Time to probe the INGOs and NGOs

H. L. D. Mahindapala

At a recent meeting the Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, delivered a blunt message to his diplomats : "We are running a foreign policy for a nation-state; not for a non-governmental organisation." (The Australian --7/2/2013, p.12.) This is an out-and-out rejection of I/NGOs as overseers or interventionists in the domestic affairs of nations.

This is a truism that neither nation-states, nor nation builders recovering from devastating wars can ignore. This also questions the validity of I/NGOs to pass judgements -- most of which are selective, ill-informed and partisan -- on the internal affairs of nations. Their meddlesome roles particularly in conflict and post-conflict zones have been grossly intrusive and counter-productive.

Their motives and their political agendas, linked invariably to their Western paymasters, have been under attack from sovereign nations. Dependent entirely on foreign funds and the backing of the Western diplomats they have assumed the role of unrepresentative "policy-makers" arrogantly presuring nations to toe the line of their foreign paymasters. I/NGOs willingly and obediently act as cats' paws of the neo-colonialists pulling the Western chestnuts out of the fires burning and exploding in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Bob Carr's statement is relevant to the Sri Lanka in many ways. I/NGOs are bent on hijacking the domestic policy to serve the interests of their paymasters in the West, all in the name of protecting and promoting universal human rights. Foreign agencies -- including the UN -- find all what they need to demonize Sri Lanka in the one-sided reports produced by local NGOs. Every foreign move against Sri Lanka reflect the anti-national thrust of local NGOs. Even the phraseology that accuses Sri Lanka is borrowed, word to word, from the reports produced by local NGOs.

Bob Carr's blast against I/NGOs is a strong defence of the right of sovereign nations to keep foreign interventionists out. Russia has recognised this and even passed legislation against these I/NGOs. Vladimir Putin, Russian President, "warning foreign-funded non-government organizations against meddling in the country's affairs" told officers of his intelligence units recently:"They (referring to the West) may use various instruments of pressure, including mechanisms of the so-called 'soft power'. The sovereign right of Russia and its partners to build and develop its integration project (with the former regional neighbours in USSR) must be safely protected." (Huffington Post -- February 14, 2013)

After Putin's inauguration in May, 2012, the Russian Parliament passed a series of laws that increased fines for taking part in unauthorized protests, extended the definition of high treason and required non-government organizations that receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents".

Foreign funds

The Indian government too has tightened the screws on NGOs. In its revised Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 the Indian government has placed stringent conditions on NGOs receiving foreign funds. It has even provoked the Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporter, to protest at the increased scrutiny of funds received by Indian NGOs. The tightened scrutiny of foreign funds came into force on May 1, 2011.

Sovereign nations are aware that the neo-colonialists use NGOs as the local 'soft power' to do their dirty work. In the bygone era of colonialism it was the Christian Churches that acted as the 'soft power' of the colonial masters. Now the hired NGO hacks do the dirty work for a fistful of dollars. In short, the local NGOs act as political agents to erode the sovereignty of nations on instructions laid down in the political agenda of the neo-colonialists. They act like trained Pavlovian dogs responding willingly to the commands of their foreign masters.

The irony is that these NGOs hacks strut around posing as holy priests of higher moral code none of which is observed by their Western paymasters. The morality they preach is only for the lesser beings in the developing world and not for their big, powerful and affluent paymasters. Getting paid by paymasters guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity makes them feel that they are the infallible occupants of the throne similar to that in Rome. Picking the crumbs that fall of the dinner table of Western embassies is also considered by them as the highest point of their social standing. But their record of serving in conflict and post-conflict zones has revealed that they had neither served the high moral principles they profess nor the victims of these conflict zones caused or fuelled by their paymasters.

The response of sovereign states is almost instinctive. Their resistance to I/NGOs stems mainly from the dismal failure of I/NGOs to make any substantial contribution to internal crises/problems of states. Their failure to end the Sri Lanka war against Tamil Tiger terrorists is a glaring example. Their cock-eyed view of the basic facts underlying the crisis and their distorted and partisan perspectives made them deny what even the Tamil leaders acknowledged -- i.e., Velupillai Prabhkaran killed more Tamils than all the others put together. Instead they diverted attention to the collateral damage caused in the last phase of the terrorist war (from January 2009 to May 2009 ) in which both sides fired on the civilians trapped in the middle.

