The Industry of Hypocrisy: How Failed NGOs, Fake Community Leaders, Opposition Politicians and Diaspora Elites Exploited Disaster — Until the Game Was Stopped
By Staff Reporter
Natural disasters do not merely destroy homes and livelihoods. They also expose character. In the aftermath of the Ditwah cyclone, Sri Lanka did not only witness flooded villages, uprooted families, and shattered infrastructure. It also witnessed something far more revealing: the sudden unmasking of an entire ecosystem of hypocrisy — failed NGOs, self-appointed “community leaders,” opposition politicians addicted to optics, and diaspora elites who have not set foot in Sri Lanka for years, yet claim monopoly over its suffering.
For the first time in decades, the relief industry — an informal but highly profitable enterprise — faced an existential shock. The reason was simple. The National People’s Power (NPP) government did something unprecedented: it cut out the middlemen.
Instead of allowing pop-up charities, vanity NGOs, WhatsApp fundraisers, and politically affiliated relief committees to collect money in the name of victims, the government asked donors — local and international — to channel funds directly to the Central Bank and the Treasury, under transparent state supervision.
That single decision triggered panic.
Suddenly, the usual voices of “concern” became hysterical. Suddenly, the moral entrepreneurs who thrive on tragedy were outraged. Suddenly, YouTube experts emerged, shouting about democracy, minorities, international isolation, and imaginary conspiracies — all because their access to disaster money had been blocked.
This article examines that backlash — not emotionally, but factually — and exposes the hypocrisy that now stands naked before the country.
The Collapse of the Relief Racket
For decades, disasters in Sri Lanka followed a predictable script. Floods, landslides, or cyclones would strike. Within hours, dozens of “appeals” would surface. Bank accounts would be shared. GoFundMe pages would appear. NGOs — many of them with no audited history, no permanent staff, and no accountability — would rush to the scene.
Millions would be collected in the name of victims. Very little would ever be transparently accounted for.
The Chitwa cyclone disrupted this pattern.
The NPP government made it clear: public disaster relief is not a private fundraising carnival. Donations were to be sent to official state accounts. Relief distribution would be coordinated through the Disaster Management Centre, line ministries, local authorities, and verified international partners.
This was not authoritarianism. It was governance.
Those who lost access to the cash flow are now the loudest critics.
The False Narrative: “The Government Is Not Helping Minorities”
One of the most cynical claims pushed by certain NGOs, opposition MPs, and diaspora activists is that sending money to the government “will not help minority communities.”
This claim collapses under basic scrutiny.
The facts are as follows:
• Rs. 25,000 has already been paid to every affected household for immediate clean-up.
• Up to Rs. 5 million has been allocated for partially damaged properties.
• Up to Rs. 10 million is earmarked for completely destroyed homes.
• Compensation claims are being processed with a December 31 deadline, an unprecedented speed even by developed-country standards.
Funds are paid directly to victims, not through political brokers, NGOs, or ethnic intermediaries. Beneficiaries have choice — to rebuild, relocate, or purchase land — with state assistance.
If this is discrimination, it is the most strangely equal discrimination Sri Lanka has ever seen.
What these critics are really saying is not that minorities are being excluded — but that they themselves are being excluded from controlling the money.
The Democracy Lie
Another recycled accusation is that the relief process is “undemocratic” because the government allegedly prevents others from helping.
This is deliberately misleading.
The government has not stopped volunteering, logistics support, international coordination, or humanitarian assistance. What it has stopped is unregulated fundraising by pop-up groups that historically operated without oversight, audits, or responsibility.
The question that must be asked is simple:
Why does democracy require unaccounted bank accounts?
Why does compassion require zero transparency?
Why does helping victims require bypassing the Treasury?
In reality, what has been restricted is not relief — but profiteering disguised as charity.
The International Community: Present, Active, and Coordinated
Another falsehood pushed relentlessly is that Sri Lanka is “isolated” and not working with the international community.
The reality is the opposite.
Support and coordination have come from:
• The United Nations system
• The United States
• China
• India
• The European Union
• The United Kingdom
• Japan
• South Korea
• Maldives, which alone contributed over USD 3 million
International agencies are working directly with Sri Lankan authorities, not bypassing them. This is how sovereign disaster management functions in serious states.
Those claiming “international abandonment” are either uninformed or intentionally dishonest.
