There are attempts by some people who
are mainly interested in maintaining the western Christian hegemony to paint a
rosy picture of the Western Governmental Organizations in the country as
innocent organizations. These organizations are referred to as NGOs the name
given by the westerners themselves, and our so called intellectuals who can
imitate but not create any knowledge, continue to use the tag the Non
Governmental Organizations. The moment one identifies the WGOs as NGOs their
structures are covered and the people get the impression that these
organizations are innocent civil society organizations such as Mahila samithis,
Maranadhara Samithis (Funeral aid societies) that depend mainly on the members
themselves. These latter societies may get a contribution in kind or money but
the societies are maintained mainly by the membership fees and may be funds
collected by the members. The funds are usually collected from the villagers
but occasionally they may go outside the particular village but very often will
be confined to the boundaries of the country.
These societies do not get involved in
politics party or otherwise and the office bearers usually do not have an
ambition to enter politics. There may be a few individuals among the office
bearers who would wish to be elected as a member of Pradeshiya Sabha but it is
very unlikely that they would get involved in national politics. The office
bearers are hardly known outside the village in which they operate and not
known in the country through national media. The media is not interested in the
opinion of such office bearers and the journalists usually ignore them.
The WGOs on the other hand were
established by the western governments either directly or indirectly, and have
been financed by those countries. Initially the organisations were helped on
the pretext of giving aid to social work but very soon those organisations also
revealed their political ambitions, even if they may not have been interested
in politics at the beginning. Sarvodaya is good example in this regard, where
the leader could not hide his political inclinations with time. It is not known
whether he had managed to hide his politics at the initial stages but the
powers in the country at one time considered him as a threat in politics.
The later established WGOs have been
openly engaged in politics though the leaders may not have shown any interest
in contesting at national level either for the Presidency or even for a
Parliamentary membership. However, they have been propagators of western
ideology and have been financed by western countries. It is the Scandinavian
countries and Canada that are mainly responsible for pumping money into these
organisations, though the ideology that is propagated is from England and US.
When the Congress was in power in India it is clear that both England and US
used the former against Sri Lanka, though the role played had been different
during UNP days and SLFP dominated alliances days. The US and England were
behind the Indo Lanka Accord signed in 1987, and they were Godfathers to the
accord literary and literarily. It is not my intention to go into details but
without US and England there would not have been a thirteenth amendment. The
Congress Party though pretended to be nationalistic was not so but was guided
by the Cambridge education that Nehru received as a son of an elite in India.
It served the masters and mistresses not only the Mountbattens but the English
queens and kings as well. The Congress leaders were Fridays serving their
masters Robinson Crusoes and the BJP had to be established as a nationalistic
party that respects Hinduthva and not Kristhuthva.
The WGO s as we have said were
established by the western countries mainly in non western countries in the
sixties after the African countries were given limited independence by the
Europeans. The WGOs were financed by the western countries and the
organisations were expected to continue to maintain the African countries as
colonies in economics, politics and culture. I had the opportunity of serving
the University of Malawi when my wife spent a semester there on sabbatical
leave. I was on extended sabbatical leave from the University of Colombo, and I
saw at first hand the cultural and political colonialism practiced in the
country. The history of Malawi began with the arrival of the Europeans as far
as the propagators were concerned and various WGOs functioned in association
with the Christian Churches of various denominations. Once I asked my students
as to who discovered Lake Malawi and their immediate response was it was
Livingstone. I had to tell the students that their grand grand parents had
known Lake Malawi before the Europeans arrived in their country but they being
students in Physics were not interested in what I had to say. Fortunately no
lecturer or student complained to the Vice Chancellor that I was teaching
Malawi Chinthanaya to the students and I was spared the opportunity of being
granted extended sabbatical leave from that University.
The WGOs in general in all countries
except perhaps in the western countries are propagating western ideology for
money. It is the money or other aid that the WGOs receive from the west that is
of concern to the country. Any organisation that receives funds without being
channeled through the Sri Lankan government has to be scrutinized thoroughly as
they should not enjoy the so called freedom of expression in the abstract. The
local Fridays could quote chapter and verse according to the Biblical tradition
followed by the academia and the legal institutions but we should not be fooled
by these quotations. The freedom of expression has its restrictions and in the
west there is no absolute freedom of expression for individuals or
organisations especially when national security is under threat. The Fridays
who serve their Crusoes should be asked to clarify what is meant by freedom of
expression for foreign funded organisations.
Foreign funding is a concern of those
who deal with security of the country as I have some personal experience in
this regard. In the late eighties and early nineties I was the President of
Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) and we were in a trade
union struggle over the salaries of the university teachers. One night at about
two am I was given a telephone call by an OIC of a police station claiming that
he wanted to record a statement by me. He said it was so urgent that he had to
record the statement before the Sun rises, as if the Sun would have upset all
his plans. I agreed and he came with a battalion and recorded my statement. The
next day at about midnight a police force of more than twenty five came to our
home, scaled the gates and after surrounding the house asked me to open the
door telling that they were from the police. When I opened the door the OIC
(now a big shot in the police hierarchy) said he wanted to take me to the
police station to record another statement. I told him that he could do it at
my home but he insisted that I came to the police station with the police force
that had come in several vehicles. I was not taken to the particular police
station that they told my wife I was being taken but to the Gregory’s Road
Intelligence Bureau office, and when my wife and eldest son went to the
particular police station they had been told I was not there! Anyhow the
bigwigs at the Intelligence Bureau were interested in finding out whether FUTA
obtained funds from some other organisation here or abroad. I had to tell them
that FUTA is a trade union federation that received membership fees from the
member unions and other than that FUTA had no other source of income. Some of
the Fridays were high ups in the academia and most probably members of some
University Teachers’ Association (UTA) or other but they neither as individuals
or members of associations came in support of me. This was during the days of
Premadasa Regime, to use one of Ranil W’s favourite expressions, and I had to
fight on my own. I stated this fact in order to show that the security forces
are very much concerned with the funds received by organisations, and it should
not be different in the case of WGO’s.
It is well known that the west is
interested in installing its puppet governments in the non western world and
WGOs are used for that purpose as well. It has also to be reminded that most of
the WGOs served the peace project of the west and were against the humanitarian
operations against the LTTE. They were for CFA of Ranil W and have almost
always followed the western policy. If the Fridays think that freedom of
expression is unconditional then they are mistaken. The country or the
government should not allow the west to use the WGOs on their pay role to go
against the wish of the majority of the people. The Fridays after all is a tiny
minority who serve the Crusoes, who are influenced by western ideology of bogus
freedom of expression, which is not practiced in the west itself.
Nalin De Silva
27-08-2014