[Chapter-delegates] Follow-up: Serious considerations to dissolve the Cambodia ISOC Chapter
Veni Markovski
veni at veni.com
Mon Sep 23 13:03:17 PDT 2013
Wow.
This is serious.
Would be helpful to hear ISOC global.
v.
On 09/23/13 04:45, Chantra Be wrote:
> Dear Chapter Representatives,
> Dear ISOC central and Asia-Pacific leaders and staff,
>
>
> This mail is written after long considerations in the Executive
> Committee of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter, discussed together with the
> members of our Advisory Board.
>
> It is to propose -- unless real and practical alternatives are
> identified within the following month -- to call a meeting of all
> members of our Chapter for the purpose of taking a vote to dissolve
> the ISOC Cambodia Chapter.
>
> We are looking forward to responses from all concerned recipients
> of this mail.
>
> The reasons for considering this serious step can be summarized
> under the following three headings:
>
> 1. Structural Constraints
> 2. Experiences
> 3. Impressions
>
>
> 1. Structural Constraints
>
> The Cambodia Chapter of the Internet Society started to function
> in 2010, since 2011 under revised Bylaws - designed according to
> advice from ISOC international, before voted upon by our membership,
> which say among others:
>
> * Article I. - Name
>
> 2. The Chapter shall be established as a non-profit organization
> under the laws of Cambodia.*
>
> The Executive Committee of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter tried to
> implement the requirement in Number 2 above, by contacting the
> relevant section of the Ministry of the Interior. It turned out that
> the legal setting up of a non-profit organization would require to
> follow specific regulations in which a physical office (not only a
> point of communication) has to be established and operated.
>
> Our efforts to receive financial assistance from ISOC
> international (an organization with a budget self-described as "In
> 2011, ISOC projects that total revenues will exceed $30 million for
> the first time") were turned down, as the priorities set there do not
> include institutional support for Chapters. The advice to do
> substantive local fund raising would have required in our situation to
> be an established organization already.
> Without such assistance, we do not see it possible to set up and
> operate an office for the ISOC Cambodia Chapter according to the legal
> national registration framework.
>
> 2. Experiences (with some quotes from the past)
>
> When, in August 2012, Ms. Duangthip Chomprang, the ISOC Manager
> for Regional Affairs (Asia) from the Asia Pacific Regional Office,
> announced to visit Cambodia, we welcomed this as an opportunity to
> discuss our situation with her. Unfortunately, she refused to have a
> meeting with our chapter to discuss our problems. In response the
> following mail was sent to her and to the other ISOC regional staff in
> Singapore, after due deliberations with our Advisory Board and
> Executive Committee:
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject Message from our Advisory Board and the Executive Committee
> Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:40:15 +0700
> From: President of ISOC Cambodia <president at isoc-kh.org
> <mailto:president at isoc-kh.org>>
> To: Duangthip Chomprang <chomprang at isoc.org
> <mailto:chomprang at isoc.org>>, Rajnesh Singh <singh at isoc.org
> <mailto:singh at isoc.org>>
> CC: Ong Pisey <treasurer at isoc-kh.org <mailto:treasurer at isoc-kh.org>>
>
> * Dear Thip,
>
> After having received your mail, rejecting our request to serious
> discuss the crisis for our Chapter, created as a result of the general
> situation and legal requirements in Cambodia in the meeting, and the
> refusal to ISOC staff to positively pay attention to our situation, we
> do not think it would be appropriate to cooperate, as a Chapter, with
> organizing a meeting for your 1 - 2.5 hours event, for which you would
> like to invite the Members of the Cambodia Chapter and other
> non-Chapter members. To discuss fundamental problems within ISOC,
> affecting the whole membership, only among officers, as you suggest
> (which has been tried in vain by email so far) would not be in line
> with our history to promote and practice open communication -- high
> values regularly lifted up among the goals of the Internet Society
> world wide and in its slogan: the Internet is for everyone.
>
> The situation and this response has been shared and discussed with
> the Members of the Advisory Board of our Chapter and is unanimously
> supported.
>
> Norbert Klein
> President, ISOC-KH*
>
>
> The five members of our Advisory Board at that time were
> (reflecting the stipulation of our Bylaws "The Advisory Board of five
> members, from important sections of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter
> membership"):
>
> the Head of the IT in Education Section in the Ministry of
> Education
> the Editor in Chief of a leading Cambodian daily newspaper,
> who is at the same time President of the Club of Cambodian Journalists
> the President and CEO of a major broadband providing ISP
> a senior staff member in the office of the Council of
> Ministers of the Government of Cambodia, and
> one student.
>
>
> Nevertheless, I and the former president of the ISOC Cambodia
> Chapter participated in the meeting which Ms. Duangthip Chomprang
> organized to present her PowerPoint slides about the Internet Society.
