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Resisting anti-democratic rules 13 Jul 2017

July 12 was the deadline for registering ourselves as foreign funded NGOs. K-Monitor has already decided back in April, when the government announced this law that we will not comply with a regulation that is discriminatory and against democratic values. We still think that resistance is the right reaction.
K-Monitor stands by this and together with the “Civilizáció” group representing Hungarian NGOs we share the idea that this law is unnecessary, stigmatising and harmful.

To understand our position, the context in which the law was made is of special importance. Ever since coming to power in 2010, Fidesz did their best to dismantle checks and balances in Hungary. Their battle against democratic institutions also reached civil society. First by bleeding out organisations financially and then through attempts to discredit those who criticise the government’s work. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money was pumped into fake civil organisations, whose work solely consisted of parroting the government propaganda and who now are not forced to indicate that they were financed by the state. Everyone in Hungary remembers the campaign against the Norway Funds and Ökotárs Foundation, the unnecessary KEHI investigation ordered by PM Orbán Viktor and the increasingly harsher anti-civil outbursts by Fidesz politicians and their propaganda media. The truth is that the current bogeymen of the country have been standing up for the same values for five, ten or even twenty-five years now, regardless of who is in power. The enemy of the country is not them, but those who waged war against them.

With the anti-NGO law, Hungary reached another milestone in its anti-democratic transition, one that is of special relevance for those working in this sector. A milestone many other sectors have already passed, often without even noticing they did. When making compromises for the convenience of your everyday lives you might forget how far you got on a path you never intended to step on. Nobody imagined back in 2010 that such developments can happen in an EU country. The Hungarian civil society is still defending itself with legal and rational arguments, while an unlawful, irrational campaign is going on against it. We have to find new tools and strategies to be able to continue our mission and it seems that civil disobedience is  one of those tools we will have to get familiar with. This is what Viktor Orbán did when he took down the cordon in front of the Parliament in 2007. This is what all the people did who we celebrate today for standing up to those who in the name of different ideologies or ideas oppressed others. We deny all allegations that accuse civil organisations of working illegally because of their rejection of the anti-civil law, since the only way to show that we are right is by standing up to these unlawful, unjust regulations and enforce a legal debate at Hungarian and international courts.

At the same time we want to voice solidarity with those who reject this law but cannot or choose not to confront the government in this way. With organisations on whose work depends the life and legal protection of many citizens and cannot risk to be closed down. With organisations who are torn by this regulation because they have to take into consideration their sense of justice, livelihood of their colleagues and fulfilling existing contracts at the same time.

As an anti-corruption, pro-transparency organisation we feel we have a duty to shed light on why the reasoning of this law, voiced by Fidesz, is so disgusting and cynical. “This law is all about transparency, why are those who are for transparency against it?” goes the mantra. What wrong could happen if we complied with the law since we really do not have anything to hide?

The truth is that this law is not about transparency. No new information that was not already published in our yearly report would be available to the public. Indicating that an organisation is financed from abroad does not get us closer to finding out whose interest this organisation represents. The same bill-log will be on an organisation financed by the Russian government, the Red Cross, an ornithologist group or someone applying for a grant at the Open Society Foundations. It stigmatizes the veteran association of Hungarians emigrated in ’56 the same way as it does  hundreds of civil organisations, who accepted Google’s free advertising opportunity or a Microsoft software donation. At the same time the state already has  all the necessary tools to act against those organisations or persons who pose a risk to our country, be it terrorism or money laundering.

“Even in America there is a law that requires foreign agents to register”, goes the government propaganda, seemingly arguing for transparency. This is a deeply disingenuous claim, because the FARA law concerns precisely the organisations or persons that have been proven to be financed and influenced by a foreign state, and their purpose is to act as their sponsor wishes them to. An American organisation, just because it is financed from abroad does not necessarily fall within the scope of the FARA law. Reacting on that, the US embassy openly criticized Hungary for this law.

If the government really wished to take a step towards transparency, a good place to start would be the establishment of a proper lobby regulation (the previous lobby regulation was demolished by the Orbán government). The government had seven years to make the public sector, political finance, public procurement or lobbying more transparent, but nothing was done concerning these topics despite the huge parliamentary majority that allowed the government to pass as many laws as they wished. Even worse, Hungary withdrew from OGP to avoid criticism for not fulfillinf its own poor commitments.

A few years ago, K-Monitor and other civil organisations made a proposal for an even greater transparency of the civil sector. Later with the support of the Norway Civil Funds we developed a tool enabling civil organisations to easily visualise their spending. During the unlawful KEHI investigation, while we did not send the documents regarding our Norwegian project to the authorities, we made them all available to the public. Our financial management is completely transparent. The problem lies elsewhere.

The problem lies within the true objective of this law. At the very least it wants to stigmatise and show in a bad light civil organisations that work for the good of Hungarian society, no matter which political side is in power. Organisations that work transparently and fairly, always open to discussion with those who think differently about certain policy issues. The objective of this law is surely also to destroy and demolish those organisations the government does not want to see quoted in international reports and the press anymore. Organizations that they think are posing a threat to the government’s power.

Another aspect worth noting when looking at this law is the government’s communication strategy. They make these matters, related only to a small sector, appear as a nationwide “scandal”, while diverting attention from the actual urgent matters at hand. They refrain from talking about issues affecting the country as a whole, such as corruption, the non-existent economic development, the scandalous state of our health service and public education or the crippling poverty threatening our society.

Together with numerous other civil organisations we stand against the anti-NGO law, while continuing to focus on our true tasks. We do not know what the future holds for us, but whatever may happen we will find a way to keep doing our work.

If you find our work important and want to support Hungarian civil society, consider supporting us through paypal or our bank account.