The YouTube Experts on Upcountry Tamils
Perhaps the most grotesque spectacle has been the sudden emergence of overseas commentators — many of whom have never visited an upcountry estate — presenting themselves as experts on plantation Tamil life.
They sit thousands of miles away, recording emotional monologues about communities they do not know, landscapes they have never seen, and realities they have never experienced.
They claim victims are being “forcibly moved” from estates to the North-East.
This is categorically false.
No one is being relocated against their will. The government is not engineering demographic shifts. Compensation allows choice, not compulsion.
The suggestion itself is not just false — it is irresponsible and inflammatory.
Selective Amnesia: Where Were These Voices in 1990?
Here the hypocrisy becomes obscene.
Many of the same Tamil politicians and diaspora figures now shedding theatrical tears over imaginary relocations were silent — or complicit — when Muslims were forcibly expelled from the North by the LTTE in 1990. A former TNA Member of Parliament, who is also a practising lawyer, was reportedly caught on a covert recording describing the LTTE’s forcible expulsion of Muslims from the Jaffna District as a “good act.” Under international humanitarian law, the mass and forced displacement of a civilian population on ethnic or religious grounds constitutes ethnic cleansing, a crime prohibited under customary international law. Any public endorsement or justification of such conduct raises serious legal and moral concerns. Moreover, individuals who directly participated in, facilitated, or openly supported acts of ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka—and who later acquired British citizenship—could face revocation of nationality under UK law if credible evidence is produced and victims are able to identify specific perpetrators or accomplices.
Over 30 years later:
• Not a single Muslim family has been fully restored to its land
• Properties were sold under duress
• Entire communities remain displaced
• Justice has been buried under political convenience
Where were these moral guardians then?
Where were the urgent YouTube videos?
Where were the international petitions?
Their silence then — and hysteria now — exposes not compassion, but political opportunism.
Opposition Politicians: Loud Criticism, Zero Contribution
Another uncomfortable fact: many opposition MPs have not donated a single rupee to the relief effort.
They issue statements. They hold press conferences. They accuse the government of failure — while contributing nothing materially to recovery.
Disaster response is not a campaign platform. It is an operational exercise involving ministries, engineers, medical teams, armed forces, volunteers, and local government.
On the ground, the results speak louder than rhetoric:
• Electricity restored rapidly
• Telecommunications reconnected
• Railway lines repaired
• Roads reopened
• Medical services deployed
• Tourist infrastructure stabilized
This is not propaganda. It is observable reality.
Speed That Embarrasses Developed States
In most developed countries, disaster compensation takes years — paperwork, litigation, insurance disputes, bureaucratic delays.
Here, the NPP government has committed to resolving compensation claims within weeks, targeting completion by December 31.
This efficiency has unsettled critics accustomed to dysfunction.
A functioning state is dangerous to those who profit from chaos.
Diaspora Leadership Without Ground Reality
Many so-called diaspora leaders issuing statements today have not been to Sri Lanka in years. Some have not visited an estate sector in their lifetime.
Yet they speak with confidence about “300 villages destroyed,” “mass displacement,” and “government paralysis” — figures and claims unsupported by verified data.
This is not advocacy. It is narrative manufacturing.
They mistake distance for authority and social media reach for legitimacy.
The Real Fear: Post-Disaster Accountability
The loudest protests are not about relief — they are about what comes after.
The government has made it clear that any group that collected money “on behalf of victims” will be required to explain:
• How much was collected
• From whom
• Where it was deposited
• How it was distributed
For an ecosystem accustomed to zero scrutiny, this is terrifying.
Transparency is the enemy of the relief industry.
A Direct Appeal, Not a Middleman Economy
The Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK has called on Sri Lankans to donate £10 on January 1 to the official relief fund. Similar initiatives will follow through other missions.
This is not coercion. It is collective responsibility.
Half a million Sri Lankans live in the UK alone. If even a fraction responds, the impact will be transformative.
Those opposing this initiative must answer a simple question:
Why are you afraid of people donating directly?
The Mask Has Slipped
The Ditwah cyclone did not expose a failing government. It exposed a failing moral economy built on tragedy, manipulation, and unearned authority.
The NPP government did not silence civil society. It silenced opportunism.
Those now screaming the loudest are not defenders of democracy, minorities, or victims. They are defenders of relevance, access, and control.
The relief industry is being dismantled — and its beneficiaries are furious.
The people, meanwhile, are rebuilding.
And that is the difference that truly matters.