Update: Josie Lau Is AWARE's New President

Latest news - the new president of AWARE is Ms. Josie Lau, who is a vice-president at DBS Bank and the wife of Dr. Alan Chin.

Check out the following news article for more details (key points in bold).

Click on the link to see some pictures of the new Exco:

DBS exec is Aware's head

Josie Lau appointed despite employer's advice not to run

By Tan Dawn Wei, Wong Kim Hoh & Yen Feng

BANK executive Josie Lau, 48, was appointed the new president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) on Wednesday night at a meeting of the new team in charge.

She is vice-president of consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans for DBS Bank.

But shortly after she announced that she was president, posed for pictures and made brief comments to reporters, her employer expressed unhappiness that she had taken the top post at Singapore's best-known women's group.

DBS Bank said it had told her just before last night's Aware exco meeting that it did not support her running for president. The bank said it supported employees' participation in community work, but they needed approval before taking on external appointments.

And Ms Lau did not have the green light to be Aware president.

'We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy,' a spokesman said last night.

Ms Lau could not be reached to comment as the new team wanted media queries to be channelled via the Aware office.

Checks by The Straits Times revealed that she is married to Dr Alan Chin Yew Liang, who owns several clinics under the Lifeline Medical Group. They have two teenage daughters, and Ms Lau is also listed as director and shareholder in some of her husband's clinics.

A beaming Ms Lau refused to take questions from reporters when she emerged from last night's exco meeting which lasted nearly four hours. But she said she was pleased and delighted to be president.

'Together with the new exco which was duly elected under the Constitution, I will build on the good work of the past Aware members who advanced the causes for women in all areas of society through advocacy, research and community work,' she said.

**********

With this announcement, I think that the suspicions of many people regarding the Exco takeover has been substantiated.

The Straits Times also reported that "Exco member Caris Lim, a long-time member, walked out three hours into the meeting of the new team, saying she was 'very disillusioned'."

The official statement says: "The new team intends to build on the solid foundations laid by the founders of Aware and will continue to promote the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of our society. The goal remains to bring about full equality of the sexes and to end all forms of discrimination against women."

However, the new president has refused to answer any question from reporters.

DBS Bank appears to foresee the potential implications of this new appointment, but I fear that they may be vastly underestimating the public sentiment.

To me, reading this news feels like seeing the first six watertight compartments of a ship completely flooded with water.


Would you like to know more?

- Construction of the Titanic