publichouse.sg

By Irene Lee

In this past year alone Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar, has amazed the international community with its efforts in opening up the country in what can be considered as progressive steps towards democracy. Its latest installment of political reforms includes the end of the notorious censorship laws, announced in late August, which require work to be submitted to the state before publication.

However, years of unfulfilled promises by the Burmese government have raised much skepticism over the changes. Nonetheless, from another point-of-view, it can be said that such change is better than no change. So skepticism aside, how has the media landscape in the golden land been transformed?

By Stacy Ooi / Pictures by Irene Lee

AWARE – the Association of Women for Action and Research – held its second annual fundraising ball on Monday, a lavish affair at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Board member Jasmine Ng described the event as not just a fundraising effort but also a celebration, a gathering of like-minded people. It also honoured deserving social activists with an array of gender equality awards.

In terms of fundraising, the event was a success. Over $200,000 was raised in a single night from both the ticket proceeds and the auction sales – attracting the highest bids were a basketball autographed by star athlete Jeremy Lin as well as a Sommer Red Papillionaire bicycle. ‘Of course you can use your credit card to pay,’ emcee Pam Oei teasingly admonished the crowd. ‘I’ve got so many of you coming up to ask this. We don’t expect you to carry thousands of dollars around in cash,' she said to laughter.

The AWARE award recipients were individuals who championed equality and justice for women in various sectors of society – workplace leadership, sex trafficking victims, rape survivors, the elderly, foreign domestic workers. These individuals advanced the cause of equality through avenues such as journalism, corporate programs and pro bono legal services.

Two awardees – Radha Basu of the Straits Times and Lisa Li of Publichouse.sg – were journalists, a testament to the power of journalism as a voice for the marginalized and as a tool for social change. Lisa received the Significant News Story of the Year Award for her 2011 article ‘The Silence of Sexual Assault Victims’ which drew attention to a section of Singapore’s Evidence Act. The Act made it possible to discredit a victim of sexual abuse by using her sexual history against her in court, resulting in victim-blaming and less women coming forward to report rape. Publichouse editor Andrew Loh then sent the article to various ministries and government departments to raise awareness of this unjust law, an act which contributed to its eventual repeal.

Radha Basu of the Straits Times received the AWARE Heroine Award for her prolific efforts in writing about domestic workers, trafficking victims and other disadvantaged groups. She has this piece of advice for journalists aspiring to capture such stories: ‘You’ll need empathy. They’ll take time to open up to you; you can’t do these interviews in five minutes. And always get your facts right.’

Sex trafficking was a recurring issue in the work of many AWARE award recipients. Ms Basu describes trafficking as the ‘fastest growing criminal activity’ worldwide because of the low rate of prosecution – many victims of trafficking are unwilling to seek help from the authorities for fear of being deported, or being found out and punished by their traffickers. They sink out of sight of the general public, unaccounted for and beyond help.  Ms Basu is fighting to bring the problem of trafficking into public awareness, calling on journalists to get past the perception that it’s taboo or dangerous to talk about because ‘if you push the envelope, a lot of things can be written about.’ After all, she adds, ‘a good scoop is something no one wants you to tell’.  In June, Singapore was ranked Tier 2 by the U.S. 2012 Trafficking in Persons report, a call for us to be more vigorous in identifying and prosecuting sex traffickers, identifying possible trafficking victims and providing these victims with financial and psychological assistance.

Men were also present amongst the prize-winning social activists. Winner of the AWARE Hero award was Mark Goh, who devotes his career to protecting the rights of those poor, female and migrant - the triply vulnerable. In a brief interview he explained that female foreign workers are more vulnerable than their male counterparts due to lesser pay and lesser protection under the law. Males are usually protected under the Employment Act, the Employment of Foreign Workers Act and the Workplace Safety Act while females, who're mostly domestic workers, are only covered by the Employment Act. He cites a 'long way to go' in Singapore's laws protecting migrant workers.

Mr. L Brooks Entwistle, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia, also received an award for empowering female employees in a traditionally male-dominated corporate environment. Goldman Sachs has spearheaded several programs to this end, ranging from assistance for working mothers wanting to re-integrate into the workplace to mentorship programs helping promising women ascend to leadership positions at the same rate as their male colleagues. Singapore would benefit from seeing such policies implemented more widely – more assistance for working mothers would improve the work-life balance here, while more female leaders are certainly welcome in our society where 61.3% of the 730 companies on the Singapore Exchange don’t have any female board members.

The final award recipients revealed were Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Mr Tan Jee Say, dubious stars of the night for winning the Alamak! Award for sexist remarks. During the GE 2011 campaigning period, Mr Tan had yearned for a vanished golden age where women could afford to be housewives, while Dr. Tan told women wanting to get into politics to seek their husband's permission first.

Go to the AWARE website for more information about the awards and their recipients.

Op-ed by the Research and Advocacy team at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE).

By Vivienne Wee, Nadzirah Samsudin & Priyanka Bhandari

10 September marked the 10th annual World Suicide Prevention Day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately one million lives are lost to suicide every year worldwide; this is more than lives lost to homicide and war. About 5% of people attempt suicide once in their lives, although the global mortality rate is only a fraction of that at 0.016% (or 16 per 100,000).  However, a suicide attempt rate of 5% is still too high, as it signals widespread depression and hopelessness. Suicide attempts are often a cry for help and it is tragic that people have to resort to this to obtain help.

Statement to the media from Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong have indicated that they will accept my offer of composition of $30,000 to annul my bankruptcy.

I will be working to raise the amount to pay to them as quickly as possible primarily through the sale of my books. I would also like to appeal for donations from supporters to aid the process.

I hope that this settlement with Mr Lee and Mr Goh will mark the end of a chapter of Singapore's politics marred by defamation suits against opposition members. I look forward, as I am sure all Singaporeans do, to a new era where political discourse is dominated by substantive debates on policies and ideas of how to take our country forward.