NGOs: We are not puppets to politicians

There have been accusations that some NGOs work with politicians and by doing so they become politicised and are influenced by them.

PETALING JAYA: Two civil rights movement today vehemently denied that by them working with political parties make them puppets to the politicians.

They claimed that they work with political parties whenever they have issues of common interest.

The NGOs were responding to statement by the Malaysian Election Observers Network (Meonet) national coordinator BK Ong for saying that certain NGOs were happy to be mere followers of politicians.

“It’s an unhealthy trend. Civil rights movement should never be politicised,” said BK Ong in a FMT report yesterday.

Ong said the fact remained that the civil society here failed to educate and galvanise people on human rights and civil liberties.

Ong added now there was an increased demand among NGOs calling for the Emergency Ordinance (EO) to be repealed after six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members were arrested under the Act.

However Lawyers for Liberty advisor Eric Paulsen (pix) said that NGOs such as Suaram and Aliran had been fighting to get the EO and the Internal Security Act (ISA) repealed for many years.

“It’s just that now we have a prominent face (Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar) arrested under the Act. His detention has given it a face to the cause and naturally NGOs would use it to create awareness,” said Paulsen.

Prior to the existence of the new media, Paulsen said, the civil society could not mobilise mass support against the cause as mainstream media depicted all EO detainees as criminals.

“But now with Dr Jeyakumar’s detention, people realised that the preventive law was being abused,” he said.

Common interest

On accusation of being followers of politicians, Paulsen said as civil society movements lacked resources, NGOs had to work with certain political parties on issues of common interest.

“Take for example the ISA. The opposition politicians usually suffer the brunt of the draconian act. So when we campaign against the law, the opposition parties would support our cause but that doesn’t mean we are under their influence,” said Paulsen.

Concurring with Paulsen, Tenaganita programme director Aegile Fernandez said many NGOs, including Tenaganita, had been fighting against bad laws such as the ISA and the EO for many years.

“We’ ve been against it since the early 90s. So I don’t really know what Ong is talking about,”said Fernandez.

As for political involvement, Fernandez said that she would naturally approach a politician, be it from the ruling party or otherwise, to get a solution for an issue her movement was working on.

“For example when we work on issues affecting migrant workers, we will approach the area’s MP, state assemblyman or the opposition lawmaker to highlight their grouses.

“That’s why we voted them into office in the first place, to offer us solutions,” said Fernandez.

She also dismissed claims that civil society movements lacked grassroots support, saying NGOs would not have survived for many years without mass support.

“Tenaganita is 20 years old. Obviously we will not be around without the support of the community we work with,” said Fernandez.