By AMINU JAHUN
The title for this piece is borrowed from Ian Fleming’s fifth James Bond series “From Russia With Love”. Whereas Fleming explores post- Second World War relations between the former Soviet Union, an emergent global power and the declining BrItish Empire in his book, this piece briefly discusses the Generation Z-led protests akin to revolutions in three South Asian nations ( Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal) and their probable impact on governance in other democracies.
What is this revolutionary Generation? Usually shortened to Gen Z and embedded between the Millenial and Alpha generations, members of this generation are known as Gen Zers or Zoomers, and the iGeneration due to their high ipod, iphone and ipad cultural orientation. Mostly born between 1997 and 2012, the Zoomers are digital natives, the first generation which never experienced life without digital_internet connectivity.
In 2022 in Sri Lanka, and two years later in Bangladesh, and in September 2025 in Nepal, the Zoomers have been making unexpected revolutionary waves.
By March 2022, Sri Lanka was at its lowest economic ebb, defaulted in its debt obligations, with attendant long fuel and cooking gas queues, prolonged blackouts, and an intolerable inflation rate- life became unbearable for many Sri Lankans. It was within that economically toxic context, that the Aragalaya( Struggle) movement was born. Sri Lankan youths set up protest centres opposite the Presidential villa. When the protests escalated, President Gotabaya Rajapaska ran away.
Two years later, a discriminatory job quota policy in Bangladesh sparked off students riots. Manhandling the protests with highhandedness, and telecommunications withdrawal escalated the crisis, which assumed a political character, with the protesters insisting for an end to Prime Minister Sheilk Hasina’s reign.
And on September 8, 2025, a Gen Zers protest commenced after the Nepali government banned some social media platforms. Government’s response to the protests escalated the tensions, with many protesters killed and hundreds wounded, the parliament, political partes and some media offices were torched. Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli had to resign.
The Gen Zers of the World Wide Web age are highly impatient with infringements on their digital Internet lives and are ever-ready to defend this freedom. And when pushed to the wall, they could cross the digital internet turf to become politically daring and assertive, shaking one democratic despotism after the other. They deploy their intimidating demographics, technological savvy and digital and social media expertise to fight for freedom, inclusive governance, accountability and zero tolerance for corruption in public life.
The upheavals in the three nations began as spontaneous youths reactions to multi-sided problems ignited by unjust policies, and within the course of the struggles, they assumed a revolutionary character.
In a fiery speech gone viral in social media outlets, a Nepali student leader, Abishkar Raut, marked the transformation of the protest from its immediate cause– ban of social media platforms– to the political arena. A few sentences of the speech are illustrative. He roared that: “Today I stand here with a dream of building a new Nepal. The fire of hope and passion burns within me, but my heart is heavy, because this dream seems to be slipping away”. He further declared: “If we do not raise our voices, who will? We are the fire that will burn away the darkness. We are the storm that will sweep away the injustices”. From the tone of the speech, Nepali youths must have been pushed beyond their tolerance threshold by a regime headed by a gerontocratic leader.
If besides the generations which fought for independence from colonial rule in Africa, Asia, Latin America, etc, which internalised Fanon’s dictum of discovering their mission and fulfilling it, the South Asian Zoomers have also internalised Fanon, because out of relative obscurity, they are discovering their mission, and are set to most likely fulfill it.
What is the message from the South Asian Zoomers to other Asian, African, Latin American democracies ? There is no better apt message than that delivered by the Nepali student leader. And one may add that democracies would flourish better without burdening future generations with unnecessary debts, inclusive in governance, transparent zero tolerance for corruption, less nepotism, without trampling on the rights of the impatient generations with heavy demographics, respecting their rights of peaceful protests, etc.
Whether influenced by Gen Zencers protests elsewhere or not, last year Kenyan youths staged a #ENDTHE FINANCE BILL PROTEST, similar to the Bangladeshi Zoomers job quota and Nepali Zencers social media ban and Nepokid protests.
Since the South Asian youths have pandered to Fanon’s dictum, they could be role models to Zoomers elsewhere. But vulnerable democracies could ill-afford confrontations with the largest demographic groups.
Therefore, despite the unpalatabilty of the South Asian protests, they are coded messages for presidents and prime ministers elsewhere to sit up and avoid similar protests through good governance. The fear and respect for the socio-economic and other rights of Zoomers constitute political wisdom. And for Zoomers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, etc, they should peacefully protect their rights and deploy their demographic strength within existing democratic channels to bring the change they crave for.
•Jahun, a public affairs analyst wrote from Dutse, the Jigawa State Capital
The post From South Asia with love appeared first on Vanguard News.
