Experts at Singapore conference warn of conflict-linked protest waves

With global conflict disrupting trade routes and Asian economies likely to experience significant shocks, experts at an international conference in Singapore expressed concern about the possibility of new waves of protest due to these pressures.

“While protests often capture the imagination of observers by bringing struggles from the periphery or margins to the centre of public life, they are frequently followed by a period of disillusionment,” a National University of Singapore think-tank, the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), said in a statement.

The statement followed a conference on South Asia: “Gen Z-Led Regime Changes Across South Asia”, which was held on March 23 and 24.

The conference’s main objective was to understand the drivers of the youth-led mass protests that emerged in several South Asian countries over the past few years, said the think-tank.

ISAS cited the conference speakers’ arguments that little changes (in the aftermath of the protests) and that the newly elected leaders represent merely a different type of elite.

Other speakers, however, viewed the moments of collective dissent more optimistically, seeing them as instances that reshape the role of the citizen, demonstrate popular agency, and reveal the limits of ruling elites by pushing through overdue governance reforms, said ISAS in a round-up of the conference.