Petition Against New Aware

The Straits Times ran this story on 24 April 2009:

Petition against new Aware
By Derrick Ho

CLOSE to 400 people have signed an online petition opposing the new leadership at the Assocation of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

The petition calls for the support of the 'Save Aware Campaign', and urges supporters to attend an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) to consider a vote of no confidence in the new executive committee.

The EOGM is scheduled for next Saturday afternoon from 2 to 5pm.

The petition, citing various blogs and media sources, accuses the new leaders of orchestrating a 'hostile' takeover to further their own agenda. It also claims that the the new guard is linked to 'fundamentalist churches'.

A vote of no confidence would mean that that the current exco has lost the mandate and confidence of its members to continue as serving and that it has not acted the best interest of the organisation.

It will also imply that it is inadequate to further the organisation's objectives, according to the campaign's website. All members of the current exco will then be removed from their positions on the and a replacement exco will have to be elected to serve for the remainder of the current term.

The petition urges supporters of the campaign to sign up as members of Aware so that they will be able to vote during the EOGM. Non-members have no voting rights.

Membership at Aware has soared over the past two weeks with over 200 new members.