade to take over the leadership, direction and management of AWARE. She claims t [...]
Dear Mathia,
First of all, I would like to congratulate you for doing a wonderful job in bringing these issues to the attention of your readers. I suspect that most people, myself included, probably never thought much about AWARE and CEDAW prior to this. Hence, this is actually a great opportunity to profile the key social issues of the day.
Indeed, as you have pointed out, the CEDAW part is somewhat puzzling. I understand that apart from AWARE, the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) submits its own Shadow Report as well. And MCYS submits the national report. But I wonder just how relevant this international angle is to the focus of AWARE under the new Exco.
In any case, at the international level, things get messier, i.e. more players and more politics. First, on LGBT rights, there is NO international consensus. Homosexuality is illegal in much of the Middle East, South Asia and parts of Africa. Singapore is hardly alone in criminalising it, so I personally don’t see the reference in the AWARE’s Shadow Report as particularly contentious. Second, CEDAW recommendations are non-binding, and like all countries, we probably reserve the right to move at our own pace. Third, trafficking and exploitation also happens to be a difficult subject in many countries that are dependent on migrant labour, e.g. the Gulf states. Again, there are many views.
Regards
I’m going to try to be objective here, re Cedaw Shadow Report 2007 (CSR07).
I think these are questions we need to probe at the EGM on May 2nd.
The only reason they gave for terminating Braema, dissolving the CEDAW team and getting her to hand over ALL material with immediate effect was that our team failed to meet the Mar 09 deadline we set for ourselves. And we were dissolved effective on Mar 28. Nowwhere in the Constitution does it say sub-comms are automatically dissolved at each AGM.
You decide. Is that a reason or an excuse?
2 contentious issues with Cedaw ( if anyone has read CSR07 thoroughly, and feels there might be more issues being silenced, please post it up here or private message me mathialee@yahoo.com)
1. Sex Ed and Homosexuality
What’s at stake?
- CSR07 mentioned the need for comprehensive sexuality education (2 pages of total 143 pages), and briefly (5lines) mentions homosexuality. Because homosexuality in women has no legal issues (377A applies to men only), the only thing to mention is discrimination
What can the New Exco do?
- Take out this section altogether. For them to put forth abstinence-only & homophobic views will draw the disapproval of the UN Cedaw or make them a laughing stock. It would be against their specific agenda to leave it as it is.
Who will be disadvantaged by the New Exco’s move?
The teenagers benefiting from the programme – but who have no voice.
The GLBTQ community, because this discrimination will not be highlighted, and there is less pressure for the State to deal with it.
Who will benefit from the move?
The conservatives and fundamentalist. I have no doubt that the people you see at the forefront, and the people that are voting them to be at the forefront, GENUINELY believe this is their mission, their crusade. This is the easiest group, and largest group, to incite and mobilize to go on a crusade that can silence Cedaw. How else can you silence Cedaw?
What needs to be done?
We need to take back AWARE. Let’s make that happen on the May 2nd EGM. We need NUMBERS. The GLBTQ is by far the loudest marginalized voice. We need both the straight and GLBTQ to stand together on this.
2. Article 11 Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution o f Women
What’s at stake?
Article 11 Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution o f Women. In CSR07, an entire article was devoted to that issue. Since then, the situation has not improved, we’re still on Tier 2, a category Singapore objects to. See the links in the main article.
What can the New Exco do?
Take it out. Few people have the expertise and capacity to work in this area — definitely none of the New Exco does. In Singapore, Braema is arguably the best person and expert to chair the committee. Braema is not even involved in the CSE programme – why fire her? Within 2 weeks of the deadline? Effective BEFORE the deadline? Why silence the expert? They have never given a satisfactory answer on CEDAW. Instead, they have rode on the conservative-liberal Sexuality debate , and used that as the smokescreen. LOTS of smoke.
