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I WISH to take this opportunity to commend the organisers of the 12th sitting of the National Youth Parliament which was held on September 19, 2012 for keeping the concept of the youth parliament alive. It is my fervent view that this forum is as relevant as it was when it was first conceptualised by the then president of the Georgetown Youth Assembly, Mr. Dennis Glasgow.
While the Youth Parliament still lives up to the broad objective of providing a medium through which young people can adumbrate their views on policy issues that have direct implications to their overall development and that of their communities, it is yet to realise the overall vision of the concept.
As one of the coordinators of the first youth parliament, I can recall vividly when Mr. Glasgow was giving the implementation team its mandate. He indicated that the vision of the youth parliament is for it to take on a life of its own in the future and become a constitutional and truly representative forum. Unfortunately, 15 years after, the initiative is yet to realise this vision.
It is from this perspective that I would like to throw out a challenge to my friends who are representing youth in the National Assembly and within their respective political parties, namely Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport; Mr. Christopher Jones, MP, APNU; and Mr. Trevor Williams, MP for the AFC, to come together and work in a bipartisan way and sponsor legislation to formalise and make the National Youth Parliament a statutory body similar to the one in neighbouring Suriname.
Such collaboration will demonstrate that the parties in parliament are genuine in their quest to involve young people and listen to their views and, at the same time, demonstrate to the next generation that there is hope in future tripartite political discussions given the present configuration of Parliament.
While the Youth Parliament still lives up to the broad objective of providing a medium through which young people can adumbrate their views on policy issues that have direct implications to their overall development and that of their communities, it is yet to realise the overall vision of the concept.
As one of the coordinators of the first youth parliament, I can recall vividly when Mr. Glasgow was giving the implementation team its mandate. He indicated that the vision of the youth parliament is for it to take on a life of its own in the future and become a constitutional and truly representative forum. Unfortunately, 15 years after, the initiative is yet to realise this vision.
It is from this perspective that I would like to throw out a challenge to my friends who are representing youth in the National Assembly and within their respective political parties, namely Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport; Mr. Christopher Jones, MP, APNU; and Mr. Trevor Williams, MP for the AFC, to come together and work in a bipartisan way and sponsor legislation to formalise and make the National Youth Parliament a statutory body similar to the one in neighbouring Suriname.
Such collaboration will demonstrate that the parties in parliament are genuine in their quest to involve young people and listen to their views and, at the same time, demonstrate to the next generation that there is hope in future tripartite political discussions given the present configuration of Parliament.
