[members-discuss] Second attempt in declaring my position

Hi



Sander's post gives me a good opportunity to respond to some of the points
he makes.



There are three facts I would like to comment on.



   1.

   NRO intervention in Mauritius governance and rule of law



I'll start by thanking Sander for pointing out the reality. The letter has
come as a shock to many. A few board members and many people in the
communities I have been talking to agree that the separation of power and
sovereignty of the nation must be respected.



The letter's signatories were either very, very poorly advised (I assume by
AFRINIC) or they really do think that Africa should be treated differently
to other parts of the world.



Either way, they would do well to remember that the last time a few private
western companies could tell a nation in AFRICA what to do was 500 years
ago.


I hope NRO understands this fact.



2. AFRINIC's bank account being frozen



AFRINIC terminated Cloud Innovation's membership last year, causing damage
much greater than its company value. Hence, an ex-party attachment order is
a natural reaction in most common law jurisdictional processes.



Cloud Innovation is the third largest member of AFRINIC.  To give a sense
of their decision, compared to the RIPE equivalent this would be RIPE NCC
terminating Deutsche Telekom without proper cause, which may lead to the
entire Germany losing its connection. In retaliation, Deutsche Telekom
attaches all RIPE NCC assets for it.



When you run a business, if you cause a third party a damage which is
greater than your company value in multiple size, an attachment to your
entire asset is simply something you should expect in most jurisdictions in
the world. Mauritius is no exception.





3. Regarding AFRINIC's current situation:

As it is currently sub-judice, I am not able to comment much. However, I
need to point out that AFRINIC is being sued by at least 7 different
parties, and my company is just one of them. This alone paints a picture of
the unhappiness of an entire community towards the leadership in AFRINIC.
So this notion and attempt to make me a super villain and the primary
source of the problem is entirely naive and doesn't respect the facts at
all.



Members voted down AFRINIC financials, voted down its appointment of
auditors, irregularities in the board's attempt to control the elections
and its outcome. All of those are not because of me, but rather the
shortcomings of the board itself.








Finally, to RIPE communities:



I know people hold mixed opinions towards me within the community. With
respect, opinions don't matter - the facts do. My intent was never to win a
popularity contest but to expose the wrong doing and failures in AFRINIC.
Standing up against a monopolistic bully is always going to bring attacks
against one's character but it is a sacrifice I am prepared to make to
expose what has been going wrong in AFRINIC.



Once the dust has settled, I will tell the story of AFRINIC from start to
end, and my side of the story as objectively as possible. Only then when
everyone has all the facts and information will you be able to judge
unbiased.



But for now, I believe it is in the best interests of RIPE NCC and all
other bodies to stay aside and let the respectful judges in Mauritius to do
their jobs without interference.



Ad hominem attacks against my morals, ethics and personality, instead of
making good arguments, clearly violates CoC, and I leave RIPE NCC to
comment on it.



Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.


Lu









On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 1:31 PM Sander Steffann <sander at steffann.nl> wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> My previous version of this email got rejected by RIPE NCC moderation, so
> let me try again…
>
> I have understood that people have interpreted this bit in a way that I
> didn’t mean:
>
> > Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Lu Heng and the way he does
> business, but not all his lawsuits are without merit
>
> Let me put that in very clear words: I personally extremely strongly
> oppose what Lu Heng is doing, his apparent morals and ethics, the way he
> does business etc. The way he is suing AFRINIC, blocking their bank
> accounts and stuff like that, just for personal/business benefit, is very
> much not ok.
>
> But… He is also not stupid. He abuses things that are actually wrong in
> AFRINIC to get what he wants. Just because he’s doing things that I think
> are very bad doesn’t mean that he is always wrong. Scary: definitely! Bad:
> definitely! But: the way to solve this is by getting things in order inside
> AFRINIC and by going through the proper legal channels in Mauritius. This
> is not something that is up to us, the RIRs or the NRO to fix. This is
> something for the African legal system and the African community to solve.
> We do not control their fate.
>
> My apologies if anyone thought that I support Lu Heng in this. I very
> strongly do not. But I do oppose to the way the NRO is getting involved.
>
> Cheers,
> Sander
>
>
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