2 other things which I’m not sure people noticed
The New Exco has decried the proposed Constitutional Amendments
They claim we want to give men the voting power, and so should not amend the Constitution. However, AWARE had already put that to vote, and it was voted down. Dr Thio is a lawyer, Josie a bank VP. Surely they can understand the minutes that was publically forwarded to all AWARE members?
The other 2 amendments that they’ve objected to, but were not given much media attention because it seemed boring and insignificant are the right of teen girls above 15, and the right of FOREIGN women to vote. If they wanted to silence Cedaw for the Trafficking Article 11, it would be consistent for them to object to giving FOREIGN women voting rights. The message is that, foreign women are none of our business. This has already been voted FOR by AWARE, but not put into effect because we’ve yet to go to the National Registry of Societies. It would be easy for them to delay this submission to make it ineffective, and then vote DOWN these changes at the next opportunity with their infiltrated members.
Who will be disadvantaged by the move?
All the people being trafficked. Unlike the GLBTQ, they have no voice at all. They depend on NGOs all around the world to help them. They are at the mercy of government protection. They are being exploited by commercial entities.
Who will benefit from the move?
Unlike the GLBTQ and sexuality issue, which is really a SOCIAL issue , that poses no real threat to the economy or power structure, the construction business is central to the economy. Where so much money is involved, where rich corporations and people are involved, politics can be influenced to a greater degree. If the New Exco takes this issue out of CEDAW, it’s easy to see who the biggest beneficiaries are.
What needs to be done?
We need to take back AWARE. Let’s make that happen on the May 2nd EGM. We need NUMBERS. The GLBTQ is by far the loudest marginalized voice. The interests of WOMEN, GLBTQ, TRAFFICKED PERSONS and really, ANYONE with a conscience, need to work together to make sure that this is done.
Thanks Fargoal
In order to reflect the “true” state of reality, the more shadow reports there are, which concur with each other, the more believable it is. A lone claim can be dismissed, when up against the State’s claims. Also, the more reputable the team is, the more believable it is internationally too. AWARE and Braema are, in their individual capacities, very credible where CEDAW is concerned.
I agree that Homosexuality is so contentious, it is not even contentious anymore. Given its weight in Singapore (compared to the Human Trafficking issue that is, I know it means alot to the GLBTQ), I hardly think this is a major problem.
I totally agree with you about the non-binding nature, and how trafficking is also a difficult subject internationally.
However, international pressure, and Singapore’s international reputation, is something of importance. Singapore wants to get out of Tier 2.
The diff between the 2 is this.
With homosexuality, you can hide behind conservatism / fundamentalism and still claim to be righteous.
With trafficking, there’s nothing to hide behind. How can you even justify trafficking and exploitation? All you can do is deny and silence.
My interpretation of this is pretty simple. The new exco does not actually know what is going on. Feminism was never their forte; feminism isn’t my forte either, so I can see where they are coming from.
CEDAW after all, has ALL WOMEN in the title. Lesbians are a subset of ALL WOMEN. Based on TSM’s emails, they would believe that this is one of the sources of promoting lesbianism, whatever that means.
This is what you get with a zealous and single-issue mentality. They see lesbianism everywhere. Human trafficking was never part of their world view, but lesbianism was.
Don’t blame them. After all, if you mentioned CEDAW by name to me, I would have thought it would deal with lesbianism somehow. However, I don’t indulge in taking over feminist organisations, so that would be the excuse for my ignorance. Believe me, if I were to pick up the hostile takeover of AWARE as a hobby, I promise to do my homework first.
I doubt there’s any deeper malicious motive to this.
I do not consider active discrimination against lesbianism a benign sport, though.
In a way, I pity the new exco. They never knew what they were getting into. I think they are beginning to realise that they just bit off more than they can chew. Give them time, they’ll admit it *.
*Assumption only holds if members of the new exco subscribe to the idea that humility is a virtue and pride is a sin.
I totally believe that THEY never intended to silence CEDAW for human trafficking.
Could they also be a victim of more persuasion though?
I think someone should examine their network of friends and family to greater detail.
