I am concerned about the accelerated drive toward total hegemony in the military sense, said Dr Chandra Muzaffar of Just World Trust in a forum titled After Sept 11 - Is Malaysia a target? conducted on Feb 25 at the Singgahsana Hotel in Petaling Jaya.

This is most dangerous, said Chandra.

There is no doubt in Chandras mind that the United States of America will expand the war in Afghanistan beyond the borders of the impoverished country. Their next target will be Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran and Iraq, said Chandra.

The stage is being set for another Cold War.

The US has increased its military spending by 15 percent. And this is double that spent by the entire European Union.

Up to 30 percent of US citizens live below the poverty line.

As a result of Sept 11, the internal security of many countries will go under the US microscope, warned Chandra.

The Bush regime is the most closely linked regime to the armament and oil industries compared to governments of any other former US presidents

The regime is eyeing the region around the Caspian Sea where its oil output will outmatch that of Saudi Arabia by 2010. The US wants control of this region, said Chandra.

And in order to achieve this, the US will to set up puppet regimes in countries such as Afghanistan, Kazakistan and Iran.

The US will use military means to achieve this end.

Media hegemony

US insatiable appetite for power and dominance is salivating for complete economic dominance. US involvement in casino capitalism or speculative capital is as high as US$3 trillion a day. Speculative capital is so powerful that it dwarfs commercial capitalism which comes up to merely US$25 billion.

The west has already an almost total monopoly on the worlds media, which shapes perceptions.

Political scientist Dr Farish Noor, who also spoke at the forum, warned that it is these perceptions, influenced by the mass print media, that shaped reality and political decisions. So we must not brush aside media reports. He was referring to recent reports in international magazines such as Newsweek claiming that Malaysia was used a launchpad for the attacks on Washington and New York. Prior to this a French publication Nouvel Observateur ran the headline - The Next Afghanistan - Malaysia.

Why was Malaysia being targeted? It is perhaps because Malaysia has been vocal in the international scene denouncing US dominance?

Fiction is then created to denounce us in return. Farish said that the claims of fiction need to be corrected. People who write this fiction know it is fiction, he claimed. So when Malaysia is associated with rogue states it needs to be rebutted. But this is no easy task.

The difficulty lies in the fact that we do not have the media hegemony of perhaps CNN and BBC which are backed by political and economic forces. Fraih said, We are confronting a hegemonic power that colonises our world. And by this hegemony the rules are set against Malaysia defending itself.

Thousand of men women and children were killed in the US bombings in Afghanistan, but their lives dont count - not like those who died in the Sept 11 tragedy.

The media persuades us to moan for some and not others, pointed out Farish

In the same way, Malaysia has been herded into this axis of evil milieu in the new global witch hunt, said Farish. The media is playing its role here against Malaysia.

We (Malaysia) is not actually in the middle of the axis, but we are still a country that cannot be trusted as we are an Islamic country and these countries are thought to have a tendency to stick together, he explained .

A good Muslim country is one that bends over backwards for the western powers, and bad ones are those of us who want to run our countries on our own terms, Farish said.

Our identity is being created for us by the media. The event of Sept 11 has put the governments of Islamic states up against the wall.

Death toll doubles

The death toll from the aerial suicide bombers of Sept 11 number more than three thousand. The death toll from US bombings in Afghanistan is at least four thousand. In its retaliation the US has doubled the number of victims.

Lives were lost. Osama is still on the loose.

Despite this the US beats it chest proclaiming just retribution.

The single-mindedness of the United States in using blunt military force to retaliate against the Sept 11 tragedy should be condemned - there has been no genuine attempt to find the root causes of terrorism. The US was setting a bad example to the world by the use of its military might, said Dr Ronald McCoy, chairman of the forum.

Dr McCoy further said, Perhaps after the paranoia has subsided the US will agree on (addressing) the root cause. He suggested that if terrorists were hiding in the US, it is unlikely that the US will bomb Washington.

