I. MESSAGES
Youth Power Strengthens and Spreads Bulgan Bayasgalant, CALD Youth Chairperson
2016 HAS not been the greatest year for liberals around the world, but at CALD Youth we progressed further on our commitment of empowering youth and promoting democracy and liberalism in the region. First of all, CALD Youth joined all CALD events—from Singapore in March to Thailand in November—with the CALD network’s senior political figures sharing the youth’s perspective and serving as a bridge among generations. From these meetings, we reassured ourselves that while the youth are referred to as apprentices and often described as inexperienced, we are also viewed as the hope and the new dawn by our seniors. Often referred to as the “privileged generation”, we are also the generation that has mastered social media, as well as the new media. Indeed, as the importance of social media and communication increases, we had thought it very timely to jointly organize with the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) a workshop with the theme “Climate Change and Social Media” in August in Bali, where all our member parties participated. We also strengthened our international presence by attending the General Assembly of IFLRY in Istanbul, Turkey in April, and by making the youth’s voice heard
at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium in June. And with the new CALD chairperson, Khun Abhisit Vejjajiva, unfolding his action plan during the CALD chair party handover in Bangkok in November, we at CALD Youth have taken to supporting the new plan. We will thus be starting the “report back” system for our upcoming events to ensure that our events and training endeavours are reaching down to the grassroots in member parties. We also will be expanding CALD Youth’s presence by engaging more with other non-member youth and civil-society organizations in Asia and of course will be continuing our work of inspiring local youth through meetings-atlarge. We aim to redouble our efforts in 2017. We plan to launch a Social Media Campaign for CALD Youth; we are also looking to grow as an organization by establishing connections with like-minded organizations and individuals. While we remain committed to our core goals of empowering youth and spreading liberalism and its values, we will start many other interesting initiatives that should be very timely for 2017! Thanks for all your support and cooperation through the years.
CALD 2016
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