Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Last week, deadly protests broke out in Nepal. Dozens of
Speaker 2: people were killed and more than two thousand were injured
Speaker 2: in clashes with government forces. The demonstrations were triggered by
Speaker 2: government decision to ban Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social
Speaker 2: media platforms. Authority said the band was imposed to tackle
Speaker 2: fake news and hate speech. That prompted tens of thousands,
Speaker 2: many of them teenagers and young adults, to take to
Speaker 2: the streets.
Speaker 3: Now I'm standing right in front of the protest that
Speaker 3: is happening in the capital of neppaland hundreds of gen
Speaker 3: zs have flooded the stream.
Speaker 2: Because of the sheer number of young people involved in
Speaker 2: the uprising, they're being called the gen Z protests.
Speaker 3: You know, we saw tens of thousands of protesters staying
Speaker 3: on the streets, blocking road They were seen storming government
Speaker 3: buildings and then setting them on fire, including of course
Speaker 3: Nepal's parliament building, which we just saw.
Speaker 2: The government lifted the social media ban a day later,
Speaker 2: but the rallies escalated and morphed into a wider anti
Speaker 2: government movement against corruption and youth unemployment. Within days, Nepal's
Speaker 2: Prime minister resigned and the army deployed troops to contain
Speaker 2: the unrest. A former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shashila Kharki
Speaker 2: was appointed as interim prime minister. Parliament was dissolved and
Speaker 2: the president has promised the country would hold elections next March.
Speaker 2: Nepal is the latest South Asian country to be rocked
Speaker 2: by violent anti government street protests, driven largely by young people.
Speaker 3: Sri Lanka's covenate has offered to reside en mass following.
Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina, has resigned and fled
Speaker 1: the country as.
Speaker 2: A whites read outrage and violence for being across Indonesia
Speaker 2: just weeks before protests in Nepal broke out. Violent unrest
Speaker 2: in Indonesia resulted in five ministers being replaced. Last year,
Speaker 2: demonstrations in Bangladesh led to longtime leader Sheik Hasina being ousted.
Speaker 2: Krishima Vesuani is a Bloomberg opinion columnist based in Singapore.
Speaker 1: I think young people across Asia are really, really angry.
Speaker 1: I think they feel disconnected from their governance structures. I
Speaker 1: think they feel that the system is rigged against them,
Speaker 1: and I feel like they feel hopeless, And I think
Speaker 1: what's really frightening is that if you don't find the
Speaker 1: solution to some of this, you could see these protests
Speaker 1: reoccur and these problems persist.
Speaker 2: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Speaker 2: Every week we take you inside some of the world's
Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
Speaker 2: businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today in the show,
Speaker 2: what's driving gen z across Asia to rise up in
Speaker 2: protest and how likely is it that they'll get the
Speaker 2: change they want. The protests in Nepal were triggered by
Speaker 2: a social media ban, but tensions had been simmering for
Speaker 2: weeks after videos that appeared to show children of Nepali
Speaker 2: political figures flaunting their wealth went viral on social media. Online,
Speaker 2: people ranted about their lavish lifestyles being funded by public money,
Speaker 2: while many Nepali struggled day to day to make ends
Speaker 2: meet Bloomberg Opinions. Karrishima of Vaswani said the government's decision
Speaker 2: to ban social media showed just how out of touch
Speaker 2: the authorities are with the harsh realities that ordinary Nepali's face.
Speaker 1: The authorities just didn't understand the frustrations of what young
Speaker 1: people in Nepal were going through, and particularly this divide
Speaker 1: between the haves and the have nots. Right, the statistics
Speaker 1: that I've seen are that in terms of unemployment, it's
Speaker 1: around a fifth of the population. It's also a really
Speaker 1: young population, and so you have an environment where young
Speaker 1: people want to get jobs but they're struggling to do that,
Speaker 1: and that on top of that, every single day, what
Speaker 1: they're seeing on their phones and on their screens are
Speaker 1: images of people who are in positions of power in
Speaker 1: their own country, who make up the elite, and they're
Speaker 1: living a better life than the ones that these young
Speaker 1: people are experiencing.
