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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Last week, deadly protests broke out in Nepal. Dozens of

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Speaker 2: people were killed and more than two thousand were injured

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Speaker 2: in clashes with government forces. The demonstrations were triggered by

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Speaker 2: government decision to ban Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social

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Speaker 2: media platforms. Authority said the band was imposed to tackle

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Speaker 2: fake news and hate speech. That prompted tens of thousands,

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Speaker 2: many of them teenagers and young adults, to take to

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Speaker 2: the streets.

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Speaker 3: Now I'm standing right in front of the protest that

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Speaker 3: is happening in the capital of neppaland hundreds of gen

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Speaker 3: zs have flooded the stream.

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Speaker 2: Because of the sheer number of young people involved in

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Speaker 2: the uprising, they're being called the gen Z protests.

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Speaker 3: You know, we saw tens of thousands of protesters staying

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Speaker 3: on the streets, blocking road They were seen storming government

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Speaker 3: buildings and then setting them on fire, including of course

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Speaker 3: Nepal's parliament building, which we just saw.

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Speaker 2: The government lifted the social media ban a day later,

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Speaker 2: but the rallies escalated and morphed into a wider anti

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Speaker 2: government movement against corruption and youth unemployment. Within days, Nepal's

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Speaker 2: Prime minister resigned and the army deployed troops to contain

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Speaker 2: the unrest. A former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shashila Kharki

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Speaker 2: was appointed as interim prime minister. Parliament was dissolved and

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Speaker 2: the president has promised the country would hold elections next March.

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Speaker 2: Nepal is the latest South Asian country to be rocked

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Speaker 2: by violent anti government street protests, driven largely by young people.

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Speaker 3: Sri Lanka's covenate has offered to reside en mass following.

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina, has resigned and fled

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Speaker 1: the country as.

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Speaker 2: A whites read outrage and violence for being across Indonesia

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Speaker 2: just weeks before protests in Nepal broke out. Violent unrest

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Speaker 2: in Indonesia resulted in five ministers being replaced. Last year,

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Speaker 2: demonstrations in Bangladesh led to longtime leader Sheik Hasina being ousted.

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Speaker 2: Krishima Vesuani is a Bloomberg opinion columnist based in Singapore.

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Speaker 1: I think young people across Asia are really, really angry.

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Speaker 1: I think they feel disconnected from their governance structures. I

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Speaker 1: think they feel that the system is rigged against them,

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Speaker 1: and I feel like they feel hopeless, And I think

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Speaker 1: what's really frightening is that if you don't find the

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Speaker 1: solution to some of this, you could see these protests

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Speaker 1: reoccur and these problems persist.

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Speaker 2: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.

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Speaker 2: Every week we take you inside some of the world's

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Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and

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Speaker 2: businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today in the show,

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Speaker 2: what's driving gen z across Asia to rise up in

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Speaker 2: protest and how likely is it that they'll get the

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Speaker 2: change they want. The protests in Nepal were triggered by

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Speaker 2: a social media ban, but tensions had been simmering for

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Speaker 2: weeks after videos that appeared to show children of Nepali

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Speaker 2: political figures flaunting their wealth went viral on social media. Online,

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Speaker 2: people ranted about their lavish lifestyles being funded by public money,

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Speaker 2: while many Nepali struggled day to day to make ends

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Speaker 2: meet Bloomberg Opinions. Karrishima of Vaswani said the government's decision

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Speaker 2: to ban social media showed just how out of touch

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Speaker 2: the authorities are with the harsh realities that ordinary Nepali's face.

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Speaker 1: The authorities just didn't understand the frustrations of what young

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Speaker 1: people in Nepal were going through, and particularly this divide

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Speaker 1: between the haves and the have nots. Right, the statistics

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Speaker 1: that I've seen are that in terms of unemployment, it's

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Speaker 1: around a fifth of the population. It's also a really

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Speaker 1: young population, and so you have an environment where young

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Speaker 1: people want to get jobs but they're struggling to do that,

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Speaker 1: and that on top of that, every single day, what

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Speaker 1: they're seeing on their phones and on their screens are

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Speaker 1: images of people who are in positions of power in

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Speaker 1: their own country, who make up the elite, and they're

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Speaker 1: living a better life than the ones that these young

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Speaker 1: people are experiencing.

