Compulsory registration of NGOs, a bold decision

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

The recent statement of Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad of the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) is an eye-opener to all those Indian politicians, mostly those from Tamil Nadu who level various allegations against Sri Lanka without any firs-hand experience.

Prasad who toured Sri Lanka recently with a BJP delegation had told Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa that he witnessed the mega development that is taking place in Sri Lanka's Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Prasad has said that he would make the Indian government and the people of India aware of 'the high level of development being carried out without racial prejudice.'

The leader of the BJP team said that his team would make every effort to erase the misconception created among certain sections of Indians 'as a result of certain misrepresentations made on Sri Lanka'. Prasad was of the opinion that it is imperative that stronger and uninterrupted economic co-operation is maintained between Sri Lanka and India.

Prasad, who headed a team of representatives from the BJP, met Minister Rajapaksa during a recent visit to Sri Lanka. The BJP officials said that governments alone could not do away with these misrepresentations of facts, but it has to be a combined effort by the people and the social groups of both countries.

The funeral procession of the victims of the Kebithigollewa massacre.

At a time certain Tamil Nadu politicians shout from the rooftops as if Sri Lanka is not doing anything to address the grievances of the people in the North, Prasad's bold statement is an eye-opener to all those who listen to concocted stories without knowing the real ground situation.

Now that Prasad and his BJP team visited Sri Lanka and had gained first-hand experience by touring the North and meeting the people there, he has all the credentials to make such a statement from what he had gathered during his stay here.

Development activities

Hence, the few opportunist politicians in Tamil Nadu too should make it a point to visit Sri Lanka and see for themselves the mega development activities that had taken place in the North and the East.

Those who shed crocodile tears from Tamil Nadu did not utter a word when the Tamils in the North and the East were at the receiving end due to LTTE terror. None of them had courage to speak against the LTTE atrocities. When the LTTE forcibly held Tamils as a human shield and forced young children to take arms, none of the politicians in Tamil Nadu voiced against the Tigers.

Now that Sri Lanka's valiant Security Forces have liberated the country from the clutches of LTTE terror, several characters have emerged from nowhere to pontificate to us on human rights and shed crocodile tears on the plight of Tamils.

If those foreign politicians were so concerned about Tamils in Sri Lanka, they should have voiced against the LTTE when the people in the North and the East had been subjected to untold misery. But it was only the Government of Sri Lanka and its Security Forces who were there to rescue those hapless Tamil civilians.

We must go down memory lane to recall some of those inhuman LTTE acts that devastated the country in the month of June.

The most brutal among them were the bus bomb in Kebithigollewa. The funerals of 64 civilians, who were brutally killed in twin claymore attacks on a passenger transport bus plying from Kanugahawewa to Kebithigollewa took place at the Kebithigollewa cemetery on June 16, 2006.

The bodies of the victims including fifteen children and a Buddhist monk were lying at the Kebithigollewa Maha Vidyalaya where representatives of Buddhist and Christian clergy, various political parties, relatives and friends of the deceased paid their last respects.

Suicide bomber

Exactly two years since then, on June 16, 2008, an LTTE suicide bomber, on a motorbike, blew himself up in front of a Police building in Vavuniya, killing 12 policemen, including three female Police officers and wounding 23.

The Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the SSP office complex in Vavuniya targeting the Police personnel leaving the SSP's office for duties along the Vavuniya-Medawachchiya main road.

On the same day, three other policemen were killed in powerful anti-personnel mine attack carried out by LTTE at Dutuwewa, Kebethigollewa. The policemen were transporting drinking water to the Vavuniya police station. The terrorists had placed the mine on the road targeting the police water bowser.

However, the Security Forces averted a major disaster on the same day as a booby trapped hand grenade, cleverly fixed inside a bus plying from Avissawella to Colombo, was safely defused by Special Task Force (STF) personnel at Slave Island. The hand grenade had been fixed to a seat by a wire so that anyone tripping over it would set off the blast.

The LTTE did not allow Tamil leaders who reposed faith in democracy as Prabhakaran made every effort to portray himself and his terror outfit as the sole representatives of Tamils. They even extend their activities to other countries and often targeted moderate Tamil politicians when they toured Tamil Nadu.

Attack in Chennai

One such unfortunate attack took place on June 19, 1990 in Kodambakam, Chennai. A grade attack followed by shooting took the lives of Jaffna District MP V. K. Yogasangari, Leader of the EPRLF, K. Pathmanaba and former Finance Minister of North Eastern Provincial Council, P. Kirubakaran.

