1 clash settled, 1 heats up

Today ran this story on 18 April 2009:

1 clash settled, 1 heats up

MS JOSIE Lau’s fate as a vice-president at DBS Bank appears settled for now, after a lengthy meeting with her employer on Friday night — but the future of the Association of Women for Action and Research’s (Aware) new president, and her executive committee, will yet be determined on May 2.

The date for an extraordinary general meeting of the women’s advocacy group has finally been set to address the rift between the old guard and the new leadership.

This came even as Ms Lau and her employer were locked in a meeting on Friday from 5pm to past 9pm, to settle their own differences after DBS had publicly rebuked her for going against its wishes to take up the top Aware post.

As of press time, both parties were tight-lipped on the discussions — but Aware vice-president Charlotte Lim told Today that Ms Lau,who heads DBS’ consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans division, had said the situation with her employers was “business as usual”.

The pair met up with some exco members for last-minute drinks at about 10pm, and those present said Ms Lau was “cheerful and relieved” after her meeting.

She was also touched by the “outpouring of support and the well-wishes from colleagues and members of the public”, said Ms Lim. “People were giving her the thumbs-up all the time. So that encouraged her a lot.”

While Ms Lau and DBS appear to have come to an understanding for now, this was far from the case with the opposing groups in Aware, who locked horns in a strong exchange of words on Friday.

It started with a press statement fromMs Lau on behalf of the exco at 1.30pm, asking “why have some people cast aspersions on our good intentions?” Turning the tables on Aware’s long-time members, she asked if “the old guard harbour an alternative agenda”.

“If so, they should disclose their motives and objectives fully and honestly,” she said, noting that 120 of the 160 signatories to a requisition for an EGM seemed to have been recruited very recently “to swell support for the requisition”.

The new exco itself had been the target of similar allegations, after nine new faces were voted to the 12-member committee at the March 28 annual general meeting.

In a retort sent to the media at about 7.40pm, the old guard said they were “astonished”. “Our motives and objectives have been fully visible for nearly 25 years in (Aware’s) policies and programmes,” they said in the statement. “What do you (the new exco) want to do in Aware that is fundamentally different from what was already being done? ... Why the need to muscle your way into the exco? Such tactics suggest a hidden agenda that may be contrary to the stance and ethos of Aware.”

In her statement, Ms Lau sought to clarify events during the controversial March 28 election. Since the AGM, a point of distress among the older members has been that nine of the exco positions were filled by new faces.

But Ms Lau noted that Ms Claire Nazar, who had been nominated by outgoing president Constance Singam as her successor, had in turn nominated — with the old guard’s support — six of the 11 members who now make up the exco. When contacted, Ms Nazar told Today the six included two older members and Ms Lau.

The new team’s two-week silence on their intentions also worried the old guard.

Ms Lau explained, “the new exco members were eager to start work” but Mrs Nazar “kept re-scheduling” their first meeting. Then, one day after they finally met on April 7, Ms Nazar “abruptly and unilaterally resigned by email”.

Since Aware’s constitution required seven days’ notice to call exco meetings, the committee met on April 15 and issued a statement straight after, said Ms Lau, who was disappointed that the call for the EGM was issued a day earlier.

The old guard, however, have their own beef with recent events. For instance, past Aware president Braema Mathi had her term ended as chair of the subcommittee on the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. She told Today she was “unceremoniously dumped” without reason given.

In the statement, the older members also “noted with alarm” how Ms Lau had disregarded the DBS staff code twice, and drew attention to reports that her division was reportedly in charge of recommending a charity for DBS to support late last year — which was the “evangelical Christian organisation Focus on the Family”.