Bandar Seri Begawan - Change should start from every Bruneian be it for self-improvement or protecting the environment.

This, as the country's delegates to the recently concluded Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia joined the rest of the Southeast Asia (SEA) youth in wishing to see change comes from the people first.

The initial analytical report for the first large scale community-initiated survey conducted online which involved the voices of thousands of SEA youth was unveiled during the two-day summit which ended on November 17.

All the youth had to do was logged on to the largest online SEA youth movement for change (SEAchange) website: http;//youthsays.com/ seachange and answer a survey of three questions: 1) what change do you want to see in your personal life right now? ; 2) What change do you want to see in your community and country by the year 2015; and 3) What change campaigns or ideas would you support.

Improvement in societal attitude, awareness and involvement seemed to be the recurring themes that reflected the minds of SEA youth, the analysis for this report is based on 105, 502 stories collected from the survey's answers. Under the SEAchange report, the youth were categorised by their countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. They were also divided by gender and their age groups: High school (age 15-17), college/university (age 18-24) and young adults (age 25-35).

Apart from Malaysia and Singapore, the stories shared by youth across the region suggest that "personal change" is not just about what they can gain for themselves, but what they can do for others.

The most significant themes under "personal change" are changes in the youth life goals, their ability to contribute and development in their knowledge, habits and skills.

Bruneian youth in all age groups, along Singaporeans and Malaysians, put more focus on improving individual achievements.

Those in college and university gave answers which revolve around change in their habits, qualities, motivational level, skills and knowledge. Meanwhile, the young adults desired change in their contribution to society, their lifestyle as well as skills and knowledge.

Societal attitude, awareness and involvement seemed to be the recurring themes that the Bruneian youths wish to see change in their community and country.

Bruneian males in colleges and universities as well as young adults shared stories of improving the environment. Bruneian youths from both genders and age group also desire change in economy and national development.

The most significant themes under the "Change Campaigns and Ideas" that the youth would like to support are general charity, environment, education, youth and human rights.

For Bruneian female youth, those in high school support campaigns for health and also self-improvement. Apart from these two, those in colleges and universities and young adult-age group will also like to see more campaigns on improving the environment, youth, anti-drugs, education and human rights for them to support and be involved in.

The report also shows that SEA youth are not ignorant -they are aware of the issues affecting their own country as well as those affecting the rest of the worid.

The Bruneian delegates were among the 600,000 youths in Southeast Asia whose answers to the three survey questions posted by the SEAchange movement won for them an all-expense paid summit pass worth $2,500.

The list of speakers include drivers of change such as Sir Bob Geldof, founder of LiveAid and Live8; Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former World Bank managing director; Russian Garry Kasparov who retired as the world's chess champion; Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes of AirAsia; Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; Randi Zuckerberg Marketing Director of Facebook; Nando Parrado, Andes plane crash survivor,; and Donald Trump who spoke to the SEA youths via live video conference.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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