OPINION

Page 4

Tuesday, January 23, 1990

The Michigan Daily

. . .... . ... ................. .. .

-Ab

Williams declares

himself

maximum

leader

W.

by Corey Dolgon
Last Tuesday night, Conservative Coali-
tion leader and Michigan Student Assem-
bly (MSA) President Aaron Williams em-
ployed Noriega-style tactics to steal a
committee chair election for his party and
cheat the student body out of the honest
and effective representation we deserve.
Each semester, MSA chooses commit-
tee and commission chair positions by se-
cret ballot. Traditionally, these ballots are
counted by impartial presidential ap-
pointees, usually the secretary or treasurer.
However, last Tuesday, Williams refused
to follow this procedure (perhaps because
he has been unable to fill the positions of
secretary and treasurer. for months) and
counted the ballots himself. When asked if
he would appoint a disinterested party to,
count the ballots, Williams exclaimed,
"I'm insulted that you would question my
honesty and integrity." Aside from the fact
that the request was clearly legal according
to parliamentary procedure and unquestion-
ably warranted given the politically divided
assembly and the open partisanship of the
president, I believe we do have good rea-
son to question Mr. Williams's honesty
and integrity.
During last year's Fall elections, before
his run for the presidency, Aaron Williams
was caught by MSA officials influencing
students' votes while participating in the
elections as a poll worker. Williams was
simultaneously handing out ballots as a

neutral MSA representative and telling
people who to vote for as a partisan sup-
porter.
This past Fall, when MSA representa-
tives complained that Williams's budget
proposal was inefficient and unfair, he
tried to convince the assembly that it was
"too late" to make changes because the
summer assembly (consisting of four
MSA members) had already passed it.
Williams was finally forced to accept an
alternative budget proposal when he was
reminded that the summer assembly does
not have the power to supercede the full
assembly.
Also this past Fall, Williams undertook
a deceptive attempt to snuff out the Peace
and Justice Commission. Using his offi-
cial title as MSA president, Williams sent
messages via MTS asking students to sign
petitions essentially purging the Commis-
sion. Williams failed to get the required
signatures, (not enough students at the
University are against peace and justice)
and refused to apologize or even admit that
he might have jeopardized his integrity as
an MSA official.
After November's ill-fated election
(which, again, he has yet to take any re-
sponsibility for), Williams and the Con-
servative Coalition tried to seat their
members even though the Central Student
Judiciary (CSJ) had invalidated the elec-
tions. Williams and his cohorts claimed

that the court had agreed to hear their ap-
peal, and until that hearing occurred, the
election results were valid. According to
CSJ members, however, these claims were
a clear misrepresentation of Williams's
communication with the court, and no
such decision to hear an appeal had been
made. Finally, after heated discussion,
Williams and MSA parliamentarian, John
Coleman, agreed that if the CSJ confirmed
their decision to invalidate the November
elections, then any business completed at
the Fall semester's last meeting would be
nullified.
CSJ did invalidate the elections and the
LSA student government selected nine rep-
resentatives to replace those resulting va-
cancies. Yet, when MSA met last Tues-
day, Williams never acknowledged his
agreement and proceeded with the meeting
as if all business completed at the previ-
ous meeting was binding. Again, only
after violent opposition,. and a successful
motion to overrule the chair, was the
assembly successful in retracting the pre-
vious meeting's actions.
So, when it came time for the assembly
to elect committee and commission chairs,
many representatives felt not only justi-
fied, but obligated to request that the pres-
ident select an impartial person to count
the secret ballots. Instead, Williams col-
lected each ballot, placed them in a shoe
box, retired to his office across the hall,

and closed the door. He returned a few
minutes later to inform the Assembly that
the candidate from his party, the Conserva-
tive Coalition, had won the first commit-
tee election for Budget Priorities Chair.
Members asked him to reveal the actual
vote totals, but he refused. Again, after
pointing out that parliamentary procedure
permitted even secret ballot totals to be re-
leased, Williams stuttered and responded
hesitantly, "20-18." Members then re-
quested that he hold onto the ballots pend-
ing a decision on whether or not to chal-
lenge the election and he responded sarcas-
tically, "For how long?" Finally, after
continued arguments, Williams agreed to
appoint two rotating assembly members

