Seeing youths' growing disinterest in traditional politics, French Ambassador in Dhaka Marie Masdupuy has encouraged them to practice democracy at the early age by choosing school and university representatives, and later casting their votes on election day.
She also urged them to avoid extreme thinking, study the history of their own country and that of the rest of the world.
The ambassador suggested all think about how to reconnect young people with traditional politics “as we can only see the growing disinterest of youth into casting their ballot in regular elections.”
She was giving examples of her own country, France, and her own experience as a member of a political family while speaking at a student dialogue session she hosted at the chancery.
The event was an initiative of HerNet Foundation’s “Bangladesh Decides: The Youth Speaks” with the support of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, and the EU Delegation.
Saudi Arabia Ambassador Essa bin Yousef Al Duhailan, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh Prof Imran Rahman, President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce Jashim Uddin, Unicef country director in Bangladesh Sheldon Yet, Chairman of Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited Shahjahan Mahmood, Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan, Managing Director of Microsoft Yousup Faruqu, and President of Zonta International Dilruba Ahmed were also present as guests, among others.
The students in their dialogue, moderated by Alisha Pradhan, the founder of HerNet Group, pointed out the need for their inclusion in the policy-making process.
The ambassador also highlighted the need for young people’s participation in decision-making but lamented that she observed that they consider abstention as an alternative way of contributing to democracy.
“This is, in my view, a mistake,” she said.
“If one stays out, voluntarily, of public debates, there is a risk that, once a decision is taken, you have no other choice than getting to radical violent and extremist practices to try to revert this decision. But it’s too late. And violence leads nowhere.
“One vote not cast means one person is self-excluded from giving a voice and a sacrificed chance of supporting the development of your country,” she said.
“It is a fact that youth everywhere feel underrepresented, massively don’t cast their votes in any ballots and less and less adhere to political parties. This entails the risk that their opinions on various issues will indeed not be taken into consideration in the programmes of the political parties,” the ambassador said.
“We all know that being young leads you to think in more passionate terms than when you became settled, job, family to take care of etc. So, is it not a problem for political parties not to take your so-called anti-mainstream views into consideration since you are not participating in the debates the adults are having?
“I don’t think so. Being challenged is always a good thing. Remember our causes, ideals and goals in the 1960’s and 1970’s: for example, we wanted more rights for women and a reunited European family. We achieved the latter and saw considerable progress on gender equality.
“What I want to say here is that not only everybody has a voice which deserves to be heard, but the youth has a special responsibility in challenging the established people by questioning them about what they identified as main issues for the future, their future,” she said, adding that it is obvious today with climate change issues.
“When I was young, as I said, we were passionate about going over the East-West cold confrontation, and France was championing a third-way approach. And we were demanding more concrete progress for women's rights to be better achieved.
“And most of our political parties acknowledged those issues, but in a tepid way. Today, there are new issues at stake and new approaches to them, new methods of civic empowerment of the youth,” Marie Masdupuy said.
“Indeed, we should think about how to reconnect young people with traditional politics, as we can only see the growing disinterest of youth into casting their ballot in regular elections.
“At the same time, we observe a growing engagement of youth in non-conventional forms of public action. Youth are quite prominent in social protest movements, be it the Me Too movement, the yellow jacket protests in France, or climate demonstrations.
“But still, they will feel being excluded from decision-making circuits and under-represented in elected bodies
“So, more and more, they consider abstention as an alternative way of contributing to democracy. They seem disillusioned,” she said, calling this a mistake.
“It also gives an opportunity to the others to double down on the not-so-good idea as the best idea.
"The question is, why would you do that? Would you let anyone dictate what color your house should be painted? or how you live? by giving them a unanimous way of deciding your fate? Or will you take part in defining your own fate and future?
“Such a behaviour of abstention and disengagement from traditional politics is nowadays de facto facilitated by social media. Young people are the main age group active on social media,” she said.
“Discussions are heated but not necessarily enlightened and held in good faith. Information manipulation by various entities is having a distorting effect on those discussions.
“I am not saying that we should stay far away from the narratives brought about by social media, but rather that we should be educated about them from an early age. What is at stake is indeed how to distinguish truth from lies,” she said.
“Even though France, my country, has been a leading lighthouse of revolution, it also has been an outstanding breeding ground for many philosophers, political scientists, writers, and artists promoting moderation and tolerance in every important issue of life.
“So, don’t wait: practice democracy in your early ages by choosing your school and university representatives; avoid extreme thinking, study history, your own and that of the rest of the world.
“This will allow you to know better what are the best choices for your own village, town or country. And beware of the massive disinformation campaigns being waged on social networks,” the ambassador said.
She admired youths of Bangladesh for climate action.
“We should take them as an example: they act decisively at the local level, helping people to concretely adapt to the impacts of climate change in an efficient way. You might say they are far from grassroots politics. I don’t think this is true. They are actually pioneering the future of politics: global problems, local solutions. Traditional politicians started to listen to them, and this will grow in the short- to medium-term future, no doubt about this.”