Speaker 2: Chrishma says this disconnect between the government and its people
Speaker 2: isn't confined in Nepal. It was also part of what
Speaker 2: drove you young Indonesians to the streets. A few weeks ago.
Speaker 2: In late August, outrage erupted after Indonesian lawmakers were awarded
Speaker 2: lavish housing allowances nearly ten times the monthly minimum wage.
Speaker 1: On national TV as well as on social media, there
Speaker 1: are images of these lawmakers dancing in parliament when they
Speaker 1: received these raises and It feels like a bit of
Speaker 1: a slap in the face for young people there, because
Speaker 1: it's like, well, hold on, I can't even get a
Speaker 1: stable job. Many of these parliamentarians actually have houses. They
Speaker 1: didn't need this extra cash.
Speaker 2: Anger over the housing allowances boiled over. Days later, after
Speaker 2: a motorcycle delivery driver was run over and killed by
Speaker 2: an armored police car. Young Indonesians, many of them students,
Speaker 2: clashed violently with police in Jakarta and other cities.
Speaker 1: When this young motorcycle taxi driver died, that changed the game,
Speaker 1: and there was two or three days of looting, buildings
Speaker 1: set on fire, the homes of lawmakers looted, things like
Speaker 1: bathtubs were taken, handbags, even la bougoos. And when these
Speaker 1: protests happened, this particular lawmaker said, oh, the people who
Speaker 1: are calling for the dissolution of parliament are the dummiest
Speaker 1: in the world. And that went out on social media,
Speaker 1: that went out on television, and you got to ask yourself, right,
Speaker 1: like what were you thinking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like Maria antoinettees, you know, let them
Speaker 2: eat cake right completely.
Speaker 1: That was actually the thought that went through my head
Speaker 1: when I first heard that. I thought, oh, my god,
Speaker 1: but that's how out of touch they are.
Speaker 2: The death of the delivery driver stoked anger among millions
Speaker 2: of Indonesians who hold low paying jobs as so called
Speaker 2: gig economy workers. They're often paid poorly and received no
Speaker 2: benefits to deliver food and give motorbike rides. More than
Speaker 2: half of Indonesia's labors are informal workers, and they're frustrations
Speaker 2: over working conditions spilled into the streets. Christma says these
Speaker 2: gen Z protests are becoming a growing phenomenon across South Asia,
Speaker 2: dating back to the twenty twenty two protests in Sri
Speaker 2: Lanka and those in Bangladesh last year. While they've all
Speaker 2: happened for different reasons, she says there are parallels.
Speaker 1: I think that it is a combination of young people
Speaker 1: who are feeling hopeless, looking around them at their governance
Speaker 1: structures and seeing corrupt elites in power. The economy is
Speaker 1: not doing well, it's hard for them to find jobs,
Speaker 1: and then you add social media to the mix. They're
Speaker 1: digitally connected. They can share their frustrations and they can
Speaker 1: also talk about what is the very obvious inequality that
Speaker 1: is happening in terms of the ultra rich who appear
Speaker 1: to be politically connected. Their lives are great. Right on
Speaker 1: social media, you have a window into the life of
Speaker 1: somebody else. You can see how the richie riches are
Speaker 1: sort of carrying their erme sandbags with their laboo boos
Speaker 1: and going out for lunch and dinner into the fanciest restaurants,
Speaker 1: and there you are just trying to get a job,
Speaker 1: or you have the life of a motorcycle taxi driver
Speaker 1: delivering food across the city for like ten bucks a day.
Speaker 2: The four countries Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are
Speaker 2: all dealing with high youth unemployment rates and long standing
Speaker 2: issues of inequality and corruption. Nonprofit Transparency International ranked Bangladesh
Speaker 2: at one hundred and fifty first out of one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index last year.
