September 16, 2025 • 17 mins
Across South Asia, Gen Z protestors are flooding the streets, demanding change. These protests have resulted in some of the worst violence Nepal and Indonesia have seen in years, presenting a challenge to the ruling elites.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg Opinion’s Karishma Vaswani about what’s driving this wave of youth-led uprisings and what it would take for lasting political change.
Read more: Gen Z Protesters Are Challenging Asia’s Old Guard
Further listening: After a Deadly Student Uprising, Bangladesh Starts Over, Again
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Last week, deadly protests broke out in Nepal. Dozens of
people were killed and more than two thousand were injured
in clashes with government forces. The demonstrations were triggered by
government decision to ban Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social
media platforms. Authority said the band was imposed to tackle
(00:31):
fake news and hate speech. That prompted tens of thousands,
many of them teenagers and young adults, to take to
the streets.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Now I'm standing right in front of the protest that
is happening in the capital of neppaland hundreds of gen
zs have flooded the stream.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Because of the sheer number of young people involved in
the uprising, they're being called the gen Z protests.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You know, we saw tens of thousands of protesters staying
on the streets, blocking road They were seen storming government
buildings and then setting them on fire, including of course
Nepal's parliament building, which we just saw.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
The government lifted the social media ban a day later,
but the rallies escalated and morphed into a wider anti
government movement against corruption and youth unemployment. Within days, Nepal's
Prime minister resigned and the army deployed troops to contain
(01:30):
the unrest. A former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shashila Kharki
was appointed as interim prime minister. Parliament was dissolved and
the president has promised the country would hold elections next March.
Nepal is the latest South Asian country to be rocked
by violent anti government street protests, driven largely by young people.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Sri Lanka's covenate has offered to reside en mass following.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina, has resigned and fled
the country as.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
A whites read outrage and violence for being across Indonesia
just weeks before protests in Nepal broke out. Violent unrest
in Indonesia resulted in five ministers being replaced. Last year,
demonstrations in Bangladesh led to longtime leader Sheik Hasina being ousted.
(02:23):
Krishima Vesuani is a Bloomberg opinion columnist based in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I think young people across Asia are really, really angry.
I think they feel disconnected from their governance structures. I
think they feel that the system is rigged against them,
and I feel like they feel hopeless, And I think
what's really frightening is that if you don't find the
(02:48):
solution to some of this, you could see these protests
reoccur and these problems persist.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today in the show,
what's driving gen z across Asia to rise up in
protest and how likely is it that they'll get the
(03:20):
change they want. The protests in Nepal were triggered by
a social media ban, but tensions had been simmering for
weeks after videos that appeared to show children of Nepali
(03:42):
political figures flaunting their wealth went viral on social media. Online,
people ranted about their lavish lifestyles being funded by public money,
while many Nepali struggled day to day to make ends
meet Bloomberg Opinions. Karrishima of Vaswani said the government's decision
to ban social media showed just how out of touch
the authorities are with the harsh realities that ordinary Nepali's face.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The authorities just didn't understand the frustrations of what young
people in Nepal were going through, and particularly this divide
between the haves and the have nots. Right, the statistics
that I've seen are that in terms of unemployment, it's
around a fifth of the population. It's also a really
young population, and so you have an environment where young
(04:29):
people want to get jobs but they're struggling to do that,
and that on top of that, every single day, what
they're seeing on their phones and on their screens are
images of people who are in positions of power in
their own country, who make up the elite, and they're
living a better life than the ones that these young
(04:50):
people are experiencing.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Chrishma says this disconnect between the government and its people
isn't confined in Nepal. It was also part of what
drove you young Indonesians to the streets. A few weeks ago.
