Thousands of Nepalese Unite on Facebook to Pressure Leaders For Change

In 2008, a new parliament in Nepal was elected to install new social and political order after centuries of inequality that were a major cause of the Nepalese Civil War.

After three years, there is still no sign of change. Many Nepalese were angered and started a Facebook page to unite like-minded Nepalese to put pressure on the parliament.

People supporting this effort include “politicians, activists and the reigning Miss Nepal who gave voice to growing public anger with the lawmakers the country voted in three years ago in the first general election since the civil war,” according to AFP.

The Facebook page, with vanity url ‘Nepal Unites,’ has so far gathered over 4,000 people. A video was also uploaded on YouTube to garner support.

“With no chance of drafting a new constitution within the May 28, 2011 deadline, the Nepal government decided to extend the time limit by another year. Nepal’s lawmakers have failed to give the country its new constitution within the deadline. Please stand and raise your voice. Demand for a new constitution,” said YouTuber Shrestharicky, who uploaded the video.

Can Nepal do it?

It is important to note that out of 29 million people in Nepal, only 920,000 of them are on Facebook (3 percent of total population in Nepal). Egypt, on the other hand, has about 9 percent of the population on Facebook. It could suggest that Nepal might not be able to gather enough support on Facebook to repeat what happened in Egypt, at least from a Facebook statistics point of view.

Of course, other media like YouTube and Twitter could also be used to cause an uproar which we do not have enough statistics to do an analysis.

Nonetheless, Nepal’s Facebook effort did manage to capture the attention of media giants, including BBC which broadcasted the news below. We’ll continue to monitor the situation in Nepal.