Speaker 2: Indonesia stood at ninety ninth place, while Sri Lanka and
Speaker 2: Nepal were both ranked beyond that and Karrishma says the
Speaker 2: government's inability to deal with these issues effectively, along with
Speaker 2: their struggling economies, have made many gen zs feel hopeless
Speaker 2: about their future.
Speaker 1: Sure now, if you're a gen Z individual, you know
Speaker 1: you're sort of looking around you and thinking, and this
Speaker 1: is not going to be better than what my parents did.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to own a home, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be able to secure work. In parts of the
Speaker 1: Western world and developed world, you're looking at issues around
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, taking away that first bottom rung of graduate
Speaker 1: level entry jobs. I look at these countries and not
Speaker 1: just them, but other places in Asia because the sort
Speaker 1: of traditional manufacturing jobs that would have swallowed up these
Speaker 1: young people in the past, like making clothes and making furniture, etc.
Speaker 1: Phones Right, all of those jobs have gone somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and they're chasing the bottom of the pyramid. You want
Speaker 1: things to be cheaper. Now in a world with President
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's tariffs, people aren't going to be buying as
Speaker 1: many things either, So the whole consumption economy becomes a
Speaker 1: less viable place to work in.
Speaker 2: Kirshma says. Even though these countries are all dealing with
Speaker 2: very distinct issues and instances, there's one thing in common.
Speaker 2: These young people are asking.
Speaker 1: For agency, the right to have a say in how
Speaker 1: their country is run. I think it's really hard to
Speaker 1: engage with your government as a young person in Asia. Again,
Speaker 1: just to go back to the Indonesian example, because we've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of protests there recently. In the midst
Speaker 1: of that, government officials sort of dismiss those And when
Speaker 1: you take that sense of agency away from young people,
Speaker 1: you feel powerless, you feel hopeless. So what do you do?
Speaker 1: Look back to the Arab Spring, what do you do?
Speaker 1: You get out onto the street, you burn things down,
Speaker 1: and you try and get people's attention that way, and
Speaker 1: that's really dangerous.
Speaker 2: Young people across Asia are demanding change. What comes next
Speaker 2: after they unrest and violence? That's after the break in
Speaker 2: Nepal and Indonesia, the streets are showing signs of things
Speaker 2: slowly getting back to normal Bloomberg opinions. Karishma Veswani says
Speaker 2: what happens next is vital as countries figure out the
Speaker 2: way forward. One worry is that the aftermath could mirror
Speaker 2: what happened with the Arab Spring around twenty ten, a
Speaker 2: series of protests by young people that shook Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya,
Speaker 2: and Syria. Demonstrators called for democracy then but were met
Speaker 2: with violence from their country's security forces. Are we setting
Speaker 2: it up for another Arab Spring here?
Speaker 1: I hope not. In an Asian spring, I really hope not.
Speaker 1: I think there was some sort of successes in the
Speaker 1: Arab spring, but by and Lodge you've seen authoritarianism creep
Speaker 1: back in. And my worry is that this plays straight
Speaker 1: into the authoritarian's playbook. Right, you have young people who
Speaker 1: are causing havoc across the region, and it's the ripe
Speaker 1: opportune time for a strong man to come in and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we need to clamp down on this. These young people
Speaker 1: are plusing too much trouble. And then you have a
Speaker 1: situation where precisely the things that these young people don't
Speaker 1: want happens, and I think that would be really tragic.
Speaker 2: So for a lasting political change, what do you think
Speaker 2: should happen following these protests.
Speaker 1: Young people representing and being able to be represented at
Speaker 1: every level of the political process. I think it's really essential.
