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Paper 1

A Global Idea For Local Action: The Process Has To Begin At Home

Keynote Address: Rt. Hon. Sir Julius Chan GCMG KBE MP

It is an exciting moment indeed for Papua New Guinea to be hosting the 3rd Global Conference on National Youth Service, and a great honour for me to be here to deliver the Conference's keynote address. I welcome all delegates, from all the 18 different countries represented at this gathering. As Papua New Guinea is not exactly on the beaten track for many of you, I find such wide representation most gratifying. I especially want to thank your leadership, for giving my people and my country this recognition. We are determined to make the conference a productive one and your stay here pleasant. We want you to see Papua New Guinea at its best. I am sure you will find us a caring people. I will point out, however, that by no means do we describe ourselves as a perfect country. No country is. We share social problems that make the timing of our conference most apt.

The 3rd Global Conference's Theme is, `A Global Idea for Local Action'. It states, as its primary objective, the need `to discuss the role of Youth Service in youth development programmes, to elaborate on the potential of an alliance of Youth Services for the promotion of international understanding, peace and co-operation.' It aims to provide the mechanisms for formalising this alliance. It is essentially saying that, to reach a better world, the full and constructive involvement of youth will make the path so much easier. These are noble words and they aim at a global view of world problems. When they stand by themselves, however, they do not tell us what to do. Nor, I imagine, are they expected to. You, all of you here today, are meant to help spell out plans for action.

Youth are often defined only in dark `worst-case' images. These, unfortunately, are the ones that tend to stick in the collective mind. They are pictured as `problems for concern', sometimes as gangs of undisciplined young people looking for trouble and mischief, and quite often finding it. They are seen only as unpleasant nuisances, who disrupt the lives of the `respectable' citizens in their communities, and disturb the status quo. These images are not confined to less-developed countries only, they straddle all levels of development. There is truth in them, we would be foolish indeed to deny that, but by no means should they be considered the norm. There are dreadful things happening in the world today, but they are perpetrated by all generations, and not just the young. However, and I do not offer this as any form of excuse, many of our young people are brutalized and exploited, both physically and mentally, in a far more cruel manner, and in greater numbers, than ever before.

Many who live in countries in transition, and a lot of us here today fall into that category, have not been able to ride the wave from older and more traditionally-controlled societies, to those now commonly referred to as `westernised'. This transitional disruption is compounded by the apparently inevitable disease of urban drift. We all suffer from it. An increasing number of our young are now brought up in urban squalor. They have no concept of a better existence, and no idea of any wider or better world. How could they? Is it any wonder that many of them lash out at the society that has created them? Their role in the overall scheme of things has become blurred.

I see another side to all these negatives, though. Perhaps not enough recognition is given to all those young people who don't cause social problems. I refer to those who live; peacefully and quietly in their communities, who strive for excellence in their schools, who give considerable thought to their futures, and who respect their parents, their families, their villages, their neighbours, their learning institutions, and their cultures. These youngsters form the majority of our younger generation, and their quiet but notable achievements are often over-shadowed by more visible, disruptive elements.

If there are solutions associated with the problems of youth, and who would deny that these problems exist, then they are threefold. The first is to try harder to prevent the creation of even more disadvantaged; the second is to integrate those disadvantaged back into the mainstream of society; and the third is to ensure that youthful energy and idealism are channeled towards self-improvement and the improvement of society as a whole. The process begins at home. The same process has to be completed in every country that is represented here today. I feel strongly that it is very much a matter of getting one's own house in order, and then reaching out, more actively, to the rest of the world. So many conferences, at the end of the day, measure their effectiveness solely in the number of words that are uttered and the reports they produce. There has to be more to it than that. There has to be more than the mere development of an annual international circuit of conferences, seminars, symposiums, and marathon talk fests,held at different exotic locations throughout the world, featuring basically the same players and their apprentices, and repeating exactly the same conclusions year after year. Our 3rd global conference must not be permitted to fall into this category.

In Papua New Guinea, Government has chosen a deliberate path towards a broader economic development. We firmly believe that, while we are not put on this earth solely as units of labour and to become statistics for measuring the consumption of material goods, gainful employment does contribute towards the general feeling of social well-being. Most significantly, it also contributes towards the creation of national wealth, the wealth required to provide all that our people are entitled to. Their needs are not difficult to define. In many cases, they are basic entitlements, not luxuries. Social justice, adequate health services for all, universal education for our children, proper transport infrastructure to allow for an easier flow of goods and services, a steady improvement in the quality of life, and at the top of the pyramid, the means to achieve one's full, personal potential. Here in Papua New Guinea, we are on that path. We may not be moving as fast as some of our people want, what government ever does? Some of our people may disagree with our priorities, in any democracy, it would be unusual if they didn't. However, we do our best to spread our resources fairly and evenly. And along the way to achieving our aims, we continue to gather closer to all like-minded countries, to draw from a pool of common experience. Therein lies the value of the 3rd Global Youth Conference.

The youth of a nation is not only a moral responsibility for the generation that produced them, but also a weapon to be used to achieve a better future for all. Any marriage between practical experience, and youthful energy and idealism, can help change the world. This Conference is proposing exactly that. It seeks to form a linkage between individual National Youth Services, into a proposed International Association. It seeks to raise youth's sights beyond their immediate horizons, and encourage them to embrace the universality of human needs and aspirations.

