[governance] Nomination of Parminder

Thu Jan 9 06:15:33 EST 2014

What you might know is that I've time and again said this on the list - the last time too was in response to a similar statement you made, come to think of it.

Let me repeat.  Nobody pays me a penny to waste my time on an unproductive and overly politicized caucus like this one has degenerated into - no thanks to, among others, people who remain confused between policy and politics, and some careerists who appear to treat each committee seat as a battle to be won, as if it were running for office in an election - to the exent of accusing people who don't select them to a committee of malfeasance, double or even triple dipping by standing for much the same nomination across a wide variety of civil society groups [a privilege denied to even the most astute ward heeler in a party based election] ...  

Before you ask - my day job does not include internet governance anywhere in its JD either, and I don't represent my employer here, or any of the civil society organizations I have been part of since say the late 1990s.

Let us say that I keep tilting at these windmills because I don't quite like the agenda the people I oppose are intent on bringing to the table - a complete regression from multistakeholderism by the simple expedient of cherrypicking who they consider civil society and who they don't.  

And so, as a sort of repayment of these tactics in much the same coin, I call such people "uncivil society" myself, deny the right they frequently arrogate to themselves to speak for civil society, "the global south" etc at large, and oppose their attempts to represent civil society in any meaningful process where they stand for nomination.

And to repeat a point I've already made  in case it escapes your attention, no - nobody is paying me to do this.  McTim, Avri and others you accuse of "encouraging" me - I would say they share a background that I have, and that most of this coterie of uncivil society appears to entirely lack.  That would be hands on, operational experience on the Internet and in ICT, instead of a stock in trade that exclusively consists of shrill political brinksmanship and careerism.   

Civil society is about engagement and policy development, not about politics and careerism - both of which are festering cancers to any kind of meaningful civil society interaction.  In fact I was struck by Parminder's statement that these "allegations" impacted his "political career", which kind of reinforces my point here.  

People who believe otherwise are free to join one or the other political party in their countries - being politically active in a space that calls for political activity sounds ever so much more appropriate than here in civil society.

If my believing that makes me a troll,  instead of your (twice so far in the past few months) repeating that I am a paid troll makes you completely, utterly ignorant of what a troll is, and a prime example of what I have described above as "uncivil society", then so be it.

--srs (iPad)

> On 09-Jan-2014, at 16:21, "michael gurstein" <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I think I should be clearer in what I said/meant.
>  
> Suresh is a troll.  Whether or not he is being paid to disrupt this e-list and harass and attempt to delegitimize Civil Society’s most useful contributor, Parminder, I have no idea and will probably never know. That he and his harassment is being enabled by others on this list for purely political reasons—McTim, Avri, others, is to my mind also quite transparent.
>  
> That this harassment is provoking and meant to be provoking is also quite evident… having someone react to such behavior is not surprising—I would almost certainly react in similar ways in similar circumstances as I guess would most of you.
>  
> The stuff with Parminder is a passing episode and should be settled as such by whatever means are available and immediately.
>  
> The campaign by Suresh as aided and abetted by the others is continuing and has significantly undermined the capacity of the IGC to move forward in these very important times for the Internet.  Perhaps this was the intention all along.  I don’t know.  I think dealing with that requires resources and capacities which sadly, are much beyond the IGC in its current form.
>  
> M
>  
> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of David Cake
> Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 3:59 PM
> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Jeremy Malcolm
> Subject: Re: [governance] Nomination of Parminder
>  
>  
> On 9 Jan 2014, at 1:13 pm, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 09/01/14 11:55, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> Even without that, Parminder's explicit endorsement of multilateral proposals including the CIRP, render him unfit to properly represent the needs and interests of civil society.  This is enitrely separate from personality clashes, and just as separate from his tendency to engage in political maneuvring rather than collegial engagement with other stakeholders.
> 
> Let he who is without sin cast the first stone Suresh... you won't deny that you too have been cautioned over your behaviour towards other IGC members (admittedly on the list, not in person). 
>  
>             If you think both Suresh and Parminder have behaved inappropriately, then you should be against either of them being selected, surely? If you believe both are in the wrong, so we should ignore it, that sounds like a recipe for a continuing problematic culture that is explicitly tolerant of bad behaviour. 
>             I mean, given that even Parminder's supporters, such as Michael, are still saying that he behaves inappropriately (just claim that maybe other people are... well, not as bad, but not perfect either), there surely is a serious problem, and deflecting criticism with 'he isn't the only one' is no longer (if it ever was) appropriate. 
>             I would appreciate an explanation from those, like yourself and Michael, who (explicitly in Michaels case, implicitly in your case) admit that Parminder's behaviour is inappropriate, but want to support him anyway. 
>            
>             Regards
>                         David
> 
> 
> And to describe the CIRP as multilateral is an oversimplification, though its original formulation did have significant problems (which should be no surprise, it was a first draft).
> 
> --
> Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer
> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
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