Speaker 1: You need protests to move off the streets, and you
Speaker 1: need to have them turn into policy, and you need
Speaker 1: to while you're demonstrating, think about what's the plan the
Speaker 1: day after. Right, Like a lot of this obviously it's
Speaker 1: not been that well thought out. For instance, young people
Speaker 1: were just really angry and they wanted immediate action, but
Speaker 1: what happens the day after and the kinds of things
Speaker 1: I would like to see or I think would be
Speaker 1: useful would be to think about independent watchdogs in the
Speaker 1: sort of rebuilding phase, right, look at the kinds of
Speaker 1: people that you want in the judiciary when you're looking
Speaker 1: at getting rid of corruption, because those are the people
Speaker 1: that would adjudicate over these kinds of cases. The tone
Speaker 1: and tenor of your public servant, Like, how do you
Speaker 1: ensure that the people who are being elected or even
Speaker 1: offering themselves up for election are of the caliber that
Speaker 1: you want and not just characters from the old god
Speaker 1: or connected to cronyism. And that means really looking carefully
Speaker 1: at the election process. How do you ensure that there's
Speaker 1: that kind of integrity and independence in the electoral process?
Speaker 2: Now, the Arab spring began in Tunisia and then spuild
Speaker 2: across for neighboring countries. Is there a possibility this unrest
Speaker 2: among young people here in Asia is growing? Is there
Speaker 2: potential for more instability in other countries as well? Well?
Speaker 1: We certainly have the recipe or the ingredients, rather, I
Speaker 1: should say, because you do have very large numbers of
Speaker 1: young people in places like India Pakistan, you have further
Speaker 1: afield issues around corruption and governance as well and high
Speaker 1: unemployment rates. And I do think neighbors of these countries
Speaker 1: are watching very closely what kind of spillover effect there is,
Speaker 1: what kinds of discussions are taking place on social media,
Speaker 1: because that's really hard to control. And I think that
Speaker 1: instability will worry a lot of policy makers and make
Speaker 1: them quite mindful of the possibility of that happening in
Speaker 1: their own countries. Have I seen that happen yet or
Speaker 1: any indication of that, not just as yet, but as
Speaker 1: Nepal and Indonesia have shown, it's just one thing that
Speaker 1: lights that match.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then you've got a forced fire, Yeah, raging out
Speaker 2: of control. Are there lessons that current governments in Indonesia
Speaker 2: and Nepal could look to as they move forward? Is
Speaker 2: there light you think on the horizon?
Speaker 1: So I think Bangladesh is a really good case study
Speaker 1: for this. Right, you have an INTERN leader Muhammed Units,
Speaker 1: widely respected Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he's talked about
Speaker 1: publicly the engagement and involvement of young people in politics.
Speaker 1: He is courting them, he is engaging with them and
Speaker 1: trying to get them to think about political parties and
Speaker 1: governance structures, and I think that's really sensible, and I
Speaker 1: think that's wise. And you have elections coming up, they're
Speaker 1: expected next year at some point A lot rests on
Speaker 1: that on how they go and for Bangladesh to turn
Speaker 1: into a sort of functioning democracy with these young people
Speaker 1: in Chile at least some of them, And I think
Speaker 1: it can't just be young people. You need to also
Speaker 1: sort of have multi generational consensus and so co opting
Speaker 1: different groups, but bringing them together with young people at
Speaker 1: the heart of that in terms of a sort of
Speaker 1: viable political party. I think that would be a very
Speaker 1: good move in Bangladesh, and I'm watching that quite closely
Speaker 1: to see if it can be the template for other
Speaker 1: places around the region. You know, I'm an eternal optimist.
Speaker 1: I believe in the power of young people. They are
Speaker 1: the ones who have consistently brought change, not just in
Speaker 1: Asia but around the world. And it's their energy and
Speaker 1: their dynamism that can change political structures and the way
Speaker 1: that countries are run. But if that energy is not
Speaker 1: channeled into something hopeful and optimistic, then it is wasted,
Speaker 1: and worse, it can backfire. Actually, you end up achieving
Speaker 1: the opposite of what these young people want.
Speaker 2: This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
Speaker 2: wanh to get more from The Big Take and unlimited
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