By : NILE BOWIE
AS MALAYSIA approaches its
highly anticipated 13th General Elections set to take place at some point
before late June 2013, a tense political climate and a sense of
unpredictability looms over the nation. The significance of these upcoming
elections cannot be understated.
During Malaysia’s 2008
General Elections, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which held power
continuously since the nation’s independence, experienced its worst result in
decades, while the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition won 82 parliamentary
seats.
For the first time, the
ruling party was deprived of its two-thirds parliamentary majority, which is
required to pass amendments to Malaysia’s Federal Constitution. As the United
States continues to militarily increase its presence in the Pacific region
inline with its strategic policy shift to East Asia, Washington’s leaders would
like to see compliant heads of state who will act to further American interests
in the ASEAN region.
The outcome of the
approaching elections could have significant ramifications for Malaysia’s
foreign policy, economy, and trade relations. While allegations of corruption
and economic mismanagement hinder the credibility of ruling Prime Minister
Najib Razak, foreign organizations affiliated with the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and funded by the United States government, have
contributed support toward bolstering the influence and status of the
Malaysia’s opposition groups, in addition to the controversial Bersih coalition
for electoral reform, led by Ambiga Sreenevasan.
Opponents of this
information may dismiss these claims as the “propaganda” of Barisan Nasional,
however the validity of these accusations have been highly documented, and
constitute an attempt by foreign governments to undermine Malaysia’s
independent political process.
On June 27th, 2011, Bersih
coalition leader Ambiga Sreenevasan conceded that her organization received
financial assistance from two private American organizations:
Ambiga admitted to Bersih
receiving some money from two US organisations — the National Democratic
Institute (NDI) and Open Society Institute (OSI) — for other projects, which
she stressed were unrelated to the July 9 march. [1]
However innocuous such
contributions may seem, a more critical review of these organizations and their
affiliations is necessary. Hungarian-American philanthropist and financier
George Soros founded the Open Society Institute in 1993, whose principle aim
sought to “strengthen open society principles and practices against
authoritarian regimes and the negative consequences of globalization,” with an
emphasis on countries in transition from communism after the fall of the Soviet
Union.
[2] Although OSI has
emphasized its commitment to "human rights" and
"transparency" by heavily sponsoring organizations such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, Soros was convicted of insider trading in
2002 regarding French bank Société Générale and was ironically denied an appeal
by the "European Court of Human Rights."
[3][4][5] Although Soros has
appeared to be publicly critical of capitalism, he has disingenuously profited
from predatory trading in many instances, most prominently in 1992 when he
earned an estimated $1.1 billion by short selling sterling while the British
government was reluctant to adjust its interest rates prior to devaluing the
pound.
Former US Secretary of State
Madeline Albright chairs the National Democratic Institute, an organization
that supplies electoral observers and promotes governance reform, widely seen
as an attempt to foster foreign political systems compatible with American
interests by assisting civil society groups in mounting pressure on national
governments.
NDI President Kenneth
Wollack served as the legislative director of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, widely considered to be Israel’s most prominent lobbyist
organization, one that influences American legislation to exert aggressive
Israeli policy and viewpoints.
[6] The National Democratic
Institute is one of four organizations funded by the National Endowment for
Democracy (NED), in addition to the International Republican Institute (IRI),
the Chamber of Commerce's Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the American
Center for International Labor Solidarity.
Alan Weinstein, one of the
founders of the National Endowment for Democracy was notably quoted in 1991 as
saying, “A lot of what we (NED) do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA.”
[7] The National Endowment
for Democracy receives its funding entirely through an annual allocation of
funds from the United States Congress within the budget of the development
assistance agency USAID, a branch of the US State Department. [8] Although the
NED receives public funding from the US taxpayer, the activities of its four
satellite institutes are not reported to Congress, making funding trails and
their final recipients difficult to identify.
Although the organization
boasts of “promoting democracy” and “fortifying civil society” around the
world, history had proven that these tired euphemisms have been used in
numerous countries to mask funding to various political forces opposed to their
national governments and aligned with American interests. American historian
and former employee of the US State Department William Blum writes:
NED's Statement of
Principles and Objectives, adopted in 1984, asserts that "No Endowment
funds may be used to finance the campaigns of candidates for public
office." But the ways to circumvent the spirit of such a prohibition are
not difficult to come up with; as with American elections, there's "hard
money" and there's "soft money". As described in the
"Elections" and "Interventions" chapters, NED successfully
manipulated elections in Nicaragua in 1990 and Mongolia in 1996; helped to
overthrow democratically elected governments in Bulgaria in 1990 and Albania in
1991 and 1992; and worked to defeat the candidate for prime minister of
Slovakia in 2002 who was out of favor in Washington.
