Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

The call of the youth
By Apsara Kapukotuwa
Armed with not weapons, but a powerful vision of a ‘cohesive Sri Lanka,’ a group of young people are set to conquer immense hurdles to make their dream a reality. This optimistic dream is not confined to this group of young people, but is shared by many Sri Lankans – the difference is that these youth are busy setting up the foundation for a forum of young leaders, who will present their own solutions for issues that affect them and their communities.

The Sri Lankan delegates to the International Youth Parliament have put together a group of dynamic young leaders as the organising team for this project, known as the Sri Lanka Youth Parliament (SLYP) 2005. The first sitting will be convened by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS). This project is initiated under its Conflict Resolution and Peace Support programme.

To be held from August 3 to 7, 2005, SLYP is a residential forum, to which 225 delegates in the age group of 16-25 representing all districts, ethnic and religious compositions will be invited on the basis of the action plans submitted by the applicants.

Key issues affecting them and their communities are to make up the agenda of the SLYP 2005 as per the themes put forward by the delegates. There are 11 action areas categorised as: peace building, human rights, sustainable development and agriculture, health and HIV AIDS, youth empowerment and employment, youth culture, child rights, women’s rights, digital divide, environment and education.

In the group of young leaders who are busy with the final preparations for this momentous event is Kumaravadivel Guruparan – a 20-year-old past pupil of Jaffna Hindu College. One of the four selected to participate at the International Youth Parliament in July 2004, he says the idea for the Sri Lanka Youth Parliament originated there. Involved with the programming aspect of the event, Guruparan says the delegates participating at the SLYP will be trained in certain skills.

Thus, participants will be taught how to analyse issues, how to address these issues, project management, networking as well as organisational skills. The delegates will then develop on their action plans at the SLYP.

“The idea is that the action plans will be implemented within two years. The delegates will be known as action partners at this stage and the SLYP will support them strategically and financially if possible to make these plans a reality,” he added.

Asked whether these objectives will not end as mere unattainable dreams, Guruparan is of the opinion that “you have to start somewhere.” He adds, “We want to gain experience and you have to start somewhere. Unlike other forums, our focus is on the follow up. Ninety percent of the emphasis is after the initial SLYP event.”

According to the organisers, attention will be paid to gender representation in the final selection of delegates – with the deadline set for June 25, 30-40% of the applications received so far are from female candidates. The SLYP 2005 also aims for fairplay in other ways. While the proceedings will be conducted in English, with due care given to ensure that simultaneous translations take place in Sinhala and Tamil.

The organising committee set about their task of gathering applications for SLYP by posting notices of the event to schools, local universities, public libraries, private educational institutions and even through chain emails. The response has been encouraging with unexpected results.

“Most of the applications we received so far have been in Tamil and Sinhala. Given that the need of the hour is peace, we expected that most of the applicants would concentrate their action plans on the aspects of peace building and human rights, but most were for others such as education and women’s rights for example. It’s encouraging that the applicants are paying attention to the other areas as well,” says Guruparan.

Nishu Hassim, a 19-year-old past pupil of Methodist College, is the First Secretary of the SLYP 15-member organising committee, and handles logistics as part of her duties. She has participated in the Presidential Classroom and the Future World Leaders Summit, 2004.

“The Youth are a vital part in creating a cohesive Sri Lanka; young people have ideas, but they don’t get an opportunity to voice them. The SLYP will give the youth delegates the opportunity to come together and decide what they want for their community, what they want to do with the country,” she said. She feels that SLYP will foster better understanding, since the delegates will be chosen from different segments of society and social walks of life.

20-year-old Hashintha Jayasinghe, a past pupil of Bishop’s College is involved in the publicity unit of the organising committee. “One of the clarifications that we had to make quite often when promoting the event, while visiting schools in Colombo for example, is that the SLYP is nothing to do with politics. The Sri Lanka Youth Parliament is a Youth Forum where issues of relevance will be discussed by the youth,” she stated.

At a time when most citizens have, for all intents and purposes, given up any hope for the country, political or otherwise, these young leaders gathering at SLYP 2005 to strengthen their collective voice for justice, productivity and unity in diversity may just be the answer the country needs for a better, stronger and united tomorrow.

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