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Speaker 2: Chrishma says this disconnect between the government and its people

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Speaker 2: isn't confined in Nepal. It was also part of what

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Speaker 2: drove you young Indonesians to the streets. A few weeks ago.

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Speaker 2: In late August, outrage erupted after Indonesian lawmakers were awarded

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Speaker 2: lavish housing allowances nearly ten times the monthly minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: On national TV as well as on social media, there

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Speaker 1: are images of these lawmakers dancing in parliament when they

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Speaker 1: received these raises and It feels like a bit of

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Speaker 1: a slap in the face for young people there, because

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Speaker 1: it's like, well, hold on, I can't even get a

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Speaker 1: stable job. Many of these parliamentarians actually have houses. They

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Speaker 1: didn't need this extra cash.

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Speaker 2: Anger over the housing allowances boiled over. Days later, after

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Speaker 2: a motorcycle delivery driver was run over and killed by

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Speaker 2: an armored police car. Young Indonesians, many of them students,

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Speaker 2: clashed violently with police in Jakarta and other cities.

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Speaker 1: When this young motorcycle taxi driver died, that changed the game,

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Speaker 1: and there was two or three days of looting, buildings

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Speaker 1: set on fire, the homes of lawmakers looted, things like

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Speaker 1: bathtubs were taken, handbags, even la bougoos. And when these

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Speaker 1: protests happened, this particular lawmaker said, oh, the people who

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Speaker 1: are calling for the dissolution of parliament are the dummiest

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Speaker 1: in the world. And that went out on social media,

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Speaker 1: that went out on television, and you got to ask yourself, right,

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Speaker 1: like what were you thinking?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like Maria antoinettees, you know, let them

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Speaker 2: eat cake right completely.

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Speaker 1: That was actually the thought that went through my head

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Speaker 1: when I first heard that. I thought, oh, my god,

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Speaker 1: but that's how out of touch they are.

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Speaker 2: The death of the delivery driver stoked anger among millions

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Speaker 2: of Indonesians who hold low paying jobs as so called

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Speaker 2: gig economy workers. They're often paid poorly and received no

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Speaker 2: benefits to deliver food and give motorbike rides. More than

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Speaker 2: half of Indonesia's labors are informal workers, and they're frustrations

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Speaker 2: over working conditions spilled into the streets. Christma says these

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Speaker 2: gen Z protests are becoming a growing phenomenon across South Asia,

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Speaker 2: dating back to the twenty twenty two protests in Sri

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Speaker 2: Lanka and those in Bangladesh last year. While they've all

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Speaker 2: happened for different reasons, she says there are parallels.

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Speaker 1: I think that it is a combination of young people

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Speaker 1: who are feeling hopeless, looking around them at their governance

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Speaker 1: structures and seeing corrupt elites in power. The economy is

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Speaker 1: not doing well, it's hard for them to find jobs,

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Speaker 1: and then you add social media to the mix. They're

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Speaker 1: digitally connected. They can share their frustrations and they can

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Speaker 1: also talk about what is the very obvious inequality that

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Speaker 1: is happening in terms of the ultra rich who appear

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Speaker 1: to be politically connected. Their lives are great. Right on

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Speaker 1: social media, you have a window into the life of

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Speaker 1: somebody else. You can see how the richie riches are

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Speaker 1: sort of carrying their erme sandbags with their laboo boos

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Speaker 1: and going out for lunch and dinner into the fanciest restaurants,

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Speaker 1: and there you are just trying to get a job,

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Speaker 1: or you have the life of a motorcycle taxi driver

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Speaker 1: delivering food across the city for like ten bucks a day.

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Speaker 2: The four countries Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are

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Speaker 2: all dealing with high youth unemployment rates and long standing

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Speaker 2: issues of inequality and corruption. Nonprofit Transparency International ranked Bangladesh

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Speaker 2: at one hundred and fifty first out of one hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index last year.

