Q&A;

In the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and Washington's Pentagon, where close to 7,000 are feared dead, United States has vowed to wage war against those responsible and countries that harbour them. Malaysiakini speaks to Universiti Malaya's political economist Prof K S Jomo on how this will affect the economic and political situation, both globally and in Malaysia.

Malaysiakini: How do you view the Sept 11 attacks?

Jomo: All of us who seek freedom, justice and peace can only condemn - in the strongest possible terms - the brutality and terror wreaked by its perpetrators. Needless to say, all of us cannot accept the murder of thousands of innocents. Such actions and conduct have to be unambiguously condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Some have defended or at least excused the Sept 11 terror by pointing out that the US is the main prop of an international system responsible for so much injustice in the world today.

While the US authorities are undoubtedly responsible for many problems in the world today, the fact that the majority of the victims are Americans does not excuse anything.

Take, for example, the Palestinian problem. It is undoubtedly true that the US is the Zionist state's main supporter, economically and militarily. In fact, public discourse in the US is less critical of Israel than even in Israel itself.

Nevertheless, despite the Zionist lobby's effective hegemony over the US media, as a Palestinian commentator has pointed out, 73 percent of Americans support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. After Sept 11, many will be more inclined to swallow Zionist propaganda about Muslim or Arab terrorism.

Multiply that manifold on all the other issues. Many more people, and especially governments, in the US and the world, will be more inclined to accept the US line after Sept 11. With only two exceptions - Afghanistan and Iraq - every other government - including Cuba and Libya - has rallied behind the US on this issue.

Bush's campaign against terrorism will involve a swing to the right, in the name of security and countering terrorism. State terrorism will increase internationally in the name of countering terrorism, meaning greater repression all round the world.

For example, suddenly, our very own Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's government - previously quite isolated in the West - is back in favour, embraced by the militarist, jingoistic Republican right, as never before, not even when he signed the secret military treaty with the US in 1984.

And this phenomenon is happening all over the world. And people are more willing to accept repression against supposed militants and terrorists, e.g. the so-called Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia, after witnessing the massacre of innocents on TV.

Governments in the South pledge support for the US in exchange for little favours - recognition, support, foreign aid, trade concessions, International Monetary Fund credit, lifting of trade embargos, etc. Already, Pakistan and Indonesia have received handouts and others are waiting in line.

Until recently, the US was the sole superpower, strong economically and militarily, but greatly resented, even by most of its allies. Thanks to Sept 11, the US has been able to recapture some of the high moral ground, ironically handed to them by the terrorists who claim to be their enemies.

And most dangerously of all, when such terror is justified in religious, ideological or political terms, otherwise legitimate causes themselves become de-legitimated. When a small group of people are responsible for such behaviour and claim to represent a cause without actually having a mandate from that movement, they do the cause a great disfavour.

That is why Muslims are emphasising the diversity of Islam, to dissociate themselves from terrorism, which ultimately involve cowardly acts, by targeting innocents, even if they pretend to involve heroism and martyrdom.

What do you think will be the likely effects on the world economy?

Negative in the short term in two senses. First, many economic activities have been discouraged and become most costly as a consequence, e.g. air travel, insurance and transportation. This is likely to exacerbate the economic downturn in the US and globally, e.g. Boeing is firing tens of thousands of workers.

Second, those who have been mobilising - increasingly successfully - against global injustice are anxious not to be associated with the violent fringe groups who have infiltrated recent demonstrations and the terrorists' violent destruction of the World Trade Center as symbolic of US economic dominance. Already, there are signs that the North will assert itself on a whole range of fronts and the South will be unable to resist as even Cuba tows the line post-Sept 11.

But it is difficult to predict the medium term consequences of militarist and reconstruction Keynesianism. Remember, unlike Europe and the rest of the world which were physically destroyed, the US economy really came out of the Depression and boomed during the Second World War.

Later, the US experienced booms during the Korean and Vietnam wars, not least because of the role of the US military-industrial complex as the major sector for industrial policy interventions in that country. But as we also know, the Gulf War was followed by recession and George Senior lost his job to Clinton who presided over a sustained boom.

Government spending for the war and for reconstruction was a very important part of the post-war boom during the so-called Golden Age until the 1960s.

How will this affect Malaysia?

In the short term, the downturn globally is likely to be worse because of Sept 11. And my fear is that US retaliation will precipitate an unending cycle of violence globally, the consequences of which can be quite disastrous.

But the best case scenario economically is one in which increased US government spending for New York's reconstruction and foreign aid (to address the sources of terrorism) turns the global economy away from the downturn. A sort of Marshall Plan effect, if you will.

Better still, if the US recognises the futility of its blind support for Zionist military expansionism and pushes for a peace settlement favourable to the Palestinians in its attempt to seek a lasting solution to that major source of terrorist violence.

On the other hand, of course, Malaysia stands to benefit from increased military spending that will raise the demand for electronic products again, which will help the Malaysian economy.

The recent Malaysian efforts to pump prime the economy do not seem to have worked. And except for the school-building idea to replace double-session schools, most of the major new construction and public works programmes - Bakun dam, new links to Singapore, new bridge to Penang, etc - seem to involve more 'jobs for the boys', i.e. more crony capitalism.

The erosion of support for the regime will continue even with the opposition failing to get its act together. And to hold on to power, with 'Islamic terrorism' being the flavour of the month since Sept 11, the regime is likely to carry on its recent campaign - clear in Sarawak right now - of trying to equate PAS with terrorism until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy with disastrous consequences.

There have been allegations that the attacks were planned by the US or Israel's secret service Mossad.

I will not subscribe to conspiracy theorists without solid evidence, e.g. that this was planned by the US or by the Mossad. In fact, those who propagate such theories with hearsay stories are doing the worldwide movement for truth and justice a great disfavour.

There are these silly claims going around about how 4,000 Israelis were warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center on Sept 11, or how there were no Arab names on the passenger lists.

How can one explain the footage of jubilant Palestinians immediately after the US attacks?

In this deeply divided world, I am not surprised that many people actually cheered the terrorists, especially those who are helpless and have no effective means to resist the continued oppression and frustration which they - correctly or incorrectly - attribute to the US.

One has to understand terrorism as a weapon of the weak and hopeless. That is why Bush's war against terrorism will never succeed unless the underlying problems of injustice, oppression and exploitation are satisfactorily addressed, in Palestine as elsewhere.

This is not to condone terrorism, but to insist that the root causes of people resorting to terrorism must be addressed.

Reacting with military retaliation and state terrorism - as some in the Bush administration seem to favour - may only lead to an unending cycle of violence with continuous retaliations along religious, cultural and other lines.

Not quite a clash of civilisations, but rather one of culturally different barbarisms, including US barbarism against innocent Afghans and others, as well as popular American hate crimes against those who look like Muslim or Osama bin Laden. Sikhs have been arrested and attacked because they have long beards and turbans, not unlike after the Iranian Revolution and the US Embassy takeover in Iran.

And when Muslims and others are opposing this make false claims, we undermine our own credibility, and come across as apologists for all kinds of nonsense, unwittingly confirming others' worst suspicions of us.

One effect has been to allow the US to get a virtual blank cheque from the major powers in the world, more than they had during the Gulf War, for instance. Now, they are going to wage new wars in the name of the world, and our governments will remain mute.

Before the Gulf War, four governments opposed the pro-US United Nation Security Council resolution initially, but two - including Malaysia - went over to Bush Senior. Later, Mahathir complained that the US has abused UNSC Resolution 678, but you cannot really complain after signing a blank cheque.

Tomorrow: 'The world is not the Wild West'