S. Akurugoda

Foreign-funded NGOs had influenced our education system in subtle ways and an expeditious investigation will be carried out into the ideas being put into the minds of schoolchildren through school text books, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said at the National Dhamma School Convention and Awards Ceremony held at Irattaperiyakulam in Vavuniya few days ago.

He said he heard some leading academic Bhikkus explaining how school textbooks now had content that would corrupt young minds. An organisation explained how some school textbooks have depicted the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka as one province. It was also said that the Sinhala New Year had been dropped from some school textbooks,” he said. While pointing out that there is a concerted and ongoing attempt to divide the country, to destroy the Sinhala Buddhists, he made a detailed speech on how the values of the society have been eroded through subtle means.

The sovereignty is defined as the supreme political power of a government to regulate its affairs within a specified territory without outside interference. Policies are thus formulated by the people of a sovereign nation via the elected government to suit the nation and its people. Pumping billions of Rupees to brainwash the people of a nation to achieve the goals of outside elements is a clear-cut interference on its sovereignty. Who will pump billions for nothing in return? These lobbyist NGOs are to fulfill the needs of their funding agencies whose ultimate aim is none other than creating a new form of colonization around the world.

The latest news item appeared in The Island under the title NPC calls for continuation of National Anthem in Tamil” is a typical example. TNA, recently had a media briefing and asked the government to not to stop yahapalanaya practice of singing the national anthem in Tamil at the Feb 04 Independence Day celebrations.  As per the news item appeared in The Island last Saturday, NPC  (National Peace Council) has also repeated the same claim and now they are going to make a big issue out of it against the duly elected government.

Activities of NPC in the past are well known and the above photograph indicating Jehan Perera of NPC addressing a meeting organized by NESoHR (founded by LTTE proxy TNA with the Eelam map behind him) , on December 10, 2005 describe it in  thousand words.

NPC, whose annual funding is said to be in excess of 126 millions SL Rupees or 5, is funded by the USAID (Main contributor), MISEREOR  (The German Catholic Bishops’ Organisation for Development Coorporation), Asia Foundation, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) ,US Department of State ,Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD),  SPICE-MSI, FOKUS (based on the information provided in NPC website, Financial Report 2017).

The website of the above funding agency the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development gives CAFOD’s mission as promoting human development and social justice in witness to Christian faith and Gospel values (emphasis mine). Depending entirely on foreign governments and agencies they carry on the White Man’s Burden and have a function similar to Christian missionaries during the high colonial era.

It is also interesting to note that the 10 member Governing Council of this NGO has only 2 members with Sinhala names.

Most of the foreign funded NGOs were established in Sri Lanka during the war against LTTE terrorism.  Most of these NGOs have had engaged in a movement to brainwash the people of Sri Lanka promoting federalism (or indirectly separatism).  For example, National Peace Council (NPC), considered in their vision statement published prior to the defeat of terrorism, the LTTE as an integral part of ‘their so-called solution’.  Clearly the NPC and similar ilk wanted to whitewash the LTTE and bring it out as a civilised entity.

We remember how these NGOs justified international intervention (including through the UN and US) and called for solutions manufactured from the outside spending billions of Rupees got from foreign donors which money should have gone to the poor people in the country. These piece mongers and their colonial masters in the West were behind the propaganda on behalf of Tamil racism in general and the LTTE in particular. Their activities parallel the LTTE’s global propaganda campaign against the government of Sri Lanka and its people.

The Island dated March 4, 2011 under the heading Foreign funds galore for three NGOs: Over Rs. 600mn. received in 3 yrs; Norway leading donor”, revealed how a section of the international community was pouring money into Sri Lankan NGOs like the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and National Peace Council (NPC), Transparency International Sri Lanka, in spite of the conclusion of war against terrorism in May, 2009. http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=19831

As per the report, the CPA has received Rs. 272.31 million during the 2008-2010 periods. The NPC and TI have received Rs. 171.23 million and 174.79 million, respectively. The country’s banking system has no records of the exact amount of funds received by NGOs over the past two to three decades. Sources said that an enormous amount of funds had been received by NGOs since Feb. 2002, with some countries and the UNDP providing funds to the LTTE Peace Secretariat.

Although the NPC and similar ilk were in the driver’s seat during the Chandrika-Ranil failed regimes, and later during the Ranil-Sirisena (so-called yahapalana) regime, attempting to brainwash the country from top political hierarchy to grass roots level, spending billions of rupees, the mass support received from the general public to eradicate terrorism in 2009 and to chase away  the above notorious regimes at the end of their terms  are clear proofs that the peace loving people of Sri Lanka are wiser than the foreign funded PEACE prophets.

The latest mission, after the failure of earlier vision, of these NGOs is said to be the work towards a political solution to the so-called ethnic conflict, reconciliation etc. 

Few months after the elimination of the LTTE terror from our soil, we had every reason to believe that some notable elements of the US and their allies were rapidly making a case of war crimes against Sri Lanka on the basis of the conduct of her armed forces as well as political leadership. One of the motivations of this action is to cover-up their own continuing armed conflicts on large scales, involving major humanitarian catastrophes and causing the death of large numbers of civilians due to military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and in some areas of Pakistan.

On 28th August 2009, the two kingpins of NGOs were reported addressing a close-door meeting convened by the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Another notable participant of this discussion was Teresita Schaffer of The Centre for Strategic and international Studies, one of the former US Ambassadors to Sri Lanka, who was very critical of the Sri Lankan government during her tenure of office in Sri Lanka. As per media reports, the duos from the two NGOs basically said at a meeting, in Washington D.C. with former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Robert Blake, was what Blake wanted them to say.

After few months of these meetings, Ban Ki-moon appointed a panel to advice him (i.e the UNSG) on Sri Lanka’s alleged war crime charges and European Union gave conditional ultimatum on GSP Plus. Thus these NGOs are the promoters of the notorious UNHCR Resolution welcomed by their yahapalanaya government.

Soon after the appointment of Ban Ki-moon panel, these Peace Vendors were back in the business by issuing statements one after the other to the foreign and local press supporting the Ban KI-moon’s panel and the EU’s conditions and condemning the actions of the Sri Lankan Government and its people as was usually done by them during the past. They started, once again, advocating solutions. The solutions they seek are from outside including foreign intervention. It is not surprising at all to learn that those who live on foreign funding are for foreign intervention.

As pointed out in an article ‘Let there be oversight’ (The Island dated December 31, 2008), “NGOs can’t and shouldn’t be allowed to self-regulate. They want to believe that the money they receive belongs to those who have given it, so pleasing their donors is enough. But it isn’t. Funds raised in the name of the people of this country, playing on their sufferings and undertaking to solve their problems, are rightfully theirs”.… “There are absolutely no democratic controls over public money that is handled by NGOs”. http://www.island.lk/2008/12/31/features5.html

Three years ago, according to media reports, Modi’s government in India revokes licences of 25 foreign funded NGOs over ‘anti-national activities’ as pool of foreign-funded bodies shrinks by almost half in two years. The evidence for anti-national activities of foreign funded NGOs operating in Sri Lanka is easy to find, one has only to read the anti-national statements made by these organisations. Further a mechanism is needed to monitor funds channeled through the banking system as well as other means from foreign donors to local agencies.

The NPC and similar ilk should be immediately investigated for what they have done in the past and for what they are doing now. If existing laws are insufficient, new laws should be enacted for the benefit of the country and its peace loving people.

S. Akurugoda