Carafa's Eye

History is rife with examples of how organisations are subverted, hijacked through the surreptitious entry of agents from rival organisations or political entities. Perhaps the first popularly documented use of this tactic is the infamous Trojan Horse used by the Greeks to breach the walls of Troy and destroy this proud militaristic regime.

The most significant refinement of this tactic occurred with the Commmunist United Front strategy formulated by Leon Trotsky and it became formally known as the tactic of "entryism". Whether in Europe, in China or even in Singapore, the Communists recognised that the key to exponentially increase their support base and importantly, also political influence, was to take over organisations and project power from and through them. The take-over of these organisations were to be led by Lenin's Revolutionary Vanguard. The key group of agents-of-influence who would infilitrate targeted organisations, and from within eventually seize control of these organisations to enact the party's political objectives. Entryism became an important force multiplier for the Communists and the tactic itself remains even as the ideology which spawned it lies in the dust of History.

This particular tactic of entryism is relevant to Singapore indeed as the PAP came into power exactly through this. But the brutal irony was that they did it to the Communists who had in turn, done it against the British.

Perhaps History does move around in circles.

As the AWARE controversy escalates and more truths come under the harsh scrutiny of light, there are seemingly disparate pieces of information which are starting to coagulate into a slightly disturbing pattern.

That AWARE was a victim of entryist tactics is now clear as day. By the admission of the New Exco and more revealingly, by the unveiling of the Feminist Mentor, Thio Su Mien, AWARE had been subjected to an orchestrated take-over. Having read through their statements deeper, what they were trying to hide in their come-clean session were not their religious motivations. What appears to be their main defence was that they are not "organised". There is a key difference here. The New Exco since day one and since their revelations have been stressing that what they did was not organised. Even Thio Su Mien insists that she just sent a few random emails, and only mentor the women occasionally. When you deny something so vehemently, it only opens the enquiry in that direction.

Then, the role of Church of Our Savior and its Senior Pastor came to light. Many, probably including myself, started to think that the orchestrated take-over was conducted under the auspices of COOS. That it was a group within COOS attempting to enforce their religious beliefs on the rest of Singapore. If this is the simple picture, than the end-game is near. There is no possibility that COOS will be allowed to function as it had. The government, no matter how slow or clueless, will never allow the church institution to be used for such purposes.

But what if COOS itself was the victim of a steeplejack? That COOS, just like AWARE, has already been overrun and taken over? This hypothesis cannot be rejected. What happened in AWARE cannot be isolated exclusively. We have to examine other possibilities, examine other connections.

There is a church practice not commonly known to the layperson. This practice relates to the notion of "love gifts". Such gifts, usually in cash, are made to the church or to the pastors in recognition of their contribution to God's cause. As in all religious practices, we assume that such love gifts are given with no strings attached. It’s an act of faith. But then, such a practice can easily be misused. Surely, if faith and piety in this practice is corrupted, a situation could arise where particularly wealthy congregants could exert inordinate influence?

It is not in the realm of fantasy that perhaps there could really be a deeper, underground organisation or fellowship at play here. Other than AWARE and COOS, there could be other organisations at risk or already subverted. Perhaps, there could even be other organisations set up ostensibly with a secular agenda but inexorably linked to this underground council to gently extend its tentacles into society.

Perhaps Josie Lau's past actions needs to be re-considered in this light. She drew much flak for her credit card promotion which provided money to Focus on the Family. From its website FOTF appears hardly a Christian organisation. But its links to a notorious US based evangelical network was easily exposed. So is FOTF another steeple-jacked organisation with links to this deeper organisation?

We have to uncover what remains hidden.

Quote of the Day --

"The new age that You are preparing to inaugurate will have to forget its anonymous architects, the ones who have seen to it that events fitted together in accordance with the plan. The illustrious names of the defeated and the victors remain in the chronicles, available to anyone who wants to reconstruct the intricate events of an era and that which it produced. When those deeds are long gone and those lives have made way for the future, not a trace will remain of that silent army of soldiers of fortune and obscure labyrinth-builders. So it is only a matter of hastening the moment of that disappearance, just enough to allow us to escape the final execution." -- Q, Luther Blissett