I envisage a three-stage attack, with each stage aimed at specific levels. It would be a logical and natural progression towards the development of a global view towards commonly-shared problems. This is where we have to get our thinking straight. A general priority list I have seen places those three stages in the following order, a global approach, a regional approach and then a domestic approach.

I would suggest that the sequence be reversed. Domestic, regional, global. It seems to provide a far better strategy for achieving our aims. As I have said earlier, each of us should get our own house in order first. We have already commenced that process in our country. While nothing at all ever gets achieved overnight, we are getting results.

Side by side with economic structural adjustment, we have adopted social policies firmly aimed at guiding local level development, and improving the delivery of services to our people. They include:

a national development policy for social services;


a national 5-year health plan;


a national women's development policy;


national education reforms, and special education programmes;


a national youth services policy, which is currently under review; and


a national sports policy.

Most importantly, last year we adopted legislation for a new system of provincial and local level government. This was designed to improve on the delivery of services out to our people. All our reforms have a twofold purpose. Apart from their more obvious aims, they are also designed to encourage our young men and women to become involved, and participate in useful economic and social activity. We do this by open discussion. We listen.

Some years ago, as Papua New Guinea's Minister for Finance, I instituted a face-to-face system of consulting with as many special interest groups as possible, in formulating Papua New Guinea's national budgets. In particular, I consulted with youth groups, women's groups, student groups, and representatives from unemployed youth associations. Again, I encouraged them to involve themselves directly, in the formulation of government policies. Not only to become involved in expressing their ideas, but to be assured that what they were saying was indeed being taken on board. I received great satisfaction from the entire consultative process, and I continue with it to this day, as Prime Minister.

There is so much to be gained from listening to younger voices. At a regional co-operation level, this year and as Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister I have involved youth and women's organisations, as well as several other special interest groups, in witnessing meetings of such important bodies as the Melanesian Spearhead Group in our Trobriand Islands in June, and the region's paramount organisation the South Pacific Forum held in the Marshall Islands last month. The visit to the Marshall Islands particularly was of special interest for all those young people, and some not so young, who accompanied me. I filled our chartered airbus. Papua New Guineans, from a land of high mountain ranges, were able to witness, at a very first-hand level, the inevitable impact that global warming will have on small, low island states. The Marshall Islands was the best possible place to take them. What was previously only words for our people, could now be seen as a shocking and most visible possibility for others.

Earlier this year, in March, I crammed as many women's groups members, as many representatives of youth groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, the Churches, and PNG's trade unions, onto our chartered Fokker F28 plane, to accompany me to Fiji as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea and as the then Chairman of the South Pacific Forum. I wanted them to witness the signing, by France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, of the Protocols to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, the Treaty of Rarotonga. This was history in the making. I was deliberately exposing as many of our young people as possible, to events of great regional and international significance. I wanted them to see how, on such grave matters as nuclear proliferation and nuclear testing, a cohesive regional group of small island states could make its voice heard by the superpowers. I wanted to open their eyes to the world beyond our own shores, to help them to realise they could contribute to what was and is swirling around them. If they knew what was happening, and by becoming more aware of how global a village the world really is.

There is therefore great merit in the proposed draft for an International Association for National Youth Service, it would tie all our strings together, and further unite our young people with their brothers and sisters from other countries. Papua New Guinea suggests, however, that an interim step, the founding of regional associations in the first instance, would be justified. This would establish a solid base for an international association to subsequently spring forth. It would then be an organisation with meat on its bones. Again we would be following a logical progression, domestic organisations forming a regional association, and establishing a communality of interests, and regional associations joining together, into an internationally representative democratic body, speaking with a truly internationally representative voice. There is both logic and power in such a structure.

Please permit me a small sermon. The guts of all plans depend on the strength of our own attitudes, desires and aspirations. To become truly better, we must sincerely want to be better, not to become better because others tell us that is what we should do. We must accept that nothing comes without a fever of sweat and loads of hard work. Of course we can think, we can talk, and we can write. We can talk for hours, and write thousands of words. Many people get immense satisfaction out of doing all this, but many also do absolutely nothing else. Where then is the achievement? If it is all not backed up by hard work, then nothing at all will ever be achieved. Any rewards that come to us without our own efforts lose their lustre. They really are valueless. At some point you have to choose between the easy road ultimately leading to nowhere, and the harder road leading to success. Please let us reach for the top, and get there mainly through the sweat of our own brows.

I work by my own old school pledge: Don't walk behind me, assuming that I lead; don't walk before me, assuming I want to follow; walk beside me so that we reach our destination together, through our combined efforts. Today's young people can be both the donors and the recipients of wisdom. For some people, to say this would be equal almost to uttering blasphemy. Many make too automatic an assumption that only the old can lead the young. Both have always had much to learn from the other. There are so many complexities facing all generations today. Some have been the creation of those who went before, others have been created by the young themselves. Only a partnership between the young and the older will overcome them all.

Finally, I again welcome all delegates, officials and observers to the 3rd Global Conference on National Youth Service. Much work has gone into to its preparation, and I heartily thank every person who has been involved. I expect much to come from the 3rd Global Conference on National Youth Service. The agenda has been set, the players have been selected, now let's get on with the game.