The LTTE was notorious for its genocide against Sinhalese and Muslims. On June 21, 1986, a group of armed LTTE terrorists stormed Wilgamwehera hamlet in Trincomalee district and butchered nine civilians including children.

The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill and maim the innocent civilians to inflict maximum horror on the victims and onlookers.

The terror stricken civilians began vacating the ancient villages they lived in for generations and started moving towards the south.

Exactly a year later on June 21, another group of Tiger terrorists with small arms, raided the ancient Sinhala hamlet of Godapotha in Polonnaruwa. Eight villagers were hacked to death. However, the LTTE could not kill all villagers as they used to sleep in the jungle hideouts at night due to the terrorist threats.

One of the deadliest LTTE attacks in the capital Colombo was the JOC bomb explosion. At least twenty-one people were killed and more than 175 sustained injuries on June 21, 1991 when an LTTE suicide bomber drove a truck, laden with explosives, into the Joint Operations Command Office at the Flower Road in Colombo 7.

Courageous leadership

These are a handful of the many LTTE atrocities as Prabhakaran and his terror outfit unleashed nothing but misery on 20 million people in their three-decade long armed struggle. However, we are fortunate to face all overwhelming odds and liberate the country from the clutches of the LTTE terror.

If November 17, 2005 had not turned out to be a memorable day in Sri Lanka politics and UPFA candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa had not won that presidential election, the Tigers would have well achieved their goal as almost all other politicians had been prepared to do anything to achieve peace at any cost.

Fortunately, President Rajapaksa became the First Citizen in 2005, thereby changing the destiny of a nation by vanquishing the world's most ruthless terrorist outfit. If not for his political sagacity and courageous leadership to the Security Forces as the Commander-in-Chief, we would have still been targets of Prabhakaran and his goons' massive bomb attacks.

As Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said recently, guarding against various threats and ensuring the safety of the nation should be a prime duty of the Government. National security is the foundation of our freedom and our prosperity. Hence, the Government needs to be fully aware of all the issues that impact the country in areas such as defence, foreign policy, economic affairs and internal law and order.

Hence, the Government must formulate a comprehensive national security strategy to deal with them, viable national security strategy needs to be aligned with the aspirations of the people, and it must have public support, according to the Defence Secretary.

We have to protect the hard-earned peace and should not let any sinister elements to rob it. The path to peace was not an easy one. Perhaps, peace at any cost, preached by people such as Ranil Wickremesinghe, would have achieved easily by agreeing to all what Prabhakaran had demanded. But achieving an honourable peace of this magnitude was a gigantic task, achieved though the supreme sacrifices made by the true sons of our soil. Hence, it is the duty of everyone to give a better meaning to all those war heroes who gave life and limb to give us a secured future.

We cannot afford to dance to the tune of the West and a few 'peace merchants' funded by INGOs.

NGOs

The Government has taken a bold step by making its compulsory for all NGOs operating in the country to register themselves with the Office for the Registration of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Taking such a step was of utmost importance to thwart certain NGOs from hatching conspiracies to effect regime change by engaging in politics in the guise of doing social work in the country.

There are nearly a 100 NGOs operating in the country at present and a large number of them have been identified to be surreptitiously engaging in activities inimical to the state by hatching various conspiracies.

Investigations have revealed that some of them had fraudulently evaded registration as NGOs and obtained registration from the Department for the Registrar of Companies as non-profit organisations by duping certain officials.

Legislation has been enacted made making every NGO to comply with regulations and conditions stipulated in the amended gazette notification published in 2006 after registering it with the Office for the Registration of NGOs on February 26,1999.

The NGOs must submit a report to the government listing its role, staff and funding and donations received from abroad, their manner of expenditure and their proposals and plans, he said.

Their assets should also be registered with the relevant unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The Government should be commended for introducing these steps in the broader interests of the nation and the country's national security.

While Western countries go that extra mile in the guise of their national security, they ask us to refrain from doing so.

While certain countries in the West go to the extent of tapping private telephone conversations, choreograph movements of individuals and follow their activities closely, they pontificate us to refrain from doing so as such would be human rights violations.

There can't be two theories, one to the West and another to this part of the world. There is no doubt that national security of a sovereign nation is of utmost importance. Government of any country is held responsible for the security of its people and they should make every effort to ensure the safety of its people.

Sri Lanka Government has merely exercised that in carrying out the humanitarian operation and the battle against terrorism.