NGOs disseminate lies about Indonesia: Ginandjar
NGOs disseminate lies about Indonesia: Ginandjar
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita has criticized non-governmental organizations, saying they disseminate false data about Indonesia to foreigners.
Ginandjar said yesterday that NGOs aim to lobby international funding institutions to stop providing funds to Indonesia.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with President Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office, Ginandjar told reporters he had received a tape recording of a radio talk show in New York, featuring NGO members speaking about Indonesia.
The talk show said Indonesian women had been forced into the national family planning program under threats from armed soldiers, the minister said.
"The program shows that there are efforts overseas to give misinformation and disinformation about Indonesia," he said, adding that the NGOs' goal may be to destabilize the country.
"I am not against NGOs," said Ginandjar, "but criticism and sabotage are two different things."
Preventing aid is sabotaging the country's development, he added.
"Although overseas funding is temporary we still need it at this stage of national development," he said.
He said that, if the reports made on the New York talk-back show were true, "we should conduct introspection."
However, he said the claims made were "outright lies".
"We know there is no coercion in the family planning program and we also know the military is not involved in it," he said.
He said the tape of the radio show, given to him by an Indonesian student, also contained other lies, including claims of coercion in transmigration programs.
"I'm disappointed that international NGOs receive data from their Indonesian colleagues, whose aim is to reduce or stop funds from the World Bank to Indonesia," Ginandjar said, while refusing to name the NGOs he was referring to.
The minister said there would be less of a problem if foreign NGOs distributed groundless information about Indonesia.
"But if Indonesians do this, for whatever reason, we feel sad," he said.
Internal problems should be settled within the country, through legal processes, legislative bodies or public opinion, he said.
Ginandjar said he has been working together with dozens of NGO members in efforts to combat poverty.
He said he worked with the Indonesian Consumer Foundation when he was junior minister of production.
"I feel NGOs have an increasing role to play, as social problems are becoming more complex," he said.
NGOs, he added, can act as partners in helping the government's development programs, criticizing the authorities when they deem it necessary.
"But we are talking about the public interest, not their own agenda. Neither have they to join hands with foreign organizations which do not share our interests," the minister added. (anr)