YouthAsia

Good morning believers of our generation.

We stand before a world of 6.7 billion of people. Competing. And collaborating for better quality of life.

And in this world, there are 200 million of us in Southeast Asia. Young. Aged 15 to 35. Energetic. Restless, and we are ready for change. A change for our jobs. Our education. Our family. Our personal habits. Our purpose. Our success. Our future.

We’re ready for a change. And we’ve decided to do something about it.

My name is Khailee Ng, I’m 25 years old. Through my work with youths, as cofounder of Youth Asia, and as an organizing partner of YES2009, I’d like to bring you across Southeast Asia to see what we mean by Southeast Asian youth for change.

First stop. Vietnam.

The Vietnam war. The first generation after. The Vietnamese youth heard how war has destroyed their country. And they’ve heard enough. They know that their future depends on connecting to the outside world – and communication is their passport.

So. A group of friends decided to meet up regularly for conversation. Except, they’re meeting up to speak in English. They rope in friends and foreigners who spoke the language to join them. This simple format, spread via the internet, spread across the Vietnam, created a network of meetups where youths take their English education out of the classrooms — and into their own hands.

Because they believe these small steps – can make Vietnam more accessible to the world.

Next stop. Indonesia. With a population of over 200 million. For many families, life is challenging. Often, the rights of children are left behind.

A group of Indonesian students knew the implications, and they don’t want such a fate to be passed down on the next generation. So they formed a foundation to fight for the rights of children – Representing their voice to advise the government and international bodies.

They’re doing what they can to help move the next generation of Indonesians one step forward.

Here in Malaysia,

As the country sees a need to come together as 1Malaysia to take on global competition. Internal differences often in the way.

So. A group of fresh graduates thought the only way to bring the youths together was to get them involved in activities they can do together. This led to some of the largest youth festivals organized by youths, for youths in the country.

They brought their idea to life, because they believe Malaysia’s future depends on being united TODAY.

Ladies and gentlemen

Those were just 3 stories —- handpicked out of 105,502 stories from youth across Southeast Asia…. There are many more stories from Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myannmar, Brunei…

And we are very fortunate to have 500 of the actual youths behind these stories to fly in from across the region to join us today – give them a round of applause!

These are a new breed of youth leaders armed to the teeth with weapons of mass connectivity.

Need to know something. Google.

Need to get the word out. Twitter.

Need to get friends involved? Facebook.

Need to meet like minds and get thousands more to move – there’s a way – and the young people of who are with us today will to find it.

Such is the world we live in.

Such is the power of in the hands of the youth.

Sadly.

The world has passed judgment on this generation.

Lazy. Spoilt. Indifferent. Disconnected. Hopeless. Apatethic. Rebellious. Selfish. Ego-centric….

With this we have

• Parents who cannot have dinner conversations with their teenage son.
• Employers who do not have faith in local fresh graduates
• Businesses who spend millions to buy artificial loyalty from young consumers.
• And even country leaders who disappoint the youth with the politics of greed

Such is the world we live in today.

But… the course of history is taking a turn.

What we have seen, over the past 6 weeks is a sign.

120 organizations, consisting of some of the largest universities, colleges, online communities, and NGOs across the region said hey. Let’s band together to bring out the voice of Southeast Asian youth…

Together, we collected 105,502 Stories. Millions of words, Thousands of images. Hundreds of videos. Distilled into key messages for the world to know.

Ladies & gentlemen.

We’re the first in the world to see this report at the Youth Engagement Summit.

All this is possible only because a network of believers and angels who helps us through.

There’s one man, who goes by the name of Ham. He wore was on stage just now with a turban, can’t miss him. He was one of these believers. He stood by all the mistakes a young team would’ve made, and pulled us through. Because he believed in us.

And then we have sponsors like Air Asia and Sime Darby – who also believed in the power of youth – and gave us the resources to have this conversation in the first place. They believe.

And we cannot forget, the kindness of thousands of strangers – from the travel agent who fought her way to get ONE ticket for a young Cambodian boy to come down – even though she was told all flights were full – to the volunteers who stayed up all night to make sure we had goodie bags – to 41,000 facebook fans who told a friend, who told a friend who told a friend to share their story for the SEACHANGE Youth Report. Down to global speakers who will join us in this room today. We’ve come this far.

Ladies and gentlemen – this is youth engagement.

This is the youth engagement summit.

You’re in it.

We’ve come too far to let it end here.

• Some of us have come too far as parents… to stop trying new ways to connect with our kids.
• Some of us have come too far as employers… to stop grooming our young talent
• As businesses to not champion our consumers needs
• As leaders to not lead with integrity
• As youths to stop believing in ourselves

So let us use the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 as our launchpad to so much more.

We’ve come too far as a collective, to leave our future in the hands of others, when the world is telling us that we are the change we seek.

We’ve come to far, to not go all the way.