Edit: Daylight wish to apologize for the provocative title. We are sorry for using irrelevant titles.

Rissho Jonin questioned:

“Dear Daylight,

Thank you for the effort in organising/ coordinating the resignation campaign. You’ve highlighted the thoughts of many who are disappointed with the recent action taken by SGM. I have questions and doubt in which I would like Daylight to respond before I tender my resignation thru Daylight.

1) I want to have the guarantee that Daylight will still be with SGM and will not cross over or be in favour to any other organisation hereafter. This is because I will not submit my resignation to a third party who will cross over to another organisation as I am strongly against joining other organisations. I will continue to stay on as a member of Soka Gakkai Malaysia. Please be truthful with me on your reply.

2) Will Daylight reveal my identity to anyone including SGM and Justice leaders?

3) If I want to compile resignations of leaders in my area and submit as a group to Daylight, is it possible ? Is Daylight open for further communication to have the special arrangement? Any email correspondence that I could be in contact with?
I hope Daylight can reply to these questions above thru a new post. And the new post will be the evidence in which Daylight would need to uphold. You can quote my questions in your new post. I give you the permission to do so. Thank you.

Rissho Jonin.”

Dear Rissho, we will reply here and subsequently as a new post, thanks for raising your concerns.

1. We spent almost 5 months full time running this website. Why do we spent so much time if we don’t care for the organization? Nothing better to do? Firstly, it is for justice and secondly, we don’t want to see an organization built by Ikeda Sensei falls under such total mismanagement, almost like a triad under a certain family. Seeing all these in-fighting among comrades pained our hearts. Yet, the top leaders did not do anything to discourage but continue to fuel the hatred. This is not the SGM we knew. And so, this resignation is an act of protest. It is not to leave the organization. We still encourage you to stay on and fight as members. You have our guarantee that we have absolute love for Soka Gakkai, and we have no interest in joining any other organization. We will continue to fight for what is right, even if it takes up to “Bersih#10”.

2. Trust is very key to us. Only with trust that you will continue to read Daylight. Don’t forget our ultimate goal of Daylight is to keep future generations informed of the current state of SGM leadership and management style. Therefore, our integrity is utmost importance. We have lost trust of SGM leadership. There is no way we want to be like them. So, we guaranteed not to reveal your names to anyone, whether it is Justice group, NBA, or even SGM leaders – of course, once we mailed your letter to SGM Cheras HQ, SGM will know.

3. Yes, you may compile a group submission with the information we required and email to us at admin@kosenrufu.info

We think that once SGM received your letter, they will also call you or your Chapter chiefs and asked them to validate whether you have the intention to resign which you can confirm your decision to make it formal.

We hope this addressed your concerns and you can sign the resignation letter below.

Upset1980 asked:

“I’m more concerned about how I can take care of members if I lose my position as leader. Who will conduct discussion meetings? And who else will check and balance SGM?”

We feel that one of the reasons SGM’s growth seemed stagnant is due to the fact that everyone seemed to depend on the leaders to execute kosen rufu activities. It’s like only the leaders can shakhabuku new friends. That is entirely not true. The only way to grow is when even members take active actions to have dialogues, to share the true joy of practice and to encourage their friends to Buddhism. This also means that if you do resign as leaders, there is no stopping you from home-visiting another members or participate in discussion meetings actively or even share Buddhism to other people. You can even request to share your experience in discussion meetings. Didn’t Buddhism teach us that everyone is equal? If so, then leaders equal to members, isn’t it?

As for check and balance, well – have your current check and balance been successful at all? Have the 400 leaders in Johor who spoke out in the last 3 years been successful to keep an eye on SGM leadership? Have the other 10-50 leaders who was dismissed in the past one year for speaking out their mind been able to do the so- called check and balance? What difference can you make? In fact, the more you voiced out or share the internal issues of SGM, they more you will be labelled and persecuted and finally faced dismissal. What then? What happened if you are demoted and dismissed? What will happen to your emotion and your own ego? Will you then still come out for practice after being unjustly dismissed and labelled? Probably not, then what happens to the members you are supposed to take care? Will they shun you due to the labeling?

Hope this answer your questions, Upset1980.

whatever: “What do you wish to achieve by mass resignation? Do you seriously think that anything will change by doing this? It just make their (people up there) job easier. Now they do not even need to ‘sack’ you because through their strong daimoku, those betrayals resign themselves.”

qwerty colemak: “My opinion: I think that there are two ways to have our voices heard. One is to hit the bottom line (money $$), which, I think it’s happening already seeing the drop in gokuyo turnout last October. The other is to act on your dissatisfaction by resigning to show SGM that there is a big percentage of people who disagree with how things are being run.

