'No good organizations (NGOs)'

By Park Moo-jong

One of my friends asked me recently, "Do you know what NGO stands for?" I responded without a pause, "Are you kidding me? You know that NGO stands for nongovernmental organization."

But, he responded with a cynical smile, "No. It means 'no-good organization.'"

This satirical, but sad episode stems from the latest scandal involving the leader of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a civic organization dedicated to advocacy for the rights of "comfort women" drafted into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The civic group leader's alleged misuse and embezzlement of private donations and government subsidies to help the surviving women in their 80s and 90s has shocked citizens, thus, many got angry and quit offering small donations to various NGOs that purport to work for the needy, especially for underprivileged children.

Unfortunately, however, the alleged corrupt behavior of Yoon Mee-hyang, who led the organization for more than 2 decades since, is adding fuel to the conflict between the progressives and conservatives, namely those in power and the opposition party.

The ruling camp has gone all out to protect Yoon, who became a National Assembly member by proportional representation in the April 15 general election, while the opposition forces are demanding that Yoon give up her parliamentary seat and the prosecution get to the bottom of things and bring the truth to light.

Yoon's controversy has "contributed" to making the people think again about nongovernmental organizations and question how NGO activists manage to earn a living without an occupation.

In short, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) is a nonprofit, citizen-based group that functions independently of government under the slogan of autonomy, participation and solidarity in the fields of human rights, social and political affairs, environment and economy.

Dubbed the "fifth branch" or "fifth power" after the legislative, judiciary, administrative branches and the press, NGO is also called the "Third Sector" confronting the government and business.

Representative NGOs in the world include Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace, Amnesty International and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to name a few.

In Korea, NGO activities began in full swing in the late 1980s with the retreat of the military dictatorial government. The birth of the Citizens Coalition for Economic Justice in 1989 was the very signal to open the renaissance of the civil social movement, and the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy was formed in 1994 under the catchphrase, "Citizens' power to change the world."

No one can deny what so many NGOs have done to help build a better society to live in by promoting human rights and supporting the needy. And they carried out their role faithfully on the whole by keeping on check politicians and businesses, while living up to their goal of being free from power and money.

Yet, the latest allegations against Rep. Yoon and the ruling forces' bid to protect the activist-turned-lawmaker reminded many people who donated to NGOs ― without, you might say, knowing of the symbiotic relationship between the crocodile and the plover bird.

Since the start of the President Moon Jae-in government in May 2017, so many leading members of NGOs took important posts in the administration and presidential office and became lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

It's no wonder that civic groups are losing most of their given functions to check and monitor those in power, thus earn the nickname "GOs" or governmental organizations. Many pro-ruling camp NGOs are singing from the same hymn book with the government in working out national policies like closing nuclear power plants, among others.

As mentioned above, leading figures from NGOs like the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice grabbed major posts in the government and local autonomous bodies. The result is citizens' groups sans citizens.

It is common sense that if a citizens' group tasked voluntarily to act as a watchdog becomes the very powers it observes, its civic movement loses its ground to exist.

The financial scandal of Rep. Yoon may make a good opportunity for the government to examine the propriety of its subsidies to civic groups. The subsidies are far from guaranteeing the independence of citizens' movement groups.

One consolation is that President Moon "promised" to set up a consolidated audit system on donated money and fundamentally strengthen the transparency of all activities (of NGOs) to collect donations and raise funds.

The government and civil movement activists have to listen to what one of my friends quipped about NGOs. Surprisingly many people took a lesson from the Yoon scandal: "An NGO is a no-good organization." Pure NGOs' activities cannot be belittled and should not be discouraged.

For reference, a Bangladesh-based NGO, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), has been ranked the top NGO in the world in 2020 for the fifth consecutive year thanks to its robust leadership, governance structure and continued commitment to systemic change.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.