{"id":97127,"date":"2020-01-01T00:10:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T06:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97127"},"modified":"2019-12-31T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T23:23:08","slug":"time-to-investigate-the-activities-of-foreign-funded-ngos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/01\/time-to-investigate-the-activities-of-foreign-funded-ngos\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to investigate the activities of foreign funded NGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

S. Akurugoda<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

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

He said he heard some leading academic Bhikkus explaining how school\ntextbooks now had content that would corrupt young minds. An organisation\nexplained how some school textbooks have depicted the northern and eastern\nprovinces of Sri Lanka as one province. It was also said that the Sinhala New\nYear had been dropped from some school textbooks,\u201d he said. While pointing out\nthat there is a concerted and ongoing attempt to divide the country,\nto destroy the Sinhala Buddhists, he made a detailed speech on how the values\nof the society have been eroded through subtle means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sovereignty is defined as the supreme political\npower of a government to regulate its affairs within a specified territory\nwithout outside interference. Policies are thus formulated by the people of a\nsovereign nation via the elected government to suit the nation and its people.\nPumping billions of Rupees to brainwash the people of a nation to achieve the\ngoals of outside elements is a clear-cut interference on its sovereignty. Who\nwill pump billions for nothing in return? These lobbyist NGOs are to fulfill\nthe needs of their funding agencies whose ultimate aim is none other than\ncreating a new form of colonization around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest news\nitem appeared in The Island under the title NPC\ncalls for continuation of National Anthem in Tamil\u201d is a typical example. TNA,\nrecently had a media briefing and asked the government to not to stop\nyahapalanaya practice of singing the national anthem in Tamil at the Feb 04\nIndependence Day celebrations.  As per the news item appeared in The Island last\nSaturday, NPC  (National Peace\nCouncil) has also repeated the same claim and now they are going to make a big\nissue out of it against the duly elected government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Activities of NPC in the past\nare well known and the above photograph indicating Jehan Perera of NPC addressing\na meeting organized by NESoHR (founded by LTTE proxy TNA with the Eelam map\nbehind him) , on December 10, 2005 describe it in  thousand words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPC, whose annual funding is said to be in\nexcess of 126 millions SL Rupees or 5, is funded by the USAID (Main\ncontributor), MISEREOR  (The German\nCatholic Bishops\u2019 Organisation for Development Coorporation), Asia Foundation,\nEuropean Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) ,US Department of\nState ,Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD),  SPICE-MSI, FOKUS (based on the information\nprovided in NPC website, Financial Report 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website of the above funding agency the\nCatholic Agency for Overseas Development gives CAFOD’s mission as promoting\nhuman development and social justice in witness to Christian faith and Gospel\nvalues (emphasis mine). Depending entirely on foreign governments and agencies\nthey carry on the White Man’s Burden and have a function similar to Christian\nmissionaries during the high colonial era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also interesting to note that the 10\nmember Governing Council of this NGO has only 2 members with Sinhala names. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of\nthe foreign funded NGOs were established in Sri Lanka during the war against\nLTTE terrorism.  Most of these NGOs have\nhad engaged in a movement to brainwash the people of\nSri Lanka promoting federalism (or indirectly separatism).  For example, National Peace Council (NPC),\nconsidered in their vision statement published prior to the defeat of terrorism,\nthe LTTE as an integral part of \u2018their so-called solution\u2019.  Clearly the NPC and similar ilk wanted to\nwhitewash the LTTE and bring it out as a civilised entity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We remember how these NGOs justified international\nintervention (including through the UN and US) and called for solutions\nmanufactured from the outside spending billions of Rupees got from foreign donors which money should have\ngone to the poor people in the country. These piece mongers and their colonial\nmasters in the West were behind the propaganda on behalf of Tamil racism in\ngeneral and the LTTE in particular. Their activities parallel the LTTE\u2019s global\npropaganda campaign against the government of Sri Lanka and its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island dated March 4, 2011 under the heading\nForeign funds galore for three NGOs: Over Rs. 600mn. received in 3 yrs; Norway\nleading donor\u201d, revealed how a section of the international community was\npouring money into Sri Lankan NGOs like the Centre for Policy Alternatives\n(CPA) and National Peace Council (NPC), Transparency International Sri Lanka,\nin 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<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per the report, the CPA has received Rs. 272.31\nmillion during the 2008-2010 periods. The NPC and TI have received Rs. 171.23\nmillion and 174.79 million, respectively. The\ncountry\u2019s banking system has no records of the exact amount of funds received\nby NGOs over the past two to three decades. Sources said that an enormous\namount of funds had been received by NGOs since Feb. 2002, with some countries\nand the UNDP providing funds to the LTTE Peace Secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the NPC and similar ilk were in the\ndriver\u2019s seat during the Chandrika-Ranil failed regimes, and later during the\nRanil-Sirisena (so-called yahapalana) regime, attempting to brainwash the\ncountry from top political hierarchy to grass roots level, spending billions of\nrupees, the mass support received from the general public to eradicate\nterrorism in 2009 and to chase away  the\nabove notorious regimes at the end of their terms  are clear proofs that the peace loving people\nof Sri Lanka are wiser than the foreign funded PEACE prophets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest mission, after the\nfailure of earlier vision, of these NGOs is said to be the work towards a\npolitical solution to the so-called ethnic conflict, reconciliation etc.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few months after the elimination of the LTTE terror\nfrom our soil, we had every reason to believe that some notable elements of the\nUS and their allies were rapidly making a case of war crimes against Sri Lanka\non the basis of the conduct of her armed forces as well as political\nleadership. One of the motivations of this action is to cover-up their own\ncontinuing armed conflicts on large scales, involving major humanitarian\ncatastrophes and causing the death of large numbers of civilians due to\nmilitary actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and in some areas of Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After few months of these meetings, Ban Ki-moon\nappointed a panel to advice him (i.e the UNSG) on Sri Lanka\u2019s alleged war crime\ncharges and European Union gave conditional ultimatum on GSP Plus. Thus\nthese NGOs are the promoters of the notorious UNHCR Resolution welcomed by\ntheir yahapalanaya government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the appointment of Ban Ki-moon panel,\nthese Peace Vendors were back in the business by issuing statements one after\nthe other to the foreign and local press supporting the Ban KI-moon\u2019s panel and\nthe EU\u2019s conditions and condemning the actions of the Sri Lankan Government and\nits people as was usually done by them during the past. They started, once\nagain, advocating solutions. The solutions they seek are from outside including\nforeign intervention. It is not surprising at all to learn that those who live\non foreign funding are for foreign intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As pointed out in an article ‘Let there be\noversight’ (The Island dated December 31, 2008), “NGOs can’t and shouldn’t\nbe allowed to self-regulate. They want to believe that the money they receive\nbelongs to those who have given it, so pleasing their donors is enough. But it\nisn’t. Funds raised in the name of the people of this country, playing on their\nsufferings and undertaking to solve their problems, are rightfully\ntheirs”.\u2026 “There are absolutely no democratic controls over public\nmoney that is handled by NGOs”. http:\/\/www.island.lk\/2008\/12\/31\/features5.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years ago, according\nto media reports, Modi\u2019s government in India revokes licences of 25 foreign\nfunded NGOs over \u2018anti-national activities\u2019 as pool of foreign-funded bodies\nshrinks by almost half in two years. The\nevidence for anti-national activities of foreign funded NGOs operating in Sri Lanka is\neasy to find, one has only to read the anti-national statements made by these\norganisations. Further a mechanism is needed to monitor\nfunds channeled through the banking system as well as other means from foreign\ndonors to local agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NPC and similar ilk should be\nimmediately investigated for what they have done in the past and for what they\nare doing now. If existing laws are insufficient, new laws should be enacted\nfor the benefit of the country and its peace loving people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S. Akurugoda<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s-akurugoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}