> There was even one with a headline related to human rights concerns --
> but the rest of this page of this slide was blank, and she quickly
> explained that such issues are not dealt with here, because they are
> new for ISOC.
>
> Our Chapter never received any sign that Mr. Rajnesh Singh, the
> ISOC Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific -- nor other ISOC
> personnel - were concerned how to find a solution for the dilemma we
> were facing. Actually, during the years of our existence as a Chapter,
> we never received any mail whatsoever from the ISOC Regional Bureau
> Director Asia-Pacific, except for circular announcements.
>
> Subsequently, mail to the ISOC Manager for Regional Affairs (Asia)
> did not receive any response.
>
> This attitude of ISOC Regional Staff, refusing to discuss with us
> our problems, resulted already in the September 2012 Annual General
> Meeting in disappointment and restricted expectations towards the ISOC
> international setup.
>
> When ISOC staff is discussing "standard performance" of Chapters,
> how is "standard performance" defined and measured? Only for Chapters?
> Is it standard performance that a Regional Officer announces and
> brings non-members to a "Meet and greet" (who say that two hours ago
> they did not know what the Internet Society is), but the Regional
> Officer encourages them to become members - OK - and to stand as
> candidate two weeks later for Chapter leadership? - Is it standard
> procedure that I learn from a mailing list that the Regional Office is
> "working within the government to provide more support and knowledge"
> -- we do not know until now what this is. Who is monitoring
> performance over what?
>
> When the Cambodian government mandated internet cafe owners to set
> up surveillance cameras in their shops and register the names of all
> customers -
> http://thediplomat.com/asean-beat/2012/12/27/cambodias-war-on-internet-cafes
> -- in 2012, and later declared almost all Internet cafes in the
> capital city to be illegal as they were closer than 500 m to any school
>
> http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5062&Itemid=207
>
> and
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=Penh+%22500+meter%22+internet+cafe+school&lr=&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=DHktUsr4M4fRkgXZt4CgBQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=564#facrc=_&imgrc=vHrInVRwY-NCdM%3A%3BB07fhLsihMLmKM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flivinginpp.files.wordpress.com%252F2012%252F12%252F874-map-internetbuffer_zoom-1.jpg%253Fw%253D459%2526h%253D600%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Falfredmeier.me%252F2012%252F12%25
> 2F15%252Fcomplete-ban-on-internet-cafes-in-central-phnom-penh%252F%3B459%3B600
>
> - a number of legally established NGOs raised their voices
> together, addressing such actions of the authorities; the ISOC
> Cambodia Chapter was not part of it, as we are -- legally speaking --
> a non entity. And surely this would also not have helped the "local
> fundraising" which ISOC staff outside of our situation had recommended
>
> 3. Impressions (again with some quotes from the past from the
> Chapter-Delegates List)
>
> During the following months a process of discussion for a revision
> of the bylaws of ISOC international was going on, reflected also on
> the Chapter Delegates List. During this process, a number of other
> ISOC Chapter representatives were hoping for a revision which would
> give a clearer position to the Chapters -- as "members" of ISOC with a
> substantial representation on the ISOC Board of Trustees - so that
> members concerns would have an institutional voice in ISOC decision
> making (former voices from the Chapters List: "...the Board does not
> yet understand that the primary role of many Chapters locally and in
> other contexts is as participants in Civil Society. From that point of
> view a 50:50 representation on the Board of Chapters on the one hand
> and the industry on the other hand would be more appropriate - and
> would I believe be applauded internationally"). -- "There is still no
> overarching statement... as to the objectives of the ISOC. This would
> be useful, particularly if it clearly specified the civil society
> dimension of the work of the Internet Society" - that such a hope was
> considered to be not important for formalistic reasons by ISOC central
> staff shows exactly the reason, why there is such a wide discrepancy
> to the expectations of Chapters in certain societies.
>
> The greetings on the ISOC Portal: "Join - Join today and help
> shape the future of the internet" create assumptions which are not
> substantiated in the ISOC structures.
>
> The results of the ISOC bylaws revision show again a top down
> structure, where the Chapters of ISOC are not Members of ISOC, but are
> under the oversight of ISOC international, and ISOC international
> continues to regulate chapter affairs (a possible area of tension or
> conflict "...might be good to point out that in some countries such a
> document might as well go against national laws, in the best case, or
> be considered as an attempt to spread foreign influence in the country
> {which, again in some cases, might be illegal}"), including the
> possibility to suspend a Chapter, while ISOC international does not
> seem to have a similar procedure of suspending an Organizational
> Members from industry, in case their position might be in conflict
> with fundamental values of the Internet Society.
>
> In spite of the ISOC slogan "The Internet is for everyone" it's
> setup does not show this orientation clearly. When a member enters the
> Member Login on the ISOC portal here:
>
> https://portal.isoc.org/EBusiness/Home.aspx
>
> (is it for "business" that one enters?) one is greeted with
>
> "Make a Contribution"
> "Contributions are fully tax-deductible!"
