Megawati should be realistic about NGOs

In her recent state address to commemorate Indonesia's independence, President Megawati Soekarnoputri said there were irresponsible non governmental organizations (NGOs) that needed regulating. Smita Notosusanto of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) spoke to The Jakarta Post's Soeryo Winoto about the matter.

Question: Have you read the President's state address, which says irresponsible NGOs need to be regulated? Answer: I've heard about it, but I haven't had time to read it. There are many more important things for me to do.

If there are irresponsible NGOs, do you think the government should make any plans to regulate them?

It is not only NGOs that are irresponsible. There are state institutions and political parties that are irresponsible and lack credibility. They just don't care about being accountable to the public. Didn't your hear from the General Elections Commission (KPU) that Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Golkar and the National Mandate Party, for example, received excessive election funds in the 1999 election?

They have failed to be accountable to the public. Why did Megawati only criticize NGOs in her speech? Put things in proportion, please. NGOs are not under the auspices of the government, they don't receive money from the government. Therefore, NGOs are under no obligation to be publicly accountable. Cetro, however, is always transparent. Just look at our website. You can find everything about us, including our financial reports. Have local political parties done what Cetro has? What would happen if Megawati's statements were taken by her ministers and assistants as an instruction to control NGOs?

We would be going back to the New Order era. Soon after Megawati was elected president, I predicted the country would turn its course back to the New Order style. The government has become increasingly authoritarian. There are systematic efforts being made to repress NGOs. How do you think the government will repress and control NGOs?

They (the government) can introduce laws. Laws and regulations on foundations are an example of the systematic plan to curb NGOs. That's the start of the repression. The government has also begun to use NGO figures for its own interests. So the government is going to chop down one apple tree because there is one bad apple on it?

You've been trapped by the government's frame of thinking if you use such an analogy. That's not the point. The point is that the government does not want to be criticized and controlled. NGOs have been too outspoken in criticizing the government. We are always consistent. We will always be critical of the government, regardless of who rules the country. People have said in the past that Cetro was very close to then president Abdurrahman Wahid. But we kept voicing our concern against irregularities. Is there any government institution that controls NGOs in our country? What institutions do you think have the right to control NGOs?

No single government institution has controlled NGOs so far. I don't see any reason for any (government) institution to control NGOs. NGOs control themselves. We have been conducting self governance. We have a code of conduct that must be respected by us (in Cetro).

Cetro members monitor the enforcement of these rulings (the code of conduct). NGOs do not belong to the state. We are a group of people organized to voice our concern against irregularities. Let us regulate and control ourselves. Why should the government put its hands on us.

It's not easy for us to raise money for our activities, yet we've been transparent and are open. Political parties, on the otherhand, can obtain a lot of money easily without being publicly accountable. If political parties obtain money from the government, that means the parties have used public money. So why are they not publicly accountable? Do you really think political parties have not violated regulations on public accountability?

So, the President has been unfair and lacks a sense of proportion.