Dragons Do not Bow to Ethics – Part 3
18 October 2021
| Cadres decide everything. Joseph Stalin, 1935 |
We have already discussed the Code of Ethics adopted by the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) and its Ethics Committee playing essential role in the enforcement of this Code. We saw that the fundamental ethical principles of the IWUF are loosely aligned with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) Code of Ethics while even a quick glimpse at the hidden principles reveals the dark side of the IWUF Ethics including extremely wide scope of application, intolerance of critics, senseless ban of remuneration and, above all, its focus on prosecution entrusted to the Ethics Committee (https://wushu-herald.co/politics/dragons-do-not-bow-to-ethics/). We have shown that the IWUF Ethics Committee does not correspond to the IOC standards (https://wushu-herald.co/politics/dragons-do-not-bow-to-ethics-2-2/). It is time now to introduce the members of the Ethics Committee.
Julian Camacho (Philippines)
IWUF Executive Board Member
Not much is known about this gentleman outside his homeland. However, the IWUF, famous for its dedication to sport ethics simply would not keep him as a member of its Executive Board if he was not beyond reproach, right? There were some minor ancient demeanours of course, but why would anyone care?
That’s it! Paid and forgotten. Not quite?
“The former trusted POC official revealed that he resigned as POC Special Assistant to the President because he could no longer condemn the corruption and illegal activities of POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Jr. and his friends.
He further detailed in the letter the alleged corrupt activities of the officers. He wrote that Cojuangco was charged with plunder by former Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Harry Angping for the unexplained P73.5 million allegedly used by the POC in the SEA Games. POC chairman Monico Puentebella was also charged with plunder for failing to liquidate P50 million from the PSC while POC treasurer Julian Camacho was charged with fraud after he was caught collecting the fee of a foreign wushu coach who had expired contract.”
Around the same time, Mr Camacho showed his true determination and dedication to Wushu. His conduct in elections held in October 2008, is truly remarkable:
“In elections held in October 2008, just before the POC elections in November, POC treasurer Julian Camacho lost his post as president of the Wushu Federation of the Philippines (WFP). The new board, however, allowed him to cast the vote for the federation in the POC elections, which he thereafter cast for Mr. Cojuangco. After the elections, Mr. Camacho refused to relinquish his post on the advice of the POC leadership. The board now insists that Mr. Camacho is still Wushu president, and that WFP should amend its charter to allow him to remain. The WFP board and members are loudly protesting the actions of the POC. Mr. Camacho held his own election on April 25, 2009, after creating a new board of directors. Disregarding the original list of members, they voted for a new president and Mr. Camacho appointed himself as secretary-general. All the athletes, majority of the members and chapters do not support the new board and officers created by Mr. Camacho and the POC.”
Mehdi Alinejad (Iran)
IWUF Executive Board Member
Mr Alinejad is well-known in Iran as the most senior Deputy Minister for Sport and Youth. He received a comprehensive coverage by IranWire (a joint venture of a group of Iranian journalists in the Diaspora) in 2020 in connection with drug scandal he allegedly tried to conceal.
“In recent weeks a quiet scandal has erupted in the Iranian martial arts world. A female five-time world champion in wushu, a type of Chinese kung fu, has been banned along with two male colleagues for doping. To make matters worse, two other female athletes who tried to blow the whistle on nepotism in Iran’s Wushu Federation have been punished with temporary disqualification.
News broke in early August that Maryam Hashemi, an IRGC-backed wushu star who just last year presented her latest gold medal in the 2019 World Wushu Championships to Ayatollah Khamenei, had tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. She and two lesser-known male athletes have been barred from international competitions for the next four years.
The anonymous source who contacted IranWire on July 15 correctly predicted the announcement about Hashemi and her colleagues, several days before the fact. They also had a second prediction: “A number of Iranian athletes have been informed of the results of their doping test and intend to reveal information about the former president of the Wushu Federation.
The source went on to claim that Mehdi Alinejad, the then-president of the Iranian Wushu Federation and the regime’s most senior Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth, had personally been aware of the doping of these athletes.”
(Iran Wire https://iranwire.com/en/features/7465)
So, who is Mehdi Alinejad?
“Mehdi Alinejad is a powerful man with access to innumerate media attack-dogs in Iran. In 2011 it was reported that he had spent 115 million tomans on media activities alone. Throughout his tenure at the Federation and in government he has never been criticized or held to account; on the contrary, the achievements of Iranian male and female wushu players are written in his name. On taking up the post at the Ministry of Sports, he was hailed in domestic media as being “the best manager in the history of sports in Iran”.
His father, Mohammad Alinejad, was an amateur wrestler in the 1960s who later turned to martial arts. But the 1979 Islamic Revolution changed the course of his life and, after a spell running physical education organizations, he launched a career in Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry and made a fortune as a senior manager.
Mehdi Alinejad began his career in the media as the owner and editor of Razmavar martial arts magazine. He then followed in his father’s footsteps, working the head of the Ministry of Oil’s sports division from 2005 to 2010 and earning praise from then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his services to the ministry. Just seven months after leaving the role he was re-appointed by the same government body, this time as head of the ministry office.
Alinejad has headed up Iran’s Wushu Federation for 13 years. He is also a vice-president of the Asian Wushu Federation and a member of the administrative board of the International Wushu Federation.