This focus on the last five months raises a curious question: why did the I/NGOs skip the crimes committed by all actors --- including India's IPKF -- in the preceding 32 years and seven months? Does this selective focus on the last five months mean that there were no violations of human rights in the preceding years and months? All wars are waged on violations of human rights. So why was the first successful war on terrorism selected punitive action by the West and India -- and that too on the alleged deaths of 40,000 Tamil civilians which no one had counted? Besides, even if 40,000 is accepted as the final figure of casualties in the last stage of the war -- a stage in which both sides were firing at each other with the civilians trapped in the middle – which NGO can vouch as to whose bullets killed whom and how many? Despite these questionable issues casting serious doubts, the accusative propaganda of the I/NGOs is packaged to imply that the fictitious figure of 40,000 killed was caused solely by the Sri Lankan forces.

Unable to justify this figure the NGOs, as a last resort, claim that this is the UN figure. But they don't bother to ask as to who counted the dead bodies for the UN. Manufacturing fiction to provide ammunition for the the paymasters to target Sri Lanka is the primary task of NGOs. The local NGOs are paid to collect anti-Sri Lankan material which can be used to push the Western-Indian foreign policies down the throats of Sri Lankans. Selling the bleeding wounds and dead bodies of locals keep the NGO whiskey flowing. They are the highly paid local ghouls who thrive on sucking the blood of their own people. It is the civilian non-combatant who had to pay for the miserable failure of NGOs to grasp the issues bedevilling Sri Lanka. Over the years they failed to contribute anything constructive to the war-torn people of Sri Lanka. It is these coconut-heads -- thick skull outside and hollows inside -- who parade as the solution to the problems exploding in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Unwanted interventions

Bob Carr's blunt message is also a recognition of the hard reality that the I/NGOs have not been constructive contributors to the crises facing the world. In reality these I/NGOs step into conflict zones as solutions but end up ignominously as a part of the problem worsened by their naive and unwanted interventions. His statement must be dinned into some of our pro-West, pro-NGO politicos (including some ministers) and diplomats who are playing footsy, under the table, with the NGOs aligned to the Big Brothers watching over our shoulder. It is undeniable that we are small fry in sea of sharks and whales. But does that mean that we should swim into their jaws to be the next meal for these unscrupulous, devouring monsters?

The best that the so-called political pundits can recommend is to go the way of Burma -- i.e., surrender to the Western Forces and be a client state to get handouts which will have to be paid back in the blood and sweat of the people. Appeasing the West is uppermost in their calculations even if it means sacrificing the dignity and the self-respect of the nation, not to mention its territory. There are several instances in history where the little Davids have won over the Goliaths and there is no reason why Sri Lanka cannot be one of them with some strategic alliances and manoueverings.

The know-alls in I/NGOs and academia, particularly the intellectual dodos in the Colombo University, were criss-crossing the globe as if they were the decisive makers and breakers of the nation at the height of the war when Sri Lanka was batting on a weak wicket. Describing Sri Lanka as a "failed state" they were prancing on the national and international stage as if they had the kokatath thailaya (cure-all snake oil ) for the evils unleashed by Velupillai Prabhakaran. In the last analysis, their theories and formulas did not go anything beyond abject appeasement.

When the nation was at the most critical stage in war-torn Sri Lanka the local NGOs had the audacity to claim that they are "stakeholders" who must be given a place at the negotiating table in Geneva, despite the fact that they did not represent any segment of the Sri Lankan population. This was a claim made by Dr. Jehan (Pacha) Perera. He was seen herding handpicked naive yes-men and women from the east and the north around the traps in Geneva to give credence to his pretentious pose of being a representative of the people of Sri Lanka. His latest contribution in the ex-Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake case was to supply some "coconut" sound bites to Hulftsdorp black coats. Trying to drum up support for Shirani Bandaranyake -- NGOs are noted for jumping into the wrong bandwagon always! -- he even repeated the worn out cliche that Sri Lanka is a "failed state".

Spin Dr. "Paki" Saravanamuttu is another anti-national henchman of the West ever willing to go on all fours to polish their boots each time the innocent blood of the Afghan children stain the leather of the Western drones. In fact, recently he and the NGO henchmen got a pat on the head for being obedient and cheap servants of America. Ambassadress Michele Sison very solicitously threw a few more crumbs to her local pet poodles when she told a Sunday newspaper that United States' support for NGO s' in Sri Lanka is “quite transparent”. It would be most helpful if she could stand by her words and be "transparent" in answering a question like how much her government pays monthly to feed the headless chooks in the NGOs.

