Ikeda: There is a leadership crisis in SGI

Leadership Appointment Responsibilities by Level

For all leadership appointments, the recommending Personnel Committee is one level above the appointment level being considered. The approving Personnel Committee is two levels above the appointment level being considered. - 2013 SGI-USA Leadership Manual, p.50

If the appointment of leaders were truly superior to allowing the members to elect their own leaders (why do the members have to get leaders' permission for this most basic of democratic rights??), then we would not see the widespread acknowledgment WITHIN SGI of how suckish and terrible its leaders are:

We have leaders who carry on in a self-aggrandizing and highhanded manner, but who avoid addressing difficult issues, using the rationale that "someone else will take care of it," or that "things will somehow work themselves out." They order other people around, and then try to shirk responsibility. Even though they may have the appearance of leaders, they do not qualify as such. They lack the requisite virtue. - Ikeda

Then why did THEIR leaders appoint them and promote them to those positions in the first place? Why aren't THEIR leaders acknowledging how sucky they are and REMOVING them and REPLACING them with better leaders?? WHY is there this situation at all, if there's anything responsible or effective about the SGI leadership model??

Leaders should never use their position to take advantage of the members under any circumstances. ... Those who take advantage of the sincere faith of the members and cause trouble to them through engaging in irresponsible financial dealings, sexual misconduct, or the like, are subject to dismissal from leadership and removal from the organization. - Guidelines Regarding Financial Transactions Among Members memo, October 15, 2004

Let's face it - organizations typically only develop policy in response to issues.

Daisaku Ikeda Speaks on Leadership Revolution

The hallmark of genuine leaders is that they work harder than others and impart courage to everyone, Mr. Ikeda declared, saying that the most important thing now for the Soka Gakkai movement is a leadership revolution. Ikeda

Why? Why now?? If appointing leaders is so much better than electing them (because "mystic law" etc.), then why isn't it producing such a wonderful organization that there is no need to basically toss it into the dumpster and start over from scratch?? It's when things can't be fixed that they must be destroyed via revolution, after all.

Leaders should guard against growing careless or arrogantly complacent, Mr. Ikeda continued.

Leaders, in particular, tend to become arrogant just because they hold high positions in the organization and think that they know everything. This is a common tendency.

One which you yourself display, Daisaku O_O

If the SGI is truly as superlative as Ikeda claims, WHY is it that this "common tendency" hasn't been transcended?

Leaders must never give orders or dictate to the members. ... Male leaders who scold women are the lowest of the low.

Yet the Men's Division leaders are the most powerful out of all 4 divisions at every level.

In any event, based on the reformation of leaders themselves, please make the new SGI-USA an even more splendid organization. - Ikeda

Doesn't sound anywhere close to "splendid", frankly. And I can tell you from personal experience that these problems persist.

Leaders must always protect the privacy of our fellow members. In the SGI organization, trust is our lifeline. - Ikeda, To My Friends - December 17, 2013

Yeah, right. Every single one of us who has left the SGI has had the experience of leaders talking about us, even talking nasty about us (!), to others, behind our backs. And it never changes - the higher-ups take the lead in demonstrating this type of behavior, so all the leaders do it. Perhaps that's why the SGI is on life-support O_O

A leader is one who causes people to feel joy. The mission of a leader is to encourage people and elevate their spirits. A leader absolutely must not scold others. Nothing qualifies a leader to castigate a friend. - Ikeda

Oh brother. Guess how much people change when whether or not they change is something that is left completely up to them??