Azernews.Az

Asim Aliyev

Read more

In theory, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should occupy an important place in modern public administration. They can easily handle some small issues that the state cannot do, and play an important role of a bridge between the society and state. However, in practice, unfortunately, NGOs sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, have become a means of spreading alien ideas and values to other countries. In other words, they have become a tool for big and powerful states, more precisely the West, to influence and pressure weak states.

Through NGOs, the West mainly attracts discontent youths who cannot find their place in the society under guise of different thinking and tries to gain the favor of the poor under the guise of different aid programs. So to say, forms its soft power in weak and poor countries. Frankly speaking, the method is old enough and its history traces back for thousands of years. Throughout history, there have been some forces intending to usurp lawful powers and for doing it they have tried to develop soft power and attract the masses. Sometimes they succeeded, sometimes not. However, despite methods and tools being altered over centuries, the essence has remained unchangeable.

Take up the antique Greek city-states, for example. In the said city-states, philosophical schools were not the only places of education but also the center for pressure on the governments as well. Sometimes the discontent between the government and philosophical schools reached to such an extent that the government needed to disperse the schools by force. Sometimes, philosophical schools were managed to alter and influence the governments.

As for Middle Ages, the religious sects, (and zawiyahs in the Islamic world) replaced them. It is worth noting that, unlike philosophical schools, religious sects performed the function of non-state organizations literally as it is done today. On the one hand, they attracted discontent youth, with the mottos of "true religion, reform in religion, looking for truth" and so on. These concepts considered different thinking, and different mindsets. At the same time, they gained the favor of the poor with the help of collected alms. When they grew to a certain extent they challenged governments.

Fast forward to today, the alms of the Middle Ages became grants, donations, and fundraising, however, the essence remains the same. Besides, If we look at the modern world, we can see that NGOs under the guise of human rights, democracy, etc. try to attract the discontent youth and put pressure on the states. In other words, the main purpose of creating most of the NGOs is also to influence and pressure the existing government by indoctrinating people with certain ideas as in the past times and then manipulating them as masses.

The West is currently funding non-governmental organizations in different parts of the world. The purpose of funding is to spread their ideas in these countries and to poke their noses into the internal politics of the state. These Western NGOs have also played a big role in the coups d'état that have taken place in African countries in the last 2-3 years. These NGOs gather discontent people with various events held under the name of democracy and use this mass for coup d'état against the political power.

Every country has its geopolitical interests, and states express their geopolitical interests by building international relations in different ways. Interestingly, Western countries and the United States realize their geopolitical interests by funding NGOs and spreading their own ideas. This action also contradicts international law.

NGOs are capable of damaging the government not only on the political side but also on the economic side. Aids that any NGO provides to the states can seriously damage the development of local small and medium-sized businesses as well. A prime example of this is the supply of wheat to African countries in the late 1990s, which resulted in SMBs in those countries ceasing to be businesses and as a result, the countries becoming more dependent on Western aid through NGOs.

With the above in mind, the funding of NGOs should be controlled by the government, and the activities carried out by said organizations should be coordinated with the government. This can prevent future disturbances that are contrary to international law.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz