The Gen Z movement has unleashed a new urge for activism. A vacuum has also been created by the fall of established political leaders and parties that were discredited and chased out. Many people are responding to this call for activism and rushing to fill the political vacuum. They are considering active political roles: Starting new political parties, joining existing ones or announcing themselves as independents without party affiliation.

Seventeen new parties, most of them with Gen Z leaders, have already applied for recognition with the Election Commission. Many more are expected as the election draws closer. A new set of machinations has already begun. Parties are seeking to merge, induct new faces or co-opt Gen Z leaders.

Nepal’s constitution provides all Nepalis the right to become politicians and contest elections. For many, the decision to engage in politics represents an individual choice, driven by deeply personal experiences and motivations. If politics is your deeply personal calling, no one and nothing—especially not this article—should come between you and your destiny.

But many others, particularly Gen Z members, recognise the significance of this moment and want to engage and contribute meaningfully to nation-building. They must. Joining politics may not be the best way to make that contribution.

I urge Gen Z to resist the political itch and avoid the lure of becoming an accidental politician. You will be far more effective and impactful if you remain as civil society changemakers.

Cleaning the toxic political pond

Throwing a new fish into a polluted, toxic pond will not multiply them into many new healthy colonies of fish. Instead, the fish will all die. Nepal’s current political environment is like that toxic pond. The fish are like the politicians. The fish can’t clean the pond—they only swim and live in it. Politicians can’t clean the corrupt political system—they can only play in it.

The power to clean our corrupt political system lies not with politicians but elsewhere, in the hands of civil society. This is where Gen Z can and should sustain the intensity and meaning of their movement, not as political leaders or parties but as engaged civil society.

In an article for The Annapurna Express on October 14, 2020, I called for ‘changing Nepal, without leaders’. Even back then, it was clear, “Leadership has failed to provide solutions. Instead, there is disillusionment, discontent, despair, and conflict.”

Five years after that article, the Gen Z movement, without any leader, illustrated, as I wrote then, “We don’t need to become the president, or prime minister, or someone with formal authority to change the system. We can produce lasting change if we are the system.”

Gen Z leaders shouldn’t risk the purity of their movement and the opportunity to translate this moment into lasting change by becoming politicians. They must remain true to what they were: Ordinary citizens banding together as civil society activists to drive change.

People, not politicians, must succeed

Writing for The Kathmandu Post earlier this year, on June 6, 2025, I pondered on why it was ‘better to choose civil society activism over politics’. I drew from the examples of Rabindra Mishra and Swarnim Waglé, “two of Nepal’s best and prospective high-impact changemakers [that] ended up as no more than intellectual hitmen for political parties?” (How Mishra and Waglé lost their way). Gen Z must draw their lessons from the choices that prospective changemakers, such as Mishra and Waglé, have made.

We can’t keep losing our best minds and prospects to the lure of politics—that would be the worst kind of brain drain. Birendra Bahadur Basnet, executive chairperson of Buddha Air, for example, has partnered with Dinesh Prasai, professor of political sociology, and others to establish a new party called the Gatishil Loktantrik Party. No doubt, Basnet will make a fine political leader, even a prime minister, should he get there.

But what would be better for Nepal and Nepalis? Basnet, as a fine political leader, or the Executive Chairperson of Buddha Air, which flies millions of Nepalis to many destinations around the world. For millions of Nepalis, particularly those going abroad to work, there would be something reassuring to get to their foreign countries of work in the comfort of a home airline. Not to mention the jobs, income and economic growth that a global Buddha Air could generate for Nepalis.

Many people could be great political leaders. But no one is more opportune than Basnet to grow Buddha Air into a global airline. For Nepal and the shareholders of Buddha Air, the opportunity cost of Basnet in politics is high.

The future that Gen Z seeks cannot be secured if the best and brightest minds jump into politics only to swim in the polluted and toxic pond. The country can only progress if its people, particularly Gen Z, go on to build happy and healthy lives and families, and successful careers in the fields of their choice. As productive members of society, they will be able to participate in civil society, exerting pressure on their political leaders to stay on the right course.

It is also important to recognise that the answer to Nepal’s challenges does not lie in one single person or leader. Rather, progress relies on letting many people implement the solutions and ideas that are distributed across them.

Progress occurs when we assemble the full range of ideas and solutions that different people are implementing. We make progress when irreverent rap artists push the boundaries of music creativity, not when they become rogue mayors. We make progress when journalists, writers and public intellectuals open new vistas with truth, ideas, research and narratives, not when they turn political ideologues and opportunists.

Gen Z must weigh these lessons and the history of political leadership as they chart their future. They must assess not just where political leadership failed or succeeded, but also whether those leaders would have been more impactful changemakers if they participated not as political leaders but as civil society.

Rejecting the political itch doesn’t mean avoiding social activism. There are many avenues to engage. From grassroots-level community engagement to national civil society pressure groups, there are a wide variety of different methods to suit different capabilities and abilities. From technical to social or economic, there are organised and informal methods to organise, participate and influence developments within the government and the political system.

The unique feature of the Gen Z movement was its novelty. The movement had no leader. It used digital platforms to engage and organise. The movement united behind frustration and anger against corruption instead of an ideology. After adopting such radically different methods for organising collective action and change, it would be a shame if Gen Z reverted to the same old model of political leadership, just with new faces.

This is a time for new bold beginnings. Recognising that civil society activism, rather than political leadership, can drive big change is one such idea. After all, you just proved it.