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Speaker 2: Indonesia stood at ninety ninth place, while Sri Lanka and

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Speaker 2: Nepal were both ranked beyond that and Karrishma says the

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Speaker 2: government's inability to deal with these issues effectively, along with

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Speaker 2: their struggling economies, have made many gen zs feel hopeless

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Speaker 2: about their future.

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Speaker 1: Sure now, if you're a gen Z individual, you know

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Speaker 1: you're sort of looking around you and thinking, and this

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Speaker 1: is not going to be better than what my parents did.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to own a home, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to be able to secure work. In parts of the

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Speaker 1: Western world and developed world, you're looking at issues around

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Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, taking away that first bottom rung of graduate

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Speaker 1: level entry jobs. I look at these countries and not

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Speaker 1: just them, but other places in Asia because the sort

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Speaker 1: of traditional manufacturing jobs that would have swallowed up these

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Speaker 1: young people in the past, like making clothes and making furniture, etc.

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Speaker 1: Phones Right, all of those jobs have gone somewhere else,

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Speaker 1: and they're chasing the bottom of the pyramid. You want

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Speaker 1: things to be cheaper. Now in a world with President

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump's tariffs, people aren't going to be buying as

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Speaker 1: many things either, So the whole consumption economy becomes a

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Speaker 1: less viable place to work in.

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Speaker 2: Kirshma says. Even though these countries are all dealing with

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Speaker 2: very distinct issues and instances, there's one thing in common.

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Speaker 2: These young people are asking.

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Speaker 1: For agency, the right to have a say in how

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Speaker 1: their country is run. I think it's really hard to

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Speaker 1: engage with your government as a young person in Asia. Again,

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Speaker 1: just to go back to the Indonesian example, because we've

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Speaker 1: seen a lot of protests there recently. In the midst

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Speaker 1: of that, government officials sort of dismiss those And when

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Speaker 1: you take that sense of agency away from young people,

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Speaker 1: you feel powerless, you feel hopeless. So what do you do?

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Speaker 1: Look back to the Arab Spring, what do you do?

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Speaker 1: You get out onto the street, you burn things down,

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Speaker 1: and you try and get people's attention that way, and

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Speaker 1: that's really dangerous.

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Speaker 2: Young people across Asia are demanding change. What comes next

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Speaker 2: after they unrest and violence? That's after the break in

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Speaker 2: Nepal and Indonesia, the streets are showing signs of things

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Speaker 2: slowly getting back to normal Bloomberg opinions. Karishma Veswani says

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Speaker 2: what happens next is vital as countries figure out the

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Speaker 2: way forward. One worry is that the aftermath could mirror

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Speaker 2: what happened with the Arab Spring around twenty ten, a

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Speaker 2: series of protests by young people that shook Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya,

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Speaker 2: and Syria. Demonstrators called for democracy then but were met

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Speaker 2: with violence from their country's security forces. Are we setting

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Speaker 2: it up for another Arab Spring here?

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Speaker 1: I hope not. In an Asian spring, I really hope not.

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Speaker 1: I think there was some sort of successes in the

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Speaker 1: Arab spring, but by and Lodge you've seen authoritarianism creep

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Speaker 1: back in. And my worry is that this plays straight

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Speaker 1: into the authoritarian's playbook. Right, you have young people who

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Speaker 1: are causing havoc across the region, and it's the ripe

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Speaker 1: opportune time for a strong man to come in and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we need to clamp down on this. These young people

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Speaker 1: are plusing too much trouble. And then you have a

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Speaker 1: situation where precisely the things that these young people don't

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Speaker 1: want happens, and I think that would be really tragic.

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Speaker 2: So for a lasting political change, what do you think

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Speaker 2: should happen following these protests.

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Speaker 1: Young people representing and being able to be represented at

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Speaker 1: every level of the political process. I think it's really essential.