> "Donate"
>
> In how many of the countries where there are ISOC members is this
> true -- contributions to ISOC are tax-deductible?
>
> That there is a wide difference of opinions about the nature of
> ISOC became obvious time and again on the Chapter-Delegates list; I
> quote just some examples:
>
> Some ISOC old time members took "strong exception to an
> infographic" or said "my jaw dropped when I saw this" infographic,
> originating from the World Economic Forum about "The Future of the
> Internet," which had been recommended for distribution and wide use by
> ISOC leadership. - The problem is not that there are different
> opinions; the problem is that it seems that such fundamental
> differences of opinion do not have an appropriate platform for
> discussion towards a broader or even common understanding.
>
> Who is ISOC when the Chapters are not Members? "...there are NOT
> two parties. There is one: the Internet Society." - "But what we have
> got.... is an exceedingly one-sided dispute resolution policy! In this
> context, who is ISOC? Clearly, the employed staff have no mandate or
> authorization to exercise powers over Chapters. So, who is going to do
> these things: 'place ... in a probationary state', etc."
>
> At a former time it was stated on the Chapter-delegates List: "So
> as the paper is today: why should any chapter want to sign it? Would
> you sign a contract that only holds obligations but rather no
> benefits? Even not if you would be willing to fulfill the obligations!
> Or is the benefit in being a chapter as such? In using the name
> 'Internet Society' (as the Internet Society of China does)? Rather not
> - we are membership organization and any subgroup of members can
> probably organize themselves as e.g. 'Open ISOC Members Circle, Miami
> West' or so. - So if ISOC expects a commitment from its chapters it
> should commit something in turn."
>
> Conclusion
>
> Given this situation of not having a "listening ear" in ISOC and
> responses from ISOC international or regional for our concerns, we
> suggest to our members to start the dissolution of the ISOC Cambodia
> Chapter -- and to do it in an ordinary way according to the Bylaws:
>
> * Article XII. - Dissolution of the Chapter
> 1. Dissolution of this Chapter by consent of the members shall
> consist of unanimous agreement of all its officers together with a
> majority vote at a meeting which has been publicized in advance to all
> members of the Chapter for the purpose of taking this vote.
> *
> We would therefore call for such a meeting to discuss the
> dissolution of our Chapter, or not to do so in case practical and
> timely ways would show up within one months from sending out this
> mail. Such a meeting shall be convened as follows:
>
> Location: #8, St. 352, BKK1, Phnom Penh (Open Institute new office)
> Date and Time: October 26, 2013 at 2:00PM
>
> We regret to see no other way but to suggest these steps.
>
> At the same time I would like to state that the use of the
> Internet in our country has bee increasing considerably, and in all of
> these, members of our Chapter are involved:
>
> There are over 1,100,000 Facebook users,
> BarCamps - http://barcamp.org/w/page/405173/TheRulesOfBarCamp
> - have not only been held annually since 2008 in the capital city of
> Phnom Penh with hundreds of participants every time, but also in six
> provincial centers during the last and the present years,
> a self-organized Hackerspace center -
> http://hackerspaces.org/wiki - is in operation since some years
> providing a space for hard- and software learning and exchange,
> Last year, our Chapter invited the top leadership of all ISPs
> and all Mobile Phone Providers in Cambodia, in response to
> communications with the Asia Pacific Network Information Center
> -http://www.apnic.net - to a meeting with the APNIC Director on IPv6.
> Recently, the Director General of the Ministry of Post informed us
> that subsequent discussions with APNIC will lead to establish IPv6
> systems in Cambodia in 2014.
> Recently, after informal operations for two years with local
> enthusiasm and international support towards its establishment, "Open
> Development Cambodia" - www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net
> <http://www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net> - an online hub compiling
> freely available data to help consolidate access to up-to-date
> information and maps about land usage, land concessions and other
> critically important information related to the economic and political
> developments of the country. It was established as a non-profit
> organization under the laws of Cambodia. Both I and our former Chapter
> president were involved in these efforts, and we were now invited to
> be on their Board of Directors.
>
> I mention these examples to indicate that the communication
> society in Cambodia is very active. No coordinating body exists in the
> country for questions of human rights and communication freedom. We
> regret that our efforts to establish an ISOC Chapter did not receive
> the necessary institutional support.
>
> Be Chantra
> Secretary, ISOC Cambodia Chapter
> chantra.be at gmail.com <mailto:chantra.be at gmail.com>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://portal.isoc.org
--
Best,
Veni Markovski
http://www.veni.com
https://www.facebook.com/venimarkovski
https://twitter.com/veni
The opinions expressed above are those of the
author, not of any organizations, associated
with or related to him in any given way.
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