The whining superpowers

An article published in The Diplomat claims that China had been upset with Pakistan and has downgraded Pakistan’s status from “highest priority” to just “priority”. Many are denying it and others are saying that indeed Pakistan has diminished in global affairs including in the Chinese calculus.

China is upset with Pakistan. Its interests are not as secure in Pakistan as they used to be. For the first time, at least ever since I have been paying attention to global politics, I have seen Pakistan’s all-weather friend to push this relationship kind of under the weather. Regardless of the veracity of the claims made in The Diplomat article, Pakistan has seen its relations with China and Afghanistan turn cold recently. A friendly alliance with both states have earned enormous criticism for Pakistan for decades. That critique was in the West primarily.

And that leads me to the issue of silence in the western journalism. I had written in this space a while ago that the major American publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and others were always extremely critical of Pakistan and its army because they were seen as looking out for their own national security interests and ignoring those of the United States. I had written that while that critique and a never ending bad Pakistan, which was always sold in newspapers and documentaries, used to make me very upset, today’s total silence about Pakistan is even more upsetting. Because this is a sign of a diminished Pakistan and a sign of a Pakistan that is right on track looking out for American interests at the price of its own. The absence of critique about Pakistan in the Western media today means that as far as America is concerned, Pakistan is on the right track. No whipping needed. Just like the silence of the Chinese in the past meant that Pakistan was on the right track as far as the Chinese interests were concerned.

I, however, want to point to a different reality which many, if not all, have completely ignored or missed. I have always argued that Pakistan is perhaps the most immigrant friendly country in the world because there is a stubborn mindset across the board that anything or anyone foreign is better than local. The habit of borrowed power never left the nation’s psyche. The movers and shakers of Pakistan tend to favour foreign powers more than the domestic vox populi. What’s worse is that even the domestic vox populi is shaped in such a way that the yardstick to measure the greatness of a leader has been the ability of that leader to borrow money from abroad. The nation rejoices when it adds more burden to its debt obligations.

Foreigners come to Pakistan, kill citizens in cold blood, spy on the state, trash the justice system, violate the country’s sovereignty, fly drones over its citizens and unleash hellfire missiles over them too. And yet they all go back to their bed at night escaping the laughable justice system in this country, which shows its teeth only against its own citizens.

The critique right now is why Pakistan is not serving China instead of America. What about the upset citizenry at home? Pakistan is shuttling back and forth between America and China as far as the interests of either of those superpowers are concerned. Would there be a moment in our future where the state would stop, think, and act for the sake of the people of Pakistan? Furthermore, the shift in the state’s orientation from East to the West is a much smaller threat than the erosion of democracy at home. A major threat is how the people feel no connection with the country they once vehemently fought for in whatever capacity they had. Pakistan is running out of patriotic Pakistanis. Pakistan is full of Pakistanis but Pakistanis are not full of Pakistan. That is the real threat because that is at the heart of what holds this nation.

An article published in The Diplomat claims that China had been upset with Pakistan and has downgraded Pakistan’s status from “highest priority” to just “priority”. Many are denying it and others are saying that indeed Pakistan has diminished in global affairs including in the Chinese calculus.

China is upset with Pakistan. Its interests are not as secure in Pakistan as they used to be. For the first time, at least ever since I have been paying attention to global politics, I have seen Pakistan’s all-weather friend to push this relationship kind of under the weather. Regardless of the veracity of the claims made in The Diplomat article, Pakistan has seen its relations with China and Afghanistan turn cold recently. A friendly alliance with both states have earned enormous criticism for Pakistan for decades. That critique was in the West primarily.

And that leads me to the issue of silence in the western journalism. I had written in this space a while ago that the major American publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and others were always extremely critical of Pakistan and its army because they were seen as looking out for their own national security interests and ignoring those of the United States. I had written that while that critique and a never ending bad Pakistan, which was always sold in newspapers and documentaries, used to make me very upset, today’s total silence about Pakistan is even more upsetting. Because this is a sign of a diminished Pakistan and a sign of a Pakistan that is right on track looking out for American interests at the price of its own. The absence of critique about Pakistan in the Western media today means that as far as America is concerned, Pakistan is on the right track. No whipping needed. Just like the silence of the Chinese in the past meant that Pakistan was on the right track as far as the Chinese interests were concerned.

I, however, want to point to a different reality which many, if not all, have completely ignored or missed. I have always argued that Pakistan is perhaps the most immigrant friendly country in the world because there is a stubborn mindset across the board that anything or anyone foreign is better than local. The habit of borrowed power never left the nation’s psyche. The movers and shakers of Pakistan tend to favour foreign powers more than the domestic vox populi. What’s worse is that even the domestic vox populi is shaped in such a way that the yardstick to measure the greatness of a leader has been the ability of that leader to borrow money from abroad. The nation rejoices when it adds more burden to its debt obligations.

Foreigners come to Pakistan, kill citizens in cold blood, spy on the state, trash the justice system, violate the country’s sovereignty, fly drones over its citizens and unleash hellfire missiles over them too. And yet they all go back to their bed at night escaping the laughable justice system in this country, which shows its teeth only against its own citizens.

The critique right now is why Pakistan is not serving China instead of America. What about the upset citizenry at home? Pakistan is shuttling back and forth between America and China as far as the interests of either of those superpowers are concerned. Would there be a moment in our future where the state would stop, think, and act for the sake of the people of Pakistan? Furthermore, the shift in the state’s orientation from East to the West is a much smaller threat than the erosion of democracy at home. A major threat is how the people feel no connection with the country they once vehemently fought for in whatever capacity they had. Pakistan is running out of patriotic Pakistanis. Pakistan is full of Pakistanis but Pakistanis are not full of Pakistan. That is the real threat because that is at the heart of what holds this nation.