Thai youth leaders get to quiz Obama

Thai youth leaders get to quiz Obama

US president faces grilling in Laos on human rights violations in the region

Amema: 'Fear' grips young leaders
Amema: 'Fear' grips young leaders

LUANG PRABANG - Two Thais will join some 200 youth leaders from Southeast Asia today in attending US President Barack Obama's town hall meeting in the historic town of Luang Prabang where they will have the chance to engage in a discussion with the president.

Chiang Mai natives Amema Sae-ju, 35, and Sutthida Keereepaibool, 25, are among nearly 200 outstanding young leaders from the region to participate in the 2016 Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiatives (YSEALI) summit at Souphanouvong University.

Ms Amema, who opened a handicraft centre to create traditional Lisu outfits in her village, plans to ask Mr Obama if he has discussed with Asean leaders about problems of rights violations in the region.

"President Obama must have met many Asean leaders, so I want to ask him whether he has discussed the so-called '3A' issues, which are abduction, assassination and arrest, that occur in countries in this region," the ethnic Lisu woman told the Bangkok Post in a telephone interview.

"After discussing and listening to other YSEALI from other Asean countries, I feel that young leaders have a deep fear. How can you expect the younger generation to dare do new things when they still worry about these basic rights problems? How can we achieve sustainable development when activists and civil rights leaders in their communities are vulnerable to being abducted, killed or arrested?"

Sutthida: Migration issue 'is key'

Mr Obama, who initiated the leadership programme in 2013, has convened five town halls with more than 2,100 YSEALI members since April 2014.

Today, 180 YSEALI members and alumni will discuss and debate sustainable development in the region. The initiative will address changes and challenges in Asean.

Ms Sutthida, an activist with a Karen background assisting migrant labourers in Chiang Mai, is prepared to ask Mr Obama how the US should engage Southeast Asia to bring about sustainable peace and development, especially promoting human rights issues in Thailand, Myanmar and elsewhere in the region.

"Asean, and Thailand in particular, depends largely on migrant labour, and I think the challenge for the Thai government and Asean is to find a way to make the migration issue sustainable," she said.

Some 400 million or 65% of the Asean population is under the age of 35. The US government sees them as the people who will define the future of the Asia-Pacific region on global challenges such as climate change, politics, racial issues and economic growth.

Mr Obama is the first sitting US president to visit Laos -- a landlocked communist country that once served as a battlefield between the US and communists during the Cold War. The visit is seen as an attempt to pivot the US towards Asia and the Pacific, and counter the influence of China, according to US officials.

China is Laos' biggest investor, while the foreign investment from the US is scant. But Washington expects to use this event to sign bilateral agreements focused on providing technical assistance and capacity development.

Mr Obama will have another event devoted to unexploded ordnance, to discuss clearance efforts, US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told a recent news briefing.

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