Think Centre, Singapore's latest NGO newsmaker, will see a change of leadership in the middle of this year. Announcing the appointment of Sinapan Samydorai as the new Deputy Executive Director at the February 2001 Board meeting, James Gomez (Executive Director and founder of Think Centre) will be gradually delegating his executive powers and duties to a man who needs no introduction, especially in the regional human rights scene.
Samydorai, aged 47, until recently the Programme Director in charge of human rights at Think Centre is slated to Head the Centre officially in May.
An experienced human rights activist who has had stints with the Asian Human Rights Commission, Samy as he is fondly known, counts upon his days as a political researcher, a staunch church worker and an active trade unionist amongst his achievements prior to his involvement with Think Centre. In the mid eighties, he was heavily involved as a staff of the International Young Christian Workers here. The next few years saw him based as a Regional Coordinator for Asia-pacific with the same organisation, in Hong Kong. In the early nineties, Samy contributed actively to Hotline Asia, a Catholic-based initiative by the Asian Centre for Progress of People. It was not until the late nineties where his nose for human rights violation issues took him into the Asian Human Rights Commission. Based in Hong Kong till 2000, he was their Programme Coordinator for human rights appeals of this region.
As Deputy Executive Director of Think Centre, Samy will entrench his involvement with the organisation further since his first contact at the Politics21 Forum series last year. Back to stay for good, he will devote more of himself towards steering Think Centre ahead in Singapore civil society, with the impending relinquishment of Gomez. The latter is understood to have been offered an offshore research job in Bangkok. Due to officially hand over the reins to Samydorai in May 2001, Gomez will remain as Board Director and has promised to network and build upon regional and international ties between Think Centre and other NGO groups.
Watch this space in the coming weeks as we bring you more in one-on-one interviews with Samydorai and Gomez!
