Readers write: The fight against NGOs, one voter will still turn out
Letters to the editor for the June 13, 2016 weekly magazine.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Greater St. Paul Church on June 5, 2016, in Oakland, Calif.
John Locher/AP
The fight against NGOs
I’d like to thank the Monitor for the April 25 online article “Behind global crackdown on NGOs, recognition of their power” (CSMonitor.com). The International Republican Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, increasingly finds itself among those groups targeted by these restrictive regimes. Our work training civil society activists and building responsive, representative political parties is viewed as a threat to those trying to squelch dissent. Egypt started its crackdown on nongovernmental organizations back in 2011 when it abruptly raided several NGO offices, including IRI’s, and convicted our staff on bogus charges of undermining the Egyptian government.
More subtle measures include long bureaucratic delays in processing paperwork, exorbitant registration requests, and extensive censorship of public survey questions. These controls are seen in places like Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.
The current trend away from free and open societies is troubling, but it’s also affirmation that the work we’re doing to empower local citizens is working and is powerful.
Mark Green
President of the International Republican Institute
One voter will still turn out
The May 9 online article “Clinton and Trump both go ‘negative,’ but in different ways” (CSMonitor.com) asks, “[W]ill sulking voters stay home?” Sulking implies a childish response to not getting what you want. I cannot support either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. But I am not sulking. And I am not staying home. The government consists of more than one individual. We are not electing a king.
So I am looking forward to Election Day, when I will exercise the right that keeps us all free and for which so many Americans sacrificed so much. I will write in a name for president and vote my conscience on all the other state and federal offices.
Ken Brack
Huntington, Vt.