Liberal Youth Come Together for Political Rights
2005-09-08

Nieke Kulsum of Indonesia's Garda BangsaYouth and Kwan Wing Yip of Hong Kong Democratic Party Youth Committee, are busy scribbling keywords into colored squares of papers. Beside them, their group mates are brainstorming. "Freedom of assembly," says one. "Right to vote, right to oppose, freedom to information," offers another. In other corners of the room, participants hailing from the Young Liberals and Democrats of Asia (YLDA) member organizations and observers from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) are similarly deep in debate or listening to somebody share a political experience from back home.

Hon. Bi-Khim Hsiao of DPP welcomes YLDA.

This was just one of the many scenes from the YLDA "Political Rights and Asian Youth seminar" which gave participants a comprehensive overview of political rights. After discussions and exercises, delegates drafted a liberal youth campaign. The Department of Youth Development of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hosted the event in Taipei City, Taiwan last August in cooperation with TFD and the National Youth Commission.

Discussion and group work were the liveliest portions of the workshop but everybody simmered down to pay attention to very noteworthy guests. Participants gained a deeper understanding of the past and current political scenario of their host country through dialogue with local speakers Dr. Yung-Ming Hsu and Dr. I-Chung Lai. Amnesty International's (A.I.) regional campaign director for Asia Pacific, Rob Godden, gave an engaging presentation on A.I's drive to reform laws which restricted political rights in Malaysia. He also talked about creative and attention-grabbing techniques the participants could use in their own future political rights campaign. Joining the Asian liberal youths was a counterpart from North America. Richard Diamond, Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) president and an International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) bureau member, shared political rights success stories, such as YLC's fight to legalize same-sex marriage.

Working groups discuss among themselves

After the workshop sessions, the energetic organizing team from the Department. of Youth Development showed the delegates around Taipei, where they were able to experience both old and new aspects of Taiwanese life. Participants found themselves watching a traditional puppet show, eating local delicacies and admiring oriental artifacts. They also experienced the vibrancy of contemporary youth culture in Taiwan by going to Taipei 101 (currently the tallest building in the world), the Shihlin night market, and a local club.

Literally wearing political rights on one's sleeve

Delegates left Taiwan with memories and many lessons learned. "I think we all came out of this experience with an understanding of the importance of constructive dialogue and a common understanding of the political situations of our respective countries", participant Russell Hsiao from TFD said. He added, "Empowered with the vigor of youth and the ability to innovate, we are equipped with the tools that are necessary to help shape the world,"

An YLDA-IFLRY working group will take the next step and further develop a joint liberal youth campaign for political rights that they will present in the IFLRY general assembly in November.

Click here to view the Workshop Casestudy.
Click here to view the Workshop Picture Gallery.

Garda Bangsa Garda Bangsa was formed in 1998 following the successful political reform spearheaded by students and other campus activists to depose the tyrannical regime of President Suharto. The organization was founded by Abdurram Wahid, a former adviser of President Suharto who resigned following an escalation in government corruption and political management by the administration. He championed "Responsible Openness" within the government system and proposed the establishment of a Reform Committee in order to mitigate poor governance within the administration. His calls were left unheeded and so he eventually withdrew support for the government and joined the efforts advocating for reform in the government. Read more...