in addition to the below

Oops. i don't normally write so much in 1 night! gosh. Where do i start? Oh yes! Josie Lau! This is taken from the press release by DBS regarding their employee one Josie Lau, who became AWARE's president.

The bank takes pride in the fact that many DBS employees pursue their interests and passion outside work, and are involved with various community/charity/volunteer organisations in their personal capacity. These employees had sought and obtained prior approval to do so, in accordance with the Bank's staff code of conduct. Approval is granted on a case-by-case basis, depending on the demands of the proposed external appointment as well as the job responsibilities that the individual holds in the bank.

Josie informed the bank of her appointment as AWARE Exco member on 13 April, over 2 weeks after she was appointed on 28 March. She had not sought prior approval for this appointment and thereby breached the staff code of conduct. Nevertheless, DBS made a concession and agreed to support her involvement as Exco member.

Early this week, Josie broached the subject of her intent to run for President of AWARE. We reviewed her request and subsequently informed her that while the Bank continues to support her involvement in AWARE, we could not support her intent to run for President, given the demands associated with the top post of a leading advocacy group in Singapore. Banks worldwide are facing very challenging times and her role as VP in the credit card space today is even more challenging, given the environment we are in.

Every year, all employees are required to acknowledge that they will abide by the bank’s policies. We are disappointed that Josie knowingly disregarded DBS’ staff code of conduct twice. Such attitude is not one that DBS, or any other organisation, can condone in a leader. We are now reviewing the matter internally.

-- DBS spokesperson, 17 April 2009.

So. Josie Lau already made the decision to run for presidency as early as mid april. Yet in an Interview on Channel News Asia 2 days after this press release was made, Ms Josie Lau literally slapped herself silly with an outright lie.

“There were 5 of us, we went around the table and none wanted to take up the position (of President). I was the last woman standing. And I felt that I had to pick up the baton, to run and to continue to lead this organisation that has been marred in controversies in the last one, two weeks.”

Does this not give the impression that she never intended to run for presidency but that circumstances forced her to do so? Did she forgot her talk with her supervisors early that week?

Makes you wonder if any of it were real...

I'm so tired of these people who ride the moral high horses. What's so good about your brand of religion anyway?