Go to content, skip over navigation

Sections

More Pages

Go to content, skip over visible header bar
Home News Features Arts & Entertainment Sports OpinionAbout Contact Advertise

Note about Unsupported Devices:

You seem to be browsing on a screen size, browser, or device that this website cannot support. Some things might look and act a little weird.

Why I decided to speak up and issue an impeachment: a call for accountability

May 4, 2018

This piece represents the opinion of the author .

When I decided to run for a chair position on Bowdoin Student Government (BSG), I did so trusting our representatives on BSG to be fair, to follow all the laws of the student constitution and to maintain the highest moral standards. Along with Fanta Traore, I took extreme care to verify the legality of all our campaign practices. We consulted BSG President Irfan Alam regarding our ability to table and made sure we did not violate any email campaign policies outlined by BSG. Every campaign strategy we undertook was approved by him and legally practiced by previous and current campaigners in BSG elections.

So you can imagine how surprised Fanta and I were when a current BSG executive member came to our table and attempted to rudely rip off our poster without speaking one word to us. I repeatedly informed them that I had permission to table as granted by Irfan Alam and the BSG bylaws.

What did another BSG executive do when they saw the other member inappropriately attempt to stop us from tabling and rip off our poster? They did nothing at all. Irfan Alam, the very person who had allowed us to table, simply apologized for this attempt to hinder our campaign and said that the very BSG member who stood by and watched our poster be ripped was acting president since Irfan was away. My right to table was being contested by the very people who should know the campaign policies. Instead of upholding the law, the BSG executives took no accountability for the inappropriate behavior and inexcusable attempt to disrupt my legal campaign process.

Then, on a fateful Sunday afternoon, a mere three hours prior to the release of election results, Fanta and I received a notice from the Election Commission about a hearing in one hour for a possible violation. At the hearing, which included the two executives who had targeted us, Fanta and I were accused of sending out mass emails. We provided the Election Commission evidence from the bylaws showing the legality of our actions, proof of approval from Alam and even the emails of the very candidates in this election and previous elections who had done the exact same thing as us. We showed them clear evidence that we had sent out individual emails and that Irfan had approved all of our practices. He even acknowledged it at the hearing.

I then brought into question the point of the hearing. It was clear that we had not broken any election laws. I wondered: why were only we brought into a hearing for our legally accepted email practice when no one else who did the same was? I made sure to inform the Election Commission about the intolerable behavior of the Executive Team towards Fanta and me throughout the campaign. Although it was decided that we had not committed a violation based on precedent of our practices in previous campaigns, a re-election was held. What is surprising is that, despite not having violated any laws, our candidacy was still being targeted.

Regardless, it was clear to me that the hearing was a blatant attempt by certain members of the BSG executive team to abuse their power and disqualify us. By their actions, those certain members failed to follow the very constitution that they were elected to uphold. They tainted the trust and reputation of BSG by targeting us.

This past Wednesday, I decided to impeach those two members not only to bring attention to what happened during the past few weeks, but also to encourage you to see that there wasn’t any accountability for their intolerable behaviors.

The BSG executive team members remained complicit by halting the impeachment proceedings simply due to the fact that all of them were stepping down. The BSG Assembly in turn decided that there would be no more meetings and no accountability would be taken for the inappropriate behavior of the two members of the BSG executive team. The impeachment process was meant to ensure that those two BSG executive team members would be held accountable for their inappropriate behaviors, regardless of their stepping down. Their decision to halt the impeachment process perpetuates their hidden corruption, and only proves that they are unwilling to be transparent and fair with the student body.

To future members of BSG: the more you allow abuses of power, the less your constituents will trust you. I will continue to push for the transparency of BSG and be an unsettling voice against those who breed its culture of dishonesty amongst the student body.

I hope you, the student body, do the same.

Aneka Kazlyna is a member of the Class of 2020.

Comments

Before submitting a comment, please review our comment policy. Some key points from the policy:

  • No hate speech, profanity, disrespectful or threatening comments.
  • No personal attacks on reporters.
  • Comments must be under 200 words.
  • You are strongly encouraged to use a real name or identifier ("Class of '92").
  • Any comments made with an email address that does not belong to you will get removed.

2 comments:

  1. Nate DeMoranville '20 says:

    Aneka, I think there are a number of inaccuracies in this article. For example, the person who ripped down your poster was not Acting President. They were acting Chair of the Election Commission, which is slightly different. Additionally, please consider how no other candidates sent out mass emails. It is a grey area in the by-laws, more illegal than legal, but we all had the wisdom and respect not to partake in mass emails.
    I am also struggling to identify the purpose of impeaching people on their last day in office. For all intents and purposes, these people are no longer on BSG, so the effect is the same with or without your impeachment proceedings. My reaction then, is that all of this activity on your part comes from a place of pettiness, of being a sore loser. I also would be upset if I had lost, but I would hope to find a more productive way of channeling this resentment. Please consider the same.

    • Aneka Kazlyna '20 says:

      Hi! I just wanted to clarifying some things. I did not say that the person who ripped down the poster was the acting president. I clearly state in this article that the acting president, who Alam actually said was the acting president, did not take action against the behavior he witnessed.

      In this election and in previous elections candidates did send out mass emails. There was substantial proof of that in the hearing. We sent individual emails. We didn’t even touch the grey area. And that’s problem- we did absolutely nothing wrong and were still accused of sending mass emails.

      The purpose of the impeachment was to make the members of the executive team who failed to carry out their duty to take accountability for their behavior. When we fail to make them take accountability, then such actions will continue to be perpetuated by others. I am not resentful in the least bit. However, I am not willing to tolerate any sort of inappropriate behavior from certain executive members towards me or anyone else who may run in the future.

      Please consider talking to me and seeing the evidence before you choose to accuse me of falsifying information.


Leave a Reply

Any comments that do not follow the policy will not be published.

0/200 words