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Selection of youth summit speakers too one-sided

The Youth Engagement Summit (YES 2009) was held in Putrajaya and just recently ended. It claims to be a ‘platform to create a cadre of engaged, active youth leaders dedicated to making positive changes happen in their communities and in the world’.

The summit brings together youths and ‘world leaders in business, government, entertainment and the general public’ to share opinions and discuss.

If we want to create true change that leads to greater socioeconomic equality, if we want to safeguard the environment that underpins our economic well-being, then we should seek to quite radically modify the present political and economic order so that voice of the grassroots, the ordinary people, and their interests come to the fore relative to those of select corporate and moneyed interests.

Today's youth, as the summit recognises, are best positioned to mobilise such a change. If this is the goal, then the set of speakers we would want should possess certain characteristics and background.

But the YES 2009 consists mainly of a certain type of speakers. Read on and tell me what you see:

A former World Bank managing director (Mamphela Ramphele)

A former chairperson of the Group of 20 developed countries and a former IMF and World Bank committee chairperson (Yashwant Sinha)

Founders of dotcom/IT big businesses (Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook and Biz Stone of Twitter)

A commerce/marketing consultant (David Magliano)

An airline entrepreneur (Tony Fernandes)

A presenter (Lorraine Hahn) who works for CNN and CNBC, media groups owned by some of the largest corporations in the world

A renowned chess grandmaster with a corporate/pro-West political orientation (Garry Kasparov)

For some variety and pull, a plane-crash victim turned motivational speaker (Nando Parrado), a Bollywood film star (Amitabh Bachchan), an F1 motor-racer and a so-called 'activist' rock-star (Bob Geldof) were thrown in.

So on what basis were these people selected and how exactly do these people promote or motivate real 'change'? Scrutiny reveals there is a clear pro-corporate/pro-established order bias.

Aren't there others who are better positioned to engage and empower the youth and by extension communities? Of course there are.

Who might they be, and where to find them?

We could consider, among others, those given the Right Livelihood Award (considered the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'), the United Nations Environmental Programme's (UNEP) Global 500 Roll of Honour, the Leontief Prize (which recognises ‘outstanding contributions to economic theory that addresses contemporary realities and support just and sustainable societies’), or the Sophie Prize (an international environment and development prize).

My picks for speakers at a summit of the sort we are speaking about would be as follows:

Anwar Fazal: A Malaysian activist and influential figure in the global consumer rights movement

Jomo Kwame Sundaram: A Malaysian economist who is currently the assistant secretary-general for economic development at the UN, an advocate for a more regulated global financial system and capital control measures of the sort that were adopted by Malaysia during the 1997 Asian economic crisis

Herman Daly: An economist who has been advocating a more humane type of economics based on the principles of sustainable development (a recipient of most of the above-mentioned awards)

Vandana Shiva or Anil Agarwal: well-known grassroots and environmental activists

John Pilger: A journalist known for his courageous news reporting

David Attenborough: Naturalist, broadcaster and the voice behind some of the most stunning nature documentaries made

Muhammad Yunus: the founder of the Grameen Bank that provides credit to the poor and other Grameen organisations

Al Gore and Jimmy Carter: former vice-president and former president of the US, winner of Nobel Peace Prizes for their advocacy of environmental care and diplomacy.

And the list could go on.

We can certainly throw in Tony Fernandes in there. His daring entrepreneurial spirit and organisational skills are things we can learn from and adapt to other situations. Throw in a hot-shot sumo wrestler or a pole-dancing champion for attraction and presto.

The key message I'm getting at is that we should select speakers who suit the theme of a summit or forum or conference. Moreover, there should be a balance in views and ideology.

The people also should know who the organisers or sponsors of such events are so they can better judge the value and the messages coming out of it.

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