Minutes of the WBU-Asia Pacific Quadrennial Regional General Assembly november 2012

Minutes of the WBU-Asia Pacific Quadrennial Regional General Assembly

 

Date: 13 November, 2012;

Venue: Hotel Imperial Queen’s Park, Bangkok, Thailand.

 

PRESENT:

In attendance were 69 voting Delegates/Honorary Life Members and 15 participants from 17 countries/Territories – Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and observers from the Danish Association of the Blind implementing the WBUAP-DAB-DANIDA Project.

 

PROCEEDINGS:

  1. CALLING THE QRGA TO ORDER:

1.1. Dato’ S. Kulasegaran, as President and Chairman, called the Assembly to order at 4.30 pm by welcoming and thanking everyone for their attendance. As the time allotted by the WBU-ICEVI General Assembly Organising Committee was short, the Assembly proceeded to appoint Scrutineers and the Returning Officer to conduct the elections.

 

1.2. Diana Swanson from Australia and Capt. Oscar Taleon from Philippines were unanimously appointed the two Scrutineers.

 

1.3. Wong Yoon Loong from Malaysia was unanimously appointed the Returning Officer.

 

  1. ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT:

2.1. The President began his Address by thanking all who had contributed in one way or another to the success of WBUAP during the quadrennium, particularly to the members of his Board and Policy Council (BPC), Chairs and those who had helped in the Secretariat.

 

2.2. He then recounted with gratitude the contributions made by Chuji Sashida during his brief presidency, especially in hosting the Mid-Term Regional Assembly in Chiba, Japan in October 2010, and the associated events that made the occasion most memorable. Chuji Sashida was also instrumental in hosting three BPC meetings in Japan between 2008 and 2011.

 

The President also extended gratitude to the key players who contributed to the success of the MRGA – The National Committee for the Welfare of the Blind of Japan and the Japan Federation of the blind under the chairmanship of Yoshihiko Sasagawa, and the Japan Braille Library under the chairmanship of Tetsuji Tanaka.

 

2.3. The President then expressed gratitude to Grace Chan for chairing the Committee on Employment and Economic Empowerment but who would not be seeking re-appointment. During her term, Grace organised two employment symposiums and played a key role in the 10th and 11th WBUAP Massage Seminars in Seoul and Kuala Lumpur respectively.

 

2.4. The President then went on to thank the Onkyo Corporation and the Braille Mainichi for continuing the sponsorship of the WBUAP Onkyo World Braille Essay Contests since 2003. He then announced the winners for the Otsuki and the two Excellent Prizes for Groups A and B. They were: Deasy Tresnawati of Indonesia, Maria Teresa Tandiama and Mabel Gaerlan both from Philippines.

 

2.5. The President then applauded the role played by the Danish Association of the Blind in securing and implementing the Capacity-Building Project from the Danish International Development Agency which was helping Laos and Mongolia in strengthening the organisations of the blind, and in helping WBUAP to set up its website.

 

2.6. The President also thanked all the organisations which had supported the respective leaders of WBUAP in carrying out their duties through the financing of their travel and other expenses. He singled out the contributions made by the National Council for the Blind, Malaysia for enabling him and the Secretary General to carry out their responsibilities and for supporting the Secretariat.

 

2.7. Turning to the achievements of individuals who had made WBUAP proud during the current quadrennium, the President cited the re-appointment of Senator Monthian to the Royal Thai Parliament for another six-year term from 2011, his election with the highest votes to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in August 2012, and the receiving of the Rights Championship Award together with nine other disabled persons in Incheon, South Korea in October 2012.

 

The President then congratulated Choi Dong Ic, the President of the Korean Blind Union on his appointment as a Senator to the South Korean Parliament in May 2012, and to Tuan Haji Mohamed Nazari, President of the Society of the Blind in Malaysia on him being awarded the Outstanding Citizen Award by the King of Malaysia in October 2012.

 

2.8. Although the BPC did not manage to accomplish all the things they had hoped to do during the quadrennium, the President listed some of the major achievements during the past four years:

 

(a) Published three issues of the East Wind, thanks to Michiko Tabata as Editor, and the Japan Federation of the Blind for shouldering the costs of printing.

 

(b) Conducted four Onkyo World Braille Essay Contests from 2008 to 2012, thanks to the Onkyo Corporation, the Braille Mainichi, the WBUAP Selection Committee, and all the countries that had formed National Selection Committees to encourage participation.

