Statement on the recent EC action

[Thato Mfikwe]

Thanks Milton for the feedback,

I was surprised to see such engagement on the mailing list, also bearing in
mind that this behavior is not new and there just needs to be the
consistency of how rules are applied because some people still get away
with name-calling, labeling, and alienation of community members who voice
out their concerns. The issue of non-participation is an excuse because
even those who attempt to contribute to community activities are not given
a break.

We just need to accept that the community is driven by members and nobody
should be allowed to have special powers, active and non-active members
must respect each other, I feel most for newcomers who will forever be
traumatized by communique between members, limiting their ability to
participate in community activities.

I believe everyone must do an introspection unless if we think we never
wrong and our opinions are the only ones that count, the minority views
need to also be taken into account because very few people currently and
frequently participate in activities to date.

Respect for all members must be upheld and protected, am also willing to
join a committee that looks at the disciplinary and mediation as this
affects the entire community directly and indirectly. I still feel rules
apply to a selected few.

We need to be honest with ourselves as a community to root out unwanted
tendencies in the mailing list, it's unfortunate that not all members are
free to express themselves in fear of victimization. I hope the incoming
leadership will put systems in place to ensure that unwarranted
communication is dealt with promptly and effectively irrespective of where
or who it comes from, IMHO, maybe my analysis might be wrong as I am also
human. During elections, these kinds of engagements seem to repeat
themselves but there is no consistency in how issues are investigated and
resolved.

Thato Mfikwe.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 9:07 PM Mueller, Milton L <milton at gatech.edu> wrote:

> Dear NCSG members:
>
>
>
> I want to address the conflict that took place on the list yesterday. I
> understand that the NCSG EC has acted promptly to remove the offending
> party from our list. This happened without my request or participation; I
> did not even know it was happening until I saw these messages today. But I
> agree with the action. And I want to clarify my own position.
>
>
>
> In the past two days this person sent about 20 messages to the list. He
> began by attacking the integrity of our election process, and ended with
> incredible levels of name-calling, threats and lies. He then started
> targeting me on twitter, claiming that I was a "racist." I am at a loss to
> find anything racial in my messages to him, or anywhere. I live in a
> majority-black city and have colleagues and close friends of many different
> races. My wife is nonwhite. His constant repeating of that charge shows
> that he is deliberately publicizing a lie in order to gain undeserved
> sympathy or to attempt revenge. He has the gall to invoke "Black Lives
> Matter" in his tweets, as if he knew or cared anything about the treatment
> of African-Americans by police in this country. I am frankly disgusted by
> people who try to exploit racial tensions in this way, especially at this
> time.
>
>
>
> If one looks into this person's background one has to question *why he
> was here in the first place*. He runs a commercial marketing company in
> India. His label on his emails openly tout his status as a commercial CEO.
> In response to Carlos Afonso he claimed to run nonprofits but he didn't
> name them. His LinkedIn page does not mention any nonprofits. We find that
> he is also a functionary for India's BJP party, which promotes citizenship
> policies that discriminate against Muslims
> <https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/04/10/shoot-traitors/discrimination-against-muslims-under-indias-new-citizenship-policy>.
> He has been called out for insulting women
> <https://archive.siasat.com/news/bjp-member-vaibhav-outrageously-ridicules-female-journalist-national-tv-1364183/>
> in political debate.
>
>
>
> In sum, while I do accept responsibility for triggering the conflict I
> have to stand by my original message, which challenged his repetitive and
> barely comprehensible attacks on our process in a way that was not
> constructive. While the ensuing conflict was unpleasant, we are better off
> that this person's character was revealed and he was shown the door. It is
> clear that we were dealing with a bully who was not here to help support
> NCSG in ICANN.
>
>
>
> I thank the EC for quick action and apologize for the distraction during
> our election process.
>
>
>
> Dr. Milton L Mueller
>
>
>
>
>
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