Why 'NGOS' is an obscene four letter word

H. L. D. Mahindapala, Editorial Advisor to the Asian Tribune, delivered a power-point presentation to the 15th annual conference of the Asian Media, Information and Communication Centre held in Penang, Malaysia from 17 - 20 July 2006. We carried parts 1 and 2 of his presentation in these pages in the last two editions. This is the concluding part of the paper...

Recently, the National Peace Council, another self-appointed body which is not a people-based institution, was pushing hard in the media to be active participants in the peace talks claiming that the nebulous "civil society" should have a say in the peace process.

* There was strong opposition to this move mainly because the NGOlogists are seen as partisan lobbyists who have pursued policies and programs to cover up the crimes against humanity and the war crimes perpetrated by the mono-ethnic extremists of the north, namely the LTTE.

NGOs & Media

* Though there are four major minority groups - the northern Tamils, the eastern Tamils, the Indian Tamils in the central hills and Tamil-speaking Muslims of the east - the formulas for peace of the NGOlogists have been designed to appease only the Tamil extremists of the north.

* The latest example: The Free Media Movement (FMM) transported some selected journalists to meet S. P. Thamilselvan, the political head of the LTTE, in the Vanni. According to media reports, the mission of the FMM was to convince the journalists that there should be balanced reporting of events in the areas not controlled by the LTTE. Thamilselvan also made this appeal to the journalists.

NGOs & Media

* No fair and sensible journalist could disagree with this. But the Free Media Movement had not brought down the tightly controlled LTTE journalists to meet the journalists, or elected representatives of the state to put pressure on the LTTE-controlled areas to open space for free speech. Nor were similar appeals made to Thamilselvan to allow balanced reporting in the area controlled by the LTTE. Nor did FMM raise the issue of free speech, free media, freedom of association, freedom to publish competing opinions in the areas controlled by the one-man LTTE regime.

* Is this an indication of Free Media Movement's genuine concern about free media and balanced reporting or a naked display of its partisanship to cover up the suppression of free media in the region controlled by the LTTE?

NGOs & Media

* The Free Media Movement is linked to its parent body, the Centre for Policy Alternatives through an inter-locking directorate.

* The Centre for Policy Alternatives has been exclusively in the business of finding policy alternatives only to change the democratically elected state and the not the one-man regime of mono-ethnic extremism in the north.

* It has also been very critical of the state and make only token protests about the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the LTTE.

NGOs & Media

* One of the most eminent Tamil academics was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor to the Jaffna University by the Sri Lankan government but he was threatened with death by the LTTE. He and his brother, a professor of mathematics, had to go into hiding to escape the long-arm of the LTTE to save their lives.

* Free Media Movement did not raise this issue of academic freedom which is an integral part of free speech with Thamilselvam. Nor did the Free Media Movement raise the issues of the LTTE eliminating its Tamil critics.

Sarvodaya Agenda

It must be mentioned that a leading NGO with some grassroot connections is the Sarvodaya, headed by A. T. Ariyaratne. A commission headed by a Justice of the Supreme Court exposed the corruption within this commercially successful organisation.

* It began as a service-oriented movement by Ariyaratne when he was a teacher earning Rs. 75 a month. Today he runs commercial enterprises with budgets running into a billion rupees. It has been very successful in raising funds from foreign donors. In its own way it has waded into the political arena.

* Those close to him have revealed his hidden ambition of becoming the president of Sri Lanka using his institutional network to mobilise grassroot support for his planned political program. His social services have yielded some results.

* Example: Building houses for the tsunami victims using funds raised from foreign donors.

* But the NGO commission has raised serious questions about (1) the misuse of funds he has collected, (2) nepotism within the Sarvodaya, and (3) the direction in which he has driven Sarvodaya.

* His critics too have raised questions as to whether he is using it as a self-serving institution to promote his political ends.

Peace Industry

* Ariyaratne has entered the peace industry in a big way without any commensurate gains to either peace or the victims of the violence unleashed by both sides.

* One of the hilarious episodes has been to run "peace marches" from one suburban town in the south to the nearest suburban town. These are videoed and distributed among foreign donors for gathering more funds.

* Oddly enough, he has not conducted a single peace march in the worst affected areas in the north run by the one-man regime banned as terrorists by the international community. Like most other NGOs Ariyaratne has been trying in vain to clap with one hand. .

Changes in the southern constituency

* The southern constituency has changed dramatically in trying to accommodate the reasonable political needs of the northern electorate.

* Malini Parasarathy of the Chennai Hindu and Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Under-Secretary General on Children in War, are on record saying that there has been "a paradigm shift" in the southern constituency advancing to shake hands with the northern constituency.

* But there has been no commensurate response from the northern constituency. National, regional and international agreements designed to appease the northern constituency have failed. The northern LTTE regime intransigently refuses to compromise its pursuit of its mono-ethnic extremism, accompanied by terrorists violence. It prefers to play the role of a political Oliver Twist, demanding more and more.

* The failure of peace moves to either keep both parties talking across the negotiating table or to advance peace have been attributed partly to the partisan role by the "pussyfooting" NGOs.

NGO Failure

Posturing of the NGOs in the national and the international arena as a benign force for the good governance, peace and stability of Sri Lanka has not been matched by either their deeds or the results.

In conclusion it can be asserted that the acronym NGOS stands out today as one of the most obscene four-letter word in the Sri Lankan political vocabulary.

Concluded