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| November 27, 2001 | Tuesday | Ramazan 11, 1422 |
Mly setup cannot replace elected govt: Chomsky
ISLAMABAD, Nov 26: A military setup can not replace a democratically-elected government, though it can restore a genuine democracy, Noam Chomsky, a visiting US scholar, said on Monday.
Speaking at a question-answer session, the scholar, who was asked whether a military government can restore a genuine democracy, said: “It can happen”.
“These are matters of choice, struggle and pressures —- you can’t predict,” he said while trying to be on the safe side.
Earlier, during his lecture, Prof Chmosky had said if the country did not go democratic, dictatorship would eventually get international recognition.
He said the US had supported military regimes for its interests, and in this regard cited the case of Indonesia. Asked whether the humanity was moving towards the war of civilizations and how media was paving way towards US hegemony, the scholar said the Western media was part of the corporate culture and its role was to ensure that general population was kept informed “but it does not raise any questions”.
He said there was no clash of religions as in the past, the United States had been training and arming Muslim forces from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.
“Most extreme Islamic forces (groups) were collected (from all over the world by the United States),” he recalled.
Besides, he said, even Saddam Hussain had been strengthened by the United States when it supplied arms and weapons to Iraq to fight against Iran.
Mr Chomsky said the Iraqi president was one of the blue-eyed military dictators of the United States as Washington had even given him a right to attack a US ship and then get away with it. The only other country which got away with such an offence was Israel, he added.
He disagreed that it was a clash of civilizations and asked the questioner: “Where is the clash of civilizations? Only one side (America) is the sole world superpower”.
The scholar said religion had only a marginal effect in this clash.
Regarding nation-state, he said, it had a utility for a limited period, but “it better disappear now”. He mentioned that even Europe was now turning into a confederation.
In reply to another question, the scholar said the United States and Britain needed to pay reparations to Afghanistan. “We don’t have to wait for the defeat to pay reparations,” he added.
Asked whether Pakistan and India could become good neighbours, he said the two countries would have to overcome their ideological problems.
He said the two nations had been accusing each other of all the sins under the sun. “You have to see whether grievances on both sides are legitimate?” he said, adding that the two states could live like good neighbours provided they resolved their differences on a long-term basis.
The US scholar, answering another question, said “I partially agree” that the September 11 incidents were a beginning of an end of the US empire.—NM
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