Women and Youth Leaders Convene in Singapore

“Securing the next generation of political Leaders”

This has been the tagline of the recently concluded CALD Transformative Academy for Developing Empowered Leadership (CTADEL) held in Singapore on 1-6 August 2024.  The training assembled around 30 women and youth leaders across the Asian region. In five days, they had the privilege of learning from seasoned facilitators and resource persons from Asia, Africa and Europe.

CALD Chairperson and Cambodian Senator Mardi Seng, in his opening remarks, said that the training program was meant to equip the participants with the knowledge and skills “to act like “fortresses” that defend our freedom and democracy against illiberal, ultranationalist and authoritarian forces which remain to be predominant in many parts of the world today, including Asia.”

CTADEL is a product of CALD’s decades-long experience conducting workshops for its women and youth wings – the CALD Women’s Caucus and CALD Youth.  Key learnings from these previous workshops were synthesized to come up with a comprehensive and incisive training program for emerging political leaders.

“We are pleased to welcome you all in Singapore, and we are happy you could join us despite the political and logistical constraints of holding an event here”, said CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson Jaslyn Go. “…Having our international friends here is so important. You get to see that beneath Singapore’s shiny façade, there’s a bit more to the story.”

Keynote addresses were delivered by notable women leaders like former Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo, Liberal International President and Morocco’s former Environment Minister Hakima el Haite, and former Philippine Senator Leila de Lima (through video).

The program has 5 modules: I. Political Analysis of Asia; II. Foundations of Liberalism and Democracy; III. Strategic Communications; IV. Networking; and V. Women/Youth Leadership. Module 1 came in the form of panel discussion featuring academics Elvin Ong and Cherian George, and civil society activist Braema Mathi.  They discussed issues like the role of opposition parties, societal polarization, and gender divide in the region. Equipped with this knowledge, Asia Centre’s James Gomez facilitated the module’s working group session where these issues were contextualized as narratives of democracy.

Module II was spearheaded by CALD Chairperson Seng and Secretary General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Chee Soon Juan. They tackled the key principles of liberalism and democracy and how they are observed or practiced in the Asian region.  The discussion was enriched by the inputs of youth leaders from the International Federation of the Liberal Youth, Kai Pischke, and Junge Liberal of Germany, Calvin Nixon and Mats-Ole Maretze.

Emil Kirjas of Kirjas Global facilitated Module III on Strategic Communications. After discussing the changing face of the media and the profile of the electorate, he delved deeper on the key elements of strategic communication such as target audiences, messaging points, narrative construction, branding and public speaking.  These were then put into practice in group exercises with Singapore, Cambodia and CALD Youth serving as case studies.

Networking was the focus of Module IV which was ably facilitated by Rachel Palma Randle, CEO of Scottish Liberal Democrats and Martine van Schoor, international officer of The Netherlands’s D66.  They started with networking theories and the importance of knowing one’s personality type, and how they can be harnessed for crafting networking strategies.  Guided with this knowledge, the participants took part in a networking-in-action activity, where the participants were able to put their networking skills into practice.

Module 5 was on leadership, and in this module, the participants were divided into women and youth participants.  The women’s group were facilitated by Randle and van Schoor, while the youth group were put under Alexandra Charnock of Apollo Strategic Communications.  The women participants learned about feminist-transformative-generative leadership and reflected on their respective leadership journeys.  The youth participants, on the other hand, tackled digital issue advocacy, and were asked to come up with a specific digital advocacy campaign.

When asked about his assessment of the inaugural CTADEL, CALD Youth Chairperson Jeremiah Tomas said: “CTADEL is a step in the right direction. The fight for Liberalism and Democracy is a fight that can only be won together. It has been a fruitful & transformative experience as we are able to bring together different Leaders from the Regional Political Youth wings, to the Leaders of Women caucuses, Civil Society Organizations & other International partners who came together to discuss, share, and innovate how to champion democracy in their respective communities. We can say that we have succeeded in this first step in bringing like-minded individuals from all walks of life together for impact can only happen at the speed of relationships, and we hope that this event has been a reminder to everyone that we are not alone in this fight for Liberalism & Democracy.”

Outside the CTADEL program, the participants also had the opportunity to celebrate with SDP members and supporters the party’s 44^th founding anniversary. In his moving speech, SDP Secretary General Chee Soon Juan challenged the attendees to be politically involved – even if the circumstances are difficult. Speaking metaphorically, he said: “…ships are safer in the harbor. But that is not what ships are built for. In the time that I have served the party I have gone through much tumult and long dark periods. But I have not the slightest doubt in my mind that the indomitable spirit for freedom amongst us will spur this country to one day bring democracy to its shores.”

CTADEL was made possible with the support of the SDP, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, World Movement for Democracy, Westminster Foundation for Democracy and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.