March 2017 Editorial

This year has been designated as the “Year of Developing Youth in the new era of World-wide kosen-rufu”. In his new year’s message, Ikeda Sensei called on the youth in all SGI countries this year to become youthful Bodhisattvas of the Earth and be the light of hope for humanity. Ikeda Sensei urged in his message, “Let’s strive even more to encourage and support each one of our young successors. And let’s make 2017 a year that leads to further dynamic expansion of our Soka network of youthful global citizens who are dedicated to world peace and humanitarian ideals.” In a separate New Year message to all SGI countries to elaborate on the SGI theme, one of the key focus is to “foster our successors in the youth division and promote propagation activities, with the youth at the forefront.”
 
In response to Ikeda Sensei’s call, disciples from around the world have taken concrete steps to build dynamic network as mentioned in Ikeda Sensei’s New Year message this year. For example, we are encouraged and inspired by the way Taiwan Soka Association (TSA) run their discussion meeting this year. Allow us to share their discussion meeting agenda for February / March: 

S/N	Duration	Activity	In charge
1	1 min	Chant Daimoku 3 times	Guidance Division Leader
2	1 min	Welcome Speech	Men Division District Leader
3	7 mins	Activities Announcement	Women Division or Youth Division, Student Division, Future Division
4	10 mins	Promotion of Culture related matters	Women Division
5	5 mins	"I see, I hear or I love studying"	Student Division or Youth Division
6	10 mins	Gosho study	Qualified leader
7	4 mins	Young	Youth Division, Student Division, Senior High Division, Post-Graduate Division
8	1 min	Youth New Power	Women Division
9	20 mins	Let's talk or Testimonial time	All participants
10	10 mins	Guidance on faith	Guidance Division Leader
11	1 min	Chant Daimoku 3 times	Guidance Division Leader
12	20 mins	​Youth Division Discussion Meeting	Youth Division Leaders

All these take place within a meeting which lasts no more than one and half hours. The fact that one third of a total discussion meeting time is devoted to youth clearly shows TSA’s alignment to SGI theme this year. The agenda enables the youth leaders and members to be involved and engaged at discussion meetings and to be filled with youthful spirit. The youths are clearly at the forefront in the discussion meetings. Such thoughtful planning and implementation will not have been possible without the directions from the top leaders of the organisation.
 
What about Singapore? Those of us who attend discussion meetings regularly all these years can memorise the familiar format:

S/N	Duration	Activity	In charge
1	5-10 mins	Daimoku Chanting and Performing Gongyo	Men Division District Leader
2	3 mins	Culture Item or Reading of Guidance	Youth Division or Adult Division Leaders
3	10 mins	Sharing by Women Division (sometimes)	Women Division
4	30 mins	Testimonial time	All participants
5	5-10 mins	Activity Announcments	Youth Division or adult division
6	10 mins	Gosho study	Men Division Leader
7	15 mins	Encouragement	Senior leader
8	1 min	Chant Daimoku 3 times	Men Division District Leader

Why is it that we can memorise the agenda? Because it has not been changed all these years! What is the proportion of time spent on youth- related matters? It is almost non-existent!  With such predictable agenda which lacks vitality, it is not surprising that even the leaders themselves do not sound or look excited, let alone the members. No wonder we rarely see youths (and even youth leaders) attend discussion meetings. We hesitate to bring new friends to discussion meetings because we are not confident of the quality of discussion meetings. For those of us who brought new friends, they only came once and subsequently declined further invitations.
 
To be fair, frontline leaders do try to inject new ideas to energise the discussion meetings. However, unless this is part of a national effort, it will not have a huge impact on the ground. What is clearly lacking is the direction from the top leaders of the organisation to plan and align themselves with the direction of the SGI theme of the year! They think that the ground can move by itself!
 
This brings to mind the following passage from the introduction chapter of “Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”. In it, Ikeda Sensei explained, “The essence of ‘This is what I heard’ is the oneness of mentor and disciple, and that is the quintessence of the transmission of Buddhism. The drama of the oneness of mentor and disciple, in which there is a mutual resonance and response between the Buddha's wish to save all living things and the resolve of the disciple who seeks to embody and propagate the Buddha's teaching, is epitomised in this expression, "This is what I heard ... "
 
In other words, the spirit of the Lotus Sutra, from beginning to end, is that of the oneness of mentor and disciple. It is as clear as day that the first three presidents of Soka Gakkai practised “This is what I heard” with their lives. While the top leadership of TSA is also truly practising “This is what I heard” through their actions, the same cannot be said of SSA top leaders. The million dollar question is: Why are SSA top leaders “hearing” it differently?
 
