opinion On Oct 19, malaysiakini columnist and veteran Chinese educationist Lee Ban Chen and this writer were invited by a group of Chinese-speaking citizens of Ipoh to share our opinions and viewpoints on the terrorist attacks in Washington DC and New York City, as well as the war raging in Afghanistan.

From my observation, the basic reactions of the Chinese-community to the terrorist attacks and United States' decision to wage a war, are not very much different from those of the Malay-speaking/Muslim community.

While all present condemned Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, and sympathised with the American victims of terrorism, some are opposed to the waging of war on Afghanistan and are highly critical of US foreign policies in the past while others are more supportive of the US.

Of course, the older generation of Chinese-speaking Malaysians still remember vividly what they perceive and feel to be American arrogance, imperialism and hegemony in the Korean War, Vietnam War and secret bombing of Cambodia, as well as the US support for Suharto and his right-wing faction of the army who were believed to have massacred thousands of Chinese Indonesians as 'communists' and 'fifth columnists' of the People's Republic of China in the aftermath of the abortive coup and counter-coup on Sept 30, 1965.

Because of their bitter collective memory, they are always wary of any move of America to send armed forces overseas.

Of course, they remember how the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by US-Nato forces last year, and the incident of a US spy plane crashing into the sovereign territory of China recently.

'Cultural vulgarity'

A mother of four told me privately after the talk that she really hated the "cultural vulgarity" and "arrogant messages" of some American movies and TV programmes that promote "values of barbaric violence" like the World Wrestling Federation.

She said she and her husband are worried that their children will be influenced by "cowboys".

She is certainly not alone in having this perception and sentiment because many Muslims and mainstream Christians across the world, and even secular and modern Europeans, especially the French, dislike the "imperialism" of American popular cultures which are highly commercialised and dehumanising.

There were, however, younger Chinese at the talk who have no memory at all of the many controversial US involvements in Asia, Latin America and Africa. To them, American popular culture as presented in movies and TV programmes is an indispensable part and parcel of the daily 'normal' lives of 'modernity'.

I told the forum that while the United States had committed numerous bloody errors and mistakes in the past, especially in Vietnam and Indonesia, they should always remember that it also did many good things, like abandoning selfish isolationism and coming out in full force in the first and second world wars to help fight Italian Fascism, German Nazism and Japanese Militarism.

The participation, contribution and sacrifice of the government and people of the United States tipped the military and political balance in 1917 and 1941.

Lee, meanwhile, told the audience that they must always differentiate the government and decision-making elite of the United States on one hand and the American people on the other. Lee, a former detainee of the Internal Security Act (ISA) in the Cold War years, was the first person who told me after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, of his disapproval of some anti-American articles and comments in the Malaysian media, including malaysiakini, that could be construed as "immature" and "supportive of terrorism".

Despite condemning the attacks against innocent Americans and supporting the concept and practice of the war of legitimate self-defence, Lee still seems to be critical of some aspects of US foreign policies.

Ideological differences

To that, I added that we must also differentiate between different ideological and interest groups in the government and decision-making elite of the United States.

There are Democrats as well as Republicans, and within two great parties in the United States, there are all kinds of lobby groups. There are, of course, the "military-industrial complex" so succinctly named by a former US president, as well as civil rights groups, moderate Christians as well as theologically fringe like the Moonies who control the Washington Times and some 'think-tanks'.

The whole point is that henceforth, we must be more knowledgeable about the dynamics of the decision- and opinion-making in the United States, and scrutinise them more closely.

The US, like the Muslim, Chinese, European and Christian world, has never been a monolith. To call the US "the Great Satan" is as objectionable as calling all Muslims "terrorists", all Chinese "communists", or all Christians "crusaders".

> Finally, an elderly Chinese asked me, in obvious sympathy to Muslims, whether it was right or wrong for the Christians to kill Muslims in the Crusades. I said that while I cannot speak on behalf of all Christians, I do understand with certitude that Pope John Paul II has, on behalf of the Catholic Church, announced a few years ago that the Crusades were wrong, and also apologised to the Muslims and asked for their forgiveness.

The elderly Chinese was pleased with the knowledge. If I had more time, I would have told him that to be a believer in God does not mean we are perfect or would do no wrong.

On the contrary, it is precisely because we are imperfect and prone to be tempted by evils that we need His grace to be aware of our own imperfections and follies, to be able to summon enough moral courage to admit them, and to beg for forgiveness from those we have wronged.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, [#2]Analysis Malaysia[/#]. James is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.