Rai [Archives:2003/652/Press Review]

15 July 2003
Main headlines:
– Parliament speaker calls on the Bundestag to intervene with the German government for the release of al-Mouyad.
– A'abid & Jaralla cases set for passing judgment
– Meetings for adjustment of Yemen's economic laws with those of the Gulf States
Columnist Faisal Sultan al-Soufi says in his article it is said repeatedly that the Yemeni non-governmental organizations have become too many till they amounted to about 3000 private societies and establishments, including charitable organizations, sport unions and professional federations. They include societies concerned with cultural and political affairs. It is also said they depend financially on foreign funding and that they work for the interest of the fi. Such accusations are sometimes issued by officials, some of them university teachers.
I think all the above mentioned is not scientific and does not serve the country's interest. The number of non-governmental organizations remains few even if it amounts to 6000, due to the volume of the population. There are some social fields such as education and health do not have non-governmental organizations taking care of their affairs and work alongside the government for development. Being dependent on external aid is basically for such organizations so that the country benefits from external grants and aid. The donor prefer the private sector in order to pass on part of their assistance to the peoples after it has found out that peoples do not benefit from the aid offered via governments due to corruption and centralization. If the government knows that those organizations are agent and keep silent towards them and stop at only mentioning that it means that they are their accomplices. I think they are not serious about such accusations because they do not exist in essence. The only defect of these organizations is the corruption. They are more corrupt than the government and therefore the revenues they receive do not serve the society. The government has to apply the law on organizing of societies and organizations where there must be transparency and monitoring of how the revenues are expended, which are in fact public property he entire society must benefit from them.
——
[archive-e:652-v:13-y:2003-d:2003-07-21-p:press]