Everyone knows that the relationship is one of the NGOs scratching the backs of Western diplomats with the Western diplomats reciprocating by scratching the backs of NGOs with dollar bills. The State Departments is on record confessing that NGOs are a source of "soft power" where hired hacks in NGOs serve as cheap foreign labour, digging up information to be used by their Western masters -- all done in the name of research, of course! The NGOs also serve as mouthpieces to propagate their political agenda both at home and abroad.

From the Western point of view -- particularly at a time of cost cutting -- it is cheaper to outsource some of the political activities of their foreign policy to the local NGOs rather then posting their diplomats and accompanying families who are expensive to be maintained overseas. Obviously,Western governments are investing their money in local NGOs because they are getting returns far in excess of their expectations. But how much is Sri Lanka getting from these foreign-funded agents? These unelected, unrepresentative, self-appointed NGOs, responsible only to their foreign paymasters, cannot serve two nations at the same time -- one abroad and another at home. So they willingly become the local monkeys performing according to the tunes played by the Western organ grinders.

Western paymasters

They are used not only locally to undermine democratically established governments but also shippped abroad at critical times to do the dirty work of Western paymasters who use them to denigrate Sri Lanka in foreign fora. Their anti-Sri Lankan statements help the anti-Sri Lankan Western governments to pass resolutions against Sri Lanka in international fora using the concocted anti-Sri Lankan reports of NGOs. "Paki" and Jehan will be doing this dirty work this month in Geneva once again, posing as human rights activists with advertising boards hanging round their necks as saviours of mankind.

Since they claim to be "stakeholders" in Sri Lanka it is pertinent to ask them to name a single achievement they had scored in any of the critical areas faced by the nation? For instance, did any of their interventions, theories or formulas helped to end the war? Or did their role help the Tamil Tiger war-mongers to drag the nation deeper into the burning cauldron of terrorist fires? Take the case of spin Dr. "Paki" Saravanamuttu. He had the liberty and the right to take the GOSL with foreign-funds no doubt. Why didn't his legal team take Prabhakaran to trial in the Tiger courts in the quasi-state established in Vanni? Or why didn't he mount a single case against Prabhakaran either in Sri Lankan courts or in any international court for the war crime of forcibly recruiting Tamil children and throwing them into a loser's war? There were cases instituted against Prabhakaran in Sri Lanka and India.

Why didn't "Paki" do his bit? If he has any excuses for not doing his duty for the victims of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the dead Tigers why hasn't he instituted a case in UK, Australia or Sri Lanka against Adele Balasingham, the Tigress who openly recruited teen-age girls and brainwashed them to fight in a terrorist campaign that targeted civilians of all communities?

Of course, it was not in his interests to take Prabhakaran out of the war zone because that would have reduced the flow of dollars to his bank account. This explains why the NGOs gave their silent -- and sometimes even open -- consent for Prabhakaran to prolong the war, leading to the deaths of thousands of Tamil children. NGOs were insisting on negotiations knowing that there was no way of Prabhakran agreeing to a negotiated settlement. All negotiated settlements -- from the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement to Oslo Agreement -- never worked to end Prabhakaran's violence. Pressing for negotiations benefitted only Prabhakaran and NGOs.

Belligerent Prabhakaran could survive only in a war zone and NGOs had the best opportunities of selling the bleeding wounds and dead bodies to rake in foreign funds also in war zones. On the contrary, had they focused on Prabhakaran and exposed him the way they rammed the GOSL the war would have ended a longtime before, thereby saving thousands of civilian lives. The blood of the war victims of the 33-year-old-terrorist war -- the longest running war in Asia -- is on the heads of Jehan (Pacha) Pereras and spin Dr. "Paki" Saravanaumuttu because Prabhakaran was sustained and encouraged by the the nudge-and-the-wink he got from the local NGOs.

These I/NGOs should be made to account for the ideological and political backing they gave to directly or indirectly legitimize the fascist terrorism of the LTTE that caused countless deaths of non-combatant civilians on both sides of the fence. Their common strategy has been to scrutinize and condemn the role of the state, dismissing in passing with a sentence or two of the enormity of the LTTE war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is now time to judge these NGO judges. If they can call for transparency and accountability from states why can't the states call call for transparency and accountability from I/NGOs? They are not above the law, particularly when they had contributed ideologically, politically, morally and even financially at times to the crimes committed in conflict zones in Sri Lanka?

