I have heard that a meeting was held in Melbourne on June 12th, to form a Committee to represent the Kongor community in Australia. There was no published information about this, and so I am left wondering - is this Committee seeking to represent every sub clan and state ? - what is its purpose ? - how many people attended the meeting and from where did they come ?
Each and every state of Australia has a Kongor community. - how come we don’t support activities within the state level ? -before we extend to national level we should deliver services to our people at state level.
For this Committee to be successful, it should try very hard to inform all the Kongor elders, and include any interested Kongor community members. We should try very hard to avoid unnecessary divisions within our community.
Elections
We know very well there are a number of people interested in taking on various positions of responsibility in the Kongor community. It is important that anyone who takes on leadership duties is properly elected by a representative group of members from their state organization or clan. We are hearing of many instances of people using their phone to contact others in Australia and Africa, and claiming they have been appointed leaders to deliver services in Australia. These people have not been elected in a public representative meeting to my knowledge.
It is not okay to just have a very small minority elect each other, and claim authority of the position concerned. I am not sure if the meeting in Melbourne did constitute a representative group of the Kongor community, as there was no advance publicity that I was aware of. In fact when the meeting in Melbourne was held, were there absent members elected without their personal knowledge or their state members’ knowledge ?
If so, the election has no power or validity. If anyone later was approached to accept a position that they were voted into in their absence, then that election should not be accepted. The only way to ensure a proper democratic election is to advertise in the state organizations, and invite signed nominations regarding the leadership role being considered.
All in all we are all Kongor community members and this is not going to change. What we need is to develop ourselves into a more effective community which works together to deliver help and education for ourselves as new arrivals in Australia.
KSA Inc has been working very hard to assist all Kongor members, but we must still try to avoid our sub-clan divisions being a barrier to the work we do for the welfare of the Kongor community as a whole.
If the Kongor community wants to improve its well being, then all people should value the KSA members who have been offering their expertise and creative ideas, and ideals and commitment and care towards the families of the Kongor community. If they are not valued by the Kongor communities, then we can expect that they will want to withdraw their efforts and look elsewhere to make a difference in the Australian communities.
As a member of the KSA Inc, and a member of the Kongor community, I know that the KSA Inc appreciates the ongoing encouragement and support of the Kongor community, as the KSA Inc continues its worthwhile work to improve the well being of the whole community all over the world. Tony