The Korea Times
South Asia has had three youth-led revolts and three changes of government — and still has three countries with problems that haven’t changed a bit. In February, Bangladesh’s electorate gave Tarique Rahman, exiled in London for 17 years, a sweeping mandate; and in early March Nepalis voted overwhelmingly for Balen Shah, previously a rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, the former Marxist-Leninist Anura Dissanayake is just 18 months into his tenure and is already facing multiple crises, including a crippling shortage of fuel that has force his government to institute a four-day work week. All took power after mass protests forced out their predecessors, promising a clean break from the old elite’s sloth, incompetence and corruption. And yet, as Sri Lanka is discovering and the others might, too, rupture is not replacement. Regime change is easier than transforming states; and, in the subcontinent, the ancien régime never really leaves. Dissanayake’s appeal lay as a clean break from the traditional politicians Sri Lankans had targeted in what they call the Ar
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