Friedman a foot soldier for globalization

Friedman a foot soldier for globalization

Mehru Jaffer, Contributor, Jakarta

It is not important to agree or disagree with Thomas Friedman,
but it is important to listen to him, simply because he seems to
go out of his way to listen to others.

Ever since the Sept. 11 attack on America, the 48-year-old
international affairs columnist for the New York Times is one of
few Americans to continuously travel all over the Muslim world to
find out why his country is so hated. Friedman, who was in
Jakarta last week for the launch of the Indonesian translation of
his best-seller The Lexus and the Olive Tree, keeps a diary and
will soon publish another book of his travels.

He realizes that a cowboy comment like either the world is
with America in its war against terrorism or is not has put all
moderate Muslims in a quandary. The vast majority of Muslims
dislike the Taliban but also disagree with the American
government's view of the world that is suspected of being
saturated by self-interest.

Even Friedman's tireless talk of peace and democracy makes
many wonder if his vision is not limited to creating a social
order around the world where free market capitalism is allowed to
have a field day without thought of the fate of the farmer in the
bowels of the countryside.

"The driving idea behind globalization is free market
capitalism, the more you let market forces rule and the more you
open the economy to free trade and competition, the more
efficient and flourishing your economy will be. Globalization
means the spread of free-market capitalism to every country in
the world," Friedman writes in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a
work on how globalization has come to shape virtually everyone's
domestic politics and international relations.

The book is as much a celebration of the end of the Cold War
years and system as a guidebook to the new era of globalization.

Asked to pinpoint any negative aspects of globalization, he
says that rapid economic development has to beware of devastating
the environment. Individual identities are threatened and
cultural homogenization happens.

The most important lesson that Friedman has learned after
Sept. 11 is that new technologies have connected societies like
never before but the lack of understanding between cultures is
colossal.

"The closer we get the less we seem to understand each other,"
Friedman worries, comparing the world to a big family where
everyone, including the crazy aunt, has the right to have her
say. He constantly talks of building a future together instead of
destroying it. The question is how can this be done without
driving sections of the world population to desperation?

Friedman is all ears even when he is told that some of his
theories especially on globalization are too naive. He waits for
you to have your say but then counter questions whether you have
an alternative.

And while you talk he notes it all down on his personal
computer that is probably never unplugged. A cameraman
accompanying Friedman is recording his odyssey for American
viewers to eventually see what people around the world think of
them and expect of them as the sole remaining Superpower.

Friedman regrets that people with differences seem to pierce
the eardrums and refuse to listen to each other. The result is
that wars continue endlessly and differences remain unresolved,
he said at the Freedom Institute.

"It is still not clear to me what alternative the anti-
globalization lobby has in mind. What is clear now is not whether
we globalize but how we globalize."

The institute's director, Rizal Mallarangeng, later moderated
a discussion between members of the Indonesian intelligentsia,
like Goenawan Mohamad, and Friedman.

Friedman has said in the past that all the intellectual and
creative energies in the Arab-Muslim world that are as bountiful
as in any other region can never reach their full potential under
repressive regimes. The last century has been so stagnant for the
region not because of America, but because authoritarian
governments strike bargains with religious leaders who often
indulge in antimodernist religious education that produces
poverty.

This is one of his many trips to Indonesia and he is excited
at watching the largest Muslim country in the world reform its
institutions and reach out to the world. The ideas of religious
freedom, individual liberty and responsibility are not
incompatible with Islam but he is full of regret that much of the
Muslim world has turned its back on the classical liberal
tradition practiced by Muslim societies in the past.

He is quick to remind that the Muslim world reached the zenith
of its influence in the Middle Ages when it preserved the best of
classical Greek and Roman teachings and inspired breakthroughs in
mathematics, science, medicine and philosophy. That is also when
Islam was at its most open to the world when it enriched and was
enriched by the Christian, Greek and Jewish communities in its
midst and when it was actively trading with all corners of the
world.

Apart from dreaming of making globalization work what
preoccupies him is also the future of US-Muslim relations. He is
most interested in finding out what the reaction of a cross
section of Indonesians is to September 11 and their opinion of
America. During his travels he has found an iron wall of
misunderstanding between America and the Muslim world.

"Just go anywhere Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and you'll hit
your head against this wall," he says adding that it has taken
many hands to build this wall, blaming American officials for
failing to speak out against Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories and depriving Palestinians of any potential homeland.

America's Muslim allies also helped to erect this wall. Their
leaders have encouraged the press to print the worst lies about
America as easy excuses for why they never have to look at
themselves.

And for lending a ear to everyone Friedman has built up quite
a following of foes as well as friends, making his wife and two
daughters proud of the three times Pulitzer Prize winner but also
worried about his constant wanderings around the world.