(Iran Wire https://iranwire.com/en/features/7465)
An excellent compact summary was provided as well:
“In sum, Mehdi Alinejad is the embodiment of an “Aghazadeh”: a colloquial Iranian term that emerged in the 1990s for the children of the elite, who rise to power and influence not on their own merit but because of family connections. Not only does he have the state- and military-run media at his beck and call, but he is able to punish and disqualify Iranian athletes who speak out against him without repercussions.
In recent months he was also the recipient of one last, special appointment – one that is now raising eyebrows. On New Year’s Eve last year, Iran’s domestic media reported the following: “Alinejad Becomes Chairman of the Central Anti-Doping Council.”
(Iran Wire https://iranwire.com/en/features/7465)
From what we know about Mr Alinejad, isn’t it clear that he is an excellent candidate for the IWUF Ethics Committee? No doubts!
Walt Missingham (Australia)
IWUF Vice President
Walter Patrick Missingham is a household name in Australia (at least, in some households for sure). And why wouldn’t it be so?
“Walt is Australia’s highest earning television documentary producer…”
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/walt-missingham-066b4277/?originalSubdomain=au )
That’s what is said in his LinkedIn profile. It must be true, don’t you think? Of course, to say so, he must have an intimate knowledge of the earnings of every single documentary producer in Australia. Well, yes, he is known for rubbing shoulders with celebrities…
He had a rough start though…
(Sydney Morning Herald https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29738653/the-sydney-morning-herald/)
However, the Art of War guided him through his whole life to where he is now. A short sabbatical in Silverwater did not break his determination. The first thing on to-do list? Suing the correctional [hospitality] services, of course:
“A man who was set on fire while in jail is suing the Corrective Services Commission for allegedly failing to provide him with adequate protection
.…
Mr Missingham said that he was in jail for robbing a Merrylands gun shop in 1978 but that he had committed this [his only] crime because of the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia.”
(Sydney Morning Herald, 16 October 1990: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86939261/mr-missingham-suing-nsw-corrective-servi/ )
Forever traumatised by the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia, our young warrior nevertheless established the Australian chain of Kung Fu / Wushu organisations, the list of which would not fit into even much bigger essay than this. The gates into the International Wushu Federation were wide open for him. There were some minor problems but … Just a few years ago, he was instrumental in removing a few Australian representatives from the IWUF committees that bothered him a bit. Later, one of them challenged the dismissal in the Court of his native village of Melbourne, Australia. Amazingly, a judge in that village was not impressed by the overwhelming charm of Mr Missingham and did not like what happened:
“In my view, the plaintiff has established that the Federation, by purporting to suspend and then expel him from his position as Secretary-General of the Federation, did not act in accordance with the Rules, and therefore breached its contractual obligations under the Rules. Further, I agree that in the course of the disciplinary process, the Federation failed to comply with the requirements of natural justice.
In my view, the most egregious breach of the rules of natural justice was the failure of the Ethics Committee to provide particulars of the Charges and to identify with some particularity the evidence upon which it intended to rely.”
(Jin Song Han v Australian Kung Fu Federation Inc [2014] VSC 36 (17 February 2014) (http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2014/36.html))
The organisation Mr Missingham presided over was ordered by the Supreme Court of Victoria to pay the legal expenses, but the true warriors do not pay, they die. The report lodged with the NSW Registry of Associations was sad and sombre:
One door was closed but the other was already built, painted, and polished. The brand-new organisation was miraculously born out of ashes of its predecessor and both the Australian Sports Commission, and the International Wushu Federation (of course!) welcomed a new-born squeaky-clean company. The rest is history.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you enjoyed our little three-parts essay on the dragons who bravely stepped forward to defend the ethical principles of the International Wushu Federation. Yes, there is a lot of enemies around, inventive and resourceful… But – no fear! Be assured the International Wushu Ethics is in the right hands!
For those of you who consider themselves to be members of the International Wushu community – please accept that you DID DEMOCRATICALLY ELECT the present Ethics Committee, either directly or indirectly, through your National or Regional representatives whom you trust; so please live with that! For the members of the Ethics Committee – please remember that:
“.. You need to accept that if you put your head up for office then some will want to kick it – it isn’t nice, but it is [a] part of the democratic process.”
(Walt Missingham, email to members of the AKWF Committee of 27 July 2008)
诚心所愿
P.S.
Well, the first bunch of enemies has already been shattered and reduced to disjoined, disoriented, and disheartened gangs. Do they know what they were accused of? Maybe, but the public is certainly puzzled. Since 15 April 2021, the European Wushu Federation remains suspended for no apparent reason…
“On 15th April 2021, the IWUF Executive Board has decided to follow the recommendation of the IWUF Ethics Committee in connection with an ongoing investigation concerning the European Wushu Kungfu Federation (hereinafter “EWUF”), and has decided, in accordance with Art. J.3 of the IWUF Code of Ethics and Art. 36 of the IWUF Constitution, to provisionally suspend the recognition of EWUF as Continental Federation for the European Continent in the meaning of Art. 4.1 of the IWUF Constitution effective immediately.
Authorized by the IWUF Executive Board in July 2020, the IWUF Ethics Committee has conducted an investigation on EWUF, following multiple complaints filed with IWUF and alleging improper activities by EWUF and some of its representatives. The IWUF Ethics Committee submitted its First Interim Report on November 24th, 2020 during the 37th IWUF Executive Board Meeting held virtually, and a Second Interim Report to the Executive Board on April 10th, 2021. In the Second Report, the Ethics Committee has made recommendations to the Executive Board of IWUF in respect of safeguarding the ethical principle and IWUF Constitution on basis of its investigation discoveries.”
