Public Perish due to lack of vision of the leadership Today was the MAGH General Body meeting. I called several people before the meeting to remind them of the meeting. Only a few of them turned up. It looks like MAGH is not a priority for them. They were not informed of the meeting, and they learned about the meeting from me. How can they identify with MAGH as their own Malayalee Association, if the leadership treats them like this? Looks like most in the community wrote off MAGH as irrelevant. The Secretary said in the meeting that there are 1800 members in MAGH. When around 50 of them come for the General Body meeting, it conveys a message. For most of the members of MAGH it is meaningless for them. The leadership does not know them or their needs. A new Bylaw was adopted and a building committee elected to build a new building on the current site. Both decisions were made without involving the larger community. Sometimes we get carried away by our own self importance or megalomania. One might think occasionally that he or she is an ‘Aana or Koona’ in the community. Both decisions were made in the self interest of a tiny percentage of members in the community. About the building, what we need is a building that our children can be proud of, that they can use to come and spend time. The dilapidated building and premises we have now give a poor image of us to our children, and its mediocre leadership. Churches with 150 families could build church buildings more than 5.5 million value- building that our children are proud of. Malayalee community here with 2500 families, is it impossible to construct a decent building in a decent neighborhood? When I mentioned the need for a different premise, one of the members said that he needs some privacy here. For him the current location gives him some privacy to have some alcoholic drinks, or playing cards with friends that his wife will not allow in his house. He wanted to use MAGH building for his own personal needs. This is not in the best interest of the public. Do you see anybody drinking or playing cards in India House in Houston? We need leadership with vision that can rise above their petty self interests to think of the good of the community. If that public concern was there, the leadership would have informed the General Body meeting to all the public through a News Paper Ad, to get public input into it. Secretary admitted that he had around 240 emails, and of which 40 not correct. Since the General Body meeting info. was posted only on MAGH website, vast majority of the public was unaware of it. I had seven points written down- clauses that need to be changed or deleted from Bylaw in the best interest of the community. I was allowed to read only one of it. I had to walk out of the meeting because of it. It is my experience that once a building is paid off; a group will raise its head in an organization to claim the organization as their own. Their attitude is. ‘Now this is our organization. You can leave if you do not want to follow us. Divisive racial forces in the name of one our National organizations here are playing politics to divide the community and rule. These national organizations need Malayalee Associations in each city under their control. So the FOMAA-FOKANA division has caused great harm to the community. People who had no hope to come to the national level got a chance for that exposure because of this division. Malayalee community must watch out for their divisive tactics. Let us wait and see what the leadership can accomplish without the larger community behind them. Leadership need to understand that there is strength in unity.