Thammasat University students interested in ASEAN studies, education, sociology, political science, international relations, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 21 January Zoom webinar: Youth and Civic Engagement Symposium: A Survey of Six Southeast Asian Countries.
The event, on Tuesday, 21 January 2025 at 8:30am Bangkok time, is presented by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.
The TU Library collection includes some books about different aspects of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) youth.
Students are welcome to register for the event at this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9717344934904/WN_4NMzrT3CSrGl2o89GDtFdA#/registration
The event website explains:
Youths in Southeast Asia have been actively engaged in political and civic affairs. Recognizing their political significance, ISEAS’ Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS) initiated a project on Youth and Civic Engagement in Southeast Asia Survey. It explores the civic and political attitudes of Southeast Asian youth and provide critical insights into their pivotal role in shaping the region’s civic and political future.
As part of the three-year project, the survey targets undergraduates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. It examines the attitudes of Southeast Asian youth in higher education institutions towards civic engagement, political participation, religiosity, multiculturalism, and digitization.
The symposium will feature two insightful panel sessions. Led by ISEAS researchers, Panel 1 will discuss the major findings from the survey, shedding light on patterns and trends of youth attitudes across the region. This will be followed by Panel 2 featuring distinguished speakers—youth MPs and activists—from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines who will share their reflections on the survey findings, relating them to their respective national experiences and socio-political contexts
About the Moderators and Speakers
- Annisa M.A Mahesa is a Member of the House of Representatives of Indonesia and the ruling Gerindra Party. She has a dual degree in Commerce (University of Melbourne) and Economics (University of Indonesia).
- Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is a Member of Parliament for Muar, Johor, and the founder and President of Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA). He served as the Minster of Youth and Sports during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration between 2018-2020.
- Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal is a Thai student activist, award-winning documentary producer, editor-in-chief, translator, writer, and the country’s first conscientious objector. As the founder of Sam Yan Press, he has translated and published transformative works, fostering critical discussions in Thai society.
- Raoul Danniel Abellar Manuel is a Member of the House of Representatives for Kabataan Party-list – representing the voice of the youth in Philippine Congress. He graduated as the first Summa Cum Laude of UP Visayas with a BS in Applied Mathematics.
- Iim Halimatusa’diyah is a Visiting Fellow in the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, a Professor of Sociology at Islamic State University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, and a Deputy Director for Research at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) UIN Jakarta.
- Syaza Shukri is a Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. She is an Associate Professor teaching political science at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Syaza is also the current Head of the Department of Political Science at IIUM.
- Panarat Anamwathana is a Visiting Fellow at the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. She is a Lecturer at the Department of History, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University in Thailand.
- Veronica L. Gregorio is a lecturer at NUS College of Humanities and Sciences (Social Science Division) and Associate Fellow, ISEAS Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS) Program.
Last year an ISEAS webinar investigated Youth and Civic Engagement in Southeast Asia.
Its online summary:
Southeast Asia has one of the largest youth populations in the world. Out of an estimated population of 629 million in 2016, about 213 million were aged between 15 and 35 years old, with the figure slated to grow to 218 million by 2030. In addition to the critical mass which they represent, youths in the region are also active in their political and civil spheres in their respective countries.
From the Milk Tea Alliance to the protests in Myanmar, youths have taken to various platforms to air their views and influence policies. These range from physical protests to digital activism in the social media space, and even youth-centric political parties, like the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) and the now-defunct Future Forward Party in Thailand.
In light of the burgeoning developments in this field, this seminar seeks to understand the civic and political attitudes of youths in Southeast Asia. Zooming into three countries in the region, the seminar offers a theoretical discussion of the relationship between youth-driven online and offline activism, dissecting notions of “slacktivism” and analysing the determinants which contribute to offline activism in Indonesia.
It also looks at Malaysia’s increasingly conservative wave among the youth, examining its origins and manifestations, especially in relation to social capital within the country. Concurrently, Thailand’s youth activism and outlook at various levels of education (middle and high school, and universities) will be examined, elucidating the deep-rooted socioeconomic and political issues which young people perceive in Thailand.
On the website of UNICEF (originally the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) a blog entry was posted in 2022, Co-creating spaces for meaningful participation with civil society, governments and adolescents: New tools to support young people’s right to participate:
Having worked in Asia for over 8 years now, I often come across this telling statistic on civic engagement: only 9 of the 39 countries in Asia Pacific—representing less than 2 per cent of the population—have a civic space. For young people, this means that they may not have adequate and safe channels to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives.
Notwithstanding the above, young people across the region are continuously finding creative ways to raise their voices and engage on issues that matter to them. The youth-led protests across Southeast Asia in 2020 and 2021 are examples of young people creating and demanding spaces for participation and expressing their desires to be heard.
We know that when young people are engaged in decision-making, in particular around decisions that impact their lives – in areas such as education, environment, adolescent health, employment policies – then policies are more relevant, effective and there is greater likelihood of uptake and impact[2]. Unfortunately, meaningful adolescent and youth participation in decision making is not yet the norm in many countries in the region.
However, this is starting to change.
Governments across ASEAN are starting to explore ways to systematically work with and for adolescents and youth, by establishing youth councils, developing youth-led solutions and fora, and seeking out youth input in policy design. […]
We began with a consultation with young people from across ASEAN, held on the side of the above-mentioned Building Pathways to Empowerment Conference. The consultation helped us understand how and why young people want to be engaged in decision making in ASEAN, and the different barriers they face.
Drawing on the consultation, the partners then worked to design participatory learning modules for adolescents and policy makers to help them develop a shared understanding of adolescent participation and how it can be applied in schools and in local governance.
The modules, essentially a series of workshops, were then tested with the target group: adolescents and policy makers. In this instance, via UNICEF Thailand, we were fortunate to have an active partner in the the Department of Children and Youth of the Thai Ministry of Social Development of Human Security and UNICEF Thailand’s Young People Advisory Board. Implementing the tests during the COVID-19 pandemic, of course meant virtual workshops and many Zoom emojis!
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)