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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Friday 26 July 2013 09:16 AM, Jeremy
Malcolm wrote:<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 26/07/13 11:31, Ang Peng Hwa
(Prof) wrote:<br>
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<div class="WordSection1"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#0F243E">According
to third party sources I asked, ie not the Indonesians, one
major item that added to the cost is that the UN had
apparently asked for US$900k to fly personnel and security
equipment for the event. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br>
Time to cut the UN apron strings.<br>
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<br>
Why sure, we can check with Google. They will be quite happy to run
the global internet policy dialogue.... It is most astounding that
after subverting and ditching the tradition of strictly public
funding for policy spaces and activities, and adopting the
neoliberal and anti-democratic (and fancy) multistakeholder funding
model, now that it has collapsed one is to blame the public systems
for it.... <br>
<br>
To repeat: this disaster occurred precisely because of cutting of
the apron strings that policy space should always have tied to
public funds and public systems. When Indonesian government said
last year that it was unable to fund the IGF, it should not have
been handed over to a private committee headed by a businessman. ...
It should have been shifted to another country willing to host
it.... We are participating in an absolute privatisation of
governance and politics, and simply following the neolib agenda that
represents the interests of the most powerful...<br>
<br>
And this is indeed sheer 'power' - that those who are responsible
for a 'failure' can so conveniently blame others for it, and employ
their own failure to further their cause....<br>
<br>
And why should this be seen as a 'failure'. See it as an opportunity
to completely do away with pulbic funded and pulbic systems
supported public spaces... Lets go over completely to corporate
funded policy spaces and policy making.... Why make these moves in
such shifty cautious ways. So at least we will all know what is that
we are contributing to building - what kind of society...<br>
<br>
(By the way, right now we have a full fledged experiment of this
kind - corporate run policy spaces - running in India, it shows the
pattern and the larger design of certain ideologies and forces, and
the extent to which they have been successful.)<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
(PS: This is a general response, not just to your email, Jeremy. And
please do excuse my cynical language. These anti-democratic shifts
are really disturbing.)<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:51F1F10A.7020703@ciroap.org" type="cite"> <br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:9.0pt;color:black"><b>Dr Jeremy Malcolm<br>
Senior Policy Officer<br>
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consumers</b><br>
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East<br>
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia<br>
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599</p>
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