Pakistan’s superiority complex

Worst thing about Pakistan’s superiority complex is establishing our superiority on lightweight arguments.

Whenever Pakistan is ranked with Afghanistan, Iraq or a random country in Africa (usually Nigeria) on global health or education indicators, there’s an involuntary physical reaction triggered within most Pakistanis that causes us to cringe and share our disbelief about being ranked at the same level as other countries, which we feel are ‘inferior’ to us. This Pakistani superiority complex manifests itself in strange ways and results in both serious and funny policy blunders.

It’s one thing to believe that you’re superior to other developing countries. It’s another matter entirely when some of us also consider ourselves superior to developed countries. Recently, I came across this status on Facebook from a friend: “To what extent is this true: in the Western world, when you’re in trouble — e.g. you lose a loved one, lose a job, fall sick etc. — then your family members and relatives don’t have much time or resources to come and ease your pain. They might pay you a short visit, but you have to bear most of it yourself?” If you read between the lines, this is a leading apologist line of argument, which argues that the strength of our family values compensate for our economic and social failures as a nation.

I have three issues with this school of thought. First, you can’t make sweeping generalisations about an entire civilisation based on actions by some individuals in the West who don’t spend their time or financial resources on family. The problem with using stereotypes to build your case is that you open yourself up to stereotypes as well. I’d be very offended if people in the West considered all Pakistani men to be violent, corrupt and ready to kill their younger sister if she defamed the family’s honour. If we don’t want to be judged by sensational stereotypes, we should stop judging other societies by their stereotypes.

The second issue I have with this school of thought is the false sense of superiority it projects onto Pakistan — almost as if it’s okay to be an economic disaster and a global problem child — as long as you don’t send your aging parents to an old person’s home. When I responded to my friend’s status by arguing against establishing a false sense of superiority, I was given a list of studies establishing loneliness and depression as a problem in the West. Frankly, most people would rather live in a society where the worst thing that can happen to them is being lonely at night rather than a society where they can accidentally die in a bomb blast.

The worst thing about Pakistan’s superiority complex isn’t the needless comparisons with other countries but the fact that establishing our superiority on such lightweight arguments drives our attention away from improving ourselves. A funny manifestation of this was visible last weekend when we lost the Asia Cup final but many people posted statuses on Facebook arguing that we were successful in the tournament because we beat India.

The third and the most polarising issue I have with this school of thought is the celebration of the idea that Pakistan is one of the most charitable countries in the world and families help one another out in tough times. I’m of the opinion that this shows our collective failure as a society. When someone in the West is sick or loses a job, the government pays for their treatment/unemployment benefits. In Pakistan, friends and family are the only way to pay for such unfortunate events. We think this shows that we’re a charitable people but actually, it just shows our state has failed. While I always encourage people to give as much charity as they can, giving out large sums of money publicly as charity, while not paying your taxes privately, is hypocrisy at its best. Pakistan doesn’t need our charity. Pakistan simply needs us to pay our taxes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2014.

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