Taiwan Workshop leads to the formation of CALD Youth

The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) marked another milestone in its history with the creation of CALD Youth in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  Delegates to a youth workshop which took place from 17 to 21 August 2010 unanimously agreed that there was a need for them to organize in order to increase their influence, not only in their mother parties and CALD, but also in national, regional and international affairs.  For the delegates then, the formation of CALD Youth was an important step in promoting youth participation and empowerment in Asia and the rest of the world.

CALD Youth would serve as the youth arm of CALD, with tight organizational set-up and clear political orientation.  It is composed of youth wings/departments/desks of CALD member and observer parties namely: DP (Thailand); DPP (Taiwan); LP (Philippines); PGRM (Malaysia); SDP (Singapore); LPSL (Sri Lanka); NCUB (Burma); SRP (Cambodia); PDIP (Indonesia); DPJ (Japan); DPHK (Hong Kong); and PKB (Indonesia). The founding members also decided to adopt the CALD model in terms of structure and processes, and chose as chair Ms. Selyna Peiris from the Association of Young Liberals of Sri Lanka, the youth wing of LPSL  (LPSL is also currently the chair party of CALD).  When asked about her assumption of the post, Ms. Peiris quipped, “I am very honored to be chosen as founding chair of CALD Youth.  It is a huge responsibility, but it is comforting to know that my fellow delegates are really committed into making this work.”

While the creation of the CALD Youth was the highlight of the recent CALD event in Taiwan, the workshop sessions also turned out to be very productive and enriching as well.  With the theme “The Role of Youth Wings in Political Parties”, the workshop commenced with an opening conference where prominent personalities from CALD, DPP, and FNF gave their welcome remarks and messages of solidarity.  In his welcome remarks and presentation, Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, Member of Parliament from Sri Lanka and CALD Chair, emphasized the need to develop a “collective youth voice in politics.”  Towards this end, Dr. Wijesinha pointed out that the youth could be guided by the “3Rs” – radicalism, reform and renewal.  He ended his presentation with a discussion of the need to strike a balance between maintaining structural links with the mother party and adopting a critical stance vis-�-vis the mother party when the situation calls for it.

Ms. Bikhim Hsiao, DPP Director of International Affairs and former CALD Secretary General, started her speech with a backgrounder on the current political standing of DPP.  She pointed out that the DPP has always been associated with the youth, and that a decade ago, DPP campaigned under the slogan “Taiwan: A Young Country with Energetic Government.”  Their victory in that election confirmed that the youth was indeed a powerful electoral bloc in Taiwanese politics.  The youth’s importance, Ms. Hsiao added, extends to governance. She said “It is a challenge to govern and to make a difference – and the youth always plays a pivotal role in the process.”

Ms. Maysing Yang, a DPP stalwart and CALD Founding Member, shared her recollection of CALD’s beginnings.  She noted that during that time, most of CALD member parties were poor and out of power. Almost two decades after, the situation changed.  She said that it was indeed very fulfilling to witness CALD grew to what it is today – a force that shatters the walls of authoritarianism so Asian people can see clearly the rewards of liberalism and democracy.

The opening conference was also graced by the presence of Dr. Sebastian Braun, who welcomed the participants on behalf of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.  He highlighted the importance of the workshop not only in strengthening youth wings, but also in consolidating and preserving democracy in the region.  Mr. Alex Huang, DPP Director of the Youth Department, also gave a presentation on the organization and strategies of his department, particularly the means which help the DPP youth to connect with other young people.  He highlighted, for example, the importance of social networking sites, as well as their use of moving campaign stage (trucks which serves as a stage and storage for campaign bicycles).  These, according to him, played a very important role in rallying youth support for the party in the upcoming November 2010 city elections.

In the afternoon of the first working day, the workshop was formally opened by the facilitators, Ms. Huai-hui Hsieh, DPP Deputy Director for International Affairs, and Ms. Mardi Mapa-Suplido, Executive Director of Youth Aid – Philippines. After the presentation of workshop objectives and framework by Ms. Mapa-Suplido, representatives from each party presented basic information about their youth wings/departments/desks. This was followed by sessions on enhancing the role of the youth in-between and during elections.  These sessions began with a sharing of some participants about their own experience in the party, which served as a take-off point for the succeeding working groups.

The next two sessions looked at the opportunities and constraints presented by global and regional contexts, and how the youth could respond to them.  A number of issues came out, such as organizational weakness, role of technology and importance of networking.  In his presentation, for example, Mr. Srd Kisevic of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) said that international youth events should be encouraged, since they not only provide venues for pooling of resources, but also for building of relationships.   Taking these into account, the next session looked into the necessity of building a CALD youth arm, as well as its nature, purpose, structure and resource needs. In the closing session, Ms. Mapa-Suplido synthesized the results of the workshop by relating the story of the “stone soup.”  She said that, “Synergy is when two or more people work together to create a better solution than either could do alone.  May the CALD Youth be an epitome of synergy in action.”  The workshop ended with the delegates writing their thoughts about the workshop on a piece of a puzzle, which they put together to show the workshop logo.

The workshop, however, was not all about serious work.  True to form, the youth delegates spent time bonding together during dinners, shopping sprees and videoke sessions.  For the welcome dinner, the delegates were treated to a sumptuous Thai feast in a restaurant by the river.  The following day, they got a taste of local flavor in Hu-Zai-Guei Taiwanese Cuisine, a very popular restaurant among the locals of Kaohsiung. On their last night in the city, a number of participants sang their heart out in a KTV session with the members of the workshop secretariat.

Without a doubt, the youth really knows how to mix business with pleasure.  In this area, at least, the older generation has a lot to learn from the youth.

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This post was written by CALD