And from 1999 to 2004, NED
heavily funded members of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela
to subvert his rule and to support a referendum to unseat him. [9]
NED President Carl Gershman
was formerly a member of the Governing Council of the American Jewish Congress
and Vice-Chairman of the Young People's Socialist League, and in 1968, he was
employed in the research department of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith, considered the most prominent Jewish service organization in the world,
committed to the security and continuity the State of Israel.
[10] The Anti-Defamation
League is a US-based human rights group committed to the “security of Israel
and Jews worldwide," and was implicated in 1993 by the District of
Attorney of San Francisco for overseeing a vast surveillance operation
monitoring American citizens who were opposed to Israel’s policies in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza, prior to passing their personal information to the
Israeli government in Tel Aviv. [11]
In addition to providing
funding to the Bersih coalition through the National Democratic Institute, the
National Endowment for Democracy’s Malaysian operation provides $100,000 (RM
317,260) for political news website Malaysiakini, considered to be the nation’s
most pro-opposition news outlet. [12] Premesh Chandran, Malaysiakini CEO, is a
grantee of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and launched the news
organization with a $100,000 grant from the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press
Alliance (SEAPA), a recipient of funds from the Open Society Institute, the
NED, and Freedom House, an organization reliant on US federal government grants
for a significant percentage of its funding.
[13][14] NED also provides
$90,000 (RM 285,516) to SUARAM, an organization promoting human rights. [15]
The most significant
recipient of NED’s Malaysia programs is the International Republican Institute
(IRI), who annually receives $802,122 (RM 2,544,670) and is tasked to “work
with state leaders in Penang and Selangor to provide them with public opinion research,
training and other resources to enable them to be more effective
representatives of their constituents.” [16] IRI’s mention of these specific
regions is unsurprising, as Penang is held by the Malaysian Democratic Action
Party, while Selangor is held by Parti Keadilan Rakyat, two of the three
organizations comprising the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, led by Anwar
Ibrahim.
US Senator John McCain, an
ardent supporter of American militarism who boasts of being “proudly
pro-American and proudly pro-Israel”, chairs the International Republican
Institute, whose mission statement in Malaysia reads:
Since Malaysia’s
independence in 1957, the country has experienced a series of national
elections, but never a change in national government. The ruling coalition, known as Barisan
Nasional (BN) since 1973, has held power continuously during Malaysia’s
post-independence era.
In the 2008 general
elections, for the first time, the BN lost its two-thirds majority in
parliament and control of five state assemblies to the opposition coalition,
Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Subsequently, in April 2011
in Sarawak (the only state holding assembly elections before national elections
occur) the BN retained control of the state assembly but suffered a reduction
in its majority. It is in this context that IRI provides technical assistance,
training, and consultation to political parties to build knowledge and impart
skills that enable both ruling and opposition Malaysian political leaders to
more effectively address citizen concerns.
IRI’s current work in this
area started in 2009 when the Institute began a groundbreaking series of
training sessions designed to assist political parties in developing the
in-house capacity to conduct and analyze focus group discussions. These sessions
were followed by workshops which allowed focus group moderators to present
their findings to their colleagues and craft messages that were used to recruit
new political party members and retain existing ones. [17]
It comes as little surprise
that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim talks boldly of a “Malaysian Spring,” as
the same organizations bolstering the opposition in Kuala Lumpur have
successfully fomented events that led to the series of uprisings across the
Arab World in 2011. Such organizations rely on the passive impressionability of
their followers, while enflaming the legitimate grievances of the subject
population to pressure a change in government.
This is accomplished by the
formation and propagation of dissident news media organizations, and by
leveraging police misconduct and human rights abuses to discredit targeted
governments in the eyes of the international community. Such agitation is not
intended to promote a genuine democratic framework; its purpose is the gradual
installation of national governments friendly to American interests by coaxing
popular uprising and social unrest.
In an April 2011 article
published by the New York Times titled, "U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab
Uprisings," it was stated:
A number of the groups and
individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region,
including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human
Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen,
received training and financing from groups like the International Republican
Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit
human rights organization based in Washington.
The Republican and
Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic
Parties. They were created by Congress and are financed through the National
Endowment for Democracy, which was set up in 1983 to channel grants for
promoting democracy in developing nations.
The National Endowment
receives about $100 million annually from Congress. Freedom House also gets the
bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State
Department. [18]
In the Egyptian context,
these organizations have experienced “blowback” from their activities training
and funding dissidents, and fomenting Egypt’s popular revolution. In a December
2011 article published by the Los Angeles Times, it was said:
Egyptian security forces on
Thursday raided the offices of 17 nongovernmental organizations, including
three U.S.-based agencies, as part of a crackdown on foreign assistance that
has drawn criticism from the West and threatened human rights groups and
pro-democracy movements.
The move appeared to be part
of a strategy to intimidate international organizations. The ruling military
council has repeatedly blamed "foreign hands" for exploiting Egypt's
political and economic turmoil. But activists said the army was using the ruse
of foreign intervention to stoke nationalism and deflect criticism of abuses.
