Freedom Writers: Young Asians’ Call to Freedom

Summary

Freedom Writers: Young Asians’ Call to Freedom is an anthology published in December 2008 by the Young Liberals and Democrats of Asia (YLDA) to mark its fifth anniversary, with support from the Taiwan Foundation For Democracy and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. In the rendered pages, the front matter and the opening of the first thematic chapter establish the volume’s purpose: to give recognition to the political thought of young Asian liberals through a compilation of essays on regional issues, organised into three chapters — Education and Freedom of Expression, Asian Values and Human Rights, and Youth Empowerment and Participation. The editors frame the book, in the rendered pages, as deliberately stressing ‘challenges over successes, dissonance over harmony,’ positioning the next generation of Asian liberal youth in a continuing struggle for freedom and democracy against authoritarian legacies.

Essays

Message

By Jan-Argy Tolentino

A ‘Message’ dated December 8, 2008 by Jan-Argy Tolentino, Secretary General of YLDA’s Executive Committee. In the rendered pages it recounts YLDA’s origins — a 2002 Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) Young Leaders Workshop in Manila, then formal founding in Phnom Penh in 2003 — and presents Freedom Writers as a fifth-anniversary benchmark of progress made and still to be achieved, thanking the funders and contributors.

• Authored by Jan-Argy Tolentino, YLDA Secretary General, dated 8 December 2008.
• Traces YLDA’s founding to a 2002 CALD workshop in Manila and 2003 formation in Phnom Penh.
• Presents the volume as a fifth-anniversary stock-taking of the liberal-youth network’s progress.

Introduction: The Calling

The Introduction, titled ‘The Calling,’ frames the anthology in the rendered pages around the idea that Asia ‘has always been a continent of and for the young,’ invoking freedom struggles led by figures such as Benigno and Corazon Aquino, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Chee Soon Juan. It states the book’s three goals — to preserve and shape Asian youth political thought, to encourage youth involvement through writing, and to stimulate critical discussion — and previews the three thematic chapters, noting that the volume privileges challenges over achievements.

• Frames Asia as a young continent whose freedom struggles have repeatedly been youth-led.
• Lists the volume’s three goals around shaping youth political thought and discussion.
• Previews the three-chapter structure and a deliberately dissonant, challenge-focused tone.

Chapter 1: Education and Freedom of Expression — Preface

By Neric Accosta

The preface to Chapter 1 (Education and Freedom of Expression), ‘Freedom of Expression, Expression of Freedom’ by Neric Accosta of the Philippines, argues in the rendered pages that education and free expression are inseparable: education is the cultivation of critical, creative thinking in an atmosphere of freedom. Writing as the parent of a twelve-year-old, Accosta observes how new media — YouTube, blogs, online platforms — give the young a literal voice in the world, and warns that authoritarian governments seek to stifle that reach; he notes the essay’s timing against the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 2008).

• Authored by Neric Accosta (Philippines) as the Chapter 1 preface.
• Argues education and freedom of expression are mutually dependent.
• Highlights new media as empowering youth voice and a target of authoritarian control.
• Marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Education for Change

By Wendi Boxx

In the rendered opening pages of ‘Education for Change,’ Wendi Boxx (American, writing from Munich) recounts her 2006 volunteer work in rural Uttar Pradesh with the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES), a movement founded by industrialist-turned-idealist Sam Singh to educate girls in the Anupshahr district. She describes scouting villages to persuade fathers to send their daughters to school, and frames the school — whose name translates as ‘grandparents’ — as a vehicle for equality, hard work, and opportunity for the poorest, giving young women the standing to declare ‘I am not a burden.’ The essay continues past the rendered pages.

• Authored by Wendi Boxx (American), reflecting on volunteer work in rural India.
• Centres on the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES) educating girls in Uttar Pradesh’s Anupshahr district.
• PPES was founded by Sam Singh, an industrialist who returned to his village to educate rural girls.
• Frames girls’ education as conferring dignity — ‘I am not a burden.’

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