undermined any conceivable unity by de-
ceiving and bullying the assembly. Instead
of allowing MSA to meet its potential as
an intelligent and respected body represent-
ing University students to the administra-
tion, the regents, the community, and the
world, Williams has created an atmosphere@
plagued by petty politics and personal dis-
trust. For someone representing a party
whose slogan was "The Buck Stays Here,"i
he has done his best to avoid responsibil-
ity for his actions by passing that buck to
others. And now Williams claims that
he's insulted by members challenging his
integrity.
Tonight, MSA meets at 7:30 in the
Michigan Union. I invite members of the ,

'[Wihen it came time for the assembly to elect
committee and commission chairs, many
representatives felt not only justified, but obligated
to request that the president select an impartial
person to count the secret ballots. Instead, Williams
collected each ballot, placed them in a shoe box,
retired to his office across the hall, and closed the
door.'

to count ballots. But he refused to recount
those elections already "completed."
When Aaron Williams took office last
April, he preached unity, and asked the
assembly to put aside their personal agen-
das for the best interests of the whole stu-
dent body. Yet Williams has consistently

student body to attend this meeting and
ask Mr. Williams, as I will, just where,
exactly, is "the Buck" and who is paying
for it?
Corey Dolgon is a Rackham represen-
tative to MSA.

diiatt By
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.

Elijah Muhammad defended

Vol. C, No. 77

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Unsigned ditorials represent a majority of tne Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.

Thearmies ol
AS THE CARNAGE continues in Soviet
Azerbaijan, Western news reports and
analyses continue by and large to be
credulous and uncritical. Reports speak
of a civil war between "predominantly
Christian Armenians" and "mostly
Muslim Azerbaijanis."
Characterizing the situation as a civil
war is inaccurate and misleading. It is
rather a case of Soviet authorities re-
sponding late to protect citizens who
are victims of national-chauvinist ag-
gressions Moscow itself helped to
promulgate through its negligence. The
premeditated niature of the anti-Anne-
nian violence is betrayed by indepen-
dent reports of mimeographed address*
lists being used to track down Armeni-
ans in Baku and kill them or expel them
from their homes. The aggression is
national-chauvinist in the sense that
Armenians are targeted not for what
they individually profess or do, but for
belonging to a category.
Though there are historic tensions
between the Azerbaijanis and Armeni-
ans, the majority of both peoples have
shown a capacity for living side-by-
side in peace But in the recent out-
break of viokence, which drew in the
Soviet troops, militant nationalists have
joined forces with the separatist Azer-
baijan Communist Party in an attempt
to create a single-race Azerbaijani state.
Likewise, characterizing the conflict
as a religious one is wrong, and appar-
ently based on the premise that when-
ever Christians and Muslims are in
close proximity there is bound to be
violence. In fact, there are reports of
"predominantly Muslim" Kurds fleeing
persecution in Azerbaijan for refuge in
Armenia, and "predominantly Muslim"
Turkomans going out of their way to
save the Armenians across the Caspian
Sea.
It is necessary to look for deeper po-
litical and socio-economic reasons for
-the conflict.
On the Armenian side, there is a feel-
ing, verging on paranoia, that the Ar-
menians are disappearing. The wester
part of Armenia, now under Turkey's
rule, was emptied of its Armenian
population during the genocide of
1915-23 - a genocide the U.S. Gov-
ernment, ingratiating itself with the
Turks, denies ever happened. The en-
clave of Nakhichevan, now almost ex-
clusively Azerbaijani, was only years
ago predominantly Armenian. Due to a

