After the ballot shortage in Korea's June 3 local elections, citizens led by people in their 20s and 30s have continued for a fourth day to hold rallies near the Jamsil ballot-counting center in Seoul demanding a rerun. In keeping distance from existing political parties, labor unions, and civic groups, the movement shares commonalities with recent Generation Z protests around the world.
On the 8th, according to a roundup of foreign media including the Financial Times (FT), young people in Kenya presented themselves during the 2024 anti-tax protest as a "spontaneous movement with no leaders, no parties, and no tribes." The large anti-government protest "Gen Z 212" in Morocco in Oct. last year operated on the anonymous messenger Discord. Discord, once mainly used by gamers to talk via voice and text, has recently become a space for political discussion and mobilization among the young. Gen Z in Nepal directly chose a candidate for head of the interim government through Discord debates and voting.
As Korea saw a legitimate demand for suffrage erupt, Gen Z in each country was triggered by different factors. Still, the common thread was anger once procedural fairness was undermined, though the mediums differed. In India, when medical school entrance exam questions were leaked, there were calls for the Minister of the Ministry of Education to resign; in Nepal, social media (SNS) blocking, corruption, and jobs were the issues; in Bangladesh, the civil service quota system led to protests.
On the 6th in India, young people took to the streets wearing cockroach masks. That day, thousands gathered at Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi and called for the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of the Ministry of Education. It was the first outdoor rally organized by the young political group Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), formed less than a month ago. The unusual party name came from Indian Chief Justice Surya Kant comparing jobless youth to cockroaches and parasites. It carried both a self-deprecating tone and a protest against the establishment. They began protesting after questions from the medical school entrance exam, taken by 2.2 million people nationwide last month, were leaked in advance.
In India, where about 60% of the 1.4 billion people are under 35, the urban youth unemployment rate in April was about 14%. Becoming a doctor is a representative path for upward mobility open only to a very small top tier of students in India as well. The leak of exam papers, combined with high youth unemployment, turned into rage that "the rules were broken from the starting line of a competition we prepared for with our lives on the line." At the protest on the 6th, some participants wearing cockroach masks shouted, "I am a cockroach," the Hindustan Times of India reported.
The person who organized this anger into a political force is Abhijit Deepke, known to be from India's lowest Dalit caste. Deepke handled communications and strategy in India's opposition before leaving to study in the United States, then returned in the wake of the protests to create CJP. CJP's Instagram followers number 22.7 million, far outstripping the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, 9.45 million) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Figures in the ruling party claim there are anti-India forces behind CJP. In response, Deepke cited public data to counter that about 95% of Instagram followers are users inside India. He told Reuters, "We are not a planned party but the voices of students angered by the government's conduct," adding, "This movement will spread nationwide going forward."
Gen Z's anger did not all lead to the same outcome. Bangladesh is cited as the case where Gen Z entered the establishment most deeply and successfully after protests. The Bangladeshi student movement that erupted last year in opposition to the civil service quota system ended Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule. Amid accusations over the bloody crackdown, Hasina fled overseas. Afterward, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took office as chief adviser of the interim government. Some of the student leaders who led the protests joined the interim government directly.
Gen Z in Nepal chose a different path. Instead of seizing power themselves, they directly selected a respected elder with high social standing from outside the established parties. After Prime Minister Oli, who had taken charge of state affairs following the protests, stepped down over responsibility for SNS blocking, corruption, and jobs, Nepal's Gen Z, after debates on Discord, backed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as their candidate for head of the interim government. Karki became interim prime minister, pledged to root out corruption, improve employment, and reform governance, and took charge of managing the general election. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace assessed the Nepal situation as one where "a youth force long ignored by established parties rapidly reshaped the political landscape."
Gen Z in Kenya took to the streets against a tax hike bill and extracted a promise from President William Ruto to withdraw the legislation. However, the anti-tax movement, lacking a focal point afterward, revealed its limits during Kenya's power realignment. Ruto politically isolated the protesters by negotiating with opposition elders. Alongside that, he paired a hard-line crackdown to block young people's entry into the establishment. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs described Kenya's Gen Z protests as "a new struggle over digital citizenship and constitutional order." At the same time, it added, "The remaining challenge is how a leaderless movement secures negotiating power within the system after forcing a policy reversal."
In Madagascar, when young people angered by water and power shortages, corruption, and poverty took to the streets, President Rajoelina left the country. As turmoil deepened during the power reshuffle, Col. Micael Randrianirina, a military commander, filled the vacuum. After that, as the military regime arrested Gen Z activists, concerns grew that the country could drift into another form of authoritarianism after a peaceful transfer of power.