ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: After having taken the capital’s intellectual community by storm, Prof Noam Chomsky spoke about American democracy and the globalization phenomenon, in an exclusive interview to Dawn.

Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, who is better known as a political philosopher and activist, has been on a visit to South Asia. After spending several weeks in India he arrived in Pakistan last Friday to deliver the Eqbal Ahmad Distinguished Lectures in Lahore and Islamabad. The latter was sponsored by Dawn on Monday.

The American scholar, who has entranced his audiences with his outspoken views and powerful logic, has been dwelling on the recent developments in world affairs, notably, the Sept 11 attacks on the WTC and Washington and their aftermath. On Tuesday, Chomsky dilated on some of his political theses which should give a better understanding of the Sept 11 catastrophe and the war in Afghanistan. He said that his theory about America’s power structure has remained unchanged since he started speaking about this issue in the sixties. The events of the last few decades have continued to move in the same direction.

His basic premise is that the business establishment in the United States which controls power and wealth, manipulates the democratic process and official policies in that country. Describing the American democracy as not being perfect, he said that it has, of course, vastly improved from what it was a hundred years ago. But there is still much further to go, he remarked comparing the process to climbing a mountain. “When you reach one point, you find there is still a higher peak to conquer.”

“I agree with the overwhelming population of the United States that we have a formal democracy, but not a functional democracy,” Chomsky said. The political system is in the hands of a small right-wing group which creates the candidates and manipulates their election. This group decides which are the issues that must be debated and addressed.

In the November 2000 elections, there was an uproar in the American media about the controversial vote count in Florida, but the general public was not much concerned, because the people understand the nature of American democracy. They know that the issues which worry them will not be taken up as campaign issues. For instance, the American public was seriously worried about the trade deficit and the resultant job cuts. It was opposed to the free trade area being set up on the American continent. But as big business does not want any change in the situation, it does not even allow a debate on these issues

The majority of the American population opposes terrorism but there is no public debate on this problem. Since the mainstream media is a part of the business establishment, it keeps out of the public discourse the issues of concern to the people but sensitive for business interest.

Globalization, as it has been erroneously portrayed by the media, is not a new phenomenon. For centuries international migration has been taking place. Countries have been trading with one another. In fact, the invention of telegraph was a development which had a more far-reaching impact on global economic relations.

What has happened in the last 25 years is that a highly concentrated power system has come to control the globalization process. This is a new phenomenon and distinguishes the present globalization process from the earlier one that was an ongoing development.