I’m going to use occam’s razor here and go back to basics. One of the first things that Dr Thio mentioned when she came out (as seen in the newspaper reports) was about education and the way the sex ed was taught.
So, it’s not Article 10.6 that is problematic. It’s really Article 10.8. This section describes the Abstinence-only approach as ‘inept’…
“Article 10.8
There is also a steep rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among the young. The latest figures show that teens aged between 10 and 19 comprise a growing proportion of all STI patients: 3.8 per cent in 2001 and 6.1 per cent last year13. These figures, the teenage abortions and the rise in HIV cases among the young all point to an inept sexuality education package that has remained too focused on the Abstinence message at the expense of Safe Sex. Issues of self-esteem or negotiation skills are also not facilitated in depth. Sexuality education is not given a holistic approach. Surveys by non-governmental organisations such as Action for Aids also show that many among the young still believe that they will not contract HIV, do not know how to use condoms, or behave as bisexuals as they deal with issues of gender identity crises, as homosexual acts are still criminal in Singapore. This disadvantages young girls who may not acquire enough knowledge on safe sex matters, are conditioned to be reticent on such matters, and will not even fathom that their partners may also be sleeping with men and women at the same time.”
This approach of comprehensive sex ed goes against the very core of what they sincerely believe in. By teaching youngsters about contraceptives, the program indirectly teaches them it’s ok to have premarital sex. Therefore, they want to revert this back to the ideal way of doing things, which is abstinence-only. Therefore, cedaw has to be revised. Maybe they will edit this section and say that since there is a rise in STI among the young, the abstinence-only message is the way to reduce this.
“This approach of comprehensive sex ed goes against the very core of what they sincerely believe in. By teaching youngsters about contraceptives, the program indirectly teaches them it’s ok to have premarital sex.”
Hi there,
clearly: teaching youngsters how to wear condoms ≠ it’s ok to have premarital sex.
It’s just like if I were to teach a kid how to light a fire, he will use it to burn down a house or light a cigarette. (may not be a fantastic analogy) NOT!
Teaching youngsters how to wear condoms = safe sex.
If the kids want to fuck b4 marriage (which i am sure most people do now), no amount of dissuasion is going to stop them when everyone else is doing it!
If these fundies want to interpret the programme according to their own narrow bigoted ways, then please do so ONLY to their own kids.
I do not wish the other kids to contact STD and HIV from unprotected sex.
The danger of teenage sex is not much of the sex itself; it’s if the sex is unprotected or if the teenager gets pregnant by accident (and abortion would have been a very likely scenario).
“Therefore, they want to revert this back to the ideal way of doing things, which is abstinence-only. Therefore, cedaw has to be revised. Maybe they will edit this section and say that since there is a rise in STI among the young, the abstinence-only message is the way to reduce this.”
I believe that it has been shown that the abstinence only message is a better way to prevent a rise in STI amongst youth. (not sure where i read about this!)
All through the years we have been using the abstinence message, but in our current modern society is it RELEVANT?
I hope that “God” will enlighten these fundies…. hahahahahaha…
“On 24 November 2003, Focus on the Family held the forum on “Homosexuality: Myths and Truths” at Wesley Methodist Church. There was much said about that forum, but what I remembered was this – Dr Thio Su-Mien responded to my point that not all Christians – including heterosexual Christians – agree that homosexuality is a sin. She answered that we should examine who then is a true Christian.”
Link: http://www.freecomchurch.org/05-230907.htm
How unbelievable? Thio SM thinks she is the “true” Christian? She is a disgrace to Christ.. and I can wait to see her burn in hell on judgement day.
There is no need to over-speculate Josie and her gang’s intention. They want only 2 things:
- outlaw any form of homosexual acceptance
- outlaw abortion
For women who are not concerned for the plight of LGBT, at least think about your own rights that could be threatened. DO YOU REALLY WANT A WOMEN’S GROUP IN SG TO DENY YOU YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR OWN BODY?