The following is my email written to Mr. David Kingsbury of LCI, Administration Division, Finance Division, The President of LCI on 21.1.2021.
Dear Mr. David Kingsbury,
Here are relevant paragraphs of an email from you (LCI) to me dated 8.2.2018.
While you have shared substantial information alleging wrongdoing, it appears that this has been reviewed by both the local police and the ROS. As you have stated that no criminal wrongdoing has been found to date, no action may be taken at this time.
Please be advised that if this situation changes and either of the authorities that have been notified do find criminal behavior occurred, we would request the district governor or any other Lion notify this office and provide any relevant evidence to confirm such findings so that additional action may be taken. Although you are not a current member, should you be aware of such information and provide that to this office, the information will be reviewed and handled in the same manner.
On 18.7.2018 I wrote an email to you as well as the Administration and finance section of LCI informing you that the Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host was de-registered on 28.6.2018. The club was reinstated only on 2.7.2019. In other words, the club was defunct for the whole of the financial year 2018/2019.
LCI accepted club dues to LCI from a club that they knew (because I had informed you) had been de-registered.
Accepting the Club dues and not placing the club under status quo appears to conflict with many of the Ethics and Rules and Regulations on the LCI website as well as LCI handbook.
On what basis did you accept the dues to LCI when:
i. The obligations of each chartered club is to hold regular scheduled meetings or events and this was not done for the whole financial year.
ii. When the District dues and fees were not paid (Not accepted by the district)*.
iii. The club had failed to fulfill the obligations of a chartered Lions club, such as, but not limited to, failure to hold club meetings or events regularly, or failure to report membership for three or more consecutive months.
iv. Monies in payment of club obligations should only be paid on authority given by the board of directors. You were made aware that the club had been de-registered which means no Board of Directors meetings could have been held.
Tell me, Mr. Kingsbury, how do Lions promote the principles of good government and good citizenship, when you do not even respect the local ROS decision to de-register the club?
Lions International has given the wrong message to Lion clubs here where all lion members I have spoken to, tell me not to waste my time with LCI as LCI does not recognize the decisions of the local government. I did not believe them and started writing to you and after 3 years and finally your disregard to the de-registration by our ROS I am inclined to believe what the lions have told me all this while.
It does not appear that LCI portrays what it states in its website on ethics. Here are some extracts from a website on ethics on the Lion’s website and my comments.
No act or request on the part of Lions clubs and their members, officers, board of directors or staff within our association with whom, or the community for whom, we render services can justify the breach of this guideline. Honest and ethical conduct is defined by four core values that serve as the foundation for our Ethical Standards: Integrity – Lions Clubs International insists on the highest standards of personal and professional integrity. We must all make every possible effort to safeguard the association’s assets. We must also comply with all association policies and applicable laws.
My comments: What integrity are you talking about when you yourself disregard local laws?
How do you expect the lions to have respect and comply with ROS policies and applicable laws when you can accept dues from a club that you know has been de-registered?
Accountability – Lions Clubs International expects all club officers to honor commitments as authorized and made on behalf of the association and take individual responsibility for all actions and outcomes. It has no tolerance for ethical violations.
My comment: LCI has no tolerance for ethical violation? Is this just for show and for public consumption?
In many instances, ethical standards intersect legal requirements. If an ethical or legal compliance issue arises that raises a question in your mind, you have a responsibility to bring that issue to the attention of the appropriate International Board committee or International Office division (for example, the Finance and Headquarters Operation Committee reviews Conflict of Interest issues; the Constitution and By-Laws Committee and/or Legal Division review Legal issues). You may also bring ethical or legal concerns to the attention of your District Governor, the International Board of Directors, the Executive Officers, or the Administrative Officers of the association.
My comments: What a load of nonsense! I wrote to you when I was still a member. Subsequently you had the audacity to tell me that I am no longer a member and therefore I cannot complain to you. So, what is there to prevent a few senior members, as was the case with my former club, from mishandling funds and then expelling any member and thus preventing them from writing to you?
I believe it is silly of you to tell any citizen of a country, be he a member or non-member, that you will not entertain their complaint even when the complaint is given in writing with documentary evidence?
You had instructed the DG at that time DG Eve Wong to take action under CDRP. Why did she not do it? What lesson is going to be learned by other subsequent DG’s?
Note: *Did the Lions Club of KKHost pay the District Dues? I am in the process of checking this out. If the district dues was collected that would be flouting the Societies ACT.
I now understand from members of the club that district dues were paid by a few members.
4 comments:
Luqman, and I do want to address you as a Lion. I like to thank you and compliment you on your dedicated work to help teach children with reading disabilities. I took a scan reading of your open letter and it is sad to me that there is this issue between LCI and your previous Club in Malaysia. Your issue with LCI has nothing related to what I am trying to do and help LCI to move forward. I believe it is a simple mistake and with follow-up misunderstandings. I am not sure about how it all started. But allow me to give my perspective point of view and inputs. Without going too deep into this. Did this issue come up with your complaint that LCI accepted membership dues from your Club which somehow was de-registered from the LCI organization? Questions that come to my mind will be: 1. Is this a possible mistake from the LCI dues payment program or page, as I often found that these programs can be slowed and could not keep up? 2. Or is this an LCI staff who could mistakenly accept the mailed-in check? 3. Why did this Club still pay the dues to District, MD, and LCI? LCI as a whole does have many things to take care of every day and with their staff, I will think that with all the good work that you and your club members have done to serve the world, we would accept the fact that there could be mistakes made. Please try to find it in your heart to give them an excuse or forgiveness and be reinstated as a Lion. You are doing good work to serve others and yes, despite this incident, Lions Clubs International is still recognized as the biggest and best humanitarian volunteer organization in the World. I know you were proud of yourself along with all Lions of the World to be a Lions. Can you accept my apology from LCI and from Lions of the World? "Lion" Lugman, deep in your heart, is there another reason that you have which upset you so much? I like to be able to share. This is a new year for Lions and I hope I can help to bring you back in. I am the charter president of Silicon Valley Cyber Lions Club and we have members from 11 countries and cities and we do projects locally and around the world with interesting and challenging projects. Let ROAR again.