Another related issue is the growing (but not new) concern in SSA that there is not enough youth to take on district leadership. To “resolve” this issue, we learnt of the recent organisation expansion plans in SSA. One key part in the expansion plan is the formation of new districts. We are struck by one particular criterion on the leadership make-up. We understand that in forming a new district, there must be both Men Division and Women Division district leaders present. But for the youth division, it states that it is only necessary to have at least one leader or student helper from either Young Men Division or Young Women Division. In other words, a new district can be formed as long as we have the following minimum leadership make-up:
 
Either

1. MD District leader, WD district leader, YMD district leader or YMD student helper or
2. MD District leader, WD district leader, YWD district leader or YWD student helper

 
This new district formation criteria reminded us of the following guidance given by Ikeda Sensei in 1989 at the 20th Headquarters Leaders’ meeting. He said, “...In brief, a major factor contributing to the Portuguese decline was the fact that its rapid expansion had outstripped the country’s ability to sustain it. … This was true of Spain. Though one of the two world naval powers along with Portugal, Spain lacked the basic national strength to use its hard-won riches to develop the nation’s capital base. Both Portugal and Spain lacked the fundamental strength to maintain and expand on their prosperity; the greater the sphere of their activities grew, the more difficult they became for the countries to support. As their problems multiplied, the very foundation on which the nation stood were shaken, and their prosperity began to crumble. “
 
Ikeda Sensei warned, “This is a significant point that must be seriously taken into account by any group – whether a country or organisation.” He continued, “I believe that in order to take another great step forward, we now must once again focus on solidifying the foundation on which we stand and thus build our internal strength. Organisational adjustments should be made, as necessary, and we should exert ourselves to the utmost to foster and train capable people. Unless we proceed in this manner, the Soka Gakkai will not be able to fulfil its mission of securing and expanding the uninterrupted flow of kosen-rufu, which is the will of Nichiren Daishonin.”
 
He cautioned, “Therefore, no hasty development of the organisation should be attempted at the present time. We need to exercise patience, and above all concentrate on raising capable people.”
 
If raising capable people is the pre-requisite to expand new districts, isn’t SSA being too hasty in this regard?

The first issue is that the responsibility of student helper is not clearly defined. Student helpers being students, they may not be as committed as district leaders as they are not appointed leaders. During examination periods, we cannot fault them for not attending discussion meetings, let alone attending planning sessions. Furthermore, Student Division already have its own monthly activities. Are we overloading them with too much expectation and responsibilities? The more active student members may be overstretched in the process and run away instead. This is the last thing we want to see. It is one thing putting names on paper to fulfil the criteria so that new districts can be formed and quite another in expecting student helpers to replace district leaders. This is surely not the way to raise capable people.

Have the top leaders considered the feelings of the adult division district leaders when the Youth Division is hardly present? Are we resolving the issue or creating more problems?

This district expansion plan and enforcement will only delay or sweep under the carpet  the real issue: the lack of serious efforts to foster the youths and the failure in the propagation efforts in the organisation organised by the top leaders of the Youth Division in recent years.

Secondly, this leadership make-up criteria shows SSA top leaders’ tacit acknowledgement that SSA Youth Division is not able to develop sufficient youth frontline leaders to cope with the expansion plans. Instead of first addressing the problem head on, it seems that the top leaders are side-stepping the issue. At a deeper level, this criteria is also sending a signal that district expansion plans will continue even though there is a lack of the ready Youth Division frontline leaders. One could not help but wonder: why is there a need to rush ahead with forming new districts? Why is there a need to form new districts when only the adult divisions are ready? SSA seems to be willing to accept a weakened Youth Division frontline leader composition.
 
This enforcement criteria only serves to make the adult top leaders look good. Put it simply, the adult division seems to be telling the Youth Division that “WE WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU.” Rather than displaying the spirit of unity of the four divisions, this expansion plan very clearly implies that the adult division is forsaking the Youth Division. It is quite interesting that this comes at a time soon after the longest serving ex-youth chief of SSA was appointed as the new MD chief.
 
How is this criteria “encouraging and supporting our young successors”?
In what way is this criteria “leading to further dynamic expansion of our network of youthful global citizens”?
How is this criteria putting youth at the forefront?
 
This enforcement criteria looks more like repeating the mistakes of Portugal and Spain as mentioned above. Without a doubt, the expansion plans of SSA runs counter to SGI Theme of “Year of Developing Youth in the new era of World-wide kosen-rufu” and deviates from the directions of Ikeda Sensei!
 
 SSA top leadership still has a long way to go from practicing “This is what I heard”.  Don’t they realise that ultimately, it is the ground and frontline leaders who suffer? In fact, given a choice, many district leaders may not want to split the districts. Could this criteria be a plot by top leaders to “force” the districts to split?

As long as SSA continues to sweep real issues under the carpet and refuse to pour energy to resolve them head on, problems will only get worse. Instead of focusing only on paper expansion and making things look good on the surface, SSA should humbly learn from TSA practice of having a nation-wide, youth-focused agenda in discussion meetings for a start. It is an excellent example to “foster our successors in the youth division and promote propagation activities, with the youth at the forefront”.
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The basis of a genuine district expansion should be based on the organic growth of membership in the district.  The way to achieve this growth of membership is none other than through concrete propagation efforts and results.  Genuine district expansion and genuine growth of membership must go hand in hand.  Otherwise, all of these are just bubbles, waiting to be burst.