In late August, outrage erupted after Indonesian lawmakers were awarded
lavish housing allowances nearly ten times the monthly minimum wage.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
On national TV as well as on social media, there
are images of these lawmakers dancing in parliament when they
received these raises and It feels like a bit of
a slap in the face for young people there, because
it's like, well, hold on, I can't even get a
stable job. Many of these parliamentarians actually have houses. They
didn't need this extra cash.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Anger over the housing allowances boiled over. Days later, after
a motorcycle delivery driver was run over and killed by
an armored police car. Young Indonesians, many of them students,
clashed violently with police in Jakarta and other cities.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When this young motorcycle taxi driver died, that changed the game,
and there was two or three days of looting, buildings
set on fire, the homes of lawmakers looted, things like
bathtubs were taken, handbags, even la bougoos. And when these
(06:14):
protests happened, this particular lawmaker said, oh, the people who
are calling for the dissolution of parliament are the dummiest
in the world. And that went out on social media,
that went out on television, and you got to ask yourself, right,
like what were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, kind of like Maria antoinettees, you know, let them
eat cake right completely.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That was actually the thought that went through my head
when I first heard that. I thought, oh, my god,
but that's how out of touch they are.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The death of the delivery driver stoked anger among millions
of Indonesians who hold low paying jobs as so called
gig economy workers. They're often paid poorly and received no
benefits to deliver food and give motorbike rides. More than
half of Indonesia's labors are informal workers, and they're frustrations
over working conditions spilled into the streets. Christma says these
(07:03):
gen Z protests are becoming a growing phenomenon across South Asia,
dating back to the twenty twenty two protests in Sri
Lanka and those in Bangladesh last year. While they've all
happened for different reasons, she says there are parallels.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think that it is a combination of young people
who are feeling hopeless, looking around them at their governance
structures and seeing corrupt elites in power. The economy is
not doing well, it's hard for them to find jobs,
and then you add social media to the mix. They're
(07:39):
digitally connected. They can share their frustrations and they can
also talk about what is the very obvious inequality that
is happening in terms of the ultra rich who appear
to be politically connected. Their lives are great. Right on
social media, you have a window into the life of
(08:00):
somebody else. You can see how the richie riches are
sort of carrying their erme sandbags with their laboo boos
and going out for lunch and dinner into the fanciest restaurants,
and there you are just trying to get a job,
or you have the life of a motorcycle taxi driver
delivering food across the city for like ten bucks a day.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
The four countries Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are
all dealing with high youth unemployment rates and long standing
issues of inequality and corruption. Nonprofit Transparency International ranked Bangladesh
at one hundred and fifty first out of one hundred
and eighty countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index last year.
(08:43):
Indonesia stood at ninety ninth place, while Sri Lanka and
Nepal were both ranked beyond that and Karrishma says the
government's inability to deal with these issues effectively, along with
their struggling economies, have made many gen zs feel hopeless
about their future.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Sure now, if you're a gen Z individual, you know
you're sort of looking around you and thinking, and this
is not going to be better than what my parents did.
I'm not going to own a home, I'm not going
to be able to secure work. In parts of the
Western world and developed world, you're looking at issues around
artificial intelligence, taking away that first bottom rung of graduate
(09:21):
level entry jobs. I look at these countries and not
just them, but other places in Asia because the sort
of traditional manufacturing jobs that would have swallowed up these
young people in the past, like making clothes and making furniture, etc.
Phones Right, all of those jobs have gone somewhere else,
and they're chasing the bottom of the pyramid. You want
(09:43):
things to be cheaper. Now in a world with President
Donald Trump's tariffs, people aren't going to be buying as
many things either, So the whole consumption economy becomes a
less viable place to work in.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Kirshma says. Even though these countries are all dealing with
very distinct issues and instances, there's one thing in common.
These young people are asking.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
For agency, the right to have a say in how
their country is run. I think it's really hard to
engage with your government as a young person in Asia. Again,
just to go back to the Indonesian example, because we've
seen a lot of protests there recently. In the midst
of that, government officials sort of dismiss those And when
(10:26):
you take that sense of agency away from young people,
you feel powerless, you feel hopeless. So what do you do?
Look back to the Arab Spring, what do you do?
