Part 1 of this shocking article will look at how the Mukhi/Kamdias are sidelined by Mr. Sachedina and CEOs of useless egoistic institutions.
Contents
1. How the Council has been Sidelined and Distanced from Hazar Imam
2. Eboo and Sachedina: Sole Navigators and Dictators
3. The Copyright Suit was an Act of Dictatorship
4. Jamaat at the Mercy of Eboo and Sachedina
5. Why is International Leaders Forum (ILF) Ineffective?
6. Sale of AKUH would give Lifetime Medical Cover to 9,000 East African Ismailis
7. Why are Jamati Institutions Not Necessary
2. Eboo and Sachedina: Sole Navigators and Dictators
3. The Copyright Suit was an Act of Dictatorship
4. Jamaat at the Mercy of Eboo and Sachedina
5. Why is International Leaders Forum (ILF) Ineffective?
6. Sale of AKUH would give Lifetime Medical Cover to 9,000 East African Ismailis
7. Why are Jamati Institutions Not Necessary
1. How the Council Has Been Distanced from Hazar Imam
Ismailis have Councils in most countries and Mukhi/Kamadias (Priests) in each city where there are Ismailis. In fact, like a mother who can sense every second pulse of her child, the Council and Mukhi/Kamadias being all the time close to Jamaat, could sense every second pulse of the Jamaat. If one has a desire to serve the Jamaat, one cannot distance Council and Mukhi/Kamadias from himself. This would be as serious as distancing a mother from a child. In the old days, because of substantial commitment of personal business empire, it became necessary for Hazar Imam to have an aide like late Sir Eboo, who acted as his right hand.
Due to the tendency of Hazar Imam to rely on late Sir Eboo, he wielded so much power that even President of National Council, to have access to Hazar Imam had to go through Sir Eboo. All the feedback about Jamaat from Council was filtered by him and Hazar Imam got only what he wanted Hazar Imam to know. As such, as far as Council and Jamaat were concerned, for all practical purposes, on worldly matters, he was the Imam.
2. Eboo and Sachedina: Sole Navigators and Dictators
Earlier, late Sir Eboo was an aide to Hazar Imam and currently it is Mr. Sachedina. There is a tendency for a leader to mostly act on the advice and feedback of his aide, who tend to become like a navigator of a ship. This is a natural phenomenon about having a personal aide. Just like the captain has to navigate the ship exactly as the navigator directs, there is tendency for a leader too, to follow the directions and advice of the aide. Hence, for all practical purpose, the navigator or aide tends to be the key person. Once these aides or advisors realize the power that they have, they themselves become ‘Gods’ in their own right. If anybody tries to cross them, they crush that person.
3. The Copyright Suit was an Act of Dictatorship
On the face, the copyright suit against the Nagib group, which was initiated by Mr. Sachedina, is a good example of hard handedness of an aide. The Nagib group were constant critics of Mr. Sachedina and were exposing his shortcomings that severely affected the Jamaat. Nagib group had published just a few farmans of Hazar Imam. To crush them, he instituted a suit in the civil court in Toronto for breach of copyright against them; whereas millions of farmans are all the time published and still continue to be published on the internet by murids, no person in the right mind would bother to punish someone who publishes a handful of farmans. Perhaps this analogy will reflect how ridiculous it was to institute the suit.
For example, there is a bee farmer. As long as the bees are in his control, it would be a criminal offense to steal them. However, once they escape and are out of control of the owner, a finder can keep them without having committed an offence. Same can be true for copyrighted material. Since morally it would not be wrong for a finder to keep the bees or copyright material. If in technically legal terms it is illegal, moral law should prevail. It was more than obvious that Mr. Sachadina, who was instrumental to the suit, acted maliciously. If he was bona fide, instead of washing Jamaat’s ‘dirty linen in the public’, he would have used in-house machinery of the council and reconciliation board. While all the time Nagib group begged that if an audience was granted with Hazar Imam, they would drop the defense, this never happened. All these legal proceedings were done in spite of the fact that Nagib and his group were the most dedicated murids.
Hence, if things are so lopsided, and the community is being treated like dirt, the buck entirely stops with Mr. Sachedina as a navigator. The way he tried to crush Nagib Group, most likely, instead of being humble and accept sad plight of Jamaat due to his shortcomings, he may try to also to crush the author of this and other papers.
4. Jamaat at the Mercy of Eboo and Sachedina
In old days, when late Sir Eboo was the aide or navigator to Hazar Imam, the affairs of community had become like a ‘runaway train’ as Hazar Imam was basically pushed away from his murids. When the current Constitution was inaugurated, Hazar Imam had assured that thence forward the President of National Council, like Cabinet Minister of a country, would have a direct access to him, there would be a hotline and at least once in a three months each President would have an audience with him. This would ensure that Hazar Imam was aware of pulse of his beloved murids on a regular basis.
