Protests Against Foreign Funded NGOs In Sri Lanka

Protesters allied with the Sri Lankan government prevented American and European diplomats from leaving a meeting of families of missing people in Colombo for nearly two hours on Monday, Aug 4, according to The New York Times.

Shouting slogans about non-governmental organizations being funded by Washington, the protesters walked into the meeting about an hour after it had begun. They photographed several activists and families at the meeting, terrifying some family members who were fearful of government retribution, Dharisha Bastians and Gardiner Harris said in their dispatch.

Such protests may be counter-productive even in the short run as the meeting on Aug 4 is only the beginning of many such meetings where families from the formerly embattled Northern Province will be asked to talk about their experiences before an audience of diplomats and others. This is clear from the remarks of Michael Honigstein, acting deputy head of mission at the United States Embassy, who was present at the meeting.

“I have seen first hand the intimidation you face as families of the disappeared,” Mr. Honigstein told the family members during the disruption by the protesters. “I honor your courage to come forward and share your stories with us.”

In a sense the protests put on notice the problems that await the UN HRC investigators should they come to Sri Lanka to get a firsthand account of what had happened towards the end of bloody Eelam War that ended in May 2009.

The government appears to be taking a short term view. The give away to its thinking is the ban on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from holding news conferences and training workshops for journalists. The crackdown was announced last month, in what the West considers as an attempt to stifle free speech.

The defence ministry, which has been regulating local and foreign NGOs since the end of the Eelam War, said the order was necessary to stop them operating “beyond their mandate”. So holding press conferences, awareness campaigns, training for journalists, workshops and disseminating press releases on everything from voter rights to exposing corruption became off-limits.

The NGOs are naturally upset. And have been vocal in condemning the order as “a new crackdown on dissenting voices”, and have been linking it with a possible snap presidential election some time towards this year end or early next year.

Sri Lanka is not a banana republic per se and has been holding multiple levels of elections at regular intervals. So much so, it doesn’t need an overseas expert to descend on the local beaches to conduct a voter awareness campaign.

But this is exactly the USAID has sought to do through a NGO on the spacious plea that independent election monitors have warned of malpractices in preparing voters lists. These rolls are not a one-off exercise. The revision is a constant process and is carried out in full public view with the assistance of stake-holders, who are the political parties.

So much so, the USAID move should have rattled the administration. “We strongly urge the government of Sri Lanka to allow civil society organisations and NGOs…to operate freely,” US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement. Viewed in the larger context of US–prompted UNHRC probe into war crimes accountability, the USAID move can be said to have led to near paranoia that culminated in the NGO –gag order.

Experience everywhere across the world shows gag orders don’t serve larger national interest. Censorship is not the order that helps to further national interest. Transparency does. Since the government of President Rajapaksa has been asserting from Day One that the final assault against the LTTE was mounted as a humanitarian operation, what is there to fear and what needs to be hidden from the world gaze? Centuries ago Buddha said keep the doors open and let the air flow in from all directions. This is transparency in the modern lingo.

Yes, there will always be elements, who have agenda; but they, whether they are local or foreign, will have no place to hide, when the government walks the extra mile to keep everything in the open. Also when pro-government groups and elements are made to keep their exuberance in check.

—-RAM SINGH KALCHURI

0 0 votes

Article Rating