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France spends too little of its development aid on support for democracy and has not yet contributed to funding the European Endowment for Democracy, a new independent foundation that supports local actors in EUs neighbourhood for democratic change, Jerzy Pomianowski, the executive director of the organisation has told EurActiv in an interview.

Jerzy Pomianowski was appointed to lead the European Endowment for Democracy in January 2013. A career diplomat, Pominowski served previously as Poland's undersecretary of state for foreign affairs. He is also president of the Polish Aikido Federation. He spoke to EurActivs Senior Editor Georgi Gotev.

You are a former Polish diplomat and we are speaking on the premises of the European Endowment for Democracy, a beautiful Brussels house owned by the Polish state. Does it mean that the Endowment is a Polish initiative, perhaps with a little bit of EU salt?

It is definitely a valid impression that the Polish government has made big efforts, first to make this idea happen, by going through the political process in the EU and to convince partners, including those who were reluctant, for example the Commission, which was for some time reluctant, and then both financial contribution and contribution in kind was a way to show support and commitment. It was a coincidence that the premises had been vacated a few months before the European Endowment for Democracy was scheduled to start operations. The fact that I was already elected executive director of the Endowment and I knew details that this premises were already available made it possible that we are using it now.

But this is a temporary location and provided a quick solution. I would guess Endowment has earned three to four months of time to seek and get approval from its board for its headquarters.

Of course the first few months this political stamp of Endowment being a Polish initiative, of being a legacy of the Polish EU presidency [second half of 2011] is still with us. Nevertheless the recruitment of our staff shows that this is a European and open set-up. The staff recruited is really international, we have many nationalities here without any dominating. Including me, only two people out of 14 working now are Polish. We have two Germans, a French, a UK national, a Belgian, a Dane, a Slovak represented here, all selected in a very competitive way.

So this is the first sign that we are more than a Polish initiative. Second, we are very careful in our work to keep a balance between South and East neighbourhood. Out of the 5 million we committed until today, 2.5 is committed to projects in the Southern Mediterranean, and 2.5 to the Eastern Partnership countries. And as you know, Poland is much more focused on the East.

For the better understanding of your work, Endowment covers the countries of the European neighbourhood policy, but not countries on their way to EU accession, such as Turkey and the Western Balkan countries, and you dont cover Russia?

Exactly.

But if you had a branch in Russia, would the Russian authorities call them foreign agents?

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Jerzy Pomianowski: France could do more for human rights

The former prime minister asserted that cries of cronyism would abound if professional lobbyists and lobby groups were allowed to openly influence lawmakers here.

But he noted that the thinly-veiled US system in which political clout was auctioned off to the highest bidder has not drawn complaints from the trenchant local critics of Malaysias democracy.

Malaysians would never think of condemning this system. For Malaysians, especially the liberal NGOs, and the opposition, everything and anything that is done by the US and the West are regarded as democratic, he wrote in a blog post yesterday.

They would never condemn the US for this blatant fee-based influence-pedalling.

In the same blog post, Dr Mahathir also took aim at his regular Jewish targets, using the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to demonstrate the corruption endemic in the lobbying system and the purported influence over the countrys politics.

It can reach the President, all members of the American Government and all Congressmen and Senators as well as their staff at any time.

[It] is so powerful that candidates for President and other offices in the US Government have to literally pledge support for Israel to his lobby or they would lose in elections, he added.

Malaysia has, in the recent post-Mahathir years, seen increasing civil disobedience by its citizens in their demand for greater democracy and personal liberties, including three large-scale street rallies in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

Since 2008, opposition parties and advocates of democracy have grown more vocal in their criticism of Malaysias electoral system, which they allege was engineered to keep the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in power.

Dr Mahathir was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, and ruled the country with according to his fiercest critics an iron fist under the guise of a democracy.

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Dr M accuses opposition, NGOs of hypocrisy over US lobbying

