Are you aware of AWARE?

The alleged coordinated hostile take over of a women's right group in Singapore by a group of women from a certain church in Singapore? There's plenty of news and discussion about it and certainly it took its fair share of headlines comparable to Ming Yi's ongoing case and the rojak food poisoning recently. Now I think Straits Times and other writers have covered the story pretty well from the DBS statements to how the old guard and the newly elected president got ousted out from the team etc. Let's just see how easy is it to conduct a hostile takeover of sorts.

1.) Societies are registered under the Registry of Societies in Singapore and they will have to draw up a constitution stating clearly the conditions for memberships, appointments, AGM, EOGM etc. Such documents can be purchased at the RoS website for a fee of $50 so you can get an idea of how to take over the society as each society's constitution will be different.

2.) AGM is a platform to elect new executive committee members. To amend the constitution, you will have to call for an EOGM. And there are some standard guidelines for AGM and EOGM. After the meeting, you have to submit the amended constitution to RoS before it is cast in stone. So one cannot amend the rules anyhow when such emergency happens. Which is a good thing as the old guard has a way to work back on the system.

So in order to take over any society, just sign up for the membership and when AGM comes, they will have to inform you. Look through their constitution and plan your coup by overwhelming the AGM.

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The new AWARE team adopted a 'knowers' stance when it comes to leadership. Its team shut off feedback from others, including experienced members, and took it to task to change others to suit their leadership rather than learn how to achieve their goals. The first thing they did was to remove all the sub-committee head and to complain why others don't give them a chance. When they speak, they put themselves as the victim and try to appeal for sympathy and feelings rather than convince others with facts and rationales. They are unlikely to be successful as long as they refuse to adopt a 'learner's' stance.

If the new AWARE team really did plot a 'stormtrooper' style takeover of AWARE, they must be surprised at the 'resistance' that they face. Their extreme actions forced the old guards to take extreme measures and they lost many support and caused a divide within AWARE between the old and new guard. Now if part of the EOGM's agenda is a vote of no confidence for the new team, we may see a new election. But what's more interesting is in the turnout for the EOGM, the percentage of new members from each side. It will be a case of who can get more voting power.

Whatever the ending, it will surely be interesting for many of us to observe as it may gives us insights to possibly some of the hidden issues/problems within Singapore

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And a check on RoS website shows that the last annual report submitted to RoS by NUS Physics Society was in 2002, the same year when I submitted an amendment to the consititution. Does that mean that I'm still, technically, the President of NUS Physics Society?? What have they been doing for the past 7 years!!