You get out onto the street, you burn things down,
and you try and get people's attention that way, and
that's really dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Young people across Asia are demanding change. What comes next
after they unrest and violence? That's after the break in
(11:11):
Nepal and Indonesia, the streets are showing signs of things
slowly getting back to normal Bloomberg opinions. Karishma Veswani says
what happens next is vital as countries figure out the
way forward. One worry is that the aftermath could mirror
what happened with the Arab Spring around twenty ten, a
series of protests by young people that shook Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya,
(11:35):
and Syria. Demonstrators called for democracy then but were met
with violence from their country's security forces. Are we setting
it up for another Arab Spring here?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I hope not. In an Asian spring, I really hope not.
I think there was some sort of successes in the
Arab spring, but by and Lodge you've seen authoritarianism creep
back in. And my worry is that this plays straight
into the authoritarian's playbook. Right, you have young people who
are causing havoc across the region, and it's the ripe
(12:08):
opportune time for a strong man to come in and say, hey,
we need to clamp down on this. These young people
are plusing too much trouble. And then you have a
situation where precisely the things that these young people don't
want happens, and I think that would be really tragic.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So for a lasting political change, what do you think
should happen following these protests.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Young people representing and being able to be represented at
every level of the political process. I think it's really essential.
You need protests to move off the streets, and you
need to have them turn into policy, and you need
to while you're demonstrating, think about what's the plan the
(12:54):
day after. Right, Like a lot of this obviously it's
not been that well thought out. For instance, young people
were just really angry and they wanted immediate action, but
what happens the day after and the kinds of things
I would like to see or I think would be
useful would be to think about independent watchdogs in the
(13:14):
sort of rebuilding phase, right, look at the kinds of
people that you want in the judiciary when you're looking
at getting rid of corruption, because those are the people
that would adjudicate over these kinds of cases. The tone
and tenor of your public servant, Like, how do you
ensure that the people who are being elected or even
offering themselves up for election are of the caliber that
(13:38):
you want and not just characters from the old god
or connected to cronyism. And that means really looking carefully
at the election process. How do you ensure that there's
that kind of integrity and independence in the electoral process?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Now, the Arab spring began in Tunisia and then spuild
across for neighboring countries. Is there a possibility this unrest
among young people here in Asia is growing? Is there
potential for more instability in other countries as well? Well?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
We certainly have the recipe or the ingredients, rather, I
should say, because you do have very large numbers of
young people in places like India Pakistan, you have further
afield issues around corruption and governance as well and high
unemployment rates. And I do think neighbors of these countries
(14:34):
are watching very closely what kind of spillover effect there is,
what kinds of discussions are taking place on social media,
because that's really hard to control. And I think that
instability will worry a lot of policy makers and make
them quite mindful of the possibility of that happening in
(14:56):
their own countries. Have I seen that happen yet or
any indication of that, not just as yet, but as
Nepal and Indonesia have shown, it's just one thing that
lights that match.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, then you've got a forced fire, Yeah, raging out
of control. Are there lessons that current governments in Indonesia
and Nepal could look to as they move forward? Is
there light you think on the horizon?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So I think Bangladesh is a really good case study
for this. Right, you have an INTERN leader Muhammed Units,
widely respected Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he's talked about
publicly the engagement and involvement of young people in politics.
He is courting them, he is engaging with them and
trying to get them to think about political parties and
(15:42):
governance structures, and I think that's really sensible, and I
think that's wise. And you have elections coming up, they're
expected next year at some point A lot rests on
that on how they go and for Bangladesh to turn
into a sort of functioning democracy with these young people
in Chile at least some of them, And I think
it can't just be young people. You need to also
(16:04):
sort of have multi generational consensus and so co opting
different groups, but bringing them together with young people at
the heart of that in terms of a sort of
viable political party. I think that would be a very
good move in Bangladesh, and I'm watching that quite closely
to see if it can be the template for other
(16:24):
places around the region. You know, I'm an eternal optimist.
