Current situation of Gen-z movement
Context for the first Gen-z protest
The protests on 8th September were organized by different groups with similar demands. They wanted investigation of politician's financial matters might be related to the nepo baby trend. That gave rise to 'Anti-corruption' part of the protest which was organized by a NGO (maybe a real NGO, do not feel that shady for now) called Hami Nepal.
The government’s unilateral ban on all social media with no transparent process, objective and reason resulted in the youth’s (+12000) according to Nepal police. If not for there may not have been a blip in the radar (protesting was turning into a national pastime since nothing changes).
Why is it called the Gen-Z movement?
There was another Instagram page that promoted the anti-corruption protest called gen.znepal and that is where the name of the movement came from. I think the name (of the page) was inspired by a similar (color) revolution in surrounding countries.
Why I think this is not a color revolution
- Nothing was planned on what to do after the government collapses.
- Former government was influenced more by US and India (Do not think china cares much, even now)
- There is currently a targeted attempt from Indian media to smear the movement as Pro-monarchy. related
- Media has been weird about the movement (could be lack of news sources)
- Government has been repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot and this time it did not survive
- Representative (Sushila Karki) has been elected democratically (for what can be achieved in a day)
- Movement is very wary of foreign influence instead of depending on their ‘expert opinions’
- There is no formal leadership yet but everyone agrees with the current person since he has shown himself to be capable. (some shady stuff was spread about him by an Indian fact-checker but even i do not think it has to do with current situation)
Centralization of the leadership
- the organizing group had been overwhelmed by the size of the movement to have any sort of control over it.
- The movement adopted the name 'Gen z' since that was the targeted demographic. A lot of smaller groups were formed during and immediately after the protest. It has now been centralized into one unified front (Gen-Z Nepal).
- The need for a unified front was forced upon the divided group by the army since different groups were approaching the Nepal Army to present their demand, as the movement’s representative. The Army was confused on what do to and asked the them to sort between themselves first.
- The movement moved into Discord due to the existing server of 'gen.znepal' instagram page and ‘Hamro Nepal’ (which is called ‘Youth Against Corruption' for CIA reasons) . Also it was apparently a convenient place to talk.
How was our representative chosen (PM of the interim government) + images
- The day after the government collapse, the Army asked for our official representative to the government.
- The discussion took place in the discord server, which has grown to 130,000 members then (currently +150,000) . There were 7-10k members in the live voice-chat where different potential candidates were put forward and considered. Potential candidates were approached for their view and those that accepted to take the role were polled.
- Many constitutional experts, Lawyers and other professionals were called in to give their opinions. Nepali people from all over the world came together to share their perspective.
- The video call were also shared in tiktok, youtube, facebook with tens of thousands of people tuning it. (Thats how i found out about discord server)
- After the Gen-Z group selected their representative (Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki), the rest of the country first scolded them for using discord of all places but then took their view very seriously. There was further talk about the chosen representative Sushila Karki’s action, position, affiliation and gave their approval and criticism. In the end she was selected to be the formal representative.
- The reason for her such mass approval was due to her background in law (so will not get tangled in legal loopholes) , independence from political parties (Maoist and NC tried to remove her due to her decision on some high profile corruption charges), and her experience as the (first female) Chief Justice of Nepal. The final push came from the favored candidate "Balen Shah" declined our invitation and expressed his support for Sushila Kark.
Gen-Z movement Demand
Immediate Demand
- Interim government under Sushila Karki (completed)
- Dissolution of current parliament (completed)
- Conducting next election - within 6/12 month
Further plan
- focus on structural change instead of just reform ( maybe dismantling parliamentary system but nothing concrete has been decided upon)
- forming a grass-root structure in the entire country (forming up local groups) for continuing pressure on the government (lesson from Bangladesh), social work, reconstruction and fighting the old parties’ influence. For that a committee is being formed in all levels since just being online is not enough.
Tldr; Conducting the next election is the responsibility of the youth now (dissolving the parliament and forming interim government being the first step), and communist groups should be preparing for the election now.
Few questions to Hexbear
- What makes you feel suspicious about the movement?
- What are the weak point of the movement and its structure?
- General strategy going forward?
- Role of communist group in this situation?
Also do you know what caused the protest?