 

(c) Continued to hold the series of WBUAP Massage Seminars, in Tsukuba, Japan in 2008, in Seoul in May 2010, and the latest one in Kuala Lumpur in May 2012, with grateful thanks to the respective organisers.

 

(d) Deep gratitude was extended to Zhu Gang, the Chairman of the WBUAP Massage Commission, and to the China Blind Massage Administration Centre and the Yeahcome Health-Care Institute of China for organising the two-month advanced massage course in 2011 for 15 overseas massage instructors at a cost of US $74,000.

 

(e) As mentioned earlier, the BPC worked with DAB on the successful application for sponsorship from DANIDA for the second phase of the Capacity-Building Project with an amount of US $1.7 million to help the Lao Association of the Blind, the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind and WBUAP in the setting up of the WBUAP Website.

 

(f) The President reported that the BPC did put much effort in helping to strengthen the Papua New Guinea Blind Union, the United Blind Persons of Fiji, the Philippines Blind Union, and the Myanmar National Association of the Blind. He and the Secretary General did try their best to get Singapore back into the WBU fold, and preliminary exploration was initiated to get an organisation of the blind formed in North Korea.

 

2.9. The President said it was a sad fact that this Region was frequented by natural disasters, and several major ones had occurred during this quadrennium. He said that WBUAP sympathised with the people who were affected by the earthquakes in China and New Zealand; the floods in Australia, Thailand and Vietnam; the devastating tsunami and nuclear disasters of Japan, and the typhoons that yearly lashed the Philippines, southern Japan and Taiwan.

 

An attempt, though in a very small way, was made by WBUAP during the 2009 Sight World Exhibition to collect donations for MNAB whose members were affected by Cyclone Nargis. Although WBUAP as an organisation was quite helpless to do anything, the President appealed to the affiliates to inform the WBUAP Secretariat of such misfortunes that their members might face so that appeals could be sent out with the hope that some organisations and individuals would respond directly.

 

2.10. The President then reported that he and the Secretary General attended the UNESCAP High-Level Intergovernmental Meeting in Incheon, South Korea from 28 October – 2 November 2012 as one of the 15 Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) recognised by UNESCAP. There they witnessed the signing of the Incheon Strategy “Make the Right Real” by the Prime Minister of South Korea and the Secretary General of the United Nations. With the signing of this document, the 53 Governments in the Asia-Pacific Region had agreed to declare 2013-2022 the Third Decade for Persons with Disabilities. For this third decade, the emphasis was to make the Rights of disabled persons real, re-emphasising the slogan “Nothing about us without us”. This means the participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making must be make real.

 

The Incheon Strategy contains ten inter-related goals, over 26 targets and 50 indicators. The goals are the end-results, the targets are aimed to be achieved within a given time-frame, and the indicators to track the progress and to verify that the targets had been achieved.

 

2.11. In closing, the President called upon all the established organisations to help promote regional co-operation while strengthening their own movements. He reminded the Delegates that the voices of other disabled groups were very strong, and if we did not help to strengthen WBUAP and WBU, the one global organisation of the blind, we had only ourselves to blame.

 

The Address was received unanimously with thanks.

 

  1. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF THE MID-TERM REGIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY:

The Minutes of the MRGA held in Chiba, Japan from 30 – 31 October 2010 were unanimously adopted on the proposal of Andrew Daly and seconded by Grace Chan.

 

  1. MATTERS ARISING:

Nil.

 

  1. ADOPTION OF THE QUADRENNIAL PLAN OF ACTION:

As the lengthy report covering the activities of the quadrennium had been circulated earlier through email, it was unanimously adopted on the proposal of Sen. Monthian Buntan and the seconding of Dr. Kevin Murfitt.

 

  1. REPORT BY THE HON. TREASURER AND THE ADOPTION OF THE ACCOUNTS:

 

6.1. Approval to Proceed with the Presentation of the Unaudited Accounts: Before presenting the accounts, Dr. Kevin Murfitt as Hon. Treasurer, explained that the accounts had not been audited, and he would need the approval of the Assembly before proceeding. He then gave the following reasons:

 

(a) Apart from the withdrawal of $1,039 as donation to the Philippines Blind Union to assist them in holding the Congress to re-activate their movement, all other transactions were deposits.

