Government officials’ houses burnt down, the One Piece Jolly Roger flag, and an election for Prime Minister via Discord. While this may sound like a list of random topics and events, they are all related to one country: Nepal. What started as a protest to the government’s shutdown of social media websites due to noncompliance with new regulations spiraled into what some might call a revolution. Of course, there is more to the story than this.
Nepal is a country located in the Himalayas right in between China and India. Nepal was ruled by a monarchy from the mid 1700s until 2008. An armed insurrection by the Communist Party of Nepal began in the mid ‘90s with the goal of bringing down the monarchy. Eventually, peace was reached in 2006, and the monarchy was abolished in 2008. Nepal today is a multiparty democracy with the communist party splitting into different factions and the progressive Congress party also being relevant. Nepal still remains to this day a very poor country with around one in five Nepalese people living in poverty.
Corruption is also rampant, with civil service jobs usually being given to the relatives of politicians. This leads further to a lack of jobs for young people, causing a migration of the younger generation out of the country.
I explain all of this to give background to the aforementioned protests. The shutdown of social media websites on Sept. 4th, which many young Nepali citizens use, was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. By the 8th, large protests had gathered in the capital of Kathmandu but had no formal leadership. Eventually, rocks were thrown at police, who in turn fired live ammunition killing 19 people.
The next day, the prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, resigned, and the shutdown of social media was lifted. Still, the protests continued, demanding fresh elections. Houses of Government ministers were burned down, and some protestors began talks of restoring the monarchy. Another group called the Safal Workers’ Street Committee, an independent communist organization, called for the formation of workers councils and the abolishment of parliament. The day after that in a Discord server, where anybody could join even outside of Nepal, elected a new interim prime minister. The new prime minister, Sushila Karki, was a former supreme court justice known for being incorruptible. By the 13th, the protests were over, and peace was largely brought back to the country.
In five days, a government was toppled, and a prime minister was appointed by a server of 100,000 people. In an increasingly digital world, is this how protests and movements will be conducted? Could this be replicated in a western, more developed country like the U.S., or are the conditions not dire enough for such an event to occur?
Young people in the west are increasingly fed up with the status quo. Statistically, many of us will never actually own a home and will be saddled with college debt for the rest of our lives. Many still will not be able to retire at a reasonable age. It all seems so hopeless for a lot of people. Some people seem to turn to radical alternatives as the only hope for salvation. Most want change, but few can agree on what should change. Still, things continue to get worse. So, the question is, will D.C. go the same way as Kathmandu?