Egyptian soldiers and black-clad police officers swept into offices,
interrogated workers and seized computers across the country.
Those targeted included U.S.
groups the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican
Institute and Freedom House, which are funded by Congress to monitor elections
and promote democracy overseas. [19]
While the Los Angeles Times
frames its report to insinuate that Egypt’s security forces have intrusively
aimed to “intimidate” international human rights groups, one must examine the
case of Egypt’s newly drafted constitution.
After the overthrow of
former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, democracy advocates called for the
constitution to be rewritten from scratch. Reuters published reports citing a
pro-opposition judiciary official, who said Egypt’s new constitution would be
drafted by civil society groups, namely, the Arabic Network for Human Rights
Information, a recipient of funds directly from George Soros' Open Society
Institute and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, financed by the
National Endowment for Democracy.
[20][21][22] Undoubtedly, the
conduct of foreign nations and their relationship with opposition organizations
and civil society groups is incompatible within any authentic democratic
framework.
In the Malaysian context,
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim maintains close ties with senior US officials
and organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy.
In July 2006, Ibrahim
chaired the Washington-based Foundation for the Future, established and funded
by the US Department of State at the behest of Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter
of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who was recently convicted in absentia for
war crimes for his issuance of torture during the Iraq war by Kuala Lumpur War
Crimes Commission, chaired by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed.
[23] In 2007, Ibrahim was a
panelist at the National Endowment for Democracy's "Democracy Award"
event held in Washington. [24] These questionable affiliations raise strong
concerns over the legitimacy of the candidate and the administration he would
lead if winning the 13th General Election.
It would be advisable for
Malaysia to follow the example of Russia; President Vladimir Putin recently
approved a new law that tightens controls on civil rights groups receiving
funded from abroad, forcing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaging in
"political activity" to register with the Russian Justice Ministry as
"foreign agents," requiring such organizations to file a report to
officials every quarter.
[25] While such a law would
inevitably be criticized as a suppression of dissent, it must be understood
that such legislation would not hamper legitimate activism. Malaysia, like
Russia, must take the initiative to address the legitimate grievances of
activists by bolstering its own indigenous institutions and civil society
organizations. Foreign organizations with questionable affiliations attempting
to tip the balance of power in their favor is the very antithesis of an
authentic democracy. A quote from a recent Op-Ed penned by Russian journalist
Veronika Krasheninnikova sends a strong message to the people of Malaysia:
Building a patriotic civil
society cannot be outsourced. Democratic processes and national security cannot
be outsourced – all the more so to openly hostile governments. [26]
(Nile Bowie is a Kuala
Lumpur-based American writer and photographer for the Centre for Research on
Globalization in Montreal, Canada. He explores issues of terrorism, economics
and geopolitics.)
Foot Notes:
[1] Bersih repudiates foreign
Christian funding claim, The Malaysian Insider, July 27, 2011
[2] A Global Alliance for
Open Society, Soros Foundation Network, 2001
[3] Report and financial
statements for the year ended 31 March 2010, Amnesty International, March 31,
2010 (Page 10)
[4] Partners, Human Rights
Watch, 2012
[5] Soros Loses Case Against
French Insider-Trading Conviction, Bloomberg, October 6, 2011
[6] Kenneth Wollack,
National Democratic Institute, 2011
[7] Democracy promotion:
America’s new regime change formula, Russia Today, November 23, 2010
[8] History, National
Endowment for Democracy, 2011
[9] Trojan Horse: The
National Endowment for Democracy, The International Endowment for Democracy,
2003
[10] Who is Who, Annual
Conference on World Affairs, 1971
[11] The ADL Spying Case Is
Over, But The Struggle Continues, Counterpunch, February 25, 2002
[12] Malaysiakini Blog:
Donors, 2011
[13] Southeast Asian Press
Alliance, Southeast Asian Press Alliance, 2010
[14] 2007 Annual Report,
Freedom House, 2007
[15] Malaysia | National
Endowment for Democracy, National Endowment for Democracy, 2011
[16] Ibid
[17] Malaysia, International
Republican Institute, 2011
[18] U.S. Groups Helped
Nurture Arab Uprisings, The New York Times, April 14, 2011
[19] Egypt raids foreign
organizations' offices in crackdown, The Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2011
[20] Rewrite Egypt
constitution from scratch, say critics, Reuters, February 16, 2011
[21] Acknowledgements,
Arabic Network For Human Rights Information, 2004
[22] Egypt | National
Endowment For Democracy, National Endowment For Democracy, 2005
[23] Foundation for the
Future Holds its First Board Meeting in Doha, Qatar, Foundation for the Future,
July 15, 2006
[24] 2007 Democracy Award,
National Endowment for Democracy, 2007
[25] Russia's Putin signs
NGO "foreign agents" law, The Star, July 21, 2012
[26] West's battle for
Russian ‘hearts and minds’: NGOs on steroids, Russia Today, July 13, 2012
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