WB-IMF 'Helpless' as Host S'pore Deports Critics
Marwaan Macan-Markar
Inter Press Service News Agency
BATAM, Indonesia, Sep 14 (IPS) - At 24 years and with a winning smile, Julie de los Reyes packs no more danger than any outspoken critic at a conference. But authorities in Singapore, a 30-minute ferry ride from this Indonesian island, see this young Filipina as a security threat.
De los Reyes, a graduate from the University of the Philippines, is among members of several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) banned from entering Singapore, where the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are holding their official annual meeting on Sep. 19-20. ''I received a notice from the WB staff on Tuesday saying that the Singapore government is against my entry for the meetings,'' she says. ''I was not expecting this. I have not done enough to warrant being on this list.''
De los Reyes is a researcher with Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based regional think tank, that is a trenchant critic of the global financial and development model being advocated by the WB-IMF. Six of its members figure in a growing list of those banned by the Singapore government.
And here in Batam -- where civil society groups are meeting for an International People's Forum (IPF) from Sep. 15-17 to debate the policies of the WB-IMF following an earlier decision by Singapore to ban the customary protests and free and open NGO activity -- the buzz is about activists who have been blacklisted and those who have already suffered deportation from Singapore.
Some 16,000 delegates from the world of finance, development and public policy are due to attend the high-powered meeting in Singapore.
Already, 30 activists are known to have been victimised by Singapore's authoritarian measures despite receiving accreditation from WB-IMF to participate in the dialogues at the annual meeting on key global policy initiatives. Most are activists from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Italy, Belgium, Britain and India.
On Tuesday, two Filipino activists who flew into Singapore en route to the IPF on Batam were detained at Singapore's international airport even before they reached the immigration counter, says Jelson Garcia, South-east Asia coordinator for the Bank Information Centre (BIC), a Washington D.C.-based watchdog on the Bank's activities in the developing world. ‘'They were held in custody at the airport for nearly 15 hours and their cellphones were only returned to them after they were forced back on a plane to Manila,'' he told IPS.
Other activists heading for the IPF were luckier -- they were escorted to the ferry terminal after Singapore police were satisfied they were indeed headed for Batam.
An activist from the United States was held overnight at the airport, better known for its duty-free shopping, restaurants and entertainment centres. ‘'She was also held by immigration (on Wednesday night), detained the whole night, and finally allowed entry only this morning,'' writes Lidy Nacpil of Jubilee South, a global network campaigning against international debt, in an e-mail circulated to activists.
While few activists are prepared to guess how many more civil society representatives will face repressive measures in the coming days, there is an emerging view here that the host country may have single-handedly helped undermine a major policy paper against corruption that WB president Paul Wolfowitz is planning to unveil at the meeting.
Wolfowitz set the tone for his anti-corruption stance during his first 15 months at the helm by halting tainted projects in Chad, Kenya, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Argentina and Cambodia.
‘'You cannot talk about cracking down on corruption and ban NGOs from being part of the equation in such an effort,'' Rezki Sri Wibowo, deputy executive director of the Indonesia office of Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, told IPS. ‘'It is a glaring contradiction.''
‘'The WB has said that it wants greater civil society participation on this front. The NGOs are relevant to monitor corruption at the grass roots level,'' he added. ‘'But that view is coming apart with the Bank meeting there (in Singapore) and NGOs left with little choice but to meet here.''
‘'The Bank must support citizen-based local mechanisms to hold governments accountable,'' states a background paper released to the media by the International NGO Forum on Indonesia Development (INFID), which is hosting the forum here. ‘'The Bank must better incorporate regular consultations and information disclosure through project preparation and implementation.''
‘'The fact that WB-IMF chose Singapore, which has a poor record of democracy and human rights, is a sign of their poor commitment to these issues and unwillingness to listen to critics,'' Wilfred D' Costa of the Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) told IPS over phone from Mumbai where he landed on Thursday morning, after being forcibly deported from Singapore and having his two-year, multiple-entry visa cancelled.
D'Costa was unaware that his name had been blacklisted. ‘'I was detained by Singapore immigration for five hours and questioned by a group of over 15 policemen, my baggage was rummaged through five times and documents on water privatisation, I was carrying, were confiscated,'' said D'Costa whose INSAF is an umbrella organisation for 600 grass roots groups in India.
‘'India is among the Bank's biggest clients and its policies and programmes have had a devastating impact on the poor in India. I blame WB-IMF as much as Singapore for the curtailment of my democratic rights. It clearly exposes the hollowness of the good governance rhetoric,'' he added.
