Subject: July 7, CND Live Report from IFCSS 2nd Congress

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 09:16:19 -0500

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+-+-+-+-+-+  C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t,  US Section (NDUS) +-+-+-+-+-+

    CND Live Report from 2nd Congress of IFCSS, Columbus, Ohio, Series IV

                                July 7, 1990

Editor's notes:  Due to network problems/failure over this week,we have to
                 post/re-post CND news packages for one or more times and
                 make use of china-net and SCC to spread CND news, some of
                 our readers have been receiving double even trible copies.
                 Because of the same reason, we have to use CND-General
                 mailing center to post CND-US news packages.
                 We apologize for the redundance and inconvenience and
                 thank you for your kind tolerance of this abnormal situation.
                 Also, due to the tight conference schedule, I have no time
                 to trim my direct type-in writings and I am sorry for my
                 broken English.
                             Thank you.
                                         Bo Xiong for China News Digest
                                         IFCSS 2nd Congress, Columbus, Ohio

*** Revision of the IFCSS Constitution: One Hour Crisis at 10:00am, July 7 ***
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It is a breath-breaking morning!
    9:00am, delegates started conducting the fianl debat on the proposals
of the revision of IFCSS Constitution before vote.
    Everything seemed going smoothly until Peng Xiaosong, the delegate from
MIT, presented a proposal in the free speech session.  He suggested that
the constitution should include the statements expressing the desires and
presenting the features of overseas Chinese students and scholars, i.e.,
besides the general principles item No.2 "promoting freedom, democracy,
human rights and governing by law in China". the constitution should also
state that "IFCSS will contribute to the development and progress of China's
education, science and technology, culture and economy".
    His proposal was put aside by the Congress Organizing Committee (COC)
last night in the COC final bills/proposals check-up meeting, but drew
much attention and applaud this morning in the general conference.
    To recongnize delegates' support to the proposal, COC presented a
Special Proposal derived from MIT's proposal to the general conference.
    A few delegates immidiately started questioning and challenging the
legitimacy of COC since the COC is not elected by general conference nor
stipulated in the constitution, furthermore, many of the COC members are
even not official delegate.  Soon, many delegates sided with those a few
and make lots of new motions/proposals to revise constitution or to change
the conference procedures.
    Some COC members and IFCSS officers tried to explain how the COC was
formed and why COC has the rights to kill/present some bills/proposals.
But it seemed no one was satisfied with the explaination and someone even
asked to "start the Congress over again by electing COC from official
delegates only".  ...
    People could not convince each other and the executive chairman of the
general conference, Mr. Peng Yuenan, almost lost control of the conference
scene and helplessly cried "order! order!".  The conference hall fell into
chaos and Peng had to announce a five minutes break.  During the break, people
were keeping debating, arguing even shouting to each other.  No one knew what
would happen and how to continue the Congress.  Ms. Dong Jielin, the
chairwoman of IFCSS Supervisory Committee, with tears filled up her eyes,
cried to delegates "we don't want, and none of us wants to see IFCSS downfall,
...".
    After the break, some 100 official delegats who have right to vote were
seated in the central block of the conference hall for easier vote counting
(most agreed that hand-raising vote on those new motions are necessary), at
that time, people began cooling down, rationality and cooperative spirit were
gradually returning.
    Mr. Feng Chongde, who had sitted next to CND editor, the former TAM
student leader, now the official delegate from Boston University (CND editor
learnt that he registered with the University in Summer but still looking for
TA/RA/Scholar/Fellowship), stood up and made a new "procedural motion":
"Now that we are questioning the legistimacy of the COC, to continue our
conference and restore the efficiency of debating/discussing, let's vote
on the legistimacy of the COC, if we agree to confirm their legistimacy,
COC will be legalized and we may continue our Congress"
    Finally, after short debat, Feng's motion was passed with 52:21 and the
Congress returned to normal debat/discussion after one hour crisis.
    By the way, CND editor didn't see Feng's wife, Chai Ling in the
conference hall this morning.
    Someone is joking that "Feng Chongde's motion rescued the 2nd Congress".
However, the crisis is not worse than the troubles IFCSS had in the 1st
Congress (CND editor attended the 1st Congress as school delegate so made the
comparison).
    Now, the Congress is going on smoothly and all bills/proposals regarding
the revision of IFCSS Constitution have been voted on and delegates are now
debating/discussing the bills proposed by delegates.
    This evening, delegates will elect IFCSS officers of each working
committee and the president.  Of course, before vote, there is a 5 hour
session in general conference to let presidential candidates debat and
delegats will have final chance to question the candidates.

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