Lion Michael Chan is the Charter President of Silicon Valley Cyber Lions Club.
The following comment was on my blog post at https://myclubexperiences.blogspot.com/2021/01/open-letter-to-lci-part-4-lci-flouting.html
I have responded and waiting for rebuttals from any Lion member from anywhere in the world.
Lion President Michael Chan (LPMC)
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.)
Luqman Michel (LM)
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.
(LPMC)
(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.)
(LM)
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.
LPMC:
(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?)
LM:
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.
LPMC:
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?
LM:
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.
LPMC:
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.
LM:
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.
LPMC:
(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?)
LM:
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.
LPMC:
"Lion" Luqman, 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.
LM:
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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