Fact-finding with closed minds

'ActionAid assessment lacks credibility - RADA' was the headline of our main news story Tuesday on Page 3 and if the casual reader was prone to dismiss it as another episode in the customary battle between NGO and a Government agency there is a hidden sub-text which should give reason for second thoughts.

In this report the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) had countered the claims of ActionAid, a British charity, in a report titled 'Tsunami Response: A Human Rights Assessment'.

RADA has charged the British charity with bias and lack of depth and credibility and a glaring instance it has cited is its statement that "A fact finding mission found that conflict-affected Eastern districts received the least attention from the Government."

Now this fact-finding mission had in fact been initiated by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) the Government's own watch dog on human rights, and the tell-tale word is 'conflict-affected.' The perception that the Eastern districts received the least attention from the Government had nothing to do with the tsunami but with the ethnic conflict and the general perception, as RADA notes, "among the members of the public that the Eastern province receives far fewer resources and facilities than the other provinces and that this sense of discrimination has not been assuaged by the tsunami."

So much for ActionAid's sleight-of-hand. As the RADA rejoinder makes it clear the HRC's report published in April 2005 only covered the first three months after the tsunami and anyway referred to the long-standing Eastern grievances. As of now US $ 301 million has been disbursed from primary donors for projects in the North and the East whilst only US $ 131 million has been disbursed to the South.

While the RADA statement also makes an erroneous conclusion about Buffer Zones and sample surveys in ActionAid's report what is disturbing is its contention that "at a time when peace and communal issues are on top of President Mahinda Rajapakse's priority list it is non-constructive and unnecessarily inflammatory".

Far be it for us to engage in another ritual bout of NGO-bashing but this statement made by RADA with due responsibility calls for scrutiny and attention. Sri Lanka as a democracy and an open society is always ready to throw its gates open to scrutiny by outsiders.

Organisations such as ActionAid are among the beneficiaries and although most of these organisations originate in and are staffed by the white countries which constituted Sri Lanka's colonialist past we have erected no taboos against such intervention.

However when such organisations engage in surveys or release reports which parade as being objective but are in violation of the norms of academic objectivity, then surely the hapless Third World country has the right to protest.

What is more, a new trend has been discerned among this tribe. This is the substitution of Easterners for Westerners (that is brown for white skins) in these NGO surveys and fact-finding missions. The idea perhaps is to eliminate the distance between the natives and the Westerners (which will be always present in any such cultural encounter) and create a sense of trust among the natives and the Easterners, who after all share the same colour of skin.

With the path-breaking Geneva talks getting underway between the Sri Lanka Government and the LTTE let us invite the attention of the international community and Sri Lanka's friends to this disturbing trend. Sri Lanka is not perfect as a country but we are conscious of international norms of objectivity and decency. We are ready to throw open our gates but let those who come to our shores come with open minds.