f Azerbaijan
variety of factors, including the dis-
criminatory policies of the Azerbaijani
administration, the Armenians left the
area. Fearing a similar fate for predom-
inantly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh,
the Armenians set out to regain control
of it.
In what ensued, nearly a quarter mil-
lion Azerbaijanis fled Armenia; these
people have become the most ruthless
persecutors of Armenians in the dis-
puted territory.
Azerbaijainis, on the other hand,
view themselves as being cheated by
the threat of losing the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
It was clear that if a vote were held,
Nagorno-Karabakh would become part
of Armenia, since that was the desire of
the 80 percent Armenian majority of the
region. So groups of Azerbaijanis
chose to pursue a policy of might-
makes-right. In response to peaceful
demonstrations in Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani ex-
tremists incited mobs to conduct the
pogrom of Sumgait in February 1988.
This was followed by massacres in
Kirovabad and elsewhere, the blockade
of railroads taking much-needed sup-
plies to earthquake-stricken Armenia,
and now the pogroms in Baku and the
villages of Azerbaijan.
The conflict has been handled in-
competently by Moscow. Beginning in
February 1988, Moscow entirely dis-
credited itself and the advocates of non-
violence by invalidating the will of the
people of Nagorno-Karabakh and cav-
ing in to the might-makes- right policy.
The extremists discovered they would
have their way.
Military intervention will never be the
way to bring peace to a region. Had
Moscow acted earlier and less cal-
lously, the events of the past two
weeks could have been avoided. Now,
the first tasks of the military are to lift
the rail blockade of Armenia and to
disarm first the aggressors, then the
resistance.
The goal of the Armenians has been
to enforce the will of the region's pop-1
ulation and the Soviet Union's own na-
tionalities policy. In light of Azerbaijani
steps to blockade and starve "their" cit-
izens in Nagorno-Karabakh, the persis-
tence of the Armenian side is all the
more understandable.
And finally, Moscow must open the
region to reporters, closing the door to
destructive rumor and hearsay.

by Danny Peterson
I feel compelled to respond to Nabeel
Zuberi's response to my letter (Daily,
1/17/90). First let me say that Minister
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of
Islam, has just returned from the Middle
East,where he defended the teachings of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad to the
Orthodox Muslim community. It is said
that both sides came away with a better
understanding and respect for one another.
Zuberi, like many others who doubt Eli-
jah Muhammad, mentions Malcolm X and
his autobiography as the basis for his ar-
gument. They say that after Malcolm X
made Hajj (the Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca) he came back with a different
viewpoint of Islam when he saw Muslims
of all colors worshipping in "true brother-
hood" for the first time, which supposedly
contradicted the teachings of Elijah
Muhammad. People say that since his top
disciple turned against him, Elijah must
be a fraud. Lets us look at these
"arguments."
First you must realize that Malcolm X's
autobiography was completed after his
death, as were most if not all of the books
on his life. I must say that this does leave
considerable room for tampering with the
words of Malcolm. I believe this is the
same argument many Orthodox Muslims
use for discrediting certain passages of the
Bible, because they were completed after
the death of Jesus (may Allah be pleased
with him). A fact "mysteriously" left out
of Malcolm's autobiography is that he and
Elijah Muhammad went to Mecca in
1959. If what Malcolm saw in the East af-
fected him so much, why did it take him
five years after this to split from the Na-
tion of Islam?
Malcolm X had also seen white Mus-
lims and Masons here in America before
he made Hajj in 1964. There were white
Muslims and Masons who visited the
home of Elijah Muhammad in the pres-
ence of Malcolm, so Malcolm saw noth-

ing new in Mecca. If you study the films
of Malcolm X, he says he was leaving the
Nation of Islam because he felt he could
do a better job of spreading the program of
Elijah Muhammad outside of the restric-
tions of the Nation of Islam. He said noth-
ing of what he supposedly saw in Mecca.
If you study the demeanor of Malcolm
at this announcement, you will see that
his decision was motivated more so by
personal anger than anything else. He was
still quite angry for being silenced and
suspended by Elijah, for his unfortunate
comments about the assassination of
President Kennedy. The autobiography of
Malcolm X also fails to mention that two
days before his murder Malcolm visited
Elijah Muhammad asking to come back
into The Nation of Islam. Some say that
this move expedited his murder, since J.
Edgar Hoover, head of the Justice
Department, was hot on Malcolm's trail.
The scenario of a disciple turning against
his teacher has precedent. If you study the

the United States. You cannot argue with
the large numbers of drug dealers, users,
pimps, prostitutes who completely turned
their lives around after hearing the words
of Elijah. A very well known example is
Malcolm X. You can't argue with the uni-
versities, businesses and farmland acquired
under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad.
The same thing is happening under the..
leadership of Min. Louis Farrakhan. It is
not only the Blacks on the "low end" of
the scale who are bearing witness to the
truth of Elijah Muhammad, but also engi-
neers, doctors, businessmen, etc. No other
person in U.S. history has had such a pos-
itive affect on Black men and women in
the U.S. as Elijah Muhammad.
I say that it is wrong and unfair to at-
tribute the comments made by Public
Enemy's Professor Griff about Jews to thei@
Nation of Islam just because he is
sympathetic to the organization. Malcolm
X, even though he was a member of the
Nation of Islam, didn't speak for the

