Editor's Note: Nile Bowie had written this piece exposing the Malaysian opposition's foreign funding and the duplicitous implications involved, in the midst of what is an increasing public awareness of the role foreign-funded NGOs play in destabilizing and destroying the sovereignty of a nation targeted by Wall Street and London corporate-financier interests.
In response to this increasing awareness, these very Wall Street-funded NGOs have published a ridiculous rebuttal featured in the image below.
Image: An absurd demand for an "apology" aimed at Malaysian journalists simply exercising the "freedom of speech" foreign funded NGOs like Bersih and the Centre for Independent Journalism have claimed to be fighting for. In reality the facade that these NGOs are "humanitarians" is collapsing, exposing the fact that they instead work subversively for the corporate financier interests of Walll Street and London toward the recolonization of Malaysia and the installation of a Western client regime headed by Anwar Ibrahim or one of his associates.
It should be noted that Bersih at the top of the signatory list, is funded by the US State Department and convicted criminal George Soros' Open Society. Each subsequent signatory is also funded either directly or by NGOs that are directly funded by Wall Street, the US State Department, and George Soros' Open Society.
Regardless of the rhetoric put out by these NGOs on a daily basis, the common thread that unites them is a concerted effort to both undermine the current Malaysian government, while promoting opposition groups led by IMF, Wall Street, and US State Department proxy, Anwar Ibrahim. These affiliations have been explored at great length in "Wall Street Fills Malaysian Streets With Unrest."
Nile Bowie
NileBowie.blogspot.com
September 26, 2012
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.
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]
See the complete list of notes at Nile Bowie's website here.
In response to this increasing awareness, these very Wall Street-funded NGOs have published a ridiculous rebuttal featured in the image below.
....
It should be noted that Bersih at the top of the signatory list, is funded by the US State Department and convicted criminal George Soros' Open Society. Each subsequent signatory is also funded either directly or by NGOs that are directly funded by Wall Street, the US State Department, and George Soros' Open Society.
Regardless of the rhetoric put out by these NGOs on a daily basis, the common thread that unites them is a concerted effort to both undermine the current Malaysian government, while promoting opposition groups led by IMF, Wall Street, and US State Department proxy, Anwar Ibrahim. These affiliations have been explored at great length in "Wall Street Fills Malaysian Streets With Unrest."
....
Nile Bowie
NileBowie.blogspot.com
September 26, 2012
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.
Image: NDI's website in 2011 before taking down any mention to Malaysia's Bersih movement. (click image to enlarge)
....
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]
Image: NED is anything but a "promoter of democracy and freedom." Representing some of the largest corporate-financier interests spanning Wall Street and London, it merely couches global, neo-imperial hegemonic ambitions within the guise of "freedom" and "human rights." For Malaysian NGOs, it is indefensible to take money and support from NED.
....
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.
Image: Taken from the US National Endowment for Democracy's 2007 Democracy Award event
held in Washington D.C., Anwar Ibrahim can be seen to the far left and
participated as a "panelist." It is no surprise that NED is now
subsidizing his bid to worm his way back into power in Malaysia. (click
image to enlarge)
....
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:
....
See the complete list of notes at Nile Bowie's website here.
