From Nepal to Indonesia, Asia's youth have taken to the streets, protesting inequality and injustice. Demonstrations have forced Nepal's Prime Minister to resign and Indonesia to rollback perks for lawmakers. Bloomberg Opinion's Karishma Vaswani says the rage must be channeled into reform to achieve lasting political change.

Kathmandu

Protests led by Gen Z across Asia have been fueled by economic challenges, high youth unemployment, and perceptions of corruption among political elites. Recent demonstrations in Nepal and Indonesia highlight young people's frustration with systems they view as rigged and unresponsive to their needs.

While these movements have succeeded in drawing attention to issues such as social media restrictions and government corruption, achieving lasting political change has proven difficult. Analysts note that for these protests to result in meaningful reform, young activists must transition their efforts from the streets into formal political engagement and policy-making.

Gen Z protesters challenge Asia's old guard

Why is this generation getting quite upset at this point? Yeah, David, I mean, you know to put a question back to you, why wouldn't they look at the Environment that they are facing right now slowing economies a lack of jobs across the region I think it was really striking that in the two most recent instances of Nepal and Indonesia Although in Nepal it was the the immediate catalyst behind the protests was that social media ban that you were talking about But at the root of both of these instances of genuine frustration It's a feeling amongst young people that their lives are not going to be as good as the people that went before them their parents Also the fact that the system is rigged That's the sense a lot of people have that even when you want to try and get a job in These countries where there are very high unemployment rates in particular for the youth that it's a corrupt Environment and that unless you are connected in some way to the political elite You are not going to do well in life and then on top of that to have to face in Indonesia, for instance You know images on social media and national media of parliamentarians receiving lavish housing allowances Dancing in Parliament. In fact when they receive them It feels like a real slap in the face, doesn't it? And I think that's what speaks to the level of anger and frustration that you see on the streets across Asia in the last few weeks Yeah, you mentioned in your column Gen Z protesters really challenging the old guard here in the region in terms of this generation Then what what do you think unites them Karishma? Yeah, you know even I think this is really interesting and when you look at the scale of these protests and not just these but In the last couple of years, we've seen them in Bangladesh, right and Sri Lanka as well And it really does feel like there is a sort of movement building about Toppling the old guard getting rid of the corrupt elite in the views of many young people In Asia and trying to put in place something fresh and something new and I think that's what does unite These young people at the core of these protests and as I go on to explain in my column That when you see this kind of frustration out on the streets, you know It can get quite addictive protesting as we've seen in the Arab Spring for instance before and and my big concern for these and many of them very Genuine frustrations on the ground well-intentioned protesters is that these protests won't come to anything, you know we've seen instances of this before for example in Sri Lanka when you had those massive protests as a result of Overwhelming frustration because because of the economic breakdown there We did see the prime minister removed but then sorry the leader of the country removed rather I should say But then very quickly after that another discredited corrupt elite back in power with only Elections coming into place, you know, not too long ago that then saw a new generation of leadership style coming To bear and I think that's the key thing that these protesters Need to keep in mind that for real change to happen. They have to move the protests off the streets and into the halls of power The end that takes us into this Fairly loaded question, which I imagine we won't have time to answer but that help us understand the path to solutions here Yeah, well, you know, I I have tried to argue this in my column and one of the things that I think is really missing David and some of these protests. It's that Zora Bandhani character, right? You know, he has sort of swept and galvanized young people in New York He speaks directly to their issues things like rent freezes universal child care, you know free bus rides now some of this obviously unrealistic or I think certainly demands a bit more thought and work, but He is helping to channel frustration into agency and optimism and that is what you need You know when I look back to 1998 in Indonesia as we've discussed before I Witnessed that country where I grew up go from dictatorship to democracy Huge hopes for the Reformation the refer Masi movement and yet today We're seeing many of those same issues come to bear for protests to really have meaningful Change they have to turn into policy

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