Culture Shock

Rawalpindi is where Ah Peng and I split up. She is moving to the east – Lahore, whereas I’m moving to the west – Peshawar, soon. I really treasure even it’s the short moment we traveled together and teased with each other. Can anybody here and there tell me what’s the appropriate or decent way for Malaysians to say goodbye? Shaking hand to my opinion is always too superficial and lack of passion to express the feeling. Ah Peng ar…you owe me a goodbye hug!

The first time I heard of Rawalpindi is from an illegal Pakistani immigrant selling ice-cream on an old bicycle in Malaysia during my 5-year university life in Skudai. He asked me if I would ever go to Pakistan one day in the future, I must go to the Swat Valley.  

So I’m in Rawalpindi now, the hometown of the ice-cream seller, 7 years after the conversation. But I didn’t go to the highly picturesque yet currently volatile Swat Valley as suggested by him.

My previous affection towards Pakistanis’ kindness, approachability and helpfulness almost depleted when I set my foot here. It was after a 24-hour hard-to-sit, hard-to-lean, hard-to-sleep and hard-to-beat bumpy bus ride(?) whirling and trudging out from the Karakoram Highway. (That’s literally an indescribable haul and crawl as everybody had to get off and ‘crawled’ with the bus before it could manage to crawl its way up to the 4175m Babusar Pass and that was in the middle of the freezing night!).

Chaotic Rajah Bazaar in Rawalpindi

Fruit vendor, Rawalpindi

Pakistan's Chinese made Thailand-style Tuk Tuk (Fowara Chowk, Rawalpindi)

Everybody seem either don’t really care or too care about you. Pedestrians simply ‘guided’ you to ‘Holland’(Hokkien) when you asked for direction; bus drivers always said yes, passport office; yes, Faisal Masjid and yes, Holland when you asked if they were going to your destination; immigration officers refused to extend your visa with the excuse that you are only eligible to apply for it on the last day prior to the expiry(yao mou kao cho ar…!(Cantonese)); hotel staffs refused to admit you as hard as nails as if you are a naughty alien who would do something immoral and bring catastrophe to them...

Shah Faisal Mosque - a gift from Saudi Arabia's former King

Foreigners are aliens here. (But not the gun and arm shops dotted all over the country). Ah Peng and I were refused for who knows how many times, either on person or on the phone, either in a polite way of ‘Sorry, we are not allowed to take foreigners’ or a rudely ‘No, full’ response. From striking through one by one on the list of budget places recommended by travel guidebook to walk-in randomly without further ado, we found ourselves like idiots plodding until long piak(Hokkien) in a maze of puzzle manipulated by stupid yet always -immature government. To make the matter worse and complicated, there is another ‘regulation’ on Ah Peng’s visa which restricts her to stay in any cantonment area in Pakistan. (Padan muka!(Malay)… who asked her to apply in her home country since it’s just a piece of cake to get it on arrival at Sost!). Cantonment is an English word left behind by the British, and so is the canton. It used to be a small enclave built adjacent to ‘native’ town as military garrison and for administration offices during the British colonial period. Rawalpindi used to be British’s largest cantonment in Asia and it still currently functions as the headquarter of the Pakistani regular army.

A signboard showing the beginning of the Cantonment 

A signboard showing the end of the Cantonment 

Despite having the same absurd experience in the past of my journey, I swear to God that I would never experience those nonsense things if I’m in the Northern Areas. I miss the Northern Areas now. It wasn’t too late to learn that Pakistan or Pakistani is something that is, to my opinion, not easy to learn. Despite the unifying green-and-white flag centered by a big symbol of religion called Islam, melding such diverse groups into one entity called Pakistani has proved to be something that is not time proof. The people at the north shouldn't be united under the name of Pakistan! (Sorry! I was too emotional! OK! I was just mumbling and nagging. Forget about it. Nothing serious). I somehow have a thought that the further south I go, the further worst the people and situation would be. I have no intention of seeing the problem in total duality. Neither do I intend to separate the country into two just to rationalize the entire hypothesis. The fact is I wasn’t prepared enough to receive and withstand such a culture shock and I couldn’t even believe that the shock was received within a single country!

Coming from the north, it’s very interesting to observe that English is not that widely spoken in Islamabad. Can you believe that when you travel from the remote and mountainous rural area of the north to the modernized urban area in the capital city where English has become of little interest despite the fact that English is the official language in Pakistan? You have to use ‘Kitne rupee?’ instead of ‘how much?’ and shake your head stupidly when people asked if you speak Urdu.

In Pakistan, the government is rich but the people are poor. If you come across some decent, whitewash and well-maintained buildings dotted all over the country, 99% for sure those are postal office, police station, army camp, fire station, railway station, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation(PTDC) Hotel, banks, government office, etc – something which belongs to the government. They usually stand in contrast with the adjacent poorly maintained ramshackle buildings which abruptly called shops and houses where you sip tea and buy your groceries.

Yes, the government is rich but the people are poor.

Do you know who is Pervez Musharraf? How much do you know Benazir Bhutto? Have you ever heard of Asif Ali Zardari? When I was hanging out with locals in the Northern Area especially in Hunza valley, I was very shocked when everybody there told me that the former Prime Minister – Benazir Bhutto, who was only agreed to return from exile if all outstanding corruption charges against her are lifted up, was actually assassinated by her own husband in a plot of conspiracy. (Some said it’s the work of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP), a pro-Taliban group based in Pakistan). And her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, subsequently sworn in as the current president of Pakistan. What a dirty political game of power and wealth if everything I was told is true! It further surprises(if not bringing sorrow on) me when I learn that the Pakistan’s poverty and unruliness is largely due to the long-term rivalries between its two big families – the Bhuttos, who lead the PPP(Pakistan People’s Party) and the Sharifs, who lead the PML(Muslim League). Both have been occupying the country’s financial and political dynasties in tandem to fight for their own rights and benefits, setting aside all the poverty, economic stagnancy and the people’s livelihood. Pakistan’s failure(if not Pakistanis’ ignorance) to break the power of the two big families has held back the country’s development for years. Amidst all the critics and complaints about the government policy which more likely to invest on bullet rather than pencil, the people in the Northern Areas would still prefer Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan who seized power when the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to sack him as chief of army followed by the Kargil fiasco. At least the general wasn’t too corrupted and had strong will and determination to restore democracy and economic stability. During his rule where almost everything depended on military forces, his tolerance of press criticism and progressive movement especially by eradicating Islamic fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism in the 2007 Red Mosque Siege had actually won him credibility until his attempt to sack the Chief Justice, Iftikar Chaudhry which finally led him to step down amidst mass protests. I somehow think that military rule might not be a bad idea to hold the precarious country in shape considering both military rule and democracy had never proved to be fruitful in this country.

The ice-cream seller has gone. Ah Peng should be in Lahore now, which is currently plagued by Dengue. I failed to get my visa extended in Islamabad. I don’t want to stay in the relatively expensive yet boring city here until the last day even though it’s just another two more days. I need a letter from the hotel I stay as part of the document support and considering they are so reluctant to take foreigners and I’m so alien, I decided to travel to Peshawar to try my luck. But the worst thing is I don’t even know if there is a passport office and if yes, am I, a suspicious foreigner, able(or eligible) to apply for it?

Pray for me, thanks.