Let me firstly and profoundly make it really and really clear that I wish, as a member, to disagree with any and all posts and/or commentaries that stand against national committee concerning KSAA treasury. I can’t hide that I have things no one here have touched on that I somehow expect or disagree with the team or the chair itself. I also wish to be very specific however and wherever possible and appropriate. It’s also worth mentioning I belief, that I die not to go against any man but to bluntly go against any man wrong ideas. Mostly if not all of these people I want to disagree with have I a special respect for their personalities and their intended service to the KSAA.
I disagree with: a demand for respect of democracy; calls for allowing treasury be independently run by the two treasurers; a continuation of loan program. while many have not in this debate put their points of stance driven by passion and overconfidence, many have done just that. It is overconfidence when formal KSAA treasurer, the serving self-nominated NSW chairman demands a pursued of his damaging old ideas of which he recklessly had loaned away over $25000, almost two thirds of KSAA fiscal worth. I mean 60% of KSAA, handed over to people who would never care to repay, fail to appreciate KSAA assistance or miss to understand the core purpose of this money. 60% handed over to people who he and his formal colleagues wouldn’t publish to the membership even amid greatest calls for “verify any pattern of repay or show the loan list” during Brisbane’s conference. It’s overconfidence when the formal treasurer and others timely attempt to force the chair into withdrawing a core promise from its Brisbane’s acceptance speech quote “….the loan program will cease up until when the last dollar in loan is recovered and accounted for by the elected national team…”. If my memory is right, then I heard the entirety of the attendance applauded in relief and excitement. It was what everyone except formal treasurer and his boss had been wanting to hear from a responsible accountable national committee figure. That was a clear overwritten by the public, of the constitution if at all there is part of the constitution in contradiction to that. People are the constitution we should always remember. If it’s not overconfidence then there wouldn’t be these cheap random demands for apologies from national committee members. A committee formed after pens were put to paper by many who were Youngs and olds, students and not students, women and men. That was democracy and that was a good representation of what I personally belief this association should be. A belief that, KSA not just KSAA should be of the people though may be for the students. This is to say that we in opposition all each represent oneself except the national team. It’s also overconfidence as well as passion for formal KSAA treasurer after his five long years of voluntary service to this organisation; he fails to learn from his mistakes. Instead, he wanted to loan away the remaining 40% had he been given the chance. When asked in Brisbane why is there so much in loan than at bank he said “I worry not of what is in loan but of what is at bank”. Loaning the 100% of KSAA to people who have no evidence of capacity to repay is not the wise way to go even if they commit to a million per cent interest rate. Who is assured if these loans are not going to be written off as bad debts after this long has passed without repay. Does this amount to arrogance? Possibly! Now let me be clear. I don’t deny the great positive impact the loan might have had not only on the loan recipients or the KSAA but also on the whole Kongor community. People might have arrived to Australia as a result of the loan; people within Australia might have been helped deal with tough emergency issues. Whichever the result has been, I have no problem with that. But here is the problem, the loans were not gifts, they needed be paid back, it was money people purposely donated not because they were rich or uncommitted to other things but because they trusted in KSAA, they believed in collective accomplishments. So the questions are; how much loan had you recovered till you left office, what was the recovery strategy you made, what were the preconditions given to debtors, why were you, only yourself allowed by the then national team to go the treasury alone…why did you accept to be the only one in treasury. Treasury by itself can be KSA but KSA by itself can not be treasury! In other words, if inflow of cash stops or had stopped for whatever reason resulting in no treasury, then that historic library would have been impossible, no assisted new arrivals and so on.
While some questions of these types above have already been asked and remained unanswered, a conclusion can be drawn. It can be concluded that there existed no loan recovery plan; that the loan program was reckless and; that until past the day debtors make you a favour, you will together with your the then boss remain liability to the KSAA! That’s one option, another is, to sincerely apologise at least to those people you have inappropriately spent their hardest earn dollar and also testify you both will leave the national team alone when it comes to treasury.
In Brisbane’s conference, the then chairman continually asked about the KSAA’s long term or 10 yrs vision and mission. I was amazed why he would ask these on a day before treasury figures became known to the general public. These figures later showed a peak in annual contribution in 2005. Since then, the contribution has plunged by 46.4% in 2007 and expectedly worse in 2008. Only the then officials knew about this unpleasant information, a deep negative trend. Yet they found within them enough courage to bombard the attendance with those questions. Come on, even the son of God with no information at hand would first perform a miracle in order to answer those questions. With population rising, the contribution plunging and all alarm bells switched into silence modes. Perhaps it’s evident why the formal chairman wish to think as in his respond to an article earlier this year that “KSAA is not in completion with anyone, organisation or with any community. This is why I think people don’t know what KSA/A is and what it’s not”. The formal treasurer together with his chairman clearly knew that KSAA was not fit in any way to be compared to other organisations. Both of them using these questions, had intentionally tried to blindfold the public into thinking there is anything sound within the association’s financial standing when it was in fact crumbling down like dust.
Competition is an undeniable factor in a positive progress. We know people generally don’t live long life in many parts of Africa. That is true because there is higher life expectancy here in the West for instance. Don’t we too know that the infrastructure is not good in all parts of S. Sudan? We know that because it’s way incomparable to what it’s here. Competition allows us to see how we measure up against others and then depending on who is in charge, be able to change gear for a slowdown or speedup.
From personal experience, I think NSW holds the record in setting dramas. Four years ago during Sydney’s Conference, I and many others from various states darkened the Sydney airport for hours waiting for pickups by conference organisers. People fated up and wanted to take taxis to the centre but were told the transportation people were on their way to the airport. Hour after hour later, it would be… “At roundabout, we are on roundabout, at roundabout…”. Now, again this damaging drama about treasury smoked out of NSW and promoted by e-debaters among others. What on earth is true about NSW which is not true about other states? They don’t contribute the biggest as far as annual contribution is concerned allowing for large population there.
I disagree with this idea that a field of educational hunt is of importance for office bearers. I belief, that KSAA affairs aren’t complex enough to warrant such things as expertise. If it was so, then individual resumes would be submitted in at every KSAA election. This is why I agree with the national committee on involving other non-treasury members of its committee in handling KSAA treasures. To me, this is a committee comprised of all competent figures who deservedly got elected. And for this reason I think it’s an insult to these capable national figures for people including formal treasurer and his formal chairman to be saying “it begins with the chair and ends with chair”. Majority is what democracy means and that is what the committee is running on.
The national team has, for the first time in KSAA’s history announced its intention to educationalise the association once more by initiating some educational clubs among other clubs. This is what I personally had hoped to sometime hear this educational association prioritise. The team has also within acceptable time been updating the membership on issues despite these many dilemmas surrounding it. But, how much had the previous national committee got done during its first six months in office?
In conclusion can I empathise that, KSAA is not a weekly magazine and people should not therefore expect weakly updates from national office. We in KSAA have allow same ideas be used in treasury for five long years only to wakeup to realisation that about 60% of KSAA finance has been loaned away by an independent one official treasury. Only to realise that KSAA annual contribution has dived by more than 46% from its 2005 peak. There should never be a national independent treasury but a national committee where democracy thrives as it currently does. There may never be a formal written history book but there will always be a mental history book. All KSAA rescues and/or “murder” (should I say) attempts shall be archived in either of this books for future times.
Chol Lueth (Mikelueth)
A member.