{"id":127824,"date":"2014-07-15T11:24:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T05:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=127824"},"modified":"2014-07-23T01:30:27","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T20:00:27","slug":"go-ngo-pots-and-kettles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/go-ngo-pots-and-kettles\/","title":{"rendered":"GO-NGO Pots And Kettles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The Government has taken some tentative steps to keep NGOs in check.\u00a0 Although the big-names in the NGO fraternity have howled in protest, a careful reading of the directive issued by the NGO Secretariat clearly indicates that there\u2019s been little more than reiteration of existing caveats pertaining to NGO activity.\u00a0 Moreover, those with the shrillest objections do not even belong to NGOs that currently come under the purview of the Secretariat.\u00a0 Only some 1400 NGOs are registered with the Secretariat while many times that number registered under the Company Act as well as other legal mechanisms for registration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s position is that NGOs cannot exceed mandates.\u00a0 That\u2019s fair enough.\u00a0 The Secretariat states that the NGO Act will be amended to bring other outfits registered variously but not with the Secretariat under its purview.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing wrong in that either.\u00a0 Simply, if NGOs are required to submit activity plans for the year which can help the Secretariat monitor if mandates are not exceeded, \u2018NGO-companies\u2019 will not have to submit to similar scrutiny.<\/p>\n

NGOs as well as the Opposition have objected to the Secretariat being housed within the Defence Ministry.\u00a0 Why they remained silent until this \u2018crack down\u2019 is a mystery, but nevertheless they do have a point.\u00a0 The only defence for the government is the fact that some NGOs have operated in ways that have raised serious questions about compromising national security, both during the time the LTTE existed militarily and after May 2009 too.\u00a0 That however is not reason enough to have in place a blanket and high-handed policy on monitoring all NGOs.<\/p>\n

No country can be faulted for taking precautions against elements that can compromise a hard won peace.\u00a0 On the other hand one can easily go overboard with precaution.\u00a0 Indeed it is a fine line between protecting country and safeguarding regime-interest.\u00a0 That line is currently blurred and this blurring gives credence to some of the arguments against control. Not all objectors have the moral authority to cry foul however, given track records of aiding and abetting terrorism as well as complicity in well known destabilization efforts initiated by foreign governments.<\/p>\n

What we are seeing from the side of the Government is what can be called early signs of direct control over the NGO sector.\u00a0 A statement about monitoring, reiteration of existing rules and expression of intent in corralling all NGOs under one monitoring authority can be described as \u2018long overdue\u2019.\u00a0 Indeed, many discussions on the NGO sector have called for that kind of streamlining.\u00a0 NGOs have not helped their cause by acting as though the \u2018non\u2019 part of the acronym is equivalent to \u2018anti\u2019 and as such they are blessed with impunity, are above the law and entitled to do the \u2018as we please\u2019.\u00a0 The current monitoring regime, some will argue, is rudimentary, full of holes and inadequate in ensuring that entities largely dependent on foreign funds and therefore beholden to uphold donor-agenda do not act in ways detriment to the national interest, including political stability and national security.<\/p>\n

For all this, the most compelling argument against the current moves by the Government is the moral objection: a government and an institutional arrangement that thumbs its metaphorical nose at \u2018mandate\u2019 has no moral authority to demand that anyone, NGOs included, stick within mandate-parameters.<\/p>\n

So we left with two entities, the apparatus of Governmental Organizations and that of the Non-Governmental Organizations, endowed with the right to point self-righteous fingers at each other.\u00a0 Ironically, each accuses the other of being bad boys and girls when it comes to governance including transparency, accountability and flouting or circumventing established rules and procedures.\u00a0 Both are recipients of \u2018donor-dollars\u2019 (or Euros or Yuan or whatever), both adept at double-speak, selective objection, shameless politicking and peopled with unscrupulous racketeers.\u00a0 It\u2019s all black.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about pots and kettles.<\/p>\n

Indeed, we can conclude that strange as it may be, the two entities depend on each other.\u00a0 If one were to correct itself the other would have to close up shop or at least have certain shops closed (like say the \u2018Monitoring Unit\u2019 if such exists within the NGO Secretariat).\u00a0 It is hard to imagine that NGO bigwigs would welcome that kind of eventuality with wild applause.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nGO-NGO Pots And Kettles - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/go-ngo-pots-and-kettles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GO-NGO Pots And Kettles - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/go-ngo-pots-and-kettles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T05:54:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-22T20:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/go-ngo-pots-and-kettles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/go-ngo-pots-and-kettles\/\",\"name\":\"GO-NGO Pots And Kettles - 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