by Jehan Perera
The large scale nature of the crisis has posed a major problem of emergency response on the part of the government and non-governmental organizations, with the government taking the lead role. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have dispatched several ministerial teams to the flood-affected areas to assess the extent of the damage and to expedite relief measures. Military personnel and their equipment was used to good advantage by the government for rescue purposes. However, the government has been handicapped by the lack of resources to provide the vast number of displaced persons with the emergency assistance that is required.
Usually a natural disaster of the proportions experienced at this time would see a vigorous response by local and international humanitarian organizations with the support of international donors. This was the case during the Tsunami disaster of 2004. The aid that Sri Lanka received from all parts of the world, and especially from Western countries, was unprecedented. In the United Kingdom for instance, collections from the general public for tsunami relief were huge and larger than the government’s aid. A large number of international humanitarian and development organizations that had never before worked in Sri Lanka came to support the relief and recovery efforts.
On this occasion, however, the non-governmental humanitarian response appears to be much more muted. Over the past several years of the Rajapaksa presidency, Western countries and NGOs in particular have been subjected to heavy criticism by the government and also subjected to various new and ad hoc regulations. The role of humanitarian organizations came under critical scrutiny in the aftermath of the Tsunami relief operations. It was pointed out that there was much duplication, lack of coordination and wasteful use of resources that took place. There were allegations that tsunami assistance was also siphoned off to support the LTTE’s military campaign for a separate state. During the last phase of the war, which followed, the government also took the position that non-governmental operations needed to be monitored and restricted on account of national security considerations.
Muted Response
At the present time the government has moved to regulate and control NGO activities to a greater extent than ever before. Even humanitarian organizations that seek to assist the people of the north who were the most severely affected in the decades of war have to get government permission for their activities. The attitude of the government towards NGOs can be summarized in the placing of the government’s NGO Secretariat under the Defence Ministry. This has given a message to other government departments and the general public that NGOs are a potential national security issue, not to be trusted and are to be viewed with suspicion.
The level of governmental intervention has got so high that some international organizations have decided to leave the country. It has become very difficult for foreign humanitarian workers to get visas to work in Sri Lanka. The international donor assistance to the country has also got reduced. This has had a negative impact upon the work of NGOs in all areas, including those of development and relief. The constant stream of statements by government politicians with a nationalist orientation that NGOs are a threat to national security have had their impact upon public consciousness. It is inevitable that in these circumstances the ability of NGOs to supplement the work of the government in terms of emergency response will be limited and the response will be muted.
During the present flood disaster, I came across two instances where NGO efforts to contribute to alleviating the humanitarian crisis faced setbacks. Due to the strict government surveillance on donor assistance to NGOs, some donor agencies have expressed their reluctance and even apprehension to be flexible and give approval to NGOs to divert the money given for educational and developmental purposes for the purpose of meeting the humanitarian needs of the flood-affected people. Although the country is facing a serious situation in the immediate and short term due to the floods, no public statement has been made as yet by the government which could generate a more flexible donor response.
The other example is that of a civic committee in the south, which attempted to initiate a humanitarian response by collecting relief supplies from the people in their area to send it to the east. Their intention was to alleviate the sufferings of the flood-affected people in the east, and also to help build bonds of inter-ethnic trust and reconciliation. This inter-religious group also wished to broaden their initiative by inviting the government officials in their area to join their effort. But what happened was that somewhere down the line, the belief took hold that NGOs may have ulterior motives. The end result was that the government officials who had been invited to be a part of the group took over this civil society initiative as their own.
Joint Mechanism
There is no question that the government and its structures are the most powerful in society in delivering resources to the people. The government’s network of institutions and personnel that reach down to the village level through multiple channels is unparalleled, and cannot be rivaled by any non governmental body. The role of civil society and NGOs is to fill in the gaps that macro-level and large-scale government action will tend to leave. Another role they have is to initiate actions that awaken the sleeping giant that the government too often is. Indeed, this is what the civic committee in the south succeeded in doing. The establishment of an emergency response mechanism based on an institutionalised partnership between civic and governmental actors would be a task for the government to undertake.
The government has dealt with the immediate aftermath of the disaster by deploying security forces personnel who have been supported by local level government structures in place working closely with local and international NGOs and communities living adjacent villages and towns. Government Ministers in charge of Disaster Management and other relevant Ministers were quick to go to the flood hit areas. The overwhelming nature of the crisis shows the importance of having international donor support and active and strong non-governmental and civil society sectors that can supplement the commendable efforts of the government.
An observation to be made in this regard is the continuing importance of traditional aid giving countries and organizations in the mobilization and provision of humanitarian assistance. In recent years, the government’s relationship with these countries and organizations, most notably Western countries and the UN, have deteriorated due to two issues. The last phase of the war with the LTTE and the delay in the government’s post-war proposals for a political solution to resolve the ethnic conflict have figured high in the contention with them. The government’s strong position has been that both these issues constitute foreign interference in the internal affairs of the country.
The task is not only that of providing emergency relief in the short run. Larger political issues also need to be addressed. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s post-flood meeting with the foreign correspondents in Sri Lanka and his latest statement that the government is indeed pursuing a political solution based on power sharing at the centre and the devolution of powers is a positive move in this regard. There is also the need to give hope to the flood-affected people that the government and larger society will share their losses and reduce the burden that has fallen on them to rebuild their lives from scratch. President Rajapaksa’s visit to some of the flood-affected areas and the promises he made would give encouragement to the people that the government is concerned about their fate, and not simply their votes.
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