Organized by the Initiatives of Change, the 19th session of the Asia Pacific Youth Conference was held at Sechu Zubza, Nagaland from December 7-13, 2012 under the theme ‘A Generation with Responsibility’. The meeting of young people from different countries was a good time to hear, listen and reflect upon some of the common concerns that we face. Things like Change and Responsibility are such powerful ideas and so vital for reform of our government systems, restoration of human values or transformation of the self. Yet we often fail to act on these ideas. If we look more closely, the status-quo i.e. the present state of affairs actually suits those who want to cling on to power and who continue to extract the resource and benefit thereof. As a result, our institutions, educational system, policy making, politics and society in general, find it extremely difficult to take in to change because of the resistance from the top i.e. those who are in power.
About ten years ago, sometime in 2001-02, the Government of Nagaland took the bold step to realize a new vision for Nagaland. The UNICEF was roped in to assist and partner the government. Motivational workshops, series of seminars on change, a new vision, good governance etc were conducted. Participants included people’s representatives, top bureaucrats, educationists; leaders of NGOs and Naga civil society to name a few. At the end of this extensive exercise, the government came out with a policy booklet titled Vision Nagaland: Towards Positive Changes. The irony was that the Government, which was led by the Congress party lost power soon after. Anyway coming to some of the important vision goals articulated in the document, they included improving the Human Development Index; respect for rule of law; accountable, efficient and transparent governance system.
As mentioned there was a political wind of change with a new NPF government coming to power. And it was an opportunity to carry forward the Change Agenda. It will be fair to say that not much progress has been made. It only goes to show that it is very easy to write about change but difficult to act on it. On hindsight perhaps it would be foolish to expect change to come from our governments or leaders. For instance, the uprising in the Arab world and the fall of regimes in places like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya etc. Who would have imagined that someone like a Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for thirty years would finally had to give up power. But mind you change did not come from the top, it had to come from the people. Young people were at the forefront of this change.
And that is why such kind of gathering of young minds is important and the theme ‘A Generation with Responsibility’ is timely and should inspire all “to discover the power within oneself to take responsibility, learning to take new initiatives and to be the change-makers for a better tomorrow”. Also if the youths, are to be the change they want to see, then they will need to be ‘informed’, ‘concerned’ and ‘challenged’ about the burning issues of our times.
And whether one if from Nagaland, Assam in India or from Singapore, Sri Lanka etc the context may be different but the bigger issues are the same. Say fighting corruption, to protect against HIV/AIDS and its spread, peaceful resolution of conflicts, addressing climate change, maintaining religious or ethnic harmony etc. These are common problems that we will have to address together. Young people should start taking responsibility. Don’t wait for the government because they may never ever come around doing it. Don’t wait for the elders or leaders because by then it will be too late.