The Bush administration runs the risk of alienating countries that may be able to cooperate in intelligence gathering. And unless the US revises it policy, it will not have the support of other countries, he warned.

US expanding its military reach will tempt and encourage countries such as China, India, and Pakistan to do the same. These countries are looking at increasing military expenditure by up to 30 percent.

As an example, India was already spending US$7 per soldier compared to US$1 per secondary school student even before Sept 11. War is prioritised over education. What more after Sept 11?

Cold War

In countries such as Palestine, there is rising internal tension after it declared support for the US. The has been rising tension in Indonesia after its president was forced to declare similar support.

Indonesias textile industry is being wiped out. Footwear manufacturing is also being wiped out as investors pull out en masse following Sept 11. Indonesia is the biggest Islamic nation in the world - a reputation that does it much damage. Malaysia suffers the same fate - being associated with Muslim terrorists.

The shut down of industries will lead to more and more unrest, which in turn will breed political instability. This will induce political upheavels that will, in the long term, destabilise the region. It is only a matter of time before Malaysia feels the heat.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is striving to ward off the many accusation hurled its way by the western media. We are outclassed and outgunned by the international media - the hegemonic influence of the media, says Farish. But this influence has been building up even before Sept 11.

This is evidence of the natural instinct to dominate said Farish. The question is - how de we change that natural instinct?

The trend that we are witnessing is of the West embarking on global dominance.

As such Americans must realise the importance of standing up against Washingtons policies. The greatest act of patriotism for an American is tell their leaders that they are wrong, said Chandra.

There is a great reservoir of goodness in the ordinary American. If you cannot assure dignity for others that you cannot assure the dignity of your own people, he said.

Poverty threat, not terrorism

There is no concrete evidence that implicates Baghdad to the Sept 11 tragedy. And despite misgivings expressed by Japan, China and the Islamic countries including Kuwait, US will probably still invade it, buoyed by the theoretic victory in Afghan, said Chandra

Intelligence reports from around the world say that there is no guarantee that the Al-Qaeda terrorist network will be eradicated in Afghanistan. What then has the US has achieved through it bombings?.

Terrorism is not the threat to the world today. The threat is poverty, said Chandra. It breeds terrorism. In the 1987 United Nations Conference on Terrorism, it was decided that the root causes of terrorism must be addressed. We havent done this. It has been left on the back burner.

Multilateralism will take a back seat as the US is shamelessly unilateral especially its military hegemony, said Chandra. US seems to think that might is right. It doesnt care about its allies. It is out to serve its own interest.

Why is the US behaving this way? This is not something new, said Chandra. The US has acted this way in the past - the Rio Treaty, the Tokyo Accord, the Landmines Treaty, and the International Criminal Court - the US has refused to sign all these treaties.

Some countries live in fear of the US. If the US doesnt bomb them, then they impose sanctions, diplomatic pressure and media arm twisting.

Our independence irks the US, declared Chandran, and where this will lead I do not know.

The US is at war with one fifth of the worlds population - Muslims. Unlike the Cold War era where there was a specific target - the communist block, this new war aims at people who are spread all over the world.

How do we handle this? Not by suicide-attack aircrafts, not through violence, said Chandra. Sept 11 has shown that violence does not work, and that it leads to the targeting of innocent lives.

Chandran suggests that we instead resort to peaceful mass protests against globalisation. But changes will not take place overnight, he said.

We need to develop alternative media. Egypts Al-Jazeera television station is a good example to counter the lies of the west, he said.

Governments around the globe should offer resistance on specific concerns.

The emergence of regional blocks such as the European Union and Asean must be encouraged. And each country must put its own house in order, said Chandra.

A country that exerts military hegemony on others is heralding it own doom. Pax Americana will drown one day, said Chandra.

PRASANA CHANDRAN is a malaysiakini journalist.