Sadly, it has so happened that apart from political issues in Tajikstan and Afghanistan, the Institutions and other projects have mushroomed up to put constraint on Hazar Imam’s time. As result, a substitute of late Sir Eboo i.e. Mr. Sachedina has emerged. This time it is worse than the old days. To further sideline Council thereby also Mukhi/Kamadias and Jamaat at large, a bunch of arrogant CEOs of Institutions have also emerged. Hence, most of the time of Hazar Imam is taken up by egoistic Projects from which Jamaat does not derive even 2% benefit. Now Hazar Imam is basically surrounded by Mr. Sachedina and CEOs and gets only filtered feedback about his beloved murids from Mr. Sachedina.
5. Why is International Leaders Forum (ILF) Ineffective?
Instead of Hazar Imam being in constant touch with Presidents of National Council like Cabinet Minister, a Board called International Leaders Forum (ILF) has been created merely as a think tank which meets periodically to give feedback to Hazar Imam. This cannot be a substitute like President of a country having Cabinet Ministers for feedback. The equates to a third person giving feedback about that intensity of the pain which a child is suffering to the child’s mother instead of the child.
None of members of ILF have thus far demonstrated a skill or talent to think critically. If they had an effective thinking cap, they would have created several ‘camp fires’ about affairs of community, for example the issue of being like a run-away train. Issues like the Council being sidelined, 85% of resources being used for Institutions for the richest of richest, 85% of 2.2m murids earning barely $2-a-day and having annual budget of a meagre $1 billion and therefore community being pathetically poor, it should be 110% focused on poor sector and not be bothered to help others etc. It should strike to LIF like a torpedo, as apart from murids being sidelined, they are being treated like dirt. This is because the underlying leaders are completely drenched in the fame and prestige of these useless egoistic Institutions.
6. Sale of AKUH would give Lifetime Medical Cover to 9,000 East African Ismailis
If LIF had even a little sense, it would have at once noticed the shocking wastage of resources. How much resources are being wasted away has been analyzed in other papers taking Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, as an example. It suffices to mention here that whopping $125m capital is entangled in the hospital. The community does not derive even a dime of benefit from it. To ‘pull wool over the eyes’ of Jamaat there is a token program for poor. But then further funds are extorted from the community for this token program. If it was sold off and proceed of sale of $125m was invested, say in Kenya’s T-Bond @ 11%, it could yield interest of as much as $14m p.a. In Kenya TBond interest averages 11% +, average borrowing rate is 15% and inflation 7% +. Hence if an investment did not show 20%+ profit, it would not be worth to have.
AKUH is the most expensive hospital. The irony is that, while being for the richest of richest, it uses ‘time and knowledge volunteers’ who think that hospital is for the poor. With such high tariffs and using ‘time and knowledge volunteers’, if it was managed properly, it should have been showing profit of $20m per annum. It could have been used for poor instead of extracting further funds from the Jamaat. If AKUH Nairobi would be sold off, then just from the Interest income free medical coverage for all 9,000 e. african ismailis could be provided forever and ever.
As for AKUH Karachi, trillions of coverages could be provided. Even a child could see how much resources are being wasted away by such institutions which are merely for a prestige. Since it has not so far provided any free treatment, each year it should have added to its coffer $20 m from profit and by now it would have accumulated to a $200m in addition to the capital outlay. Sadly, such is pathetic plight of most of the institutions. If such tragedies did not strike to ILF, at least this alert should hit ILF like a torpedo to create a ‘campfire’ for these two hospitals and later on about all other such institutions.
7. Why are Jamati Institutions Not Necessary
Wisdom dictates that if one can get vegetable cheap at a grocery store, why hassle growing your own. In fact all the services provided by Jamaati Institutions can get at a same or better terms in an open market. Common sense dictates that because of such a pathetic record, most institutions should be liquidated forthwith to save community from ongoing calamity.
It is said that professionals are people who know more and more about less and walk with ‘chip on shoulder’ as if they know all. As such, they are suited only for a task-force. Hence, an effective ‘think tank’ should comprise of 40% professionals and 60% layperson who have the talent to ‘look at issues from outside the box’ or critically. While these thinkers hear the professionals, they throw scenarios at the professionals based on logic and philosophy to trigger the minds of professionals.
In Part 2 of this article, we will look at how the Jamaat is being treated like dirt by the appointed power-hungry leaders and ‘public pronouncements’ by Hazar Imam are being kept secret from the Jamaat for no reason.