I believe in the power of young people. They are
the ones who have consistently brought change, not just in
Asia but around the world. And it's their energy and
their dynamism that can change political structures and the way
(16:45):
that countries are run. But if that energy is not
channeled into something hopeful and optimistic, then it is wasted,
and worse, it can backfire. Actually, you end up achieving
the opposite of what these young people want.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
wanh to get more from The Big Take and unlimited
access to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at
Bloomberg dot com slash podcast Offer. If you liked the episode,
make sure to subscribe and review The Big Take Asia
wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find
the show. Thanks for listening, See you next time.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Last week, deadly protests broke out in Nepal. Dozens of
people were killed and more than two thousand were injured
in clashes with government forces. The demonstrations were triggered by
government decision to ban Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other social
media platforms. Authority said the band was imposed to tackle
(00:31):
fake news and hate speech. That prompted tens of thousands,
many of them teenagers and young adults, to take to
the streets.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Now I'm standing right in front of the protest that
is happening in the capital of neppaland hundreds of gen
zs have flooded the stream.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Because of the sheer number of young people involved in
the uprising, they're being called the gen Z protests.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You know, we saw tens of thousands of protesters staying
on the streets, blocking road They were seen storming government
buildings and then setting them on fire, including of course
Nepal's parliament building, which we just saw.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
The government lifted the social media ban a day later,
but the rallies escalated and morphed into a wider anti
government movement against corruption and youth unemployment. Within days, Nepal's
Prime minister resigned and the army deployed troops to contain
(01:30):
the unrest. A former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shashila Kharki
was appointed as interim prime minister. Parliament was dissolved and
the president has promised the country would hold elections next March.
Nepal is the latest South Asian country to be rocked
by violent anti government street protests, driven largely by young people.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Sri Lanka's covenate has offered to reside en mass following.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina, has resigned and fled
the country as.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
A whites read outrage and violence for being across Indonesia
just weeks before protests in Nepal broke out. Violent unrest
in Indonesia resulted in five ministers being replaced. Last year,
demonstrations in Bangladesh led to longtime leader Sheik Hasina being ousted.
(02:23):
Krishima Vesuani is a Bloomberg opinion columnist based in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I think young people across Asia are really, really angry.
I think they feel disconnected from their governance structures. I
think they feel that the system is rigged against them,
and I feel like they feel hopeless, And I think
what's really frightening is that if you don't find the
(02:48):
solution to some of this, you could see these protests
reoccur and these problems persist.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today in the show,
what's driving gen z across Asia to rise up in
protest and how likely is it that they'll get the
(03:20):
change they want. The protests in Nepal were triggered by
a social media ban, but tensions had been simmering for
weeks after videos that appeared to show children of Nepali
(03:42):
political figures flaunting their wealth went viral on social media. Online,
people ranted about their lavish lifestyles being funded by public money,
while many Nepali struggled day to day to make ends
meet Bloomberg Opinions. Karrishima of Vaswani said the government's decision
to ban social media showed just how out of touch
the authorities are with the harsh realities that ordinary Nepali's face.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The authorities just didn't understand the frustrations of what young
people in Nepal were going through, and particularly this divide
between the haves and the have nots. Right, the statistics
that I've seen are that in terms of unemployment, it's
around a fifth of the population. It's also a really
young population, and so you have an environment where young
(04:29):
people want to get jobs but they're struggling to do that,
and that on top of that, every single day, what
they're seeing on their phones and on their screens are
images of people who are in positions of power in
their own country, who make up the elite, and they're
living a better life than the ones that these young
(04:50):
people are experiencing.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Chrishma says this disconnect between the government and its people
isn't confined in Nepal. It was also part of what
drove you young Indonesians to the streets. A few weeks ago.
