NGOs vow to fight for people's sake at APEC

NGOs vow to fight for people's sake at APEC

JAKARTA (JP): International non-governmental organizations
promised yesterday to help make the institutionalization of the
Asia-Pacific (APEC) forum benefit business and the masses
equally.

NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region will try to influence decision
makers in the 18 APEC member countries to make sure that the
masses will benefit from the cooperation, M.S. Zulkarnaen,
Director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said.

In a press conference at the office of the International NGO
Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), he said the NGOs would
air their views on crucial issues at the APEC meetings in Jakarta
and Bogor next month.

"Our main concerns will be the responsibility of governments
in ending injustices and environmental destruction resulting from
the new mechanisms within APEC, the economic rights of small-
scale economies and low-paid labor and the preservation of the
environment and natural resources," he said.

He added that NGOs from the Asia-Pacific countries would
formulate a country report compiling these issues.

Among the NGOs which will help INFID in the lobbying
activities are the Bangkok-based Asia Cultural Forum on
Development and the Australian Council for Foreign Aid.

Some 20 foreign and local NGOs will take part in the
activities, which consist of holding discussions in each
individual country and lobbying, both at home and in Jakarta.

Zulkarnaen explained that the NGOs dropped their original plan
to hold parallel gatherings during the APEC meetings due to a
shortage of funds.

Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, Director of the Agency for the
Study of Community Advocacy (LSAM), said NGOs would insist on
regulating the standards of labor protection in APEC member
countries and see to it that the same environmental issues become
the concern of all NGOs alike.

"We have to make sure that certain pesticides which are
forbidden and no longer produced in an industrialized country are
not dumped on developing countries," he said citing an example.

Hakim said that the focus of the NGOs' activities are to
assure that capital flow would not undermine national sovereignty
in the country of destination.

While all APEC members, as a business community, were against
linking human rights and environmental issues to trade matters,
Indonesian NGOs in particular are more interested in seeing that
discussions on international trade and trade liberalization
encourage the recognition of economic, social and cultural rights
of the people.

Zulkarnaen said that NGOs would in the future institutionalize
themselves to become a permanent instrument which would directly
monitor the investment activities within APEC countries as well
as its social-economic aspects.

He acknowledged, however, that this would not be an easy job
because NGOs were more often considered as "outsiders".

The only government which strongly approves of NGOs'
participation in APEC is Canada, while China and Singapore are
strongly opposed.

"We may become an institutionalized body but we are very aware
that we are in a difficult position. But we are confident and we
do not need money from the business community," he said.

Japanese, New Zealand, Canadian and Australian NGOs are among
those which strongly favor the institutionalization of NGOs.(pwn)