Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have to resort to foreign sources for funding because of the difficulty in obtaining local funding for their projects.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca) president Prof Hamdan Adnan said today that if the government wants these organisations to stop using foreign funds, they should instead be generous in granting funds to them.

"When we ask money from the government, they are so kedekut (stingy)," said Hamdan, who is also a commissioner for the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

Yesterday, it was reported that Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said that societies should declare their sources of funding in their annual financial statements submitted to the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Chor added that the government did not encourage registered societies, particularly political parties, to obtain funding from overseas even though such action was not illegal.

He said that an organisation which received money from overseas could be in the clutches of a foreign power and would be dictated by it.

Hamdan, however said that NGOs would be 'killed off' if they did not get foreign funds.

He said that it would be better for the government to tell organisations to be transparent about their funding than telling them not to accept foreign grants.

"The government should also be generous in giving out funds or else they should not ask the NGOs to stop obtaining money from overseas," he told malaysiakini

'Not dictated'

Meanwhile, Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) president Meera Samather said that receiving overseas funding did not mean that the organisation was dictated by its funders.

"It is not the practice of funders to withhold or discontinue funding if WAO does not pander to their wishes," she explained.

According to Meera, WAO had, among others, received funding from the Japanese Embassy to renovate the organisation's refuge centre and to monitor the Domestic Violence Act.

She said that her organisation had no problem in revealing their source of funding to the government.

"In our experience, it is difficult to get local funding for issue-based projects. Therefore, we have to resort to foreign funding," Meera said.