MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

The madness of 11 September

The world went mad on 11 September, two days ago, in ceremonies marking the wounding of the global superpower, with no attempt to address what caused the brilliant co-ordinated attack on the citadels and symbols of the United States' military, political and economic power. Who caused it is not as important as its impact. It exposed the underbelly of the United States in ways that a year later it cannot come to terms with it. In typical no-nonense fashion, the United States quickly identified the culprit, Osama bin Laden, the fugitive son of the Saudi billionaire, and his ubiquitous Al-Qaida network. But not his grievances: the 'desecration' of Islam's holiest sites by a United States-United Kingdom-led armada; the mind-numbing misery of Palestinians under Israeli occupation; an Iraq breaking down under the weight of US/UK-led sanctions. All that mattered is that Muslims are responsible, and they must be put in their place.

But at a forum the DAP organised two nights ago to reflect on the events of 11 September 2002, Prof. Syed Hussein Alatas, made a strong point that this must be the first time a religion is blamed for what its followers wrought. No one has blamed Christianity or Jewry for actions of their co-religionists in spreading terror. This institutionalising of terror in a religion is, as one writer in Counterpunch (www.counterpunch.org) noted, is the Tenth Crusade, the latest of what Pope Urban II unleashed a millennium ago. The present Crusade against Saudi Arabia has in part to do with most of the hijackers and associates involved in the 11 September 2001 attacks were Saudi nationals. What is worse, and more dangerous, is tha absence of any sane debate on how to prevent future attacks like this. And attempt to address the root causes.

For what the 11 September 2001 attacks tell us is how vulnerable the United States is. It sets an agenda that it expects the world to follow; yet when it wants to invade Iraq, it cannot get its allies to follow it. It brooks no challenge to its worldview, and its arrogance, which President Bush showed in the United States when he warned the UN if it did not approve an attack on Iraq, Washington and London would go forth nevertheless. Saner voices are ignored. Even the Arab League is opposed to any British-American military adventure in Iraq. But arms are twisted. Jordan, Kuwait, even Saudi Arabia would be enjoined in this, whether its leaders want to or not. If it means that some Arab leaders would lose their thrones or office, it does not seem to matter in Washington so long as President Saddam Hussein is out. The war on terror has shifted from Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network to President Saddam and Iraq.

It reflects national impotence. In every reference to 11 September 2001 attacks, there is the ritual genuflection to the 3,000 who died there. On Oct 7, United States aircraft bombed Afghanistan in its search for Osama bin Laden and his network, killing, according to a University of New Hampshire estimate, 5,000, but other agencies say 200,000 more died as a direct consequence of that. Would anyone stop to pause for a prayer on that day?

This is why I ignored the 11 September anniversary. I went to the DAP forum because I was told the US Ambassador, Mrs Marie Huhtala, would be there as a speaker, and could at least get at first hand an official view. I doubted if she would, but at least a United States diplomat would be there on her behalf. None turned up. There were other pressing engagements. It is in the nature of democratic debate, as practiced in Malaysia and the United States, that leaders do no defend their positions. The United States will not involve itself in a debate it would be hardpressed to defend its position, as Dr Mahathir would not of his insistence that Malaysia is an Islamic state. or indeed the Suhakam chairman, Tan Sri Abu Talib Osman, who rather than defend Suhakam stayed away, sending another Suhakam commissioner to hold the fort instead at a symposium it organised for NGOs in Ipoh recently.

11 September for the United States is political shorthand of how vulnerable it is, for all its military, political and economic dominance. It is a wounded giant in as much as the Muslims worldwide. Both react in its impotence, but there is a method in the Muslim madness as there is not in the United States. The battle is joined. The Muslims have got together in a collective hurt they suffer in the sname of their religion, and the United States have got its legions in countries around the world which jump on board precisely for what their leaders could to stultify demoncratic practices in their bailliwick. Both react as lemmings rush to their deaths, destroying everything in their paths.

For Malaysia, we had out our 11 September in the 13 May riots of 1969. The very people who honour and remember 11 September forget 13 May. But each date is firmly ingrained its its national psyche, and changed each country's direction for ever: democratic practices in both Malaysia and United States are curtailed to an appalling degree, with no attempt to address the grouses except in a narrow self-defeating way which strengthes one group; both lurch towards a society where the ubiquitous knock on the door in the wee hours of the morning spells doom for many a critic.

The rationale for independence, in Washington and Kuala Lumpur, is raped and pillaged, and couched in the language of democratic moderation, with people finding too late how seriously the fundamental freedoms have eroded. Did you know, for instance, under amendments to the Internal Security Act, now in force, the Reformasi Five have no legal right to have their detention orders overturned even if the Federal Court had judged their arrests flawed. They lost that right without anyone knowing it when Parliament passed the amendments, and no one, not even the Opposition parties, thought it worth mentioning. The view here is the same as the US government's view of Iraq: they are evil, and they deserve what they get. It is on such stirring principles we are told democracy must, indeed does, flourish.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my