Alhamdulillah I have had the privilege of attending various kinds of General Meetings (AGM, EGM, SGM etc.) of various bodies over the past few years at our Centre and elsewhere. By and large the proceedings in the meetings have been somewhat lacking in goodwill amongst the members and/or factions. I am not suggesting for a moment that there was malice amongst the individuals and/or factions. By definition there could not have been any malice among the participants who were all ‘MUSLIMS’. Everyone would have attended the meetings as part of his service to Allah (swt) and would therefore have been as positive and as constructive as possible. However, I could not help noticing that instead of showing goodwill to others and being tolerant of their views, some participants did, at times, end up showing the members of our younger generation how NOT to conduct themselves in meetings! Some such proceedings have indeed left me with memories. This is so because I felt that although legally accurate and procedurally correct, the conduct of people and the proceedings of the meetings had decidedly often lacked "Goodwill and Dignity".

The real pity has almost always been the example we set for our younger generation. A fair proportion of the participants in meetings have been the under 18s and some as young as 10 years old! Instead of setting an example of how to conduct oneself in meetings, we ended up teaching them how to go all out to win no matter how one behaved in the process! It is our duty to teach our up and coming generation how to succeed in life. True enough, we have to make them aware of the fact that life is not always a bed of roses; there are some thorns too along the way!

We should conduct ourselves in a manner that allows us to become good Muslims. We should show them examples on how to control some of our base emotions such as anger and frustration. You see, IF WE ARE IN THE RIGHT THEN WE CAN AFFORD TO BE POLITE and IF WE ARE IN THE WRONG THEN WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE RUDE! It is as simple as that! Yet over the years, there have been contributions which have singularly lacked in tact and magnanimity! Often these attributes were instead substituted by unnecessary harshness and acrimony! Sometimes it made me wonder if we remembered who we were and why we were there! Mercifully rare in occurrence, but one got the impression that the lunatics had taken charge of the asylum!

The use of "Points of order" is another privilege which has now and again caused some problems. Armed with this stick, the most feeble of characters can halt a mighty Chairman in his tracks! Often the users of this privilege had seemed to be only too aware of this power and had used it effectively to strike at the Chairman and/or indeed at the opposition through the Chairman! Occasionally I have witnessed the most unrestrained use of this privilege. Will it not be constructive in the spirit of Islamic goodwill if all sides understand that the privilege of calling for a "Point of Order" is a good servant but a bad master! At the end of the day, the onus should always be on the leaders of the opposing factions to ensure that they patently discourage the misuse of this privilege and if need be, publicly disown the perpetrators! On the other hand, the Chairman must always acknowledge a call for "Point of Order" and accord the caller the right to be heard.

Once the community has expressed its will and put its trust in an individual or a body of individuals then he/they should be accorded full respect and democracy should be allowed to take its course with civility.

It has always grieved me to note that general meetings are habitually not attended by many who consider themselves above community politics. This group consists of the educated and the not so very educated, the old and the not so very old, the well to do and the down trodden ones! In other words the apathy is rampant right across the board! They seem to have resigned to the fact that "IT is not for them!" What nonsense! All our brothers should attend ALL such meetings. Their very presence should go a long way towards instilling a sobering effect on the general conduct of meetings. I state with regret that all senior members of our community, who do not attend such meetings, cannot escape the collective responsibility for some of the misdemeanours that ensued.

In a democracy all are equal because every one has the right (within reason) to speak and vote. However, by the grace of Allah (swt), by birth or by conversion, first and foremost we are Muslims and then and only then democrats. Even better, we are Shias and better still we are Shia Ithna-asheri i.e. the followers of the 14 Ma’sumeens! If we endeavour to bear that in mind then all we have to do is to conduct ourselves in the manner which is in conformity with the lesson taught to us by our First Imam Hazrat Ali (AS). As we all know, when he was about to administer the fatal blow to his opponent when locked in combat with an enemy of Allah (swt), the kafir spat on his face. H. Ali (AS) instantaneously released his hold and walked away from the kafir. When asked why he did so, his answer was that the kafir’s act (of spitting on his face) made him angry and he did NOT want to perform any act where HIS niyyat (of Kurbatan-Ilallah) was tainted by his emotions!

In a General meeting there are always some participants who are senior in status by virtue of knowledge and/or age. Such people deserve and should be accorded full respect.