Their hands are not clean though they have placed themselves above the rest as the self-appointed judges overseeing the conduct of the war. But in effect their role only contributed to encourage the Tamil Tiger terrorist to commit more crimes. The Voice of Tigers, the radio station located in the Vanni, were using their statements as ideological justifications for continuing and escalating Tiger violence. When Jehan (Pacha) Perera and "Paki" Saravanamuttu blamed ONLY the Sinhalese, it was used skillfully to glorify and justify Prabhakaran's violence. If they were the "stake holders", as claimed by Jehan (Pacha) Perera of The National Peace Council, was their duty to douse the fires of communal hatred or to add fuel to it?

Peace and reconciliation

The nation has a right to ask in what way they contributed to peace with all the money they raked in from foreign sources. If they had failed -- the results confirm this indubitably -- then they should be charged for collecting money on bogus promises they could not deliver. The nation has been taken for a ride by these fraudsters/charlatans who never had a chance of ending the war with their fake formulas. It was pretty obvious to any sensible analysts that they could never sell their fanciful formulas to intransigent Prabhakaran. They are as fraudulent as racketeers like Lalith Kotelawela promising 40 percent interests and not giving a cent back to diddled depositors. In the case of Kotelawela, however, people lost their money. In the case of NGOs their false promises led to the loss innocent lives. This makes their crime against humanity far greater than even Prabhakaran's. Has the nation at any time gained in any way through their anti-national agendas? All these and more demand answers as the price of their anti-national programmes/policies have been paid by the blood, sweat and tears of the poor people.

The damage done to the nation is incalculable. Should these Fifth Columnists be allowed to get away scot-free simply because they pose as moralists planted by the Western embassies? Their services have undoutedly benefited their Western masters, Tamil Tiger terrorists and Tamil separatists. But what is the quantum of constructive services rendered by them to the unity, peace and reconciliation of the nation? No doubt a handful of these Fifth Columnists benefitted by raising their life-style to heights beyond their dreams. But they should be judge not by their life-stye but by their ideological, theoretical contributions? How much did our war-weary people benefit by their partisan politics? While they went laughing all the way to the bank where did it leave our people who were trapped in a terrorist war waged with the open or covert backing of NGOs?

Anti-national agendas

Clearly, all these point to the urgent need to probe the role, activities, objectives, policies, programmes and foreign and local relationships of the NGOs at the political and financial levels. There is an urgent need for a commission of inquiry to investigate the manipulative role of I/NGOs that (1) prolonged the terrorist war; (2) destabilized the nation; (3) promoted the ideology of separatism or any agenda linked to it; (4) enhanced their luxury life-style maintained at the expense of the war victims; (5) advanced surreptitiously to infiltrate the media, academia and other national institutions, including the religious orders; (6) succeeded in recruiting locals who were/are favoured by NGOs with perks and payments, particularly those in the media and academia and other professions; (7) suceeded in obtaining free advertising space in the media to undermine peace, stability and reconciliation (8) focused on running seminars, lectures and other activities that tended to justify the violence of the Tamil Tiger terrrorists and blame only the state, etc.

The anti-national role of NGOs in foreign fora should also be one of the key areas that should be investigated, along with links to the separatist elements both at home and abroad. For instance, Amnesty International was exposed at the last Geneva sessions for accepting $50,000 from the Canadian Tamil Congress, an organisation linked to the LTTE. Clearly, the funding for the anti-national agendas of the I/NGOs by anti-Sri Lankan sources can only lead to the conclusion that nothing good can come out I/NGOs linked to foreign sources. So what right had Jehan (Pacha) Perera to label his anti-national front as the National Peace Council, particularly when he claims that nations are outdated?

"Paki", on the other hand, was leap-frogging from one Western capital to another, hoping to put maximum pressure on Sri Lanka to stop the war.

His anti-national hysteria has not stopped even after the war had ended. He has pursued relentlessly his anti-national campaigns to stoke the bitter memories of the past which have not contributed anything meaningful or substantial to peace and reconciliation. Of course, as stated earlier, all political NGOs live on the misery of conflict zones. They earn their bread and butter by moralizing on who should massacre whom for what purpose. If the killings do not fit into their agenda then they go ballistic accusing the peace-makers of being war-mongers.

The nation has had a gutful of this humbuggery of NGOs. Does this nation need these anti-national humbugs who had, over the years, exacerbated the inter-communal relations and national harmony?

It is time an official inquiry is held to investigate comprehensively the overall role played by these political I/NGOs to determine whether they have any place in the future of the nation reaching out to restore peace, unity and reconciliation among the war-victims. These NGOs had no formula to end the war. Nor do they have a formula to win the peace. They have only obstructionist policies and tactics to the drag the nation back to another needless war.

If other leading nations are tightening the screws on NGOs should this nation tolerate these war-mongers posing as peace-makers?