In late August, outrage erupted after Indonesian lawmakers were awarded
lavish housing allowances nearly ten times the monthly minimum wage.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
On national TV as well as on social media, there
are images of these lawmakers dancing in parliament when they
received these raises and It feels like a bit of
a slap in the face for young people there, because
it's like, well, hold on, I can't even get a
stable job. Many of these parliamentarians actually have houses. They
didn't need this extra cash.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Anger over the housing allowances boiled over. Days later, after
a motorcycle delivery driver was run over and killed by
an armored police car. Young Indonesians, many of them students,
clashed violently with police in Jakarta and other cities.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When this young motorcycle taxi driver died, that changed the game,
and there was two or three days of looting, buildings
set on fire, the homes of lawmakers looted, things like
bathtubs were taken, handbags, even la bougoos. And when these
(06:14):
protests happened, this particular lawmaker said, oh, the people who
are calling for the dissolution of parliament are the dummiest
in the world. And that went out on social media,
that went out on television, and you got to ask yourself, right,
like what were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, kind of like Maria antoinettees, you know, let them
eat cake right completely.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That was actually the thought that went through my head
when I first heard that. I thought, oh, my god,
but that's how out of touch they are.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The death of the delivery driver stoked anger among millions
of Indonesians who hold low paying jobs as so called
gig economy workers. They're often paid poorly and received no
benefits to deliver food and give motorbike rides. More than
half of Indonesia's labors are informal workers, and they're frustrations
over working conditions spilled into the streets. Christma says these
(07:03):
gen Z protests are becoming a growing phenomenon across South Asia,
dating back to the twenty twenty two protests in Sri
Lanka and those in Bangladesh last year. While they've all
happened for different reasons, she says there are parallels.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think that it is a combination of young people
who are feeling hopeless, looking around them at their governance
structures and seeing corrupt elites in power. The economy is
not doing well, it's hard for them to find jobs,
and then you add social media to the mix. They're
(07:39):
digitally connected. They can share their frustrations and they can
also talk about what is the very obvious inequality that
is happening in terms of the ultra rich who appear
to be politically connected. Their lives are great. Right on
social media, you have a window into the life of
(08:00):
somebody else. You can see how the richie riches are
sort of carrying their erme sandbags with their laboo boos
and going out for lunch and dinner into the fanciest restaurants,
and there you are just trying to get a job,
or you have the life of a motorcycle taxi driver
delivering food across the city for like ten bucks a day.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
The four countries Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are
all dealing with high youth unemployment rates and long standing
issues of inequality and corruption. Nonprofit Transparency International ranked Bangladesh
at one hundred and fifty first out of one hundred
and eighty countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index last year.
(08:43):
Indonesia stood at ninety ninth place, while Sri Lanka and
Nepal were both ranked beyond that and Karrishma says the
government's inability to deal with these issues effectively, along with
their struggling economies, have made many gen zs feel hopeless
about their future.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Sure now, if you're a gen Z individual, you know
you're sort of looking around you and thinking, and this
is not going to be better than what my parents did.
I'm not going to own a home, I'm not going
to be able to secure work. In parts of the
Western world and developed world, you're looking at issues around
artificial intelligence, taking away that first bottom rung of graduate
(09:21):
level entry jobs. I look at these countries and not
just them, but other places in Asia because the sort
of traditional manufacturing jobs that would have swallowed up these
young people in the past, like making clothes and making furniture, etc.
Phones Right, all of those jobs have gone somewhere else,
and they're chasing the bottom of the pyramid. You want
(09:43):
things to be cheaper. Now in a world with President
Donald Trump's tariffs, people aren't going to be buying as
many things either, So the whole consumption economy becomes a
less viable place to work in.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Kirshma says. Even though these countries are all dealing with
very distinct issues and instances, there's one thing in common.
These young people are asking.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
For agency, the right to have a say in how
their country is run. I think it's really hard to
engage with your government as a young person in Asia. Again,
just to go back to the Indonesian example, because we've
seen a lot of protests there recently. In the midst
of that, government officials sort of dismiss those And when
(10:26):
you take that sense of agency away from young people,
you feel powerless, you feel hopeless. So what do you do?
Look back to the Arab Spring, what do you do?
You get out onto the street, you burn things down,
and you try and get people's attention that way, and
that's really dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Young people across Asia are demanding change. What comes next
after they unrest and violence? That's after the break in
(11:11):
Nepal and Indonesia, the streets are showing signs of things
slowly getting back to normal Bloomberg opinions. Karishma Veswani says
what happens next is vital as countries figure out the
way forward. One worry is that the aftermath could mirror
what happened with the Arab Spring around twenty ten, a
series of protests by young people that shook Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya,
(11:35):
and Syria. Demonstrators called for democracy then but were met
with violence from their country's security forces. Are we setting
it up for another Arab Spring here?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I hope not. In an Asian spring, I really hope not.
