Re: Theos-World Amendments to Rules & Regulations of the TS
Nov 23, 2008 05:43 PM
by Drpsionic
Brother John Algeo???
Damn! My parents were a lot older than I thought they were.
Chuck the Heretic
In a message dated 11/23/2008 7:29:01 P.M. Central Standard Time,
prmoliveira@yahoo.com writes:
[Below is the text of the message Mr Surendra Narayan, a former
International Vice-President of the TS (Adyar), recently sent to
General Secretaries, National Presidents, Organising Secretaries,
Presidential Representatives and Presidents of Lodges directly
attached to Adyar. PO]
"Dear Friends,
Many of us were surprised and somewhat alarmed at receiving copies of
an email of 21st September from sister Betty Bland (joined by 3 other
members, including brother John Algeo) addressed to the International
Secretary and containing draft of proposed amendments to the Rules
and Regulations of the Theosophical Society, principally related to
the election of the President. International Secretary has been asked
to include the proposed amendments as a Resolution in the agenda for
the forthcoming meeting of the General Council on 25th December at
Adyar, under the provision of Rules 5 and 49 of the Society.
The main and fundamental amendment therein states that the election
of the international President shall be by members of the General
Council, and thus not by the individual votes of the members of the
Society worldwide, as is being done for over a century in accordance
with the existing Rules and Regulations of the Society. It must be
admitted, with due respect to the proposers of the amendments, that
one finds it extremely difficult to discover a convincing reason for
such haste in trying to incorporate such a fundamental amendment in
the Rules and Regulations of the TS. The last election was over only
by the end of June this year and the next election of the President
is due seven years hence and even according to another proposed
amendment, at least 5 years later.
Leaving this aside, let us examine some of the aspects and
implications of these proposed amendments.
The General Council today consists of about 36 members and this
includes the 4 International Officers, 7 additional members nominated
by the President and about 25-26 General Secretaries of National
Societies / Sections. The International Directory which appears at
the end of the October issue of the Theosophist has a list of 53
countries, including a few forming a group. Deducting 25-26 National
Societies / Sections represented in the General Council through their
General Secretaries, the remaining 26-27 countries do not have
General Secretaries and are not thus members of the General Council
and will now not have any role in the election of the President,
while today their individual members enjoy voting rights in electing
a President. A National Society can be formed by mere 70 members
having 7 lodges, the number of lodges can later go down to even 5.
There are 12-13 National Societies represented in the General
Council, each of which has even less than the number of members in a
lodge of a country â the Singapore lodge having 336 members.
At present the President of the Society is elected by all eligible
members worldwide. According to the figures given in the July issue
of the Theosophist, out of about 29,000 members worldwide, there were
20,724 members eligible to vote, of whom 12,993 voted. Under the
proposed rule, the General Council with only about 36 members will
elect a President. On top of this, comes a proposed amendment
providing that while the General Secretaries, who form a majority in
the General Council, shall consult their Governing Bodies before
casting votes for a Presidential candidate, they shall however vote
according to their own judgment, and thus are free to override the
views of their National Societys' Governing Bodies.
A General Council which consists of about 36-37 members and does not
have any place for about 26-27 countries which are not National
Societies / Sections can elect a President by only about 18-19 of its
members voting in favour of one particular candidate. Such a General
Council is totally unfit to be given the power of electing an
International President, which power and privilege has for a century
now rested in the individual hands of its over 20,000 members
worldwide, eligible to vote.
The reason given for this basic amendment is that, "popular election
by the full membership of a worldwide, multilingual body is fraught
with complications. Not the least among those complications is the
fact that most of the voting membership will have little or no
knowledge of the candidates they are voting upon and hence their
votes cannot be well informed".
The Founders of the Society purposely set up the TS as an
international body, with branches in all parts of the world, because
its first object is to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of
humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour.
They were certainly well aware that the world has a large number of
countries and naturally the people therein were speaking different
languages. They were also aware that long distances separated
continent from continent and country from country. And yet, in their
profound wisdom, they decided to involve every member of the TS in
the world in the election of its International President, in order to
forge links in the universal brotherhood of humanity. In the past 100
years, even when travel was difficult and oral and written
communication within different parts of the multilingual world was
equally difficult, members of the TS the world over have, overall,
voted sensibly and in a mature and responsible manner. To say that
today, when the world has shrunk into a global village, votes of
members of the TS cannot be well informed is, to put it mildly, a
strange statement!
The Theosophical Society is not a multinational corporation with its
CEO and narrow business interests. It is an international body which
seeks to promote universal brotherhood, deeper understanding of life
and its purpose and selfless service. By virtue of the election of
its President by individual members of the Society worldwide, the
President gets directly linked to the members in a golden chain of
brotherhood, which an election by the General Council of about 36
members certainly does not and cannot achieve.
It is unfortunate that for some reasons, this past election of the
President caused some misunderstanding and unhappiness in certain
quarters and it seems that these feelings are still simmering. It
would therefore be most desirable to let 2-3 years pass and hurt
feelings allowed to heal before even thinking about a major scheme of
revolutionary changes in the Rules and Regulations of the TS. But
even then, if there is insistence by some to change to election of
the President by the General Council and not by individual members
worldwide during the past 100 years or more, justice and respect for
the deep feelings of brotherhood among members, demand that the
proposed amendments should be referred to all the members of the
Society worldwide in the same manner as in an election of a President
at present.
A Master of the Wisdom in The Mahatma Letters to AP Sinnet
wrote, `the term "Universal Brotherhood" is no idle phraseâit is the
only secure foundation for universal morality'.
With best regards and warm greetings of the season,
Yours fraternally
Surendra Narayan"
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