Mano da, It was nice to hear from you. It was nice to see you say publicly that you support unification. I think that is extremely important. You are one of the very few AANA people and leader-type who has done so.
The process of unification started in 1991 as you yourself mentioned. Why hasn't unification happened in the past 12 or 13 years? Why hasn't it moved faster than slow crawling? What are the specific steps that need to be taken at what time from now on? What's the timeline for the unification? We need to write the steps down pretty soon and commit to them, so that it happens during my lifetime!! Maybe, you can help us come up with some concrete steps because you have good insight into how your organization works. It's nice to hear nice words from you. But, the way you and others behaved at Assam 2003 in St. Louis showed that what you respect is your opinions and opinions of others who agree with you, but don't respect those who don't agree with you. It was evident to all those who attended, and I am not prepared to elaborate. You are an elder to me, but I lost most of my respect for you and some others at St. Louis with the behind-the-scenes, win-at-any-cost, we-are-better-than-you, I-don't-respect-your-feelings-but-you-must-respect-mine, my-emotions-are-what-counts-not-yours attitude. It will take a lot of time for me to regain it, but I am willing to try if you and your friends work toward gaining it too. For it to happen, I will have to see that you and your friends genuinely respect other people's opinion and the open democratic process. I speak on behalf of many others, tens of others, with whom I have spoken with recently on this topic. Trust and respect are two-way streets. The situation that has been created by the approach you and others from Houston took in Assam 2003 in St. Louis is that when we recently started an informal poll on unification, we find that someone from Houston (a leader type in your organization) voted 2000 times. After public almost-identification and restarting of the poll, we find that several individuals from your organization are again rigging the poll voting tens of times now, not hundreds of times. We know exactly who is doing what and what time, but whether we publish what we know depends on what action we contemplate. For Houston or Texas to give the impression that they are able to host a successful joint get-together in 2004, you and the Host Committee have to go out of the way to show that you are actually for the community as a whole and not one single organization. You can do it, but you have to try hard at doing so. We will support you, but you need to start the process. I support the joint get-togethers and the eventual unification of the small Assamese community in North America. Otherwise, we have become a laughing-stock in Assam and we are paralyzed unable to do anything of significance either here for the community, or in Assam. Jugal Kalita PS: I will not get into any argument. > > Mahanta: > First, I wished there was one organization. Second. I would like to see > joint conventions continued in future that was started successfully in > Houston in 1999. I have heard from many people that they like these > joint conventions and see it continued. (A further step was taken in > Saint Louis where representative from both ASA and AANA laid down the > grown works for future convention site selection. I have strong faith > that the executives of these organizations can work together to provide > leadership. They can work out to publish one directory in future like in > 1999 convention in Houston jointly by ASA and AANA and investigate if > feasible to do other projects together to reduce cost. Also, start other > efforts - for example, nomination of Kedar Bhuyan to AFNA's board of > directors to serve 2000-2002 term). > > I have respect to your talent, intelligent and also dedication to > AssamNet. I was out of town this weekend to attend a meeting. I am sorry > for the delay in replying to you. > > Since you were connected with the past unification efforts, I presumed > you knew what was the result of the past efforts. For the benefit of the > netters, I want to give a very brief history of unification efforts in > the past. An effort was made in 90's by forming an IC (integration > committee) consisting of representatives from both ASA and AANA. Among > others, Rajen Barua, Satyen Das and Ashwini Choudhury were members of > this committee. The committee sent out a questionnaire to Assamese > residents in North America by mail and got their responses on the > unification issue. Subsequently, there was a meeting in 1991 in > Philadelphia where both ASA and AANA (AANA was going to have their > convention in 1991 in Washington, but changed the venue to come to > Philadelphia for this) members attended, but it ended almost in a > fistfight. Otherwise that would have been the first successful joint > convention instead of the one in Houston in 1999. And that gave birth > to another organization called UAONA. > > Even after 5 successful joint conventions, UAONA still exists. Mahanta: > since you are one of the persons involved in the creation of UAONA, for > the benefit of the community, can you please explain why UAONA still > exists? Do you like to share some of your success/frustration/wisdom? > > Now, another poll is active for unification. I am worried that it could > end up adding another organization much like UAONA . I am also worried > that this may impact the next joint convention. People come to > convention to have fun. Mahanta: My anticipation was for you to help > diffuse the situation by sharing your wisdom much like Rajen Barua from > your past experience for unification. I also presumed, Ramgopal > Sarangapani, who was strong proponent of plebiscite, was aware of the > problems encountered in Philadelphia as Rajen Barua was trying to share > his wisdom through the Assamnet as reply to Ramgopal. The other note on > unification I sent was meant for Ramgopal and not to Mala; Mala was > supposed to be in cc, but I messed up by putting her in as to also along > with Ramgopal. > > I do share the philosophy of unification. But, do you want to achieve > this by hurting some people? Do we not need goodwill from all? My > opinion, the first priority is to continue these joint conventions and > bring an atmosphere to respect and to trust each other. This is taking > time and will take more time. This net is full of intelligent people. > This is an appeal to the netters and community not to force the > unification, let it come naturally. > > Mano Hazarika > > > > _______________________________________________ > Assam mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
