Pakistan-Vietnam Comparison Essay

Introduction Vietnam and Pakistan are two different nations displaying a broad spectrum of cultural values that these nations observe in their politics, economics, social and environmental domains. My study gave me an opportunity to learn about cultural comparisons between the two countries on a macro level which involve not only contrasts but incredible similarities and eventually how these 2 different societies have come out in past 50 years merely due to their cultures, behaviours and actions taken. Culture is one of the key Performance Indicator that builds up a country and displays the frame of mind of the respective nation. The Colonial Occupation & Cold War Era Pakistan and Vietnam share a similar background of colonial occupation. Pakistan appeared on the map of the world in 1947 after a long struggle against the British Occupation and then as a result of Sub-continent partition. The British had left behind a system which was later embraced by both Pakistan and India especially in the area of politics and education. As elaborated by (Marilyn. B. Young,2002), Vietnam was once a French Colony from 1861 till 1954. In contrast to Pakistan, The French colonial system had less impact on the Vietnamese society since before the French, Vietnam had been under strong influence of China therefore the Vietnamese culture has deep connections with the Chinese culture. Even during French occupation, China continued to have influences and links in Northern Vietnam. It was not surprising that Vietnam later emerged as a communist state. (Marilyn. B. Young,2002) explains Vietnam War as one of the most prominent cold war that started in 1963 when Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in South Vietnam and National Liberation Front (NLF) started to operate in that region. NLF was strongly supported by North Vietnam establishment. This movement sparked the attention of the United States and then began the infamous involvement of the US army that resulted in 2 million Vietnamese causalities. During this phase Vietnam was in complete disorder and civil unrest was observed in the most hideous form. The war left the nation with horrifying memories and shattered economy. Pakistan though has not faced Cold War directly like Vietnam but it had a major impact on its society due to the Afghanistan Cold War which erupted as a result of Russian assault. Millions of Afghan Refugees flocked to Pakistan for shelter along with some undesirable elements that infiltrated which brought drugs and weapons into the country. By the end of Cold War and Taliban taking over Afghanistan, Pakistani nation was left with bigger challenges to face, both political and economic in nature. Most of the Afghan Refugees didn’t leave but they contributed in country’s economy by establishing businesses in the textile & transportation industry. In Pakistan around 1. 5 million Afghanis are living adding diversity in Pakistan’s cultural scene. It is very interesting to see how involvement of other nations like stated above can impact a country’s various cultural domains which we will discuss in following topics 1) Politics 2) Economy, and 3) Other Cultural Aspects. Politics One of the elements that Pakistan adopted from British colonial was the ‘Parliamentarian’ system. The system however is extremely mutated where power is concentrated at the Federal level and is centralized. Provisional autonomy is inadequate when it comes to distribution of wealth & natural resources with no accountability. The power distance has created an imbalance in the society and among the provinces which has given rise to biased approach by the people to support and elect parties that speak their language and belong to their provinces with a belief that if they elect politicians in the Federal government from their own region, they will get the due attention to the problems in their area. This has given rise to multiple regional political parties. The Politicians exploit the regional associations of the people who are divided based on ethnic background and language. All parties in Pakistan belong to elite families which continue to elect their own family members within the party without consultation with rest of the party members. High Collectivism is observed among the elite and the ruling groups to support common interests. The society shows high individualism by mostly supporting individuals of the political parties based on their regional or language affiliations. In contrast, the society shows high collectivism on religious matters and other national issues like Kashmir whereby society unites for the cause irrespective of race, language or ethnicity. The Political System failed miserably due to frequent intervention of the Military and mainly due to the feudalistic attitudes of the politicians and government. On top of this bureaucracy is working for the welfare of the elite rather than the people of Pakistan. There is a culture to suppress the under-paid subordinate to get work done by fair or unfair means. This has given rise to corruption throughout the Government & Institutions. Consultation is a far cry when it comes to making decisions on any level. (Wikipedia, 2009) explains Vietnam’s Governing Model which is centralised but is based on a single-party constitution over 58 provinces. The single party is the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV); clearly the Chinese influence has seeped into the Vietnamese Political structure as well. Non party independent candidates are allowed to contest elections. But CPV holds absolute power, an authoritarian regime (Tuong-Vu, 2009) argues, on state level which controls the workings of parliamentary, executive and judicial domains. The party agenda is established by the Politburo which is a 14 member party policy making committee. The President, Prime Minister and General Secretary are members of the Politburo. In contrast to Pakistan, President holds more power as compared to the Prime Minister. For example, in Pakistan the PM has the power to appoint the Army Chief while in Vietnam this decision lies with the President, the Pakistan National Assembly consist of members from multiple parties while majority in Vietnam National Assembly members belong to the CPV etc. In another contrast, there is no visibility of actual opposition party in the Vietnam which has curbed accountability of the ruling party & government officials augmenting corruption. High Collectivism of the CPV is seen in running the country’s political, judicial and economic streams. Same is observed in Pakistan’s government framework. A great positive advancement and signs of individualism for Pakistan in past few years is the independent media and up-rise of the civil society for an independent Judiciary. The media is getting stronger and freedom of speech is on the rise.