Clubmanship

It is just amazing how much ambitious people will do and will go to, to ensure that they stay in power, doing it even at the expense of personal reputation and friendship or good clubsmanship.

A clear case in mind was the last EGM at the Royal Lake Club, when a group of overzealous members tried to nullify and declared void and unlawful the AGM elected President of the Club, by insinuating that he was a defaulter at the time of the election and hence by the rule of the Club, should not and could not be eligible for election as a Presidential candidate.

The irony of it was that, his candidacy was debated at prior to the AGM and the House cleared him for the contest. He having won the election by a very slim majority of eighteen votes created a shock to the then incumbent President that he could be beaten, when all along he had assumed that he could still prove he was the better man, having served the Club since two years past and assuming that members would continue to like him. Hence with the shocked defeat, the man refused to conceit defeat and instead got his supporters to instigate a review of the AGM’s decision and reverse the decision by declaring the election as breaching an article of the Club’s Constitution.

However, after obtaining the minimum quorum to call for an EGM the ex-President’s close friends in the Club’s Committee tried to stage a coupe de tat demanding the President to take leave of absence until after the EGM was conveyed. In the process this group of persons even got members of the Staff, especially the General Manager, Head of Security and unnamed others to support them and boycott the President. It was something most unexpected of a gentlemen Club, for which it is reputed for in years past.

Thus the EGM was convened at the appointed date and time. I was slightly late in arriving at the Club then, but I got a shock to find hardly any parking areas empty at the Club or at the surrounding areas of the Lake Gardens. Eventually I had to park at the Tanglin Hospital car park, which was quite a distance away. Fortunately, the Club consented to send a shuttle service van to take me to the Club. I assumed thousands of members had come to attend the meeting. At the Club, there was no way I could enter the Banquet Hall, where the EGM was held. It was packed like sardines, and the noises that came from within sounded worst than a wholesale fish market, with indiscernible shouted words being spoken. The nearby members were heard to comment, the meeting could not be called to order since everyone wanted to talk simultaneously.

Apparently, just before my arrival, the group of eight, who were the General Committee members of the Club, who got suspended for misbehavior by the incumbent President just two weeks before the EGM, who by right should and must not enter the premises of the Club whilst under suspension, should not have attended the EGM, but they insisted on doing so. Hence the President advised them to leave the hall. They stubbornly refused and eventually they were warned that the Club would have to resort to Police assistance if they persisted. It was only then that the group of eight left the hall with booing by the masses!

To cut a long story short, a prominent old club member of legal renown, was voted to Chair the meeting so as to render it independent and unbiased, and with the consent of the President to make way to facilitate the meeting. He called on the members to make a final decision as to whether the EGM should be conveyed and the meeting’s resolution be declared null and void. After a short debate by members of both sides of the resolutions, the matter was put to a general vote amongst all present in the packed hall. The result was 800 for and 200 against, and hence the EGM ended and the incumbent President retained his post till the next AGM of the Club.

All told, this meeting should not have taken place at all. What members overlooked is the fact that the AGM is the supreme body of the any Club’s constitution and once an AGM is convened and a decision is made by the governing body i.e. by the attending members present, that decision prevails till the next AGM.

Now the talk by members is why these people are so power crazy or what is it that make them want to hold on to the thankless honorary position of a Club’s governing body. From my own experience after two years as the Club’s subcommittee and later as a member of the General Committee, in the early ‘80’s I had enough of the tasks that I had to face in order to ensure that my portfolios were successful. I was almost full time at the Club! Needless to say, of course I enjoyed doing what I did then because it’s like being back at school where you helped organize things and events and elated at their success.

Apart from that, it was a thankless ‘job’! Fortunately for me, we had wonderful team work at that time. We had very intelligent and experienced General Manager and Food and Beverage Manager in the likes of Hakimi Hashim and Kamarulzaman Tambu, respectively, who later between the two of them became consultants for the formation and setting up of the Kelab Shah Alam Selangor, which to this day remains as another landmark Club for Shah Alam and Selangor.

written by Tunku Farid
edited by Aida Halim