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Speaker 1: You need protests to move off the streets, and you

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Speaker 1: need to have them turn into policy, and you need

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Speaker 1: to while you're demonstrating, think about what's the plan the

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Speaker 1: day after. Right, Like a lot of this obviously it's

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Speaker 1: not been that well thought out. For instance, young people

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Speaker 1: were just really angry and they wanted immediate action, but

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Speaker 1: what happens the day after and the kinds of things

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Speaker 1: I would like to see or I think would be

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Speaker 1: useful would be to think about independent watchdogs in the

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Speaker 1: sort of rebuilding phase, right, look at the kinds of

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Speaker 1: people that you want in the judiciary when you're looking

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Speaker 1: at getting rid of corruption, because those are the people

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Speaker 1: that would adjudicate over these kinds of cases. The tone

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Speaker 1: and tenor of your public servant, Like, how do you

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Speaker 1: ensure that the people who are being elected or even

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Speaker 1: offering themselves up for election are of the caliber that

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Speaker 1: you want and not just characters from the old god

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Speaker 1: or connected to cronyism. And that means really looking carefully

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Speaker 1: at the election process. How do you ensure that there's

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Speaker 1: that kind of integrity and independence in the electoral process?

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Speaker 2: Now, the Arab spring began in Tunisia and then spuild

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Speaker 2: across for neighboring countries. Is there a possibility this unrest

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Speaker 2: among young people here in Asia is growing? Is there

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Speaker 2: potential for more instability in other countries as well? Well?

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Speaker 1: We certainly have the recipe or the ingredients, rather, I

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Speaker 1: should say, because you do have very large numbers of

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Speaker 1: young people in places like India Pakistan, you have further

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Speaker 1: afield issues around corruption and governance as well and high

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Speaker 1: unemployment rates. And I do think neighbors of these countries

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Speaker 1: are watching very closely what kind of spillover effect there is,

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Speaker 1: what kinds of discussions are taking place on social media,

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Speaker 1: because that's really hard to control. And I think that

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Speaker 1: instability will worry a lot of policy makers and make

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Speaker 1: them quite mindful of the possibility of that happening in

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Speaker 1: their own countries. Have I seen that happen yet or

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Speaker 1: any indication of that, not just as yet, but as

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Speaker 1: Nepal and Indonesia have shown, it's just one thing that

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Speaker 1: lights that match.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, then you've got a forced fire, Yeah, raging out

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Speaker 2: of control. Are there lessons that current governments in Indonesia

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Speaker 2: and Nepal could look to as they move forward? Is

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Speaker 2: there light you think on the horizon?

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Speaker 1: So I think Bangladesh is a really good case study

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Speaker 1: for this. Right, you have an INTERN leader Muhammed Units,

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Speaker 1: widely respected Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he's talked about

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Speaker 1: publicly the engagement and involvement of young people in politics.

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Speaker 1: He is courting them, he is engaging with them and

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Speaker 1: trying to get them to think about political parties and

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Speaker 1: governance structures, and I think that's really sensible, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's wise. And you have elections coming up, they're

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Speaker 1: expected next year at some point A lot rests on

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Speaker 1: that on how they go and for Bangladesh to turn

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Speaker 1: into a sort of functioning democracy with these young people

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Speaker 1: in Chile at least some of them, And I think

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Speaker 1: it can't just be young people. You need to also

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Speaker 1: sort of have multi generational consensus and so co opting

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Speaker 1: different groups, but bringing them together with young people at

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Speaker 1: the heart of that in terms of a sort of

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Speaker 1: viable political party. I think that would be a very

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Speaker 1: good move in Bangladesh, and I'm watching that quite closely

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Speaker 1: to see if it can be the template for other

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Speaker 1: places around the region. You know, I'm an eternal optimist.

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Speaker 1: I believe in the power of young people. They are

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Speaker 1: the ones who have consistently brought change, not just in

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Speaker 1: Asia but around the world. And it's their energy and

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Speaker 1: their dynamism that can change political structures and the way

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Speaker 1: that countries are run. But if that energy is not

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Speaker 1: channeled into something hopeful and optimistic, then it is wasted,

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Speaker 1: and worse, it can backfire. Actually, you end up achieving

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Speaker 1: the opposite of what these young people want.

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Speaker 2: This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm

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