LET it go down in Singapore’s history books: On Saturday, May 2, 2009, a group of women uttered a battle cry and won back more than what they had lost.

I had joined the 300m queue to enter the extraordinary general meeting held by the Association of Women for Action & Research (Aware) because I was assigned to cover the event – not because I cared much for the pains its founding members had gone through the past 25 years in the name of our women.

Until now.

The one holding the notebook and the voice recorder should have been the one firing intelligent questions but, instead, I was asked point-blank: What does it mean tobe a young Singaporean woman?

What challenges do you face?

Why are you here?

The woman queueing behind me, who identified herself as a long-time ordinary Aware member, didn’t just want my two cents onthe recent Aware saga.

She wanted to know what issues were closest to my heart and which ones got my goat.

Appallingly, I was at a loss forwords, blabbering like an idiot that all I had known about Aware was that model Nadya Hutagalung used to speak at its events.

I was not even aware of its Comprehensive Sexuality Education programme until recent public debate on its contents threw it into the media spotlight.

As a young, educated daughter of Singapore, it is shocking that there are so many things – gender equality, provisions under the Women’s Charter and constitutional rights – that I took for granted for so long.

But I am glad that there are many out there who did not.

Long accused of being apathetic, Singaporeans have now proven that they are not afraid to participate in public dialogue and debate – caterwauling and shrieking notwithstanding.

A majority of those who attended the meeting in support of the old guard were executives and professionals such as lawyers, university lecturers and social workers – people who had a desk and a job to return to when the headiness of the weekend’s victory had subsided.

So, reader, if you were there cheering with veteran members of Aware at the end of that raucous seven-hour meeting, what now?

Have you gone back to your workplace quietly, as if the entire showdown never happened?

With Aware’s membership having rocketed from fewer than 300 to beyond 3,000 in a few weeks, it is plausible that most of these new members have never even given volunteering a try.

And having garnered this much publicity, it’s time for Aware to publicisewhatever programmes it can get its new members involved in before public interest cools off.

After all, as this episode came to a close, no one could say that they weren’t aware anymore.

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