Working Together

[punjab5]

It has been amazing to see how all Sikhs have been working on Bhai Balwant Singh ji's campaign and Lobbying from Panthic jathebandis, Sikh Council UK, Youths, Media and Individuals in the UK. What we have achieved from a European perspective is:

Matter raised with the Foreign Office through MPs (letter writing and directly by SFUK)

Matter raised in the European Parliament and EU Commmission (pressure on MEP;s and direct approaches)

Letter from Amnesty International and Human Right Watch

Matter raised with the United Nations Human Rights Commission, by delegation of Sikhs from Switzerland, France, Italy support from UK via briefing.

Demos in UK and Europe

Media coverage on mainstream regional TV and national press.

The role of especially Youngsters, in terms of 'facebook, twitter, youtube' has been excellent and bought us up to date with modern communication methods.

This has been great, but learning curves for this has been the need to co-ordinate all events so that the messages are similar. This has happened to a certain extent by the Federation of Sikh Organisations, SFUK and Sikh Council taking the lead or rather coordinating. With SOPW and Khalsa Aid supporting. The Media has played a great role in raising awarness but have failed in that they did not communicate what was happening and how it was being coordinated, simply because those that were coordinating happened to be from panthic jathebandis and the dis trust of them from Sikh Channel (fall out from Dastar day) and them being on Sangat. This all despite regular communication by them with Sikh Channel. However it was great to see Sikh Channel cover the Panthic meeting in Wolverhampton and this masks my earlier comments.

What is also required is more mature and responsible people appearing on Chat and Discussion shows on both Channels.

However there still seems a gap between the Youth and these organisations, in terms of communication and coordinating. It was great to hear that the Youth got together, what should have happened or needs to happen is that the youth need to get involved in decsion making and coordinating.

The Sikh Council UK can play its role in ensuring that this happens as a bridge between all.