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| Sunday, 4 July 2004 |
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Aiming high Three future leaders all set to participate in a global leadership conference in the USA speak their minds about youth being sidelined on national issues. by Lakmal Welabada
For all her third world categorisation, Sri Lanka has first world aspirations when it comes to young'uns aiming high. At least that's the impression you get, when you meet three future leaders all set to take wing to the USA to showcase their leadership skills. Fadhil Bakeer Markar, Chamindra Gunewardena and Chinthaka Perera, students of Asian International School are scheduled to take part in the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) in Washington and New York from July 18 to 19. "Nearly 350 young international delegates between the ages 15-19 will take part in this conference," say the three aspirants. "Firstly, participants will be divided into a number of groups. Each group will be given a few world issues to deal with. The issues could be relevant to one's own country or something that has been happening in any other country. Hence we have to be vigilant about current affairs on a global level. We are expected to forward a report of the given issues with solutions to those problems within a limited time.
The issues can be on terrorism, war refugees, policy matters between the States and Middle East, global warming, co-operative efforts in space, human rights, foreign aid just about any theme. So we may be debating the same issue that is relevant to Sri Lanka or something that is not applicable to us at all. The programme is slated to be a new experience for us, for all the delegates. We will be working as a team and learning to take decisions as a team," explain the three. The GYLC is a non-profit educational organisation, founded in 1985, with the theme 'Leaders of tomorrow for global challenges and responsibilities of the future!'. It provides opportunities for young students to meet and build up relationship with other youngsters from around the world, to both study and resolve global conflicts by sharing ideas and points of view. Prompted by the new concept that the youth of a country should also have little space to voice their opinion, the three brilliant brains recently formed the 'Youth United Club'.
"This will provide opportunity for our youths to come forward with their ideas and views. It is open to everyone. Any youth, from any part of the country and belonging to any race or creed can join us. There's no restrictions. They can apply for membership via email '[email protected]'," they say. "May I explain what provoked us to form this club," asks Fadhil proceeding to explain anyway. "We have noticed that though we are young, we sometimes come up with lots of practical solutions (which seems far better than even those coming from government levels) for many issues some of which snowball into major crisis in this country. We also figured that there may be many youth who have similar excellent ideas. But as the youths are treated as 'still under-experienced citizens', their voices are ignored. For example, a youth may come out with a long-term solution for the annual drought in Hambantota. One might laugh at all this (as our people usually do), but why not give them chance to voice their opinion," suggest the three wisemen. So how is the club to function. Where are the funds coming from? "Finance isn't be a problem for us. But we definitely need Government backing as we are not just a fanatic youth club, but an opinion forwarding body. We just want the authorities to believe in us. At present excluding us, there are twelve members in our club. All of them are younger than us. After we become too old to be deemed 'youth' they will carry on the work. Three of us cannot head the club everyday, as our opinions will be old as we become get older. So we should let the other youngsters voice their opinions as well. Also the 'Youth United Club' won't back up any political party. It was formed purely to render a service to this country," they add very seriously. The three young leaders hope to branch out the club on their return to Sri Lanka after attending the GYLC in the States. Apart from the club, the three get the honour of founding the first ever multi-religious society which they have formed at the Asian International School. "We call the society the 'Inter Faith'... A society like this would give youth the chance to learn the teachings of other faiths and believes. This would also help one to build up a broader margin in thinking, and learn to respect other religions," say the three. Young but mature in onlook, the three willingly talk about their extra curricular activities, but are loath to lay bare their personal lives. "We don't need any personal publicity. Just write about our work," they laugh somewhat self consciously. Fadhil studied at Ananda College (up to O/Ls) before joining the Asian International. The religious minded yet friendly and down-to-earth teen has chosen maths, economics and business as his A/L subjects. He hopes to select economics, politics and international studies for his degree. "I am a democrat. But, I have no intention of entering politics in Sri Lanka. Instead I might get myself involved in diplomacy as I am very much interested in foreign affairs and world politics. Watching CNN news and browsing the internet gathering global information are among my pastimes," he says. Fadhil was a TT player and captained both the Sinhala and English debating teams at Ananda. Chinthaka, a former student of St. Thomas Prep School, Bambalapitiya also joined the Asian International after his O/Ls. Watching local and foreign news, reading newspapers (one from each political party) while listening to slow key notes and rock music are among his pastimes. Chinthaka still plays cricket. He was a scout at St. Thomas, and had been involved in drama and was a member of the debating team and Interact club. Maths, Further Maths and Physics are the subjects he has chosen for his A/Ls. Chinthaka hopes to do Mechanical Engineering along with Financial Analyses for his degree. Chamindra also studied at St.Thomas Prep School, Bambalapititya up to O/Ls. Though he was chosen maths subjects for his A/L and aims at a maths related degree or law for his higher studies. Chamindra has an artistic personality. He is a guitarist and won the Runner-up trophy at the inter-house drama competition at the Asian International School last year. "I have been in school dramas since year 6. Music is my passion. I prefer slow rock and music from late 80s and 90s," he says. Chamindra also holds many posts in many societies. International relations is also among his favourite subjects. Before attending the GYLC, the three young leaders have much work to do. Fadhil will represent Sri Lanka in the 'Future Leaders' Summit' conference for one week in Washington, and Chinthaka will take part in 'International Youth Parliament' for 12 days in Australia. Chamindra who has to shoulder the progressive work of their 'United Youth Club' in the absence of the other two leaders will join them in the GYLC in the US on July 18. |
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