Bravo, Sharaad ('Government's chief propagandist abroad', Aug 3) for blowing the cover on Malott's 'Bravo, Marie! (Aug 2) piece for what it is. Sharaad recommends Chomsky as an antidote to Malott's renderings on democracy. I endorse Sharaad's choice. Noam Chomsky, a linguistics professor at MIT, is regarded as one of the most, if not the most, important thinker on American policy.

But if Mr Malott tries to find any of Chomsky's writings in that paper of records, the New York Times , or other mainstream US media, forget it. Chomsky's writings are too radical for that, i.e., he writes the truth about American policy and their effects.

Malott says, "There are a number of people in Malaysia who live in a dreamworld - who believe only what they read in a controlled press" I'm not going to dispute that we have a controlled press. But by this he is trying to give the impression that the media in the US is a free one! That's mischievous of you, sir. The media in the US is controlled, granted not as flagrantly as here, but controlled nevertheless - by the big money.

They are controlled because big businesses or rich individuals own the mainstream media, newspapers, radio and television. They have interlocking interests in oil, armaments, banking, you name it. It is the military-industrial-political complex. They are not about to rock the boat by giving contrary opinions, really contrary ones, like Chomsky's. Minor thinkers who differ at the periphery are tolerated, of course - to show that democracy is alive and kicking in the USA.

Writer Gore Vidal says the US is not a democracy. It is a plutocracy. A rule by the wealthy. Small insignificant publications, read by a few, are tolerated. They can flourish in the thousands. But as long as the middle-ground voters are captured by the mainstream media, who cares for them. Again, they are a good show for democracy.

As Chomsky says, in a land where the people have freedom of expression, the people must be made to say the right stuff.

And, as Vidal all so famously says, there is only one political party in the US, the property party. It is owned by the Chase-Manhattan Bank. It has two wings, the left-of-centre Democrats, and the right-wing Republicans.

To see how controlled the reporting and opinion pieces in the US mainstream media is, just read the analyses and critiques of [#3] FAIR-L[/#] , whose motto is "Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting".

Apart from Chomsky, I would also recommend William Blum's Rogue State: A guide to the world's only superpower (Common Courage Press, 2000), and Killing Hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II (Common Courage Press, 1995). For those willing to suffer the shock of waking up, they are highly recommended. But beware, once awaken, it's nigh impossible to recapture lost innocence.

Malott goes on to say, "These people never studied American history and don't understand the principles that motivate the people of my country today." Such high-mindedness, such loftiness. And such naivete. May I guess the principles - pure altruism?

Not. As Foster Dulles famously proclaimed, the US has no allies, only interests.

It is just too bad the US has such an influence on the world, they who thought kindly along Malott's principles (or is it just dazzled by Hollywood?). Those who are willing to go beyond the controlled media - whether in the Third World aping at the KFCs, McDonald's, Nike and Reeboks; or in the US itself, or Mr Malott himself - and beyond conventional wisdom, will find a world dominated not by the world of democratic principles but by hypocrisy, lies and the downright application of power to bully. By the US.

And please, Mr Malott, sir, do not use Anwar Ibrahim's name in vain. You're putting him in a bad light.