Singapore Furs Committee Political Tussle

This article covers the historical events of the Singapore Furs (SGFurs) Committee Political Tussle of 2015 and how the current committee was formed.

SGFurs Committee Before 2015
The SGFurs prior to 2015 was run by Krado the lion, the founder of the group he claimed to run since 2004. The committee has a flat organisational structure of 3-5 volunteer admins comprising of active and pioneer members as advisors. Krado was notorious for his unorthodox style of governing the group, where he will maintain overall control of all members in the group, kicking and banning members from the group who he deemed as troublemakers, which is often frowned upon, but tolerated by members. However, the number of such group banning occurrences is rare, with 1-2 cases a year. Often, members are given warnings and chances before being eventually kicked out of the group.

Krado-Cheetah Paws 2014 Conflict
Following Krado’s break-up with his then ex-boyfriend Cheetah Paws, Krado lashed out online in the SGFurs group about the breakup. Krado claimed that Cheetah Paws took advantage of his kindness when he took him in to recuperate following Cheetah Paws violent breakup with his then-boyfriend, Snares the Lion. After the breakup with Snares, Krado and Cheetah Paws started on an open relationship lasting a few months into 2015. Krado claimed that he was "cheated" and "backstabbed" by Cheetah Paws, who during their relationship secretly started dating Scalarius Blackflight, a young fur who is also an active admin in SGFurs group.

The SGFurs community did not take Krado outlash well, condemning Krado for his “rashness and irrationality” in how the situation was handled, accusing Krado of “defaming” Cheetah Paws, who is a widely known SGFurs icon.

2015 Committee Political Tussle
An internal committee meeting was called to address the Krado- Cheetah Paws issue, the group members collectively deemed that it was time for SGFurs to nominate a new committee, deeming Krado “unfit” to serve as the face of SGFurs given his “unorthodox public-relation style”. This is also considering the increased number of foreign scrutiny the SGFurs group now receives with foreign guests.

2015 New Committee
In July 2015, potential candidates for the new committee wrote guidelines for committee leaders, defining the roles and responsibilities of admins in the group to address the current loose style of governance. August 2015, the SGFurs opened up nominations of committee leaders, followed by subsequent voting of committee leaders and establishment of the new committee by mid-august 2015. The election eligibility includes being a Singaporean/PR and must be at least 18 years of age at time of nomination.

Hollud (Theodore Ng) was nominated into as the new group leader, together with 6 other committee members which maintains the SGFurs group page.

Krado did not run for a position and was not elected into the new SGFurs committee. Despite the election process being an open voting process, Krado claimed that the election was “rigged” and a “popularity contest” to remove power from the group he founded and to "cover-up" the Cheetah Paws fiasco. Following the election results, he voluntarily relinquished control of the SGFurs facebook page and twitter account to the new committee following the election outcome. He remains as a group member in SGFurs. Krado now maintains an alternative SGFurs twitter account (SingaporeFurs) and runs an annual Singapore Furry convention called “FurryLah”.

DarkLurker, a pioneer group admin, stepped down as a group admin after nomination of the new committee, citing "personal reasons".

Scalarius Blackflight stepped down as a group admin after nomination of the new committee citing “conflict of interest” given his prior involvements in the Krado- Cheetah Paws 2014 conflict, He was also underage to participate in the elections at the point of time.

2015 Election Aftermath
The SGFurs facebook group to present still remains a closed secret group. The inclusion of new members will undergo a thorough vetting process, where group leaders will now post details of the new member to be agreed upon by existing members before begin allowed into the group.

There has been noticeably fewer group furmeets since the new committee took over. It was observed one year into the new committee, SGFurs staple events such as the annual STGCC and AFA fursuit walk had been cancelled, with the committee citing “dwindling public interest”.