I think there was some sort of successes in the
Arab spring, but by and Lodge you've seen authoritarianism creep
back in. And my worry is that this plays straight
into the authoritarian's playbook. Right, you have young people who
are causing havoc across the region, and it's the ripe
(12:08):
opportune time for a strong man to come in and say, hey,
we need to clamp down on this. These young people
are plusing too much trouble. And then you have a
situation where precisely the things that these young people don't
want happens, and I think that would be really tragic.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So for a lasting political change, what do you think
should happen following these protests.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Young people representing and being able to be represented at
every level of the political process. I think it's really essential.
You need protests to move off the streets, and you
need to have them turn into policy, and you need
to while you're demonstrating, think about what's the plan the
(12:54):
day after. Right, Like a lot of this obviously it's
not been that well thought out. For instance, young people
were just really angry and they wanted immediate action, but
what happens the day after and the kinds of things
I would like to see or I think would be
useful would be to think about independent watchdogs in the
(13:14):
sort of rebuilding phase, right, look at the kinds of
people that you want in the judiciary when you're looking
at getting rid of corruption, because those are the people
that would adjudicate over these kinds of cases. The tone
and tenor of your public servant, Like, how do you
ensure that the people who are being elected or even
offering themselves up for election are of the caliber that
(13:38):
you want and not just characters from the old god
or connected to cronyism. And that means really looking carefully
at the election process. How do you ensure that there's
that kind of integrity and independence in the electoral process?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Now, the Arab spring began in Tunisia and then spuild
across for neighboring countries. Is there a possibility this unrest
among young people here in Asia is growing? Is there
potential for more instability in other countries as well? Well?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
We certainly have the recipe or the ingredients, rather, I
should say, because you do have very large numbers of
young people in places like India Pakistan, you have further
afield issues around corruption and governance as well and high
unemployment rates. And I do think neighbors of these countries
(14:34):
are watching very closely what kind of spillover effect there is,
what kinds of discussions are taking place on social media,
because that's really hard to control. And I think that
instability will worry a lot of policy makers and make
them quite mindful of the possibility of that happening in
(14:56):
their own countries. Have I seen that happen yet or
any indication of that, not just as yet, but as
Nepal and Indonesia have shown, it's just one thing that
lights that match.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, then you've got a forced fire, Yeah, raging out
of control. Are there lessons that current governments in Indonesia
and Nepal could look to as they move forward? Is
there light you think on the horizon?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So I think Bangladesh is a really good case study
for this. Right, you have an INTERN leader Muhammed Units,
widely respected Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he's talked about
publicly the engagement and involvement of young people in politics.
He is courting them, he is engaging with them and
trying to get them to think about political parties and
(15:42):
governance structures, and I think that's really sensible, and I
think that's wise. And you have elections coming up, they're
expected next year at some point A lot rests on
that on how they go and for Bangladesh to turn
into a sort of functioning democracy with these young people
in Chile at least some of them, And I think
it can't just be young people. You need to also
(16:04):
sort of have multi generational consensus and so co opting
different groups, but bringing them together with young people at
the heart of that in terms of a sort of
viable political party. I think that would be a very
good move in Bangladesh, and I'm watching that quite closely
to see if it can be the template for other
(16:24):
places around the region. You know, I'm an eternal optimist.
I believe in the power of young people. They are
the ones who have consistently brought change, not just in
Asia but around the world. And it's their energy and
their dynamism that can change political structures and the way
(16:45):
that countries are run. But if that energy is not
channeled into something hopeful and optimistic, then it is wasted,
and worse, it can backfire. Actually, you end up achieving
the opposite of what these young people want.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
wanh to get more from The Big Take and unlimited
access to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at
Bloomberg dot com slash podcast Offer. If you liked the episode,
make sure to subscribe and review The Big Take Asia
wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find
the show. Thanks for listening, See you next time.
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