'No other person in U.S. history has had such a
positive affect on Black men and women in the U.S.
as Elijah Muhammad. The same thing is happening (in,
the Nation of Islam) under the leadership of Min. Louis
Farrakhan.'

Bible you will see that Judas was a
disciple of Jesus when he betrayed him.
The media will not make mention of it,
but there are white Muslims, Rabbis,
Catholic and Protestant clergy who visit '
Min. Farrakhan at his home in Chicago !
from time to time. Father Michael
Pfleger, the white pastor at St. Sabina
Church in Chicago, recently allowed Min.
Farrakhan the opportunity of delivering
the Sunday sermon.
I say, judge the Nation of Islam on its ;
work, not on differences in beliefs. Jesus
said to those who doubted his divinity to
determine who he is based on his works
(John 14:10-11). No sane person can argue
with the tremendous results of Elijah
Muhammad in regard to the Black man in.

organization when he made the distastefgl
comment after Kennedy's assassination.
The proof of this was his quick suspen-
sion by Elijah Muhammad. The Holy
Qur'an says, in 2:62, "if you believe in
God and do good works, whether you be
Muslim, Christian, Jew, or Sabian, on
you will be no fear, nor shall you grieve;
your reward is with your Lord."
It would be preferable if Nabeel or any
other person who has questions about the*
Nation of Islam or the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad contacted me before printing
misinformation about us based on what
they "think" they know.
Danny Peterson is a second-year
graduate student in engineering and a
member of the Nation of Islam.



The demise of

'

by Jens Zorn
As chair of the University Council, I re-
spond to the misleading aspects of your
editorial (Daily, 1/18/90), which implied
that the Council was terminated in a Re-
gental process that had little community
input. On the contrary, it was widely
known that the Regents' Bylaw 7.02, the
enabling legislation for the Council, was
to expire during the last academic year.
Upon request by students and faculty, the
regents granted a time extension for 7.02
so that the Council could continue on a
task that might come to fruition and thus
contribute to University governance.
During this last year the administration
had provided a highly capable professional
support staff and a substantial budget to
cover expenses. This was clear support for
the Council's effort from everyone in-
volved.
Our focus during this last year was on a

and administrators as well as to students.
Our task was timely, yet we had the ad-
vantage of not being pressed by a crisis of
the moment. It was a fair test of our abil-
ity to have unified, co-equal action by a
group of students, administrators and fac-
ulty members in creating Univeristy pol-
icy.
The Council worked in harmony in de-
veloping a proposal under which the
community's response to violation of free
speech rights would be proportional to the
severity of the violation, with most con-
flicts resolved through in formal media-
tion. The proposal provided for semi-for-
mal hearings for those cases in which the
informal procedures prove inadequate, and
the outcomes of these would usually be
solved wihtout recouse to the full aparatus
and adversarial approach of the
civil/criminal justice system.f
We sought advice and comment from

Council'.
criticism often seemed unrelated to the ac-
tual content of the proposal. Instead it
seemed to reflect the idea that the Univer-
sity's regulations should be limited to
matters of classes and grades, with other
matters (including freedom of political and
artistic expression) being settled by com-
mercial lawyers in the civil and criminal
courts.
The entire time of the Univeristy Coun-
cil under bylaw 7.02 represented an exper-
iment to find out whether a mandated, rep-
resentative and unified body on this cam-
pus could get its constituents to approve
rules for the University community. We
have done this experiment for many years
and it has not succeeded in its present
form; perhaps the Council can be reconsti-
tuted under different principles of operation
to make it more effective. However, to
blame the Regents, or the Daily, for the
impotence of bylaw 7.02 University4@
Cmncil is simnlistic nonsense-~fl