Why I Wrote The "Positive Side Of Pakistan" MyTake

[SpiderManFan2002]

The Positive Side To Pakistan :)

So above is a MyTake I wrote about Pakistan. I don't know why I was surprised at some responses I got, it's G@G so what did I expect, lol?

I feel like rather than watching the videos I provided, the majority of which are from independent vloggers- they just went straight in a criticised the country's (previous) government(s).

Well, I was not trying to talk about the (previous) governments, I was talking about the people of Pakistan.

What I see on this website, and all over the internet is people refering to Pakistani people as 'savages' and people who are 'uneducated'.

So I wrote that post and provided videos, to show that not all the people believe in oppression, hate foreigners and are extremists.

There are people in Pakistan who believe in equality and who are advocating for change.

I wanted to shine the light on those people, because if we shine the light on the extremists then it seems they are winning because the it seems like the whole world would rather pay attention to the extremists and make their voices louder, rather than people advocating for equality.

So please, watch the videos I provided in my MyTake above and you will see Pakistan has good people in it also, who deserve some credit- their voices deserve to amplified, not the extremists.

Thank you for reading. :)

[DevilsAdvocator]

Pakistani PEOPLE aren't 'savages', or 'uneducated'. They've been MISeducated, and the Pakistani GOVERNMENT is guilty of savagery and wilful self-sabotage. Did you know that back in the 60s, Pakistan had a GDP growth rate of 6.8%, and was praised as a model of economic development around the world, as the original 'Asian Tiger' (the reason why they were called 'Tigers' in the first place)? Karachi was seen as an economic role model around the world, and West Pakistan's high rate of economic growth in particular during this time period brought wide regard to Pakistan as a model of successful implementation of capitalism in a developing country - in 1964, GDP growth was 9.38%. Many countries sought to emulate Pakistan's economic planning strategy- among them, South Korea, which directly copied the Pakistanis' second "Five-Year Plan" to kick-start its own meteoric economic growth, with the World Financial Centre in Seoul modeled after that of Karachi.

When the Pakistanis' original 5yr plan began in 1960, it had a GDP of US$4.2 billion, compared to South Korea's GDP of US$2.7 billion in 1962 at the time when it adopted the Pakistanis' 5yr plan- both nations had roughly the same GDP/capita at the time, and South Korea actually had a lower HDI score at the time. If the Pakistani economy had been allowed to grow unimpeded, it could have easily continued to emulate the pace of OTL's South Korean economy, or better it- which would have seen Pakistan's nominal GDP overtaking that of OTL's Japan at around the turn of the century, and Pakistan becoming the world's 3rd largest economy by now.

Later on though, economic mismanagement in general, and fiscally imprudent economic policies in particular, caused a large increase in the country's public debt, and led to slower growth in the 1970s and 1990s. In 1965, Pakistan, under the leadership of Ayub Khan, launched Operation Gibraltar against India, which had a huge economic cost for Pakistan, losing $500 million in aid from the United States. Economic growth that year was a mere 0.88%. The economy rapidly rebounded with a GDP growth of 2.32% in 1966, and 9.79% in 1969. However, using the economic cost of the war as an excuse, Khan was forced to surrendered his Presidential powers to Army Commander General Yahya Khan in the coup of 1969, ushering in the era of military dictatorship which continues to this day.

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq ended up coming to power in the aftermath of Pakistan losing its self-destructive war with India, and enacted his "Islamisation" policies; effectively condemning Pakistan to be a third-world nation as opposed to the first-world nation which it would have been otherwise. And without General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's support, the Iranian Islamic Revolution probably would have failed, along with all of the other Sharia Islamic insurgencies which were inspired by it, and our modern brands of Islamic Extremism would probably have never arisen.

Bhutto's term in office saw things getting even worse for the Pakistani economy- she reneged on the election promises which she'd made to restore the Pakistani economy by re-implementing the free-market, low-tax capitalist policies of the Ayub Khan era, as well as doubling down on its Islamisation policies and further eroding the rights and freedoms of its citizens. And by doing so, she hammered the nails into Pakistan's economic coffin, permanently stymieing any hopes of Pakistan's economy rebounding to rejoin the other Asian Tigers. Tragic, really.

[DevilsAdvocator]

I mean, Pakistan could and should have been a bigger, better, richer, more stable and multi-cultural South Korea. Instead, it ended up a militarized borderline failed state. Why? Funnily enough, while Pakistan's military dictatorship decided to engage in social engineering by pursuing its "Islamisation" policies, and religiously radicalizing its population, South Korea's then equally human rights-violating military dictatorship decided to engage in social engineering by pursuing the exact opposite policy with regards to religion; promoting its own "movement to defeat the worship of gods" in the 1970s and 1980s, prohibiting indigenous cults and wiping out nearly all traditional religious shrines. So you have a remarkable contrast, between two nations which originally had the exact same GDP/capita levels, nearly the same levels of human development, similar governmental and political systems, and near-identical economic plans and performances back in the 60s. With the military dictatorship of the first electing to enforce anti-ethnic, religious nationalist social policies on its populace; and the military dictatorship of the second electing to enforce anti-religious, racial nationalist social policies upon its populace.

[DevilsAdvocator]

Of course, South Korean society got screwed up by the long-term effects of this too, as evidenced by the fact that it's both the most atheist and most racist nation in the world; but it wasn't deliberately economically mismanaged, and its military dictators didn't keep racking up national debts by waging self-destructive crusade after crusade against its neighboring arch-nemesis. And today- well, there's no contest, is there? South Korea, or Pakistan? And it's all the fault of en.wikipedia.org/.../Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq%27s_Islamization policy- which almost all Pakistanis either refuse to even acknowledge the existence of, or unquestioningly sing the praises of, willfully ignorant of the rightful place of prominence on the World stage that it cost you, and still costs you to this day...

[Edanurus]

Ok so firstly, you're goint to get racists no matter what. The way (at least in the UK) that racists are delt with just silences them in the public discourse, it doesn't change minds.

The second point " it seems like... making their voices louder" thats not how it works. Take racist for example, shutting them up may make people feel better but they are still racist, still talk about it but everyone else is happy they don't have to hear it and have their feelings hurt. If anything its worse because then you're just putting them in an echo chamber where their views are exacerbated.

It comes across like the Muslim community is more bothered about the perception of the religion than the tragedies themselves.

[NickiB]

I love the way you think.

It's how I feel about all negativity.

If you give them attention they win and grow louder. if you take away their voice and shine a spotlight on the positive people the negativity can't spread.

Unfortunately they're people who live for negative and help encourage them.

[SpiderManFan2002]

I feel the same way :)

[NickiB]

Great minds think alike.

[NickiB]

Thanks for mho.

[Arianna2]

Nice talk

[TheUniqueOne96]

I saw your MyTake, I didn't read it so much, but thanks for writing it.

Personally, I try to stay away from politics as much as I can, for a few reasons, mostly due to hate and how much some show how ignorant they really are - I'm not targeting certain groups or their supporters or anything, before anyone tries to attack me or assume I identify as this or that.

The thing is, I'm of a Pakistani background myself and I'm nothing like the reputation we get in the media, with grooming gangs or drug dealers or anything, like I understand that's there's definitely people of my race that do horrible things, but that doesn't mean that we're all the same, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to stop some from showing their ignorance and just spreading hate - treat people as individuals.

Sorry if I answered kind of late, but I've only seen this recently.

[SpiderManFan2002]

No, your answer is okay and I am of Pakistani background too- and I totally agree :)

[TheUniqueOne96]

Thanks.

[COMMODOREII]

Great job. 😎

[SpiderManFan2002]

Thank you :)