YLDA Celebrates Fifth Founding Anniversary in Cambodia
2008-02-28

This November, YLDA is coming home to the place where it all began.

Nostalgia shall be the buzzword as the Young Liberals and Democrats of Asia (YLDA) prepares for its Fifth Year Anniversary this coming October 29 - November 2, 2008 Celebration in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Together with its partners, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Fur Die Freiheit (FNF) and the Sam Rainsy Youth Movement (SRYM), YLDA will be hosting young liberals from different parts of the world for a four-day seminar workshop commemorating the creation of YLDA five years ago in the historic city of Siem Reap.

In the program being prepared by the YLDA Secretariat in Manila, the highlights of the celebration include the launching of the new website and the presentation of YLDA's achievements for the past five years, including the on-going book project on Asian Freedom supported by FNF and the Taiwan Democratic Foundation.

To commemorate YLDA's birth in a place torn by war and defined by human rights atrocities in the past, YLDA will also hold a three-day workshop on peace and human rights.

In preliminary discussions with the facilitator, the program for the workshop focuses on knowledge and skills development in the area of peace and human rights advocacy and campaigning. The training modules emphasize the relationship between human rights and peace as they touch on the basic concepts of human rights and emphasize how the observance by parties in conflict of human rights covenants play a crucial role in the promotion and sustenance of peace.

For YLDA President Rajendra Mulmi, the idea of holding a peace and human rights workshop in Cambodia "is a clear testament to YLDA's commitment of confronting and learning from the past in order to secure a better future."

Jan Argy Tolentino, YLDA Secretary General, for his part sees the event as an opportunity to introduce young liberals to the horrors of war while informing them of the Cambodian case where human rights violations continue to exact toll on the human development index of the country. Clearly, he adds, "Cambodia's past still plays a big part in its present."

The underlying message the Cambodian case echoes, adds YLDA Program Officer Pey Canlas, "is the intimate truth that three generations of Cambodians perished during the brief but deadly four-year reign of the Khmer Rouge three decades ago." Henceforth, holding a peace and human rights workshop in Cambodia is YLDA's way of "ensuring that the same horrors and atrocities by human beings to fellow human beings are not committed again: Neither in Cambodia nor in any parts of Asia."

Serving as an information gateway for the public and those wishing to join the conference, the YLDA Secretariat has created a blog for the event. The blog can be accessed at http://yldaworkshops.wordpress.com. Queries can also be sent to the secretariat at ylda.secretariat@gmail.com.

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...