HONG KONG A planned museum dedicated to the brutal crackdown on China's Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests has run into a legal challenge in Hong Kong that some say is motivated by pro-China interests ahead of the 25th anniversary of the bloodshed. The former British colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but remains a free-wheeling, capitalist hub whose annual candelight vigils on June 4 set it apart from mainland China, where all public commemorations are banned. Discussion of the Tiananmen Square crackdown is still taboo in China, where on June 3 and June 4, 1989, its leaders ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators and sent in tanks to crush a student-led campaign movement, killing hundreds. But 17 years since Hong Kong was handed back to China, a bid to establish the world's first permanent museum dedicated to the crackdown in an 800-sq-ft, fifth-floor unit in a commercial tower has been opposed by the owners' committee. The spat could escalate into a broader headache for Beijing amid rising resentment over China's tightening control over the city's affairs and calls for universal suffrage. The ability of Hong Kong residents to debate the June 4 crackdown remains a potent symbol of the city's freedoms and civil liberties relative to Communist Party-ruled China. The museum, now being renovated by construction workers and due to open in late April, will feature photographs, a goddess of democracy and other documentary materials chronicling the crackdown. The Chinese demonstrators built the goddess statue as a symbol of their struggle, and it has been replicated at June 4 anniversaries in Hong Kong. An owner's committee of the Foo Hoo Center, where the museum is located, voted last Wednesday to bar it from opening, claiming in a legal document seen by Reuters that units should only be used for offices. Political problem We anticipate and have a real concern that your proposed use of the 5th floor will operate as a lightning rod and attract to the building and its vicinity an inordinate number of visitors, both supporters and detractors, the letter, issued from the solicitors' office of Tung, Ng, Tse & Heung, stated. One tenant, the Chiu Chau Plastic Manufacturers Association, voiced explicit opposition to the plan. Its secretary general, Yeung Cho-ming, told the South China Morning Post that the museum was definitely a political problem. The [June 4 incident] is sensitive and contentious. We are afraid the museum will bring us trouble. Someone might protest here and affect our daily operations, he was quoted as saying. The group behind the museum said the legal threat was being orchestrated by those with loyalties to China. This is obviously a politically motivated lawsuit, said Lee Cheuk-yan, a local lawmaker and head of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that organizes the June 4 candlelight vigil each year. The alliance bought the fifth floor of the office tower for $1.25 million last December, with a mission to preserve the memory of June 4 and to seek redress and accountability from Beijing's Communist Party leaders for those killed. Beijing maintains the democracy movement was a counter-revolutionary event, a denunciation protesters want overturned. Lee said the owners of two businesses in the building, Man Lee Electrical Co. and Reer Garment Manufactory Ltd, had told the owners' committee they would pay the legal fees for the lawsuit out of their own pocket. Neither company was willing to comment when Reuters visited their offices in the building. I don't think any sensible person would use his own money to start a lawsuit, so there must be someone behind. Of course they would not divulge who is behind them, Lee added. Mak Hoi Wah, a vice-chairman of the alliance, said 54 of 60 votes cast during last week's owners' committee meeting backed the legal challenge against the museum. The current president of the Chiu Chau Plastic Manufacturers Association, Lam Chun-hong, is a member of China's top political consultative body, the CPPCC, in southwestern Yunnan province, according to a membership list published by the Xinhua state news agency. Its honorary life president is Hong Kong billionaire and Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, according to its website. There was no immediate comment from Li on whether he backed the legal challenge when contacted through his firm, Hutchison Whampoa. Earlier this year, Li warned that a planned Occupy Central protest to shut down the central business district to press for full democracy would damage the financial hub Despite fears the narrow building might be overrun with visitors, some tenants didn't see a problem. I don't mind, said Tong Chun-sing, who works for a design firm. It won't affect our business.

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China Shadow Looms Over Bid to Scrap Tiananmen Crackdown Museum in Hong Kong

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Quezon Chapter strongly condemns the fatal attack against our colleague Rubylita Garcia, 52, a reporter for Remate.

We demand a thorough investigation to determine the motive of this violent assault against press freedom and unmask the suspects and the masterminds behind Garcias gruesome murder.

Garcia sustained at least four gunshot wounds when unidentified gunmen barged into her home in Barangay Talaba, Bacoor, Cavite, around 10:15 a.m. of April 6, 2014, and shot her. The victim underwent an operation at St. Dominic Hospital in the city but died past 3 p.m.

Ironic as it may seem, when President Aquino took the reins of government, it was said that democracy was back in the Philippines, a claim, however, that has become more and more tenuous with each media killing.

But the Aquino administration, which came to power on the promise of upholding justice and human rights, has chosen not only to downplay the enormity of the problem but also to denigrate the victims by deigning to dismiss some of them as not legitimate media practitioners or their murder as not work-related.

It is all too clear to us that the promises that come from Presidents mouth are all empty. Mr. Aquino is just as guilty as those who gave the orders to kill and those who pulled the trigger.

Any unresolved attack or killing of a journalist abets the culture of impunity, thus encouraging more violence against media workers.

We demand justice for Rubylita Garcia and all our colleagues who have fallen victims to heinous media killings.

RONILO L. DAGOS,

chair, Jason Q. Vallecer, secretary general,

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Democracy under Aquino rule a tenuous claim