Series 2 "Pause and Reboot: Momentum of Youth Movements in Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia"
Event Information
- Date：2024/7/16
- Time : 19:00-21:00
- Location : Taipei (Location will be provided in the confirmation e-mail before the event
- Language : English and Mandarin
Registration form:
In Thailand’s 2020 youths movement, Malaysia’s initiatives for lowering the voting age, Taiwan’s Sunflower and Bluebird Movement, or other civil society’s initiatives, advocacy, and works, youth participation and activism play pivotal roles in pushing for social changes.
However, after big social movements, how does youths’ participation in civil society continue? How does their momentum transform? How do dialogues take place among different generations of youths in civil society? How do they connect and communicate with the public? What social and political impact have the youths’ civil participation in Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia led to?
Speakers
Zhafir Amin is a Human Rights Strategist at the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR). He was heavily involved in campus politics and student activism. He co-founded The Good Society IIUM, a student organization that cultivates effective changemakers through its School of Marvel program. Zhafir also co-established Grassroots Empowerment IIUM, a non-partisan political front where he organizes students to run in campus elections, offering training and resources. Zhafir is dedicated to empowering Malaysian youth to engage in meaningful civic activities and to promote positive change in their communities.
Chuveath “Jay” Dethdittharak is a project developer in a young political activist project at ActLab Thailand and a community organizer at the Article Group. Besides, Jay is the vocalist and guitarist of The Commoner, a political folk group in Thailand fighting for changes.
Hsu En-En is an author of The Becoming, a book published in 2024. She is also the co-founder of Co.lab. She obtained her bachelor's and master’s degree from the Department of Sociology in National Tsing Hua University
Series Talk Introduction
The concept of ‘stretching’ is a contrast to the concept of ‘shrinking’. ‘Stretching Exercise’ symbolizes the continuous activism and organizing of Southeast Asian civil society organizations, movements, and human rights defenders amid the shrinking of civic space and repressive restrictions despite knowing the price for their activism. Their activism ensembles the warm-ups and stretching exercises, which are mild, but extends and defends the existing civic space. Such activism, in the context of shrinking civic space, maintains their momentum, and is very active and innovative.
Asia Citizen Future Association (ACFA) is dedicated to connect Taiwan and Southeast Asian civil society to develop collective strategies to defend civic space. Through the four events in the series, “Stretching Exercise: Defend Civic Space in Southeast Asia”, ACFA invites more than 10 speakers from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and a Southeast Asian regional organization, to discuss how organizations and activists working on various issues continue their work and push for human rights developments through local, regional, cross-regional collaborations and cross-cutting strategies.