‘'By blacklisting activists and preventing NGOs from attending, the Singapore government has come in the way of civil society playing its traditional role at the annual meetings,'' said BIC's Garcia. (END/2006)
De los Reyes, a graduate from the University of the Philippines, is among members of several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) banned from entering Singapore, where the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are holding their official annual meeting on Sep. 19-20. ''I received a notice from the WB staff on Tuesday saying that the Singapore government is against my entry for the meetings,'' she says. ''I was not expecting this. I have not done enough to warrant being on this list.''
De los Reyes is a researcher with Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based regional think tank, that is a trenchant critic of the global financial and development model being advocated by the WB-IMF. Six of its members figure in a growing list of those banned by the Singapore government.
And here in Batam -- where civil society groups are meeting for an International People's Forum (IPF) from Sep. 15-17 to debate the policies of the WB-IMF following an earlier decision by Singapore to ban the customary protests and free and open NGO activity -- the buzz is about activists who have been blacklisted and those who have already suffered deportation from Singapore.
Some 16,000 delegates from the world of finance, development and public policy are due to attend the high-powered meeting in Singapore.
Already, 30 activists are known to have been victimised by Singapore's authoritarian measures despite receiving accreditation from WB-IMF to participate in the dialogues at the annual meeting on key global policy initiatives. Most are activists from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Italy, Belgium, Britain and India.
On Tuesday, two Filipino activists who flew into Singapore en route to the IPF on Batam were detained at Singapore's international airport even before they reached the immigration counter, says Jelson Garcia, South-east Asia coordinator for the Bank Information Centre (BIC), a Washington D.C.-based watchdog on the Bank's activities in the developing world. ‘'They were held in custody at the airport for nearly 15 hours and their cellphones were only returned to them after they were forced back on a plane to Manila,'' he told IPS.
Other activists heading for the IPF were luckier -- they were escorted to the ferry terminal after Singapore police were satisfied they were indeed headed for Batam.
An activist from the United States was held overnight at the airport, better known for its duty-free shopping, restaurants and entertainment centres. ‘'She was also held by immigration (on Wednesday night), detained the whole night, and finally allowed entry only this morning,'' writes Lidy Nacpil of Jubilee South, a global network campaigning against international debt, in an e-mail circulated to activists.
While few activists are prepared to guess how many more civil society representatives will face repressive measures in the coming days, there is an emerging view here that the host country may have single-handedly helped undermine a major policy paper against corruption that WB president Paul Wolfowitz is planning to unveil at the meeting.
Wolfowitz set the tone for his anti-corruption stance during his first 15 months at the helm by halting tainted projects in Chad, Kenya, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Argentina and Cambodia.
‘'You cannot talk about cracking down on corruption and ban NGOs from being part of the equation in such an effort,'' Rezki Sri Wibowo, deputy executive director of the Indonesia office of Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, told IPS. ‘'It is a glaring contradiction.''
‘'The WB has said that it wants greater civil society participation on this front. The NGOs are relevant to monitor corruption at the grass roots level,'' he added. ‘'But that view is coming apart with the Bank meeting there (in Singapore) and NGOs left with little choice but to meet here.''
‘'The Bank must support citizen-based local mechanisms to hold governments accountable,'' states a background paper released to the media by the International NGO Forum on Indonesia Development (INFID), which is hosting the forum here. ‘'The Bank must better incorporate regular consultations and information disclosure through project preparation and implementation.''
‘'The fact that WB-IMF chose Singapore, which has a poor record of democracy and human rights, is a sign of their poor commitment to these issues and unwillingness to listen to critics,'' Wilfred D' Costa of the Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) told IPS over phone from Mumbai where he landed on Thursday morning, after being forcibly deported from Singapore and having his two-year, multiple-entry visa cancelled.
D'Costa was unaware that his name had been blacklisted. ‘'I was detained by Singapore immigration for five hours and questioned by a group of over 15 policemen, my baggage was rummaged through five times and documents on water privatisation, I was carrying, were confiscated,'' said D'Costa whose INSAF is an umbrella organisation for 600 grass roots groups in India.
‘'India is among the Bank's biggest clients and its policies and programmes have had a devastating impact on the poor in India. I blame WB-IMF as much as Singapore for the curtailment of my democratic rights. It clearly exposes the hollowness of the good governance rhetoric,'' he added.
‘'By blacklisting activists and preventing NGOs from attending, the Singapore government has come in the way of civil society playing its traditional role at the annual meetings,'' said BIC's Garcia. (END/2006)
1 comment:
Wilfred complains too much. Since he is a alien, he has no democratic right to protest or cause trouble in Singapore.
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