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NGOs (non-governmental organizations) require conditions of human misery, whether induced by conflict or natural disaster, to justify their very existence. In the absence of such human suffering, such organisations would be redundant and their staff without employment. The NGO industry (for that is what it is) has clear parallels with many other industries. There is a well-defined career path, stiff competition for the most lucrative jobs (always in developing countries) and the need for slick PR campaigns to tap into fiercely contested aid budgets. Universities in the West struggle to keep up with the Sri Lanka must surely rate as the ultimate destination for the aspiring career NGO type. In addition to the professional standing that comes with a stint in the 'war-torn' island, many NGO workers in Sri Lanka enjoy a lifestyle they could not dream of back in their home countries. Driving around in the latest editions of SUVs, provided with spacious accommodation in Colombo 7 and frequenting the swanky eateries that have mushroomed around the city in recent years, many are clearly living the high life. For those that actually leave their air-conditioned Colombo offices, it is true that conditions in the island's North and East are challenging. But they are hardly Afghanistan or the Sudan.
In the face of recent government-imposed restrictions on their work, it is remarkable how candidly foreign NGO workers in Sri Lanka speak about feeling 'morally obliged' to work in the island. Like the missionaries that preceded them, these do-gooders (and brown-skinned sahibs among them) clearly still carry a sense of the 'white man's burden' in believing that the natives need to be saved from themselves. Such individuals should take closer note of the island's history. Five centuries ago, the first Europeans arrived on the island with similar sentiments, and proceeded to wreak irreparable damage on Sri Lanka's social fabric. Sri Lanka is not some sub-Saharan basket case. It boasts of an educated, highly literate population, enjoying some of the best indices of human development per capita in the world. In many respects, its progressive health and social programmes continue to be studied as a model for much of the developing world. Perhaps unfamiliar with the workings of parliamentary democracy in Sri Lanka, many NGOs issue absurd demands on a government that enjoys widespread popular support and must act in accordance with the mandate it has received from the electorate. Many NGOs are also clearly oblivious of the constraints of coalition politics, the product of an electoral system based on proportional representation, a system widely acknowledged as the most democratic and representative of minority interest groups. Most of them display an all too frequent lack of familiarity with even the most basic aspects of the island's history. There is usually also a complete failure to appreciate the complex traditional social structures and customs that have conferred a much higher level of resilience among most Sri Lankans than is found in Western societies today. Parachuted into the island fresh from a posting in Africa or straight out of university, most NGO workers have at most a cursory understanding of the complexities of the island's political, economic and social challenges. Those with a pacifist bent choose to ignore the historical reality of the conflict's trajectory over the past 3 decades in which the LTTE has used each previous ceasefire as an interlude with which to re-arm and tighten its grip on the civilians under its control, so that successive bouts of hostilities have been ever more destructive in terms of lives lost.  | |
Several NGOs have also contributed to the erroneous perception that the conflict in Sri Lanka is a civil war between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils. Nothing could be more damaging or further from the truth than this over-simplistic dichotomization. Such a caricature ignores the fact that over 50% of the island's Tamils live outside the North East - alongside their Sinhalese and Muslim neighbours - in peaceful, multiethnic communities. Yet, unable to differentiate between Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils, many of these Western do-gooders are effectively blinded to the interethnic harmony that characterizes everyday life across much of the island. This is not surprising. Reluctant to ever ride in a public bus or eat amongst ordinary folk at a street-level kiosk, many of these NGO-warriors are woefully out of touch with grassroots Sri Lankan society, preferring to update themselves by exchanging views with like-minded colleagues over sushi or coffee in Colombo's upmarket cafes. More worryingly, some NGOs have sought to give the LTTE equal status to the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka. In addition to conferring legitimacy on a group which has achieved its pre-eminence through ruthlessly eliminating rival Tamil groups, such a focus has contributed to the marginalization of other Tamil and minority voices. It has also fuelled suspicions among the Sinhalese majority that the NGOs are in cahoots with the largely pro-LTTE diaspora in the West, thereby further undermining their own botched attempts at peace-making. So what exactly have the NGOs in Sri Lanka achieved? It is clearly unfair to tar all these organizations with the same brush - many groups such as Save the Children and the ICRC have a long history of providing exemplary service to the citizens of Sri Lanka. But in recent years, the burgeoning NGO industry in Sri Lanka has had its fair share of mediocrity. While many NGOs performed commendably following the tsunami, many others did not. With regard to the many organisations involved in providing development assistance in the Wanni and those outfits ostensibly leading the charge to defend human rights, the record is even worse. Little evidence has been found of any NGO-assisted development in the former LTTE-administered regions despite the vast sums of moneys earmarked for development projects on the ground. Contrary to what many NGOs like to assert, Sri Lanka has a thriving civil society. One of Asia's strongest Trade Union Movements has ensured that workers in Sri Lanka have better rights than workers in many Western Countries. A strong leftist movement also forced successive post-independence governments to develop and protect free education and health systems that still deliver results far in excess of the island's GDP. Grassroots women's organizations have fought to empower women and build on a Buddhist tradition of gender equality with the result that today, there is greater gender parity in Sri Lanka than in the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Australia, according to the World Economic Forum. Student groups and religious organizations also have a long history of humanitarian work, advocacy and grassroots activism. Of course, many of these collectivist peoples' movements are often in direct competition with Western NGOs that espouse neo-liberal values and promote a culture of selfish individualism and happiness through consumption. It is not surprising that as the government stands on the cusp of a decisive victory over the LTTE, the crescendo of criticisms hurled at it by the NGOs has reached fever pitch. Wittingly or unwittingly, these agents of neo-imperialism are doing their level best to provide a life-line to the beleaguered LTTE, and in so doing preserve the status quo of a nation that for too long has been divided, in turmoil and dependent on foreign interests. 
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