 

(b) In view of the lone transaction and the low amount in the bank, it would not make financial sense to have the accounts audited for the audit fee would cost around $2,500. besides the accounts could be monitored by him electronically. The Hon. Treasurer said WBUAP should only consider auditing the accounts when the transactions and amounts were more. At present the funds stood at $6,311 and the bank was charging banking fees.

 

The Hon. Treasurer then sought and received the unanimous approval from the Assembly for the unaudited accounts to be presented, on the proposal of Boun Mao and supported by Jasmine Khoo.

 

6.2. Adoption of the Accounts:

(a) Income: The bank balance when transferred from Japan to Australia on 23 September 2009 stood at $3,995, and an amount of $4,754 from the balance for implementing the Onkyo World Braille Essay Contest and personal donations were deposited which came up to $8,749.

 

(b) Payments: $1,039 given to PBU, loss in foreign exchange and bank charges came up to $2,438, giving a bank balance of $6,311. (The bank deducted charges for balance less than US $10,000, but this was subsequently withdrew after negotiations by the Hon. Treasurer).

 

The accounts were then unanimously adopted on the proposal of Andrew Daly and the seconding of Li Wei-Hong. (Refer to the circulated document for the full information).

 

  1. COUNTRY REPORTS:

No issues were raised on the Country Reports which were received and loaded onto the WBUAP website.

 

  1. ELECTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

8.1. President: There were two candidates – Michiko Tabata, nominated by the National Committee for the Welfare of the Blind of Japan, and Dato’ Kulasegaran standing in his own right as an incumbent President citing the Constitution that he remained as a Delegate until the close of the Assembly.

 

Result: Michiko Tabata was declared the new President after receiving 52 votes.

 

8.2. Vice-President: There were two nominations – Martine Abel-Williamson, nominated by the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand and the New Zealand Foundation of the Blind; and Sung-Jun Ha, nominated by the Korean Blind Union.

 

Result: Sung-Jun Ha was declared the Vice-President when he received 37 votes.

 

8.3. Hon. Treasurer: There was one nomination and it came from the Australian National Delegation.

 

Result: Dr. Kevin F. Murfitt was returned unopposed.

 

8.4. Secretary General: There was one nomination and it came from the Malaysian National Delegation.

 

Result: Ivan Ho Tuck Choy was returned unopposed.

 

8.5. Three Representatives to WBU: There were four nominations – Sen. Monthian Buntan, nominated by the Thai and Philippines National Delegations; Chong Chan-Yau, nominated by the Chinese and Thai National delegations; Martine Abel-Williamson, nominated by the New Zealand National Delegations; Gerel Dondovdorj, nominated by the Mongolian National delegation.

 

Nominations were closed on the proposal of Andrew Daly and supported by Torpong Selanon.

 

Result: The three persons elected were: Sen. Monthian Buntan received 57 votes, Chong Chan-Yau received 51 votes, and Martine Abel received 43 votes.

 

  1. ELECTION FOR THE CHAIRS OF THREE SUB-REGIONS:

It was agreed that the respective sub-regions would hold their own meetings and report the outcome to the Board and have the information incorporated into the QRGA Minutes. This was accepted on the proposal of Sen. Monthian and seconded by Dato’ Dr. Hsiung Kwo Yeun.

 

The three persons elected Chairs of the sub-regions and subsequently reported to the Secretary General were:

 

9.1. Gerel Dondovdorj – East Asia Sub-region.

 

9.2. Dr. Kevin Murfitt – Pacific and Oceania Sub-region.

 

9.3. Jasmine Khoo Khin Sheen – South-East Asia Sub-region.

 

  1. VOTE OF THANKS:

10.1. Dato’ Kulasegaran congratulated Michiko on her election and wished the incoming Board success. He also thanked all the countries for their support and warm hospitality when he visited them during his brief presidency.

 

10.2. Michiko Tabata, the new President, expressed her thanks to the Delegates for their confidence in voting her into office. She promised to do her best to serve WBUAP in the four years ahead. She then extended her deep gratitude, and that of the Delegates, to Dato’ Kulasegaran for his tremendous efforts to bring progress to WBUAP during his short presidency, for supporting Chuji Sashida when the latter was the President, and for travelling across the Region to touch base with the affiliates.

 

10.3. There being no further business, the Assembly was adjourned at 7.00 pm with a Vote of Thanks to the Chair.

 

Prepared by:

 

(Ivan Ho Tuck Choy),

Secretary General, WBUAP.

 

Confirmed by:

 

(Michiko Tabata),

President,

World Blind Union-Asia Pacific.

 

Dated:

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