Let’s look at what-if you don’t resign? If the justice blood flows inside you and you decide not to resign, are you able to carry out your duties effectively as leaders? Will you parrot “trust GD” in discussion meetings? Will you ask members to perform gokuyo? How can you say all this with a straight face? Are you indirectly misleading your members because you can’t even get it past yourself?

Maybe you want to retain your leadership so you can fight. What happens when you continue to voice out? You will be labeled, blacklisted and being watched. It’s just a matter of time before you will be unfairly dismissed on the grounds of bad records just like the rest. What then? Your names are publicly declared as being sacked. You became members. Other leaders/members will look at you as though you are a criminal. They will whispered behind your back. Do you think you still want to come out for meetings? And if you don’t want to come out for activities, then what happens to your faith? We can’t be practicing for oneself.

Or maybe you still want to be leaders but decide to keep quiet, practice at home, you just didn’t want to rock the boat, let all this go away, “whatever they want to do, they do la”. If that is the case, are you acting with cowardice (hope you are not offended)? Are you submissive and obedient? Are you superstitious that standing for truth (and going against SGM) will create bad karma?

Now what happens if you resign. Firstly, as a member, all other SGM leaders should “serve” you because what is a religious organizations if it doesn’t work for its believers. As such, you are able to demand answers to what’s happening. Keep on asking for answers. How else can they bad mouth you? The worse they could do is send more senior people to dialogue with you but from other members point of views, you are just raising concerns and asking for answers.

Also, as a members, you can continue to do kosen-rufu, right? You can continue to share during discussion meetings, come out for activities, you can still shakhabuku new friends. In fact, not having to do those administration duties of leaders freed us up to do more home visiting, chanting and talking to new people. We can spend more time with our families and friends whom we can share Buddhism with them.

That’s how I feel that mass resignation can be effective and productive… and we keep our sanity too.”

Libra: “If all the positions were filled with “yes” men and “yes” women (in short SGM nomination comm will appoint more leaders who are pro SGM), do you think SGM has future? Do you think members would be fostered correctly and with upright spirit? When I was a member many years ago, no leader came to HV me, no one informed me about the meeting. In contrast I needed to be proactive and called any leader I knew to get the activity schedule. That’s the only thing I could do for myself to stay connected in SGM besides the subscription of the organ papers. It’s better to think twice and chant for Buddha’s wisdom before any decision that would affect our beloved members under our care is made. I would think that we need to expand our circle of leaders who uphold justice, and shake the conscience of the bystanders or those sitting on the fence. Just my 2 cents.”

qwerty colemak: “Dear Libra, We do not need to be a leader to ‘shake the conscience of the bystanders or those sitting on the fence. Members could also make a big difference. ‘To shake their conscience’ (just to quote you), it requires heart to heart dialogue , giving the opportunity to bystanders and fence sitters to understand the whole purpose of justice movement. And the key point is we do not need to be a leader to dialogue with others. Members of SGM could also have dialogue with others. When Ikeda Sensei was forced to resign as Soka Gakkai President in 1979 due to the priesthood issue , he went all over Japan for home visitation and Sensei was holding the status as a Member at that time. Grassroots still listen to his encouragement because they know that Sensei is sharing about Nichiren Daishonin’s teaching. Similarly , if we care so much about our members’ faith , we should share more about Nichiren Daishonin’s Gosho & Sensei guidance to guide other comrades to uphold the correct practice. And it doesn’t matter whether we are leaders or not , we could still guide our comrades.

If all of us still think that our presence as Justice leaders will still make a difference , then we have to think again. SGM top leaders could side line Justice leaders even without demoting them at this moment. So you still have the title as leaders but it’s only in Name because in reality SGM has side lined you. The moment they could find someone (Pro-establishment) to replace you , then you are out of the picture through sacking /demotion. And not only that , when they demote you , you’ll be labelled as anti-Sensei and anti-Gakkai.

A reminder to all justice leaders who haven’t being demoted/sack , Remember , SGM at this moment are looking for another leader (Pro-establishment ) to replace you. They haven’t sack you because the right candidate haven’t appear yet. Time is clicking.

Retain your dignity and honor before you are unjustly labeled.”

You can read the steps and background in this post called Resignation Letter.