President Lion Michael Chan,
Thank you for this response. You comment is in brackets followed by my response.
(Luqman, and I do want to address you as a Lion. I like to thank you and compliment you on your dedicated work to help teach children with reading disabilities.)
Thank you President Michael for your kind words. It gives me immense pleasure to put smiles on parents faces when they find out that their children can read after a short period of intervention.
(I took a scan reading of your open letter and it is sad to me that there is this issue between LCI and your previous Club in Malaysia. Your issue with LCI has nothing related to what I am trying to do and help LCI to move forward. I believe it is a simple mistake and with follow-up misunderstandings.)
I understand that my issue with LCI has nothing related to what you are trying to do with helping LCI to move forward. On the other hand, how do we help move LCI forward without solving problems that arise? This is not a simple mistake by LCI. LCI was hoodwinked by John Ho as he had hoodwinked the members of my former club. LCI’s mistake was in not being willing to correct its mistake when it realised that it had made a mistake. It is hard to believe that LCI is naïve in not realising its mistake after the many evidences I had provided. I shall list this for you and new readers of my blog posts.
The question now, Mr. President, is what LCI is going to do about this issue. It is never too late to take appropriate action to put things right.
PDG John Ho had wrongly influenced the club into doing many things that are not ethical. In addition, he had also influenced the District to do things against the LCI constitution. He has been downright rude to PDG Eve Wong by threatening her.
I believe the appropriate action will be to request PDG John Ho to resign from the club failing which he should be expelled from the club.
The Treasurer PP Joseph Chai should be given the same choice.
The above action is to make it clear to all other clubs that the rules and regulations of LCI and its Constitutions are to be followed and adhering to the Societies Act is paramount. Otherwise other clubs will continue believing that our local ROS can be overruled by LCI.
(I am not sure about how it all started. But allow me to give my perspective point of view and inputs. Without going too deep into this. Did this issue come up with your complaint that LCI accepted membership dues from your Club which somehow was de-registered from the LCI organization?)
This issue stems from December 2016 when I first complained to LCI Legal, Finance and Administration that my former club is misappropriating funds meant for the needy. Subsequently I kept feeding information to LCI as well as some of the PDG’s of District 308 A 2.
No action was taken by the District because LCI maintained that each club is autonomous.
I wrote my email to LCI once again when I was informed that the club has not been de-registered/ suspended by LCI because LCI was paid the Subscriptions for the year when the club was de-registered by ROS.
PDG John Ho forcefully made all members pay the subscription for the year 2018/2019 as soon as the club was reinstated in July 2019. This resulted in another at least 6 members resigning after paying dues for 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. One PP who has been a member for more than 40 years who refused to pay the dues was expelled from the club.
(Questions that come to my mind will be: 1. Is this a possible mistake from the LCI dues payment program or page, as I often found that these programs can be slowed and could not keep up? 2. Or is this an LCI staff who could mistakenly accept the mailed-in check? 3. Why did this Club still pay the dues to District, MD, and LCI?)
I don’t believe that it was a mistake by LCI. If it is then we need to address this problem to ensure that this does not recur.
It was John Ho together with 2 others who paid the subscription dues to LCI. I understand the district refused to accept the district dues as the club was de-registered. John Ho paid the dues to ensure LCI maintained the club as a club in good standing.
(LCI as a whole does have many things to take care of every day and with their staff, I will think that with all the good work that you and your club members have done to serve the world, we would accept the fact that there could be mistakes made. Please try to find it in your heart to give them an excuse or forgiveness and be reinstated as a Lion.)
I am sure LCI does have many things to take care of and that it is not an easy task. They could have made mistakes and it is time to put it right. Before Covid19 I attended several Lion functions as a friend of Lions and I will continue doing that when things get back to normal. I had requested ROS to help reinstate me as a member of the club but it was turned down stating that ROS is not in a position to do that. Now, I am no longer keen on joining any charitable organization after witnessing the number of clubs that are misusing funds/ donations meant for the needy.
There is an Tamil saying which says that all that is needed is a drop of poison to make a pail of milk useless.
(You are doing good work to serve others and yes, despite this incident, Lions Clubs International is still recognized as the biggest and best humanitarian volunteer organization in the World. I know you were proud of yourself along with all Lions of the World to be a Lions. Can you accept my apology from LCI and from Lions of the World?)
Yes, Mr. President, LCI is still recognized as the biggest humanitarian volunteer organization in the world. I pray that it will continue to be so. There is no need for you or LCI to apologise but we need to put things right so that other offenders will be wary of continuing with what they are doing. Otherwise, we will open the flood gates for more such activities.
("Lion" Lugman, deep in your heart, is there another reason that you have which upset you so much? I like to be able to share. This is a new year for Lions and I hope I can help to bring you back in. I am the charter president of Silicon Valley Cyber Lions Club and we have members from 11 countries and cities and we do projects locally and around the world with interesting and challenging projects. Let ROAR again.)
Mr. President, yes, this is a new year for Lions and I pray that the Local leaders will be given a chance to address my concerns and put things right.
I would like to move on